Still....No Baby

       I’m back at work today after taking two days of sick time for my back.  And while my back is still sore and sitting here in this uncomfortable chair isn’t helping, I’m so grateful that baby Jude hasn’t come yet.  I mean, he can come any time now (Seriously, Jude, let’s get this show on the road), but I was really really scared on Sunday night when my back was at its worst that he would come.  And that I wouldn’t be physically able to be there with my wife, that I wouldn’t be able to help her and see my son born.  Because that is how bad it was that night, I couldn’t get up out of bed pretty much at all.  I hate having a bad back and this was the worst time for it to act up.  But thankfully S didn’t go into labor that night and I’m slowly getting better.  

I’m also glad that S didn’t go into labor last night.  We had a crazy thunderstorm last night that woke us up from bed around 2:45.  The lightning was so constant and bright that our room seemed to glow and the house was shaking from all of the thunder.  S and I went into the living room to see if the dogs were ok and to look out the windows and the rain was coming down so hard.  S said, “This is the closest I have ever been to being in a hurricane.”  And it really was.  And it would have been terrifying to try to drive to the hospital in that weather.  Austin has been really dry and we need all of the rain we can get, so I hope it continues.  

The nice part though about having my back go out is that S and I got to spend the last 4 days together.  In a normal month our schedules don’t mesh up very much and so it’s pretty common that we only have 1-2 days off together in a month’s time.  So four whole days off together is very uncommon.  So even though we mostly spent the last two days in bed watching movies or on the couch watching movies, it was really nice.  I feel like during this waiting time it’s important to take naps, smile lovingly at each other, eat good food, take long showers, and relax over all as much as possible.  And so we did.

Today S has a doctor’s appointment where we will possibly have a few tests done to make sure Jude is happy in there.  I believe they are going to do a fetal stress test and an ultrasound to measure him to make sure he isn’t getting too big and that he has enough fluid left.  I’m not sure if they are going to do both of these tests today or not, but I hope so.  We worry about our little man!  I think that we are also going to talk about inducing.  I don’t think that we will want to induce before February 6^th  unless our doctor thinks it’s necessary but we will see.   I also want to get her opinion on sweeping S’s membrane, but I suppose it will be a moot point if S still isn’t dilated at all.  I’m sure we will be back later today or tomorrow with an update.

One last thing, congrats to all of those new babies out there!  We have loved reading your stories and seeing all of your beautiful photos.  Thank you so much for sharing your little ones with us here in blogland!

-Liz

Let's Go to the Mall!

Thank goodness I'm teaching a class this week at work.  I don't think I could spend this week just sitting around in my office, googling various ways to naturally induce labor.  That would be a long maddening week.  This week already feels like a long maddening week and I have plenty to do at work to keep me busy.  I'm grateful that our little Jude has made it past 39 weeks and I know that 50% of women go past their due date and it's not set in stone.  But at 5 days till our due date, I'm going a little crazy.  Today I've tried to make peace with the fact that Jude probably won't be here till sometime late next week.  That it's not a 5 day count down but more like a 10-14 day count down till he gets here.  It doesn't help that at work everyone keeps saying things like, "No baby yet?" and more annoyingly, "Tick tick tick!"  Yeah, no baby yet, obviously or I wouldn't be here talking to you jokers.  I know that all of this is SOOOOOO much harder on S.  The whole world it seems like is watching her for signs of labor and I can't help but do it too.  Everyday, "Any contractions?" and every time she makes a funny face or sucks in her breath a little bit too sharply, "Was that a contraction?" It's annoying and frustrating and I'm trying to stop.  This baby will come when he is good and ready to and not one minute before.

 In the class that I'm teaching this week there is a girl in here who has 2 kids, a 1 year old and a 3 year old.  She told me all about how with her last pregnancy her baby hadn't arrived by her due date and so she went to Walmart and walked around for an hour and bought some caster oil and then she went and walked around the mall for 2 hours and then she went home, drank a shot of the caster oil, ate dinner, and started having contractions a hour later and gave birth early the next morning.  Then, we read about one of our fellow baby bloggers, Breaking into Blossom, and how they started having contractions while walking at the mall.  So now S and I are determined to get ourselves to the mall this week!  I'm not sure yet if we are going to go do some mall walking today or tomorrow, but we are going to give it a shot.  I keep singing this song from one of our favorite shows, How I Met Your Mother.  

But I doubt the mall experiment will work.  S walks All.Day.Long. at work, goes up and down stairs and is as active as anyone 39 weeks pregnant could possibly be, so I don't think that a few laps around the mall will do much.  But at least it gives us something to do, something to focus on, so it's worth a shot.

Fingers crossed that this baby is born soon. 

-Liz

While My Wife Gently Sleeps

     Today is a bonus day.  S and I were up this morning, me getting ready for work and her up having some breakfast on her day off.  And she asked me, “can’t you call in sick?  Take the day off?”  And I looked at her and realized that yes, yes I could take the day off.  So I called into work “sick” (I really didn’t have much going on at work today anyway) and we have spent the day together.  We went back to bed for a while, went out to breakfast with a lovely friend, wandered around Central Market (which is a fun grocery store), went to the movies (we saw Hugo, it was magical), stopped and got ice cream, and now my sweet wife is taking a much needed nap.  I love golden days like this and seeing as how they are numbered at this point, I value them so much more.

     And while the days without baby are numbered, don’t worry dear public, they are not literally numbered.  I think with our last post a few of you worried that with our impatience we would do something drastic like induce S to get the little dude here early.  But I can promise you that we will not induce until 42 weeks.  It goes against everything we want for him and for S and a natural child birth, so don’t worry.  When we say we are going to do things to get him here I mean things like go on long walks, eat spicy food, drink apple juice, bounce on the exercise ball, that sort of stuff.  We arn’t going to do anything weird/dangerous either, no caster oil or other drugs/herbs to speed things along.  So if Jude gets here any time soon I promise you that it not because we forced it, but because that is just what happened.  And I’m pretty sure wishes and hopes never induced labor, so we will keep hoping he comes soon.  I’m hoping for exactly 10 days.  In 10 days we will be at 39 weeks exactly, which seems to be the magic number in terms of development, but we shall see.  After all, unless doctors force them, babies tend to do whatever they want.

Hope your day is as blissful as mine.

-Liz

PS- I always enjoy looking at our stats, especially how people found our site and search words they used.  And I just noticed that this week 4 different people found our blog by searching for the phrase “cute stuffed zombie”.  How strange and random is that?