40 Weeks 3 Days

What does it feel like being over 40 weeks pregnant for those of you lucky ones that hatch prior to 40 weeks? (ahem, Katie, Jen, and Lisa!) It kind of feels like being 37, 38, 39 weeks pregnant just more tired and a bigger belly. Here are some things I am learning about how tricky it can be.

~Everyday I wake up wondering if today is the day I will have the baby. It doesn't really feel different than previous weeks but just the anticipation of, WHEN, is what is killing me now!

~I keep opening the doors and hitting my belly in the process. OUCH!

~I forget that I can't really bend over without killing my back or over stretching my round ligaments in the front of my belly. So Mason or Matt are picking up the things on the floor for me most days.

~Oh, and I feel like I am starving all the time the sad thing is, I can't eat very much because the size of the uterus is cramping up the room of my stomach. So small meals for me or I feel like I am gonna puke!

~Getting up from a sitting or laying position is also pretty tricky now a days. It takes a lot of concentration and effort to get up.

~I hate stairs. Truly hate the stairs in my house.

~I feel like I am going to burst at any point. Doc said when my water breaks I will know for sure as there is space between the babies head and the cervix. Doc said I will have a huge gush and then the head will slip down and stop up the hole but it will be a big mess when it happens. Oh joy! Loading the car with trash bags and towels now, just in case.

I had my doc appointment this past Thursday and doc again was surprised by my progress in a week. We scheduled my induction date, just in case, for Friday the 23rd. (With the weekend and the holiday if we wait till after holiday I will be 42 weeks and my doc does not like letting women go to 42 weeks. He prefers 41.5 as the max before induction. We we will be just shy of 41.5 weeks.) But he thinks that I will "BLOW" before that point. I am guessing today or tomorrow.

I am super spoiled though. I had an AMAZING deep pressure massage on Thursday and I was in some much of a state of bliss that I called Matt for no reason while he was at work just to tell him that I was so Haaaaappppyy! I was majorly hopped up on endorphins from that massage! I have a massage scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday of this coming week incase I don't go. I am so spoiled, and thanks to my insurance I am so thankful for them covering the massages. One cool thing my massage therapist lets me listen to my HypnoBirthing CD during the massage and I get to practice and just utterly relax. It is AMAZING!

Well, lets see how much longer I take to have this baby. I am really praying and hoping that I go naturally before the induction!

40 Weeks Today!

YEA! I have made it. I am 40 weeks as of today! Granted it is an "estimated" 40 weeks pregnant but I have definitely made it to a full term baby! He is ready to go. If I had a turkey timer (belly button pop out) it would have totally popped by now, but my innie is still very much an innie!

I have a few things going for me that might help me go into labor:

~Mom arrived last night. YEA! So that means we won't have to find extra help with Mason if/when I go. And she wanted to be here when baby arrives so she is here, time to come out baby!

~Tonight is a full moon. Yes, it is an old wives tale. No, I will not be going out naked under the moon doing a belly dance to get this baby out. But I might go sit on my front porch for a little bit under the moon.

~Had actual timeable contractions Sunday afternoon for a few hours. They were about 8 min apart and it lasted for about 2.5 hours. But they were not Braxton Hicks. They were wrapping from the back to the front and kind of had to make me think about them for a little bit.

~Having urges to squat or open up my hips more. I can tell the baby has dropped even more and is lower in my pelvis. (pelvic pressure and having to pee a ton more). So that is a good sign.

If I make it to my Thursday checkup I am going to ask the doctor to strip my membranes and hopefully get the show on the road to go this weekend! I might not be posting as much soon but I will let you know when I do hatch this baby and there will as always be tons of pictures for you to adore!

~Baby's Going home outfit! LOVE IT!~

Then and Now

So I was just going through my photos and here I am at 3 weeks at the Women's 4 Miler Race and at 39 weeks! CRAZY how much the body changes in just 9 months!

May Week 1 Workout Recap

Happy Mother's Day yesterday! First week of May is done and over with and I'm seriously just ticking down the time till this baby arrives. I guess I am ready and have been for a few days. I have finally decided that it's ok if I don't make all the food I was planning. Or if my house isn't perfect. I feel content with how things are and how they are going. And am getting excited for baby to join us!

GMA arrives on tomorrow evening. We are excited to see her. I have Molly maids coming to my house today to do the big deep clean before baby arrives. Thanks to my hubs for his amazing Mother's Day gift!

Pregnancy Changes:  I'm huge. I feel huge. I'm tired a lot, except for when I get a kick to get something done. Then I just magically have the energy to do what I want to accomplish. Then I'm tired again. I don't have heartburn anymore as the baby has dropped. Still getting kicked in the ribs but now I just have to pee all the time! I also often forget about the size of my belly and often open the door and I am not standing back far enough and end up hitting my belly with the door or whatever.

Baby is ready to come out. Well, at least we think he is. He can survive just fine now out in the world whenever he decides to come. Doc says that he is perfectly average and at my appointment last Thursday he said he is a healthy 7 lbs based on size and such. He also said that I am just a ticking time bomb and I can go at any time. I was 1 cm dilated (not very much but he said based on my last labor I dilate easily since I relax so well during labor.) I am also 70% effaced/thinned out. And baby is finally locked and loaded in my pelvis at a -2 station. The effacement and pelvis station all changed in the last week and he was surprised by how much I had changed in the last week with that. That is why he thinks I am just going to go at any time. I could very well have had baby by the time this posts. (I'm writing this a little early, one less thing to do next week)

Prepping for Baby:  I have made a ton of food. As you have seen from my previous posts and Facebook. This past weekend I made 2 batches of bread (that's 4 loaves) putting my total to 7 frozen loaves of bread now. I still have to make a spaghetti casserole (Matt's family recipe). And put together the chili. (I will just cook 4 lbs of ground beef together and take out a pound for the chili and then assemble it and put it in the freezer bags and then in the freezer. It's a crock pot meal.) And I think that will be it with the freezer prep for me. That will mean I made all but 3 meals. Not bad!

Matt and I had "the talk". No, not that talk, silly! The talk of what if I don't make it or there is an emergency. Or something happens. He needs to know what I want and all that. We were both crying talking about my final preparations. I know we had the talk just before Mason too. My friend thinks it is totally morbid to talk about it but childbirth is still a dangerous thing that we women go through. My friend's SIL had her new baby and a couple days later died due to a complication from labor. She died 2 days before Christmas. She was a very healthy woman and mother of 2. I just think it is important for Matt to know what I want in the end and all.

Bags are packed. List is made of final things to be grabbed in a hurry. Mason's bag is packed incase I go early and he has to have a sleep over at a friends house. And Archer's food is organized. We are baby ready!

Prepping Mason For Baby: We just keep taking about baby joining our family. About how fun it will be when he arrives. Mason has seen me hold another baby more than once this past week and he didn't freak out at all. He was very good. He sat next to me and cuddled up next to me. It was very cute, but this was a baby that could go home and wasn't stuck here for days and days. He is acting like a big brother to kids that are younger. Trying to guide them and correct them. But he also is still learning his strength and learning good and bad things to do as he pushed his friends off the coffee table.

Workout Recap:
Sunday: rest

Monday: 2 mile walk

Tuesday: cleaning house

Wednesday: rest (food prep and play date)

Thursday: 1 hour 15 min prenatal yoga. (last class)

Friday: 2 mile walk

Saturday: 1 mile walk

Total Mileage: 5 miles
39 weeks pregnant

Happy Mother's Day!

This day has been one of the hardest, most special and now a little bittersweet for me. The first 8 years of our marriage I really hated this day. It was a reminder that I couldn't get pregnant. All my friends were and their families grew and expanded over the years and our was stagnant. Not matter what we did I couldn't get pregnant. I hated receiving the Pity Flower at church. (Here you go sister Allen here's a flower that is supposed to be for moms but you aren't a mom yet and we will give you one anyways because that is what we were told to do.) I know that that is not the real intent of the flower but that is how I felt at church every year. It got to the point that I stopped going to church on Mother's Day because I just couldn't take it anymore.

Then I finally got pregnant. It was amazing. I relished the day. I loved it. I earned that flower for the first time, but wait, baby wasn't here yet and something could still happen and I could end up not being a mom because something could happen. But that year I went to church and I collected my flower and was proud of it! Got an amazing Mother's Day gift from Matt that year too. He knows my feelings on that day and normally doesn't get me anything but that year, 2011, he got me a massage, facial and just a pamper day at an amazing spa! It was amazing!

Last year is when this day has become bittersweet to me. I miscarried the day before Mother's Day. (which happens to be Mother's day this year.) I was 12 weeks pregnant and knew it was coming. Matt wasn't home yet from being away at military and wasn't going to get here until the 12th. I went through the miscarriage all on my own. I was alone. Crying my eyes out, and didn't have anyone here to help me or anything. It was awful. Thankfully that day Mason was amazing and was asleep a ton on that Saturday afternoon after a playdate from that morning. I didn't go to church the next day. I just wasn't feeling well and hello I just had a miscarriage. I was thankful for Mason and the blessing he is in my life. I knew that this day would be a little harder for me from now on.

But what a miracle things have become. I get pregnant without expecting it and when is my due date, right around the time of my last miscarriage. CRAZY HUH! I am so thankful that I will have a happy memory to help shadow my sad loss of last year. And whenever baby decides to come we will be so happy to finally welcome him in our family. We are truly blessed by the graciousness of God in our lives who has blessed up with this little miracle!

Please don't feel sad for me on this post. It is a post of growth and learning and it is apart of me. Here is a little picture roundup on how my life is with Mason.

~Allen Family Est. 2002. Best Day Ever!~

~Next Best Day of my life just over 8 years later~

~There's always lots of snuggle time in this house. Just too cute a kid not to snuggle with!~

~Cute little boy!~

~There's plenty of play and fun in our house everyday!~

~There's also a lot of this in our house. He is a little bit of a drama King!~

 ~But at the end of the day, he's my little man and we will always love each other!~

 ~Love my squeezes!

 Thank you Mason for making me a Mommy and loving it everyday! I love you son!

~I am so excited to be a mommy of 2 sons! See you real soon Baby!~