37 weeks, 5 days and still going

So I had my 37 week appointment yesterday. Lyle came with me which is always nice. Nothing too exciting. I am dilated to about 2cm and Keegan is at a position of approximately -1 (he needs to be at zero for delivery so -1 means he is still up a bit). She said he is sitting back a bit still; not exactly sure what that means. Blood pressure, etc is still fine. We had to wait forever yesterday; our appt was about an hour late because of some emergencies that came in. I try to understand that emergencies happen but it frustrating to be at the clinic for over 2 hrs just for a 15 minute check-up! Oh and the doctor mentioned for size that she thinks he will be around 8lbs; she said she definitely thinks he won't be a light weight ;-)

Anyway, so I am where I am supposed to be. I've decided I'm not really all that thrilled with cervical exams. They leave me very crampy and uncomfortable feeling. Keegan gets very still after the exams; he's like "what in the heck just poked me in the head, that was wierd..." Still having very sore hips and crampy belly a lot; again supposidly normal. We are just still waiting for this little guy to arrive. I've been telling Keegan that it's really nice out here and everyone wants to meet him so he should think about coming out to visit. Little does he know the visit would be permanent ;-)

It's been getting busy again. School started on Tuesday so I have a lot of reading and some homework to do for that. My last day of work is tomorrow; I am excited about that. I don't think I've ever been off of work for more than 2 weeks in a row since I started working back when I was 16. Lyle has been reading "There's a Wocket in my Pocket" (Dr. Seuss book) to Keegan every night in hopes that Keegan will learn to like a book before coming out of the womb. Babies are supposed to recognize stories that they heard a lot in womb and find them comforting after they are born. Guess it's worth a shot!

We are just hanging out waiting for Keegan to grace us with his prescence out of womb!

Another ticker...I thought this one was funny

Here's another ticker from the site that Lyle pulled the last one from. This one is more appropriate for how I've been feeling about the pregnancy thing lately!

Quick 36 week appt update

Okay so yesterday was my 36 week appt. Everything health wise is fine. Good news is that I am 1.5cm dilated and Keegan is definitely head down and has dropped some (but not all the way yet). So I could stay like this for a while or he could decide to visit us soon! Bad news is the ankle swelling etc is probably going to get worse as time progresses; and there's not a darn thing I can do about it.

Anyway, I was excited to know that at least my body is thinking about having this baby and that Keegan may actually consider coming out of his not-so-roomy residence.
So thought I would post an update...hopefully this doesn't get to be "too much info" for anybody. But part of the point of the blog was to write all the nitty gritty down so that we could remember it for later.
Hope all who read this are doing well.

A little over 36 weeks...

Not that I am counting or anything :-) We finished getting the last few items unpacked in the baby room. So now the diaper genie is out, the CD player is plugged in, and the wipe warmer is set up to go. I did another large load of baby laundrey. There's really no reason to do this now except that I am trying to decide what Keegan will wear in his first baby picture :-)

Last week was a bit exciting. I was leaking fluid and the doctor's office told me I needed to come in right away to make sure it wasn't amniotic fluid. So I ended up rushing to the doctor's office on Thurs. Ends up I am just leaking and a bit incontinent from the weight of Keegan on my bladder. This is a bit embarrassing but they were relieved that that's all is was. The same day my breasts started leaking colostrum (pre-milk). So it was quit a day. The nurse says I should be thrilled that my breasts are all ready to breast feed when the baby arrives. I think she's crazy. So additional fun stuff I found out at the doctor's is that I have *not* dilated but am starting to efface a little bit. Which the nurse practitioner said is "great".

Besides all of that excitement things are slowly crawling along. I have been having trouble sleeping so have been rotating between the recliner couch in the bedroom and the bed. I think it wakes Lyle up every time I switch places; but haven't heard any complaints yet. He is a smart man :-)

I suppose I could put in a note about Christmas. Christmas went well; it was busy as usual. Mom and dad got Keegan a whole bunch of presents. I can't believe the kid is already getting spoiled and he is not even out of the womb yet! Only bad part about Christmas was all the goodies to eat. My next doctor's appt after Christmas the doctor mentioned that she wasn't surprised my swelling was worse because I had put on a lot of water weight. I though hmmm....water weight...it's either that or cookie and fudge weight. I am hoping that she is right though because water weight will be easy to drop after I am done being pregnant.

Anyway, my 36 week appt is today. We will see how that goes. Gotta' get back to work.

Keegan Tracker

Robin sent us this little tracker, so I thought I would add it on to the page :). Things are still just chugging along. We don't really have that much to do left for Keegan before he comes along, so we are kind of in waiting mode. As Karissa mentioned, the car seat was inspected last week, and that went ok. Didn't quite have it installed correctly, it was just a little lose. So after fixing that we are all ready to go. You can tell that the cats and Ruby are starting to get a little more nervous about things that are changing in our house, as Loki has been a lot more clingy, and the other cats seem more jumpy. Ruby seems the best adjusted in my opinion, but she hasn't quite figured out that all the plush toys that are new around the house are not for her. I assume she will figure that out after we take them away from her about.... 1 million or so times. Anyway I got to split and go into the office, so that is it for today.

Only 10 days until Keegan won't be considered premature!

So I guess the headline says it all! At least as far as I am concerned. In 10 days if I go into labor Keegan can come into the world and be treated like a full term baby. So that is great news for us.

Lyle and I are really looking forward to meeting him. I am also looking forward to not being pregnant. I guess there has always been a countdown to my due date; but lately I swear I am counting down minutes. I have begun to understand that there must be a purpose to you being pregnant for 9 months; it makes you look forward to labor.

Things have just been uncomfortable. I am sick of not being able to move well, I am sick of all the "cute" maternity clothes, and I am sick of being hot all the time (usually I am sick of being cold so maybe this is a pleasant change). All the bitching aside things are still going well healthwise. I has another doctor's appt yesterday and blood pressure is doing well, Keegan seems to be doing well. I have been having some trouble with edema; which translates to more weight gain, water retention, a poofier face, and stupid swollen ankles. Thankfully it doesn't really cause any "real" health problems. I also had the pleasure I having my first Braxton Hicks contractions on Tuesday night. That was obnoxious because it woke me up and woke Keegan up. Apparently Keegan found the whole experience as discomforting as I did because he vigorously squirmed around for a good 2 hrs after the contractions.

Lyle went and got the carseat installation inspected at the fire station yesterday; it's installed correctly now and we are good to go. We put together the baby bouncer Tues night; so the cats have a fun new toy to play with until Keegan gets here! I also finally got around to putting together the hospital bags for both me and Keegan. We got some cute outfits in there for him. I still need to add some stuff in the bag for me. For some reason I am just reluctant to finish that up. All in all I think we are as ready for his arrival as we can be given what we know about being parents; which is nothing :-)

So now we are just waiting. I am out of school now so there is more free time. I've been able to fill some of that with video games, reading, getting baby announcements ready, fun stuff like that. I think the house is as clean as it can be and all the closets/kitchen have been reorganized to allow for baby items. Now, we wait until Keegan decides to arrive! I am not very good at waiting. I told Keegan that he needs to stay put another couple weeks and then he can feel free to join us any time he's ready :-)

All the paperwork for my work is in order, and we went through the birthing plan with the doctor yesterday. She thinks everything looks reasonable. We definitely aren't asking a lot in the birthing plan. Mainly the big issues were that I want the baby with us and breastfeeding right away. We've decided not to circumcise and Lyle wants to help cut the umbilical cord. Apparently all of these choices are standard now. As far as all the details of pain management and ambiance; I figure that we'll figure that out when we get there because I don't really know how things are going to go ahead of time.

Okay well that's enough babbling from me.