Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Not So Patiently Waiting

July 3rd and July 10th have both passed now and still no Caitlyn. I officially took myself out of work on July 4th. I was getting to the point where I could not do my job as effectively as I once could and felt like I was a major distraction because everyone was watching to see when I would explode.
We had a false alarm on July 9th. After walking at Concord Mills I started to have contractions about every 10 minutes. Five hours later they were 5 minutes apart. Since we were already in Gastonia and I plan to deliver at Gaston Memorial I called the doctor and told them what was going on. They had me come on into the OB Triage. Disappointingly I was discharged 30 minutes later. Although I was having contractions they were not strong enough to progress my dilation any further. I was very upset.
The next day my mom took me to Concord Mills to shop and I could not even make it out of the corner where Burlington Coat Factory is. Since then I have felt horrible. I have not kept very much food down and just want to sleep. Apparently this is a good sign. Today is by far the worst day yet. I woke up with contractions at 3:30 and have had them throughout the day. The fluctuate in time, but they pain is only getting worse. Hopefully we will have a baby tonight :).

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Getting So Close

So I have notexactly made it to the weekly updates or even monthly. Hopefully I will get better at it when I have more exciting baby news to talk about. Since my last post we moved into our beautiful new house. I am so blessed to have such a great husband and family to make the move happen. I was absolutely useless, other than causing more stress and supervising the whole process. We pretty much have everything unpacked and the way we want it with the exception of Jeremy's "Man Cave" and the guest room that we still have to move the furniture into. I am quite pleased with how things have turned out with the house. We have only had a couple of issues that we have had to get with Tru Homes about. One being the plumbing issue that caused me to have a true hormonal pregnant woman breakdown and resulted in a convoy of plumber, the representative that sold us the house and my husband rushing to get to the house to calm me down. Everything turned out fine, they have to repair a couple of things, but that will be completed very soon and there was no major damage.
The nursery if officially done with the exception of two decals I ordered at the last minute. For someone that always said she did not want to have a girly girl nursery with pink, I have certainly loaded up the nursery with pink and girly girl. At least I did not pain the walls pink :) I love just going into her room and smelling the baby smell and rocking in the rocker. I can't wait for her to be here!
Now here we are June 29, 2011 and my due date has been moved to July 3 rather than July 10 Caitlyn currently weighs 7lbs, 9oz and is turned head down. I am 2 centimeters dilated and 50% effaced, as my good friend Christine would say I am ripe. The doctor said he would be surprised to see me at my appointment next week and is definite that I will not be in for an appointment the following week. I have already had 2 scares on Friday and Sunday. My contractions reached 15 minutes apart for several hours and then backed off again. I felt certain she was coming each time, but no such luck. I am trying everything safe to get labor started, but I guess she will come when she wants to come. I have decided after my adventure on Sunday evening at the end of my shift of work that if I make it to this Sunday it is going to be my last day of work. I am in a lot of pain each day. There is no such thing as a desk job in retail so I do not have the pleasure of sitting when I hurt and just have to work on through so I am going to start my leave one day after my new due date and rest. I have said all along that I am going to work until the day she comes, but my body is telling me that I cannot continue do that, especially since I also have a 50 minute drive to and from work. I have never really been one to listen to my body, but I have to start listening and thinking about the life that is inside me and take care of myself so I can take care of her. Besides it will be kind of nice to sit back and relax some if I do not have her before Sunday and take care of some things I have been putting off.
I think I have once again caught up on everything. I should definitely be able to update at least weekly starting Sunday and become a better blogger :)

Friday, May 6, 2011

To Catch You Up

I am a little behind on this whole blogging thing so I am going to use the first one to catch everyone up. A lot has happened in our lives over the past year, the most obvious of which is that we are now expecting a new addition to the family, Ms. Caitlyn Alexis. After going through a tumultuous 8 months of illnesses, surgeries and many many other things Jeremy and I started discussing having a child. I must admit I had a hint of Mommy Fever after my god son was born in March. In September we decided that we would not necessarily try, but wouldn't not try either. After speaking to the doctor they said it would probably take awhile to conceive due to the fact that I had been on birth control for so long and that I had dermoid cyst that could impact the viability of my left ovary. Well, around a month an a half later guess who was pregnant? I had my suspicions around Halloween, but received confirmation a week later when we went away to Biltmore for Jeremy's Birthday weekend. I had no energy to do anything and was so sick the entire time we were there, but pushed through so Jeremy could enjoy his birthday. We returned home on Monday, on Tuesday I purchased the pregnancy tests. I was only going to take one, but the second line was so light I took another. The second line was darker the second time around. I was so excited and nervous to tell Jeremy. When he came I kept putting off telling him because I did not know how to tell him and was not sure of his reaction. When I finally worked up the nerve to tell him I sat him down and told him not to freak out because I was already freaking out for both of us and blurted out quickly that I had taken two positive pregnancy tests and that I had an appointment the following Monday to confirm it. I don't think I have ever seen Jeremy so excited, there was absolutely no freak out. I don't think I slept for the next week because I was so excited to get the confirmation.
On November 15, 2011 I received confirmation from the doctor that I was pregnant with an expected due date of July 10, 2011. My world changed completely that day. I promptly called Jeremy and went out to buy stuff to tell our parents in a cute way. I know you aren't suppose to tell family until you are further along, but I just could not wait. Our parents were so excited. This will be the first grandchild for my parents and the closest grandchild for Jeremy's. I think his step-mom was more excited than we were and started picking out girl names that night.
The two and a half months were filled with lots of morning sickness, fortunately I only had to be treated for dehydration once. Unfortunately I did not get to really enjoy the delicious food of the holidays. I also learned that if I ever decide to have another child, I will plan so that I am not in my first trimester during retail 4th quarter. It was brutal. I worked third shift at the time so I was already tired most of the time, but the morning sickness and pure exhaustion on top of that was brutal. This was also a time in which we had to pick up extra days because of the increased traffic at work and did I mention that I live 1.5 hours from my store! Needless to say I spent my days off in bed recuperating.
Right after New Year's we started our search for a new home. We currently rent a 2 bedroom, 1 bath house that would not be big enough for me, Jeremy, the baby and 2 dogs so we had to come up with other options. The thought stressed me out immensely. My wonderful husband promptly stepped in and has handled everything from start to finish, including looking at the list of houses and narrowing it down to a few for me to look at when I was off. After having a disappointing experience with what we though was the house of our dreams we happened upon a wonderful opportunity to build and have the house complete at least a month before the baby was due! We jumped on it and our new house will be complete around May 23!
On February 11 we had the 18 week ultrasound that revealed the sex of our little peanut. The first clear shot was of two legs spread wide open to reveal that we were indeed having a little girl. My dad turned to Jeremy and said, "Welcome to my oblivion." My mom and his step-mom was beside themselves. Jeremy and I were a little shocked, we both wanted a boy because we were a little concerned with the drama that comes with girls. However, by the time we left and had the cutest images of her little foot and her sucking her thumb we were ready to go. We promptly went to buy bedding because the girl bedding I had picked out would not be sold in the store any longer. The rest of the weekend was spent registering and buying little girl things. Now we couldn't be happier to have a little girl joining our family. We are having a little firecracker. She moved around so much in the February 11 ultrasound that they could not get a good still shot of her heart so I had to go back four weeks later for another. The ultrasound technician had to chase her around my belly, but was finally able to get a good shot of her heart and one of her punching me in the belly. I guess I should have been a better child because I get the feeling Caitlyn is going to be payback, she is a handful already.
All in all the pregnancy has been a very pleasant experience. Swelling has been a little more than with some people and sooner than with some because I have a prior ankle injury and foot condition that causes swelling anyway and that I cannot treat as I did before pregnancy. We had a brief scare with Gestational Diabetes, which we expected due to my family history, however I was just high risk. I took a class, developed a set meal plan and tested my blood for a week, but now I am home free as long as a stay on the diet.
I think you are officially caught up on the major events of the past 8 months or so. Come back for what will hopefully be weekly updates.