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February 24, 2004
Week 41: Monday and Tuesday Morning
Irritating Wake Up Call
I ignored my 8am alarm and was woken up 40 minutes later by the doorbell. The one time I assume no workers are coming in the morning is the time they show up, of course. The contractor was there to see what needed to get done—some trimwork, one cabinet panel, the gouged floor, and the sink. When he said that someone would be by “within a few days” to snake the sink, my eyes nearly popped out. I’d been awake under ten minutes, and being told that the sink might not get fixed RIGHT NOW was not what I needed to hear. He’s lucky I didn’t punch him. I told him that if one of his guys didn’t come today, Dan was going to buy a snake and do it himself. He then seemed to realize that crossing an overdue pregnant woman was not in his best interest and said he’d do what he could to get someone there that afternoon. Good man. He made some measurements and left until the afternoon.
Little of This and That
The rest of the morning passed uneventfully. After lunch, I settled in to do some work and found myself arranging stuffed animals and other toys instead. I brought up everything except the books from the basement since they’re heavier than I want to deal with. After doing a couple loads of laundry, I ran out of easy procrastinating tasks and actually worked on my program for awhile. By now, there were three or four guys in the kitchen. The plumber was back for some reason—I decided not to ask why, and left for my prenatal.
40 Week Prenatal
On the way to Jeanne’s, I stopped at Peapods (the natural toy store) and bought two more nursing bras, bringing me up to three. That should be enough until I settle into one size or another, right? Since my band size went up three times, I have no idea how much it’ll shrink back or how quickly, so I’m hesitant to buy any bras that don’t fit a range of sizes. I got Bravados for now, which seem safe. I also stopped at the drug store to buy Burt’s Bees Apricot Oil for our diaper wipe solution. With those two purchases, I have finally purchased the last of the items from our birth supply list.
I got to Jeanne’s ten minutes early, and Dan got there ten minutes late (he comes straight from work). I figure we balanced out. I weighed exactly the same as last week, which is also the same as I was at 37 weeks, although I’ve hopped around in the meantime. I’m still at 38 pounds gained—I hit 35 pounds at the 35 week mark, but have been pretty steady since then. The pee stick showed a trace of leucocytes, which Jeanne said would make sense if I have a slight cold—I guess it’s a white blood cell measurement. My nose has been runnier than usual lately, but it’s been runny the whole pregnancy, so I wasn’t even sure if I was sick or not. My blood pressure was 108/72, and my fundal height was down a centimeter to 40. They verified that yep, the baby had definitely dropped some more.
Kim took quite awhile palpating and checking the baby’s heart rate. My silly kid, who had been on my right side since the Tuesday before, flipped to my left side overnight. At first glance, Kim thought the baby was anterior, but after palpating, she decided that he/she had turned all the way to posterior. The kicks I was feeling were indeed near the front of my belly, so it made sense. The baby kept pushing away the fetoscope so she never heard the heartbeat in the same place twice. The rate was between 144 and 160, depending on how active the baby was. After Jeanne took her turn palpating, they gave us some suggestions for moving the baby back into an anterior position. I’m supposed to sit up as straight as possible, with a curve in my back. I do that most of the time anyway because any chair that reclines isn’t comfortable anymore. They highly suggested making an appointment with a chiropractor for the Webster technique. I didn’t realize that was used on posterior babies, but I guess it makes sense that getting one’s pelvis aligned would fix any position problems. I have the phone number of the chiropractor that my Bradley instructor recommended, and Kim said that if that doctor can’t fit me in really soon, she’d pull strings with other chiropractors she knows. Since it was after business hours by the time we left, I decided to wait until morning and determine whether the baby had flipped overnight, then make an appointment if necessary. They also gave me a homeopathic remedy (pulsatilla) that is supposed to help babies turn. I have no idea how that works, but I’m willing to try it.
When I told the midwives about the headache and wooziness I’d felt over the weekend, they said I’d probably had a rush of hormones come over me. That makes sense. I also told them how I’d been less willing to deal with people lately and crankier in general. I convinced Kim to tell me her estimate of the baby’s weight—she thinks he/she’s eight pounds or more now. She tried to use this fact as a way of convincing me that eating protein instead of ice cream was the way to go. I’ll try to eat better at least some of the time =) None of us think we’ll be around for the next appointment I’ve got scheduled for Monday the first, but the baby could still surprise us.
Evening with Dan
On the way home, I got a call from the plumber saying that one of our main pipes was corroded and that someone would be coming in the morning to replace it. I can’t decide whether to be happy when they tell me these things because it means they know what’s wrong, or angry that things aren’t done yet. I guess it’s a bit of both. All I know is that if they’d waited to try to snake it until Wednesday or Thursday, we would have been waiting even longer to get the pipe fixed.
Coming home to our growing pile of dishes and a sign on the sink saying “DO NOT USE. CALL CONTRACTOR” was enough to convince us to order pizza. After that, we did muster the strength to go to the grocery store. Since neither of us is home on Tuesday evenings, we decided it wasn’t worth the risk of going all the way to Wednesday with minimal food in the house.
I think the Braxton-Hicks picked up again in the afternoon, but I wasn’t constantly checking or writing down times, so I’m not certain. I know I had three or four on the drive to Jeanne’s house over the course of forty-five minutes. Other than those, I was feeling pretty good all day. I didn’t even nap, although I hadn’t gotten as much sleep as usual. I did get my first blatant I’m-only-calling-to-see-if-the-baby’s-here call. (Unlike Cheryl’s before, which she did apologize for after reading it here =) The person who called this time caught me in the basement, so I had to hurry up the stairs and climb over an air compressor in the kitchen to reach the phone. She didn’t introduce herself and just asked if the baby had arrived. I was out of breath, confused as to who I was talking to, and irritated that she’d called for that purpose. Once I figured out who it was, and she said that she knew I was supposed to be working but just wanted to check in on me, I kept giving her shorter and shorter answers. I was on my way out the door to the prenatal, there were workers everywhere, and really, am I going to have the baby and then just not tell anyone? Methinks it’s time to change the voice mail message and sign up for caller id.
I went on a bit of a cleaning spree after we got back from the grocery store. I vacuumed the upstairs bedrooms and the stairs. I managed to suck up some carpet, which burned through a belt in the vacuum and made it start smoking. Whoops. Dan got out the manual and fixed it, and after the windows were open awhile, the burned rubber smell went away. I’ll know I’m ready to have this baby when I get around to mopping the bathroom floor—I’ve been avoiding that for awhile.
Overnight and Tuesday
I didn’t sleep too well, but I suppose if I’ve been only waking up once a night until now, I’ve had it pretty easy. I got up at 8 with the alarm (because, ya know, the plumber was supposed to show up). I think the baby’s still in the same position as yesterday, so I ought to go make that appointment. I’ve had a few BH, but nothing more exciting than that. The plumber and the Muscle Man just got here around 10. Since I got through last night with going into labor, I’m hoping the baby waits until tomorrow now so I can work a few hours and get those extra two weeks of insurance coverage. I have the feeling that as soon as I make the chiropractor appointment, the baby will turn and come on his/her own. Either way works, I guess. Now that the baby has missed my grandpa’s birthday, the next family birthday isn’t until Saturday—I think the kid wants a day of his/her own. As usual, we’ll just have to wait and see.
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