Still cooking

Had my 36-week checkup yesterday, and things are still looking good. My blood pressure, which was high last week, was back down in the acceptable range yesterday, so my fears that the doctor might go ahead and schedule my delivery early due to preeclampsia are assuaged, at least this week. Still not dilating or anything, but the baby has dropped some, so there's a least a little progress towards the ultimate end. I am getting pretty ready to have this little man, though. This has been an extremely easy pregnancy, all things considered, but now that I'm in the last few weeks, I'm getting really tired and uncomfortable. I've gained a lot of weight (I was 242 yesterday, which is 17 lbs more than my highest weight ever), and it's making it hard to get around. My back hurts, my feet hurt, my knees hurt...you get the picture. I'm short-changing the poor dog on his walks because I just don't feel like walking that far. I go back to sleep in the mornings after walking the dog and having breakfast, and I can sleep anywhere from an extra hour to three extra hours. I have so much I need to be doing in the house to make sure everything is ready for the baby, but instead I stay on the couch all day and pretty much don't do anything. So I'm definitely ready to be done and have Brendan here so I can snuggle him and cuddle him. It's pretty exciting and pretty scary all at the same time. So stay tuned, because we've only got a few weeks left, one way or another...

My "to do" list is as big as my belly

36 weeks pregnant. Wow. I can't believe I'm this close to the end of all this (and the beginning of the rest of my life, as a mom). Heck, I could be even closer than I think. If my bp is high when I go in for my checkup this Wednesday, I suppose it's possible they could go ahead and schedule the birth (induction? c-section? I have no idea what they'd do) as soon as I hit 37 weeks (Saturday) so my bp doesn't cause any problems. Technically that would still be full-term. So I could conceivably (see what I did there?) have a baby in a week from now. Holy crap.

Not sure I'm mentally ready for this yet, and definitely sure I don't have the house ready yet! Thankfully my husband installed the car seat bases in our vehicles today, so we're ready to go as far as that's concerned, but that's only the tip of the iceberg. Let's see...

-hang curtains in nursery (At least the curtains are made; thank goodness for my mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law!)

-wash all linens and baby clothes (This is an on-going process; I've already started but I've got plenty left to wash.)

-store any clothes and other items we won't need (I inherited some girl baby clothes, which of course we won't need right now, and there are probably some toys and things that are a little too old for the baby at this point. I need to get some storage tubs to put everything in. Guess a trip to Target is in order.)

-clean out closet in nursery (The closet has been a catchall until this point, but we'll need to put baby things in there, so I need to transfer everything else to another closet or somewhere else in the house.(

-finish setting up the crib (There are a couple screws missing that hold part of the side of the crib together, so I need to go pick those up. Also, I need to put in the linens that I will be using, the dust ruffle, and things of that nature.)

-set up the changing table (We inherited the changing table that my husband had been changed on as a baby. It has been hosed off, but I think I need to pick up a new pad for it.)

-move the matching shelves into the closet (I need to hose these off first and let them dry. I think I'll use them for clothes and linens for now. Eventually there will be toys and books on them too.)

-put away the baby clothes (I'll have to hold off on this until we get the dresser that belongs to our twin bed set in the nursery. My in-laws are still using it, and will bring it up to us in a few weeks.)

-go through the "baby checklists" I have to see what we still need (I know we need diapers and all that stuff, and I should probably get some baby bottles so I can use the breast pump I have and let my husband share in the fun of feeding.)

I'm sure there are many more items I'm just not thinking of right now, but obviously I've got a lot of work to do to make sure we're ready for this baby, whenever he shows up. Unfortunately, now that I have so much work to do, I'm the least inclined to do it. People keep talking about the "nesting instinct", where women and animals are compelled to prepare the house for the baby's arrival. I either don't have a nesting instinct, or it is seriously overwhelmed by the "lazy butt" instinct I have, that compels me to sit on the couch and not do anything.

Under pressure

Had my 35-week check-up today (and the group B strep test; nothing like getting to know a Q-tip really well). My blood pressure has finally reached the point where it warrants a little concern. Now, that doesn't mean it's particularly bad; it was only 140/90 at the beginning of my appointment and came down to 120/70 by the end of my appointment, and there was no protein showing up in my urine. But that 140/90 is the cut-off point, where women who DON'T have hypertension need to start being concerned about preeclampsia. Since I have high blood pressure anyway, my cut-off point would be a little higher, but this is a good alert level for me. I've already been checking my blood pressure several times each week; clearly it's time to monitor it daily. Otherwise, my doctor didn't suggest that I need to be doing anything beyond what I'm already doing. I need to stay off my feet as much as possible (to prevent swelling), check my bp regularly, drink lots of water, and make sure there aren't any other symptoms that show up.

Beyond my blood pressure, everything has been going very well. I haven't had any bleeding or contractions (other than those darned Braxton Hicks contractions). The baby is still very active. I'm definitely having more trouble getting around and being more short of breath than I was, but none of it has been more than just an inconvenience. Thankfully, my issues sleeping with my husband don't seem to be a regular problem; it's really only if I'm have significant trouble sleeping anyway. As long as I can just hang on for two more weeks, I'll technically be "full-term", so if my blood pressure does cause trouble for me, they can induce me or do a c-section (whatever is most common for preeclampsia) without being too worried about the baby's development.

So, fingers are crossed that everything continues to go as smoothly as possible. I'm getting close to the end...there's still so much that needs to be done! The nursery is not finished yet--there's plenty of furniture that still needs to be put in place, the girl clothes we inherited need to be stored somewhere, the bedding and boy clothes need to be washed and put away, and we need to accumulate all the diapers, bottles, and assorted supplies that we'll need when the little spud shows up. Let the countdown begin...

To sleep, perchance to dream about sleeping

I came to a realization last night that dismayed and saddened me a bit. This realization came after my husband had been gone for a week for business. The realization was this: for the first time in the eleven years we've been married, and the three + years prior to that we were friends, I slept better when my husband was gone.

This has never happened before. He has always been my safety blanket. Without him in the bed with me, I'm generally restless. Strange noises wake me up, and I have difficulty getting back to sleep. His presence is comforting to me, and I'm always relieved when he comes home again.

But now that I'm in the home stretch of my pregnancy, I'm having a ridiculously difficult time sleeping. I have two positions that are almost comfortable, sleeping on one side or the other, and that's it. I usually need to prop myself up partway with a pillow or two and hope for the best. I change positions a lot, because I'm only comfortable lying on my side for a few minutes. Then my hip and leg start to hurt, like a pressure sore, and so I roll over. And then there's the need to go to the bathroom. I generally get about an hour between potty breaks, so it means I have a limited amount of time to get to sleep and get some rest before I'm up again.

The two things that I noticed when my husband was gone were that I was able to spread out in bed a little bit, and that there wasn't any snoring. While he was gone I was able to put a body pillow, which takes up a lot of room, on one side of me, and the other, smaller pillow on the other side. That way I didn't need to wrestle the one pillow from one side to the other. I can't do this when he's here; I don't want to encroach on his side of the bed, and I like to be able to reach over and know that he's there. I can't do that with the pillow in the way. The other issue is the snoring. Both of us snore (although I don't think I have had much time to snore these days). Unfortunately, since I'm having trouble getting to sleep in the short amount of time I have between bathroom visits, the snoring is making it harder to get to sleep.

So, while I was sad and lonely while my husband was gone, I realized I slept a little bit better while he was gone, because I could spread out on the pillows a little better, and it was a little quieter so I had a better chance of falling to sleep.

Just one more reason I'm going to be happy to have this baby: I can have my relationship with my husband back like it's supposed to be.

Feeling...lonely...

I'm in the midst of my 32nd week of pregnancy. Hard to believe that I only have 7 1/2 weeks to go until my due day.

I'm measuring big, which has been going on for weeks now, but I measure BIGGER each time. When I was 28 weeks, I measured 30. When I was 30 weeks, I measured 34. At 32 weeks, I measured 40! Between my last visit and the one this past Monday, I gained 7 lbs. That's definitely not good. One of the signs of pre-eclampsia is sudden weight gain, and I'm at risk of pre-eclampsia because of my hypertension. So I'm a bit concerned. I need to be careful, and make sure that my blood pressure is staying under control and that I'm taking in enough fluids. I've noticed the last couple of days I've had a little bit of a headache off and on, hardly enough to pay attention to, but it can also be a sign of possible pre-eclampsia. So hopefully everything continues to go well, but I need to step up my game and be really aware of my blood pressure and how I'm feeling. I'm starting to document my blood pressure each day, and if it reaches 150/100 (which I haven't been particularly close to) I need to go in and get re-evaluated.

With that being said, I feel like I'm in a bit of a precarious position this week. I am by myself, because my husband got sent out of town for the week for work. My in-laws, who live five hours south of here, are also out of town until this weekend. We really haven't met a lot of people in the year that we've lived here. So it occurred to me that if something were to happen to me, something that medically required me to be hospitalized, I wouldn't have anyone here with me. Oh sure, I could call my dad, and I'm sure he'd be here as quickly as he could, but he certainly couldn't be here within the same day, to check up on me or take care of the dogs (since we've got our dog and are also watching our in-laws' dog for the week). I could probably prevail upon my next-door-neighbors to check on the dog and walk him, but we don't know them very well (as a matter of fact, I'm not entirely sure what their names are). We've got two families that we did a Bible study with during the spring, and I'm pretty sure I could call them, but again, we don't really know them very well. I've got an acquaintance from college who lives in Billings with his family, and I think in a pinch I could contact him. But we don't have any relatives here, we don't have any close friends here, and I'd be relying on people that we don't know well. That's kind of a frightening concept, that we're isolated like that.

Anyway, fingers are crossed that nothing will happen, and my husband will be home in two more days. But it does make me think, and worry. Just one more thing to worry about, I guess...