Something to celebrate.

Nope, not a baby being born. But almost as good.

I've been getting these progesterone injections (which are shown to help prevent preterm labor) once a week since I was 18 weeks pregnant. I'm now 36 weeks pregnant. I went in today for my LAST injection. That's 18 injections total, folks. For someone who hates needles.

And I've mentioned before that these aren't your every-day injections like a flu-shot or vitamin injection. It's an unusually large needle. And a "very viscous solution" - meaning it's very thick and hard to inject, not that it has a particularly nasty demeanor. Although I think if it had a demeanor, it wouldn't be a pleasant one. It is a hormone, after all.

Anyway, the nurses were so excited for me. Brenda, the nurse who always gives me the injection, was particularly happy. I think she loathes giving these shots, as she always apologizes the whole time. Lucky for her she's super sweet, and super good at giving the shots as quickly and painlessly (ha) as possible.

Brenda also made a comment today that rattled me a bit, but then really put things into perspective for me. She said: "You know, we don't ever tell anyone this, but the chances of you carrying this baby as long as you have after what you went through so early on are... not so great. So this baby was clearly meant to be and you've done a great job at doing everything you could to keep her in there, and I can't wait to meet her."

I almost cried. Because. Of course they aren't going to tell you what the outlook is if it's not great. It's all about the positive energy and "good vibes" as my cousins would say. And it worked. As I am now SO ready for this girl to come on out and meet us. There are no words to describe the weight that is now off my shoulders.

And sorry, PJ, but it's not looking like she'll be born today, on Trenton's birthday. I even ate some spicy food last night to see if I could get things rolling. Guess we'll have to wait and see if she arrives on MY birthday (the 7th) or Owen's birthday (the 8th)! Although we are not-so-secretly hoping she arrives any time now!

A sweet master suite. Finally.

So a big part of our "getting ready" for the baby was to finally finish our bedroom and bathroom upstairs before she arrived. As per usual, I neglected to take any "before" shots of the "bonus room/office" at the downstairs base of our bedroom that we were living in (which wasn't much bigger than the size of our queen mattress). That room will be the last one we tackle, as it's relatively unimportant in the grand scheme of things. I have big plans to put a daybed in there for random houseguests, along with maybe a little flat screen TV mounted above the desk (which I want to replace eventually, too). But we'll get to it when we get to it.

I also didn't take any before photos of the upstairs master suite. But I can give you a visual. It was the same tan/gold color as the rest of the house. And when we moved in we threw about 20+ boxes up there and just... forgot about that whole floor while we got the rest of the house up to date and painted. It was also somewhat by choice so that during my 4 months of bed-rest I wasn't climbing stairs all day to and from my bedroom/bathroom.

However. We now finally LIVE up there! Here is the view from the top of the stairs (which are open to the bonus room).

Thanks to friend Brittany for lending us that great little co-sleeper you see next to the dresser - it's going to be a huge help having a bassinet on each floor!

I couldn't be happier with the paint color (Behr's Pale Lichen) or the help from my parents in actually getting it painted up there. I'm also psyched with my super bargain bed ordered from Overstock, and this awesome refinished dresser we picked up from a local woman in Oxford who refinishes old furniture. How cool is that?

Its nice to have a room to really live in and call our own. And to finally put out some pictures and my perfumes, etc.!

And we're thisclose to being done with the bathroom... Here's a peek at it from the bedroom.

Eric has to mount a couple remaining pieces of hardware (towel hooks and toilet paper holder), but then we'll be pretty set in there... pics soon. It's a crazy long/weird-shaped space, and its going to take us a while to figure out how to best utilize it. There's a great little nook where I sort-of want to put a comfy reading chair (?), but, who wants to sit in a comfy chair and read in their bathroom? (Insert joke about reading in the bathroom here).

And... because I'm pregnant and either eating or thinking about eating all the live long day - here's a random side-note about my new favorite food - Farm Country Cheese House's Olive Cheese.

I've mentioned before that this baby is definitely not vegan, and therefore I haven't been either since I got pregnant. I don't feel guilty about it. Really the only addition to my diet has been cheese and the occasional egg. And the baby LIKES it, okay? Anyway, I especially don't feel bad knowing that this cheese is made in Amish country here in Michigan, and that the cows are grass-fed, antibiotic-free, and hand-milked. Oh, and that we've met the farmers at the Royal Oak Farmers Market. And that it's packed full of green olives. SO good.

I can devour a whole brick of it in one sitting if I'm not careful. Also, we found it for sale at our local grocery store, too - the Value Center Market in Clawson (which, if anyone lives around Clawson, I highly recommend). Despite it's low-budget name, they have a great produce selection, much of which comes from Eastern Market farmers, along with a great cheese and beer selection.

Now... what to have for dessert?

"Like a stalk of Swiss chard."

According to BabyCenter this baby girl is about 19 inches long now, "like a stalk of swiss chard." Good thing we eat a lot of greens in this house so that is actually a helpful reference for me. BabyCenter is about a week ahead of where my doctor thinks I am, though (I'm actually around 36 weeks, vs. BabyCenter's 37 weeks). So maybe she's like a small stalk of chard.

(This is actually "rainbow chard," but its so much prettier!)

So. I'm not really on "bed rest" anymore. I mean, I am, sort-of. My doctors don't want me going back to work - and there's no point anyway, since she could come any time now. But I've basically been given free range to return to a (somewhat) normal level of activity. I did use this newfound freedom to take an hour-long stroll around Target yesterday. And while it was very liberating, it was totally exhausting. I may be allowed to get up and move around more, but my body is definitely not used to it, what with 4 months of inactivity and the nearly 30 pounds I've gained in that time.

I also keep finding myself laying down. Or feeling like I should be laying down. I was feeling incredibly guilty at Target yesterday thinking: I should leave and go home and lay down. Until I reminded myself that I don't have to lay down all day anymore! It's a weird realization. That being said, I still did lay down quite a bit yesterday. I figure I might as well enjoy these last few days/weeks? of relaxation while I'm able!

So far no indications of baby making her appearance any time soon. Eric and I feel really discombobulated over the whole thing. All last week was spent packing bags, getting the house all ready, getting ourselves mentally ready, etc. And now... nothin.' But at least we're much more prepared now!

My favorite new development is that my mother now picks up the phone before I even hear it ringing. I wouldn't be surprised if she went out and got one of those hip clips for her phone so she can wear it all the time just in case I call. That being said, it's nice to know that they're as ready as we are!

I hope everyone enjoys what is shaping up to be a lovely fall-ish weekend!

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go.

Except that I'm at home. And not with a baby.

Which is good! I may or may not be in the very early stages of labor, but I am comfortably resting at home on my couch with season 2 of Friday Night Lights, and not in a hospital room, which is nice.

So the effing stitch. It's out. But it wasn't fun. And let me preface this by saying that a normal pap smear (sorry boys) brings tears to my eyes. I'm just apparently super sensitive in that area. So I knew this wouldn't be fun. Lets just say it was a great opportunity to practice some of my deep breathing techniques to try and manage the pain. Cause it was painful. There's nothing "natural" about having a stitch cut out of that region of your body, so I was expecting there to be some pain. But man. Good thing Eric is tough because while I tried to keep most of my body relaxed and calm, I did manage to squeeze the crap out of his hand for the duration of the 5-minute procedure. Which felt a LOT like labor.

After it was done and I got all pulled together they put me/the baby on a monitor for 20 minutes. The baby hiccuped the entire time, which was super cool/funny to hear on the monitor. I also started having contractions every 6-7 minutes and a lot of lower back pain. After they determined that the baby wasn't in any kind of distress, they sent us to the cafeteria to get some food. Sweet potato fries and orzo/feta salad - what? That cafeteria has some GOOD food. Anyway, after that Eric and I parked ourselves in a comfy couch in one of the lobbies and pulled out Eric's laptop to watch the season finale of MadMen Season 4 (Spoiler: Don, really? Your secretary?) while jotting down times on a scrap piece of paper for each contraction I was having.

After MadMen and a trip to the hospital Caribou Coffee to get some tea, we determined that A). My back ache was pretty much gone, B). My contractions had spaced out to being anywhere from 8 to 20 minutes apart, C.) My water hadn't broke yet, and D.) Overall I was feeling pretty good.

So we came home.

And I'm continuing to feel better and better. I think the procedure really shook things up and for a good half-hour there we thought for sure I was in labor. But sitting and resting for a bit helped calm things down, and I feel pretty much the same as I have most days this week, albeit maybe a little crampier in general.

I am, however, ONE centimeter dilated, and about 80% thinned/effaced. So. Stuff is for sure happening. I feel encouraged that with Owen I remember being so uncomfortable and in quite a bit of pain by the time I was at 2-3 centimeters, and so far today, I feel great. So. Fingers crossed that I am able to relax and breathe my way right into the delivery room much more easily and calmly with this one. That being said, one can be 2-5 centimeters dilated for weeks without going into labor. So who knows.

Another fun fact is that I was told that she has really dropped, signaling that she is pretty much ready to go, but also making it impossible for me to walk like a normal person. I definitely have the "pregnancy waddle" going on. Super sexy, I know.

Also, we might have picked a name? Being in the hospital and thinking you may be in labor really lights a fire under you to have a serious discussion about naming your child. But we're keeping it a secret for now...

So that's our story! Thanks to everyone for all the well-wishes today. We'll let you know if/when things start happening!

Am I having a baby this week? Oh, also, we threw a party.

So there are several reasons I haven't posted anything in a while. First, after my appointment last Thursday I got totally freaked out that I'm going to go into labor THIS WEEK and have a baby by the weekend. For which I feel unprepared. As I've mentioned, I get my cerclage (stitch) removed this Thursday at 10:00 a.m. (Henry Ford Hospital time: probably more like noon). The plan is to remove the stitch, and then put me on a monitor to keep an eye on the baby for about 20 minutes. After that they want us to stick around the hospital for 2-3 hours (we were told we should walk around, have lunch, browse the shops, etc.), to see if I'm going to go into labor. I didn't ask statistics, but the way Dr. Murphy talked about it, she made it seem like... it was a pretty good possibility? And if I don't go into labor, that it could easily happen within a day or two. But then at the same time she indicated that some women go another "week or two" before going into labor. So I guess she is not thinking I'm going to make it to my October 6th due date!

Which is fine with me, actually. This baby weighs almost 6 pounds now. And I'm getting to that super uncomfortable, achey feet, kicks to the ribs, hurts to move/walk/lay/sit stage that I never had the privilege of experiencing with Owen. Which is less than fun. However, I'll be 35 1/2 weeks on Thursday when the stitch comes out. I'd like to make it to 36 or 37 if possible - let this little lady cook just a bit longer. But since her arrival is completely out of my control, I need to just RELAX and go with it.

Another reason I've been so busy over the last week is that we've been frantically trying to wrap up the loose-end projects around here. And I'm happy to say that over the weekend we (Eric) pretty much finished the master bedroom/bathroom upstairs! As of Wednesday night when my split box spring gets delivered (thank you old house with narrow stairs that our queen box won't fit up) we will officially move into our bedroom upstairs! We will no longer be squatting (literally, the mattress is just sitting on the floor) in the den/bonus room downstairs. I can't WAIT.

Also the baby's room is 98% complete. Curtains and a few remaining pictures will get hung today, and that will be that. I can't wait to post some pictures. It's freaking adorable.

And, the main reason I was so busy this last week? We had my nephew Trenton's first birthday party on Saturday! Which we sort-of combined with Owen's 3rd birthday (for the Millers at least), so it was really TWO birthday parties. And, being the one not working and on bed-rest, I threw myself into decoration- and scrapbook-making for the week prior to the party. Here's a glimpse at some of my handiwork (apologies for the unedited and somewhat crappy photos - lighting was bad, and I'm too lazy these days to deal with Photoshop):

Yeah, I made streamers out of fake money for T-Money.

And cupcake toppers with "T$", 1s, 3s, and assorted Cars characters (for Owen).

And a rockin' Cars banner for O-man.

And, the best part, a banner out of fake money for T-Money.

To top it off I made the best vegan cupcakes I've ever tasted (they may have been the best cupcakes in general, actually). Recipe here. Overall, I think both boys very much enjoyed their party. I mean. It was a day of cars, trucks, bikes, Nemo, cupcakes, pop and no naps. Pretty much every toddler's/baby's dream day.

Happy Birthday boys!

Hopefully I'll have one more quick post before leaving for the hospital Thursday that will say something like: "Bag is packed, all plans are in place for kid/dog care, baby's room and master bedroom are finished, and I'm ready to have a baby." Hopefully.

35 weeks and Hypno-what?

At this point in my pregnancy with Owen, I had a 2-day-old baby in the Providence NICU. He was born at 34 weeks and 5 days. As soon as my water broke with Owen (while getting a pedicure), I knew he was on his way, and I felt ready, prepared, and unafraid (until I got to the hospital, at least). However, the thought of this baby arriving NOW has thrown me into a total panic. I'm not ready! She's not ready! Luckily there are no signs of her making an appearance any time soon. An appointment Thursday morning will hopefully confirm that for us. (And truth be told, she probably actually IS ready, and would do fine if born tomorrow).

One of the reasons I don't feel fully ready yet is that I've not been so diligent with practicing my relaxation and breathing techniques that I hope to use for the birth. With Owen we had just finished our whole HypnoBirthing class, so I felt very confident in the methods and what was to come. The second time around we haven't taken any classes (nor do we think we need to). But I have not been so great about putting in the time to practice, which is critical to the success of the HypnoBirthing program.

I think HypnoBirthing gets a bad rap or often gets laughed off as a joke because people associate it with "stage hypnosis" - live shows where a "hypnotist" puts audience members into a hypnotic state and makes them do embarrassing things like quack like a duck or kiss the stranger sitting next to them. This kind of "hypnosis" has nothing to do with HypnoBirthing.

The practice of HypnoBirthing, when done successfully, does relax the mother into a self-hypnosis-type-state. But she is still alert, awake, and totally in control of her actions, emotions and thoughts. Its more about being able to put yourself into a state of total relaxation than it is about being "hypnotized."

The philosophy behind HypnoBirthing is that natural childbirth doesn't have to be the agonizing, scary and dangerous event that it is often made out to be. The premise is both physiological and psychological, and is based on the theory that in the absence of fear (and/or some modern medical interventions/ideas), women's bodies are totally capable of birthing babies calmly and with little-to-no pain. A quote from a Dr. Jonathan Dye (from 1891) that is used in the book states:

"According to physiological law, all natural, normal functions of the body are achieved without peril or pain. Birth is a natural, normal physiological function for normal, healthy women and their healthy babies. It can, therefore, be inferred that healthy women, carrying healthy babies, can safely birth without peril or pain."

The book states that "our bodies instinctively know how to birth, just as they know how to conceive and nurture the development of the babies they are carrying." Which, to me at least, makes so much sense! One of the goals of the HypnoBirthing program is to help mothers embrace their body's innate knowledge of birthing, and to help her relax into the birthing process and work with her body and her baby, instead of against it.

I did have a natural birth with Owen, but I will not even begin to claim that it was pain-free. I honestly and sincerely feel that the seriousness of the situation (his arrival 6 weeks early) set in as soon as I walked into the hospital at Providence, and most of what I had learned in my HypnoBirthing class went out the window. I was terrified. But I still managed to "get through it" as naturally as possible.

But it hurt. Real bad. However, I do think that the HypnoBirthing class and breathing and relaxation techniques were at least a great coping mechanism for me. As was all of the stored knowledge about childbirth being a normal, natural process that I knew my body was capable of handling.

With this soon-to-arrive baby I'm currently cooking we are hoping things will be even better. A few factors that are easing my mind:

1. Henry Ford's system of midwife care. Regardless of when or how I go into labor, a midwife is AT the hospital of all times. And since we met all of the midwives at the hospital tour, I know that the woman caring for me and the baby will be a face I recognize and someone I have spoken with. When I was triaged with Owen, I had to deal with residents and OBs who I'd never meet/seen/spoken to before, which added to my stress level (as did all of the questions they kept asking me, disregarding my birth plan completely).

2. The hospital is totally HypnoBirthing and natural-birth friendly. Not just the midwives, but it appears that the nurses and the rest of the staff are open to the idea and to the mother's requests.

3. We've kept a real close eye on this baby. I think a lot of the fear and anxiety I felt when in labor with Owen was heightened by having very few, scattered appointments with a bunch of different doctors throughout the pregnancy. Being a natural-born-worrier, it has helped me tremendously to keep such a close and watchful eye on this baby girl (ultrasounds every 2 weeks for the majority of the pregnancy), so I know she is healthy (maybe too healthy - I still have a minor fear that she's going to be huge). (Also, I'm aware that all of the extensive prenatal care and tests and ultrasounds are contradictory to a "natural" pregnancy experience, but it helped me, nonetheless).

4. I've already had an epidural (when I had the cerlage placed at 18 weeks). I think I've mentioned several times that I'm generally more terrified of a needle in my spinal cord (or wherever they stick it) than I am about the birthing. And while I do NOT want to do that ever again, I do feel some comfort knowing that I've done it once, so if medically necessary, I know I could do it again.

5. I know what to expect (as much as one can). A lot of the "fear" of childbirth goes away once you've done it once! I understand what the surges (contractions) will feel like and how the breathing techniques will help me work with those surges instead of against them (pushing = not as helpful as one might think).

I think it's unfortunate that modern medicine (and modern television, for that matter) has convinced so many women that they need pain medication or to "schedule" their birth instead of letting things happen naturally as they were intended. When hearing that I had one natural birth and am planning for another, I have had women tell me that I must have a really high pain tolerance, or that my birthing must have been much easier than theirs because there's no way they could have done it without the drugs. And I would never deny any woman those thoughts or opinions, because I have only my own experiences to go on. That being said, I really do believe strongly in the power of the body to do it's thing without much intervention. Women have been birthing their own babies since the beginning of time without drugs or forceps or someone standing over them yelling at them to "push!"

And while I will continue to practice my breathing and relaxation techniques and preparing for the birthing experience that we want to have, I am, of course, keeping an open mind about how things will go on the actual day. You can plan for the exact birth that you want and do all of the necessary planning and preparation, but you just never know what will happen on the day of, so we're trying to keep an open mind.

Now if only I could get the curtains hung in the baby's room. Then I'd REALLY feel prepared. :)

Scary things: storms and kick counts.

So a storm rolled through metro-Detroit on Saturday. And basically a mini-tornado came down our little residential street. Eric and Owen were out of town, but my parents had just gotten to our house and were about to start painting upstairs. The wind shear that took down half the trees in our neighborhood came so fast and furious that my mom was still yelling at us to get in the basement when it had already blown past. Luckily we had no major house damage, but right after the storm, our front yard looked like this:

And here's how it looked in the morning. Pretty much the same, but without the crappy flash.

With Eric being out of town (and not having the time to deal with this even if he WAS in town), I decided we needed some professional help. What I couldn't capture in photos was all of the serious debris that was also hovering 50 feet in the air lodged in the tree that also needed to come down - clearly a job for a tree professional. Luckily within 24 hours I had 4 different tree service companies knocking on my door scavenging for work. The guys I chose (A.W.D. Tree out of Rochester, who we now highly recommend) gave a great quote and did a fantastic job. They were working on it Monday afternoon when Eric and Owen got home. Despite the loud noise from the chipper, Owen thought watching the climber drop the huge branches out of the tree was pretty cool.

And since we've been talking about having someone come and clean up the tree since we moved in (lots of dead wood and suckers weighing down some of the bigger branches), we decided to have these guys take care of that for us, too. It's amazing what a difference that has made - the whole tree looks healthier and lighter (and there's the bonus of not being so paranoid about it dropping big branches in storms anymore). We don't know how old the tree is, but it's definitely one of the biggest silver maples I've ever seen - we want to keep it healthy and happy!

Another scary thing in my life right now? Kick counts. I never really did them with Owen - I had just started them and went into labor a few days later. But I've been doing them with this baby for 2 weeks now. And despite her crazy and almost constant movements, she seems to really like freaking me out by being completely still whenever I sit down and try to focus on those movements and track the "kicks."

This, of course, throws me into a panic every single time. For the first few days I was getting 10 kicks within about 10 minutes. But since then it has taken 20, 30 and once even 45 minutes to get those same 10 kicks. Which is still totally normal (abnormal would be if all of a sudden it took 3 hours to get 10 kicks). But still. I feel like she's messing with me. Already. I'm pretty sure she's gonna be a stinker from the moment she's born - this is mostly due to a dream I had the other night that the minute she was born she started talking and telling me I had bought the wrong kind of formula (which is ironic, as I will be nursing just as I did with Owen).

Anyway... Owen and I are laying low this weekend while Eric runs his first (and I'm hoping last - cause it's just nutty) ultra-marathon on Saturday. That's 50 miles, folks. In ONE race. I don't get it. But we will be wishing him lots of luck and love - Run daddy, run!