Waiting Game

Monday at my 38weeks, 4 days appointment my blood pressure continued to be high so I was sent over to the labor floor for monitoring. Baby looked amazing, lab work looked great, and my blood pressure eventually came down. However, with its tendency to trend upwards lately and with the amount of swelling in my ankles (SICK!) I was put on bedrest until delivery. Bedrest as in you can potty, you can make a sandwich, and you can walk from couch to bed. It hasn't been easy and I will admit I haven't been the most compliant patient 100% of the time (doctors... and med students... make the worst patients, remember), BUT my blood pressure was much better on Thursday and the swelling in my ankles and legs has gone down so much that you can actually see my lateral and medial malleolus in my ankles again!

Mom got here Saturday and it has been so, so wonderful to have her here. I always thought when I was little that when I became an "adult" I wouldn't need as much "mom-ing" and would be fiercely independent. However, I think the older I get the more I realize I love being "mom'd" and sometimes being DEpendent is okay and kind of necessary. I hope baby boy feels that way about me for a really long time, and I hope I can be that for him.

I haven't been sleeping well lately. Brian and I had been moving all around the house with our sleeping arrangements because it seemed like anytime we would change scenery I would sleep well again! Our rotations include our bed, an air mattress in the living room we set up, and the couches in the living room right next to each other :) (Yes, he always moves to where I am to be next to me. Amazing much?) At first I was just super uncomfortable and think that's why I couldn't sleep well, but now I think it's just the sheer "forces of universe getting you ready for having a baby" thing. I pretty commonly go to sleep at midnight, wake up about 2, again around 4:30, then either lay there or nod off until 6 when I finally get up and call it quits for the night. Weirdly I'm not tired during the day, really... and I'm definitely an 8hrs a night person. Maybe this is a change of season in my sleeping necessities, which by all means would be very helpful here soon!

[Quick aside: Can you tell I'm bored?]

Baby's last load of laundry is done and he is now the proud owner of the most precious cowboy boots and crocheted converse sneakers (yes, crocheted by a lady at church!) I have ever seen. His room is all set up and ready to go, we have mirrors for tummy time, diapers & more wipes than I knew you could have at once (we received a mother load yesterday), and mostly a lot of love to give and a VERY anxious Daddy-to-be who keeps trying to convince him to come out and play and he would be SO much more comfortable and have tons of room here on the outside!

I've had on and off minor contractions for a couple of weeks now, but they have really picked up yesterday and this morning. I'm hoping that means we are moving FORWARD! Sometimes I wonder how your body is supposed to know how to do all this delivery of a human being stuff. Have you ever thought about that? It blows my mind. God's plan and craftsmanship of us is really amazing.

Brian's dreams of cravings finally came true a couple of weeks ago. He always wanted me to have the stereotypical pregnancy cravings of something like pickles & ice cream. Not necessarily pickles and ice cream specifically... just something that was totally outrageous and that I'd have to have an inner battle with myself about. i.e. "I want this, but I HATE this. I don't understand!" So the other day... he got his wish. I wanted a tomato. I don't like tomatoes at all, not even a little. I like ketchup- but HATE tomatoes. I pick them off my salad and dry off the leaf it was on; if it was on a hamburger or sandwich bun, the bread is completely unsalvageable because the juice has soaked into the bread. But for some reason on this day, I just CRAVED a wedge of tomato. Not a slice... a wedge. With the seeds on top. I know. It was a huge inner battle and I struggled for several days til we already had a tomato that Brian was cutting up for omlettes and he offered (let's be honest... there was a lot in it for him watching my inner battle, he was not just being nice!) to cut me a wedge. So I took it, and I salted it, and I ate it. And it tasted like everything I'd hoped it would. I would never wish the inner battle of craving on anyone though, it just defies everything you know!

He also has been searching for opportune times to tell me I'm nesting... he has always wanted me to be a nester in the later parts of pregnancy. To be honest- I really truly haven't been. He calls picking up after myself nesting... but um, that's just trying to be a big girl and having more time than usual. HOWEVER... this morning after my laying in bed from 4:30am-6am stent, I decided to get up and get on with the program because it was silly to keep laying there wide-eyed. I got up and IMMEDIATELY had a sense of things needing to get done. However... my nesting instinct this morning was not your normal "About to be a mother" or even "About to be a FIRST time mother" instinct. It wasn't even a "Good wife" instinct. It was a medical student instinct. My nesting was completely 100% geared around med school organization. I filled out clinical rotation forms, emailed all kinds of advisors and program administrators, looked up ACGME numbers, figured out how to print a list of all the residencies in our given specialties, and so on. It was outrageous. I've been putting these things off for a while and hadn't even thought of them, but this morning- it had to be done!! Lucky for me Med School Nesting coexists pretty well with Bedrest. :)

Doctor's appointment today (39weeks, 4 days) and due date is on Thursday! We will know more today after our appointment.

And there you have it:

The waiting game.

Baby Watch 2012.

Extreme Eviction.

Operation Get Him Out.