40 weeks plus 4 days

i had my first ever acupuncture treatment today. my doula, roxanne, explained her needles were "friendly" and that they weren't anything like medical needles. and true to her word, they weren't as bad as i had anticipated. doesn't mean i wasn't sweating buckets during the treatment session...i just sweated less than normal :P over a 1/2 hr session, she manipulated the needles every 5 minutes to stimulate the energy through my body, and to assist with inducing labour. apparently some ppl respond well to just one treatment, but some ppl need 3-4 sessions. we'll see what happens with me...

we're also ramping up our appointments with the midwife. i really don't want to be preggers past monday...my bh contractions are getting more frequent, and my back is killing me today. they've got a few more tricks up their sleeves that we'll try over the upcoming weekend. we also talked about potential induction :P i was really hoping to avoid drugs...asides from the gbs antibiotics...but if baby hasn't arrived by monday, then we'll have to do whatever it takes to get him out.

my anxiety is also growing...if we let baby continue on to 42 weeks, i'm scared how big he could get! i only gained 1/2 pound this past week, and my stomach hasn't gotten any bigger, so hopefully that's a good sign. mind you, i'm feeling kind of whale-ish, and i've noticed some mild swelling in my hands and feet :P i've been told to relax and not think about pregnancy/labour, and once i do that, perhaps labour will start. ha! easier said than done :-)

graduation day!

so, chris' wish came true. all he wanted was for baby to hold off until after the PADS 2008 graduation ceremony. on sunday, much to everyone's surprise, we attended the ceremony at michael j. fox theatre! it was fantastic to see so many graduating teams and breeding girls. it's still a bit early for some of my puppysitting pups to be graduating. the only graduating dog we puppysat was leon...he's been paired with a professor at ubc :-) on another happy note, we puppysat buster for a weekend or two, and he's moved on to a career as a detection dog!

what a great afternoon to celebrate the dogs, staff, volunteers and clients of PADS!

what overdue looks like...

week 40...still no baby

argh. the frustration of the waiting game. this is really testing my patience...which i currently have none of :P it's officially week 40 today, and i'm in pain. when my midwife suggested walking more to encourage baby to "drop", i might've taken it to the extreme yesterday. i went to the pool and walked in the shallow end for 30 minutes, i also had errands to run at lougheed and metrotown malls, which took me from the far ends of the malls both times :P so needless to say i'm definitely feeling pain today. i've already been out-and-about this a.m. running more errands, and now i'm gonna chillax for the remainder of the day....2 more hours till naptime!

the latest baby development is that he's managed to turn around in my belly. his arms/legs used to be on the right side of my belly, but due to my fall on sunday, his limbs are now pushing on my left side. it's definitely making sleep a lot harder to do. that, and the pressure on my pelvis is ridiculous!

anyhoo...back to reading my baby books.

is this bun done?

september 23, 2008 - today is the 1st possible due date we were told by a doctor. we were also told september 24, 25 and 26. since due dates aren't indicative of very much, we didn't even ask for the exact dating from our 1st ultrasound. oh well. can't do anything about it now :P

the hospital bag is packed, i have my labour food and drinks ready to go, the carseat has been installed and bcaa-approved, crib and basinette are ready, and our doula is on standby for us. boredom has definitely taken over this week for me. i've got nothing left to do but wait. and read more books. and wonder when baby will arrive. it's maddening i tell ya! on the upside, if baby holds off until next week, chris and i can attend the PADS graduation ceremony this weekend :-)

the only thing we aren't prepared for is naming our child. we've narrowed it down to 5 first names and 4 middle names. i had hoped to eliminate a few names before baby boy arrives, but i don't think that's going to happen.

well, i'm off to watch more tv...

the doctors

with all my "free time", i've found a new show to watch...the doctors. i've flipped past it before, but today the topic caught my attention - postpartum depression. also, one of the doctors on the show is dr. jim sears...the sears family are well-known for their baby books (which i haven't read). anyways, they featured a woman currently suffering from ppd, and her child is already 2 years old! they described the symptoms and what some common remedies are for ppd. i think i'm fortunate enough to have a great support system in place that if i do suffer at all, i have enough ppl around me to get me through any potential disasters. the woman featured was now a single-mother...her marriage crumbled because of ppd. so sad. i've fast-forwarded through the week and there are a few more baby/mother-related topics that i'm interested in...very cool.

just what i need...more tele to watch :P

oy...that was a close call!

good lord. i just keep getting clumsier. today was definitely the worst that i could do. after parking at coquitlam centre i hopped out of my car, stepped down from the curb where i tripped over a speedbump and fell down :P of course, my only thought was for the baby, so i braced myself and scraped my knees pretty bad. it all happened so fast, and i was in the middle of traffic so i couldn't remember if i hit my belly or not. there were a few drivers who stopped to ask if i was ok, and asides from my throbbing knees, i thought i was fine.

less than an hour later i was back home and on the phone w/my midwife, concerned about the baby. it was probably just paranoia, but i thought my belly was hurting more than normal (baby had been very active this a.m.). anyways, my 2 options were a non-stress test at the hospital (but i'd have to wait at least an hour or two since they were busy), or get a quick check-up with my midwife at the clinic right away. i went for option 2. 15 minutes later she felt around my belly, but since my stomach was still "soft" and i didn't have any roadrash on it, nor did i experience any bleeding, she gave me a clean bill of health. she also listened to baby's heartbeat for a minute and reassured me that he was A-OK :-)

now i just have 2 swollen and scraped knees, and i've jarred my lower back even more. this baby better come soon...i don't know how much more pain i can endure :P

dinner and some dreams

this past week, chris and i celebrated our 3-year anniversary :-) so on friday night we headed out for dinner at morton's...somewhere we've always wanted to try but never got to. i happened to be on their website during the day and i found a coupon for dinner for 2 for $119. we chowed down on salads, steaks, seafood and dessert...definitely worth every penny! the previous weekend we took chris' parents out for dinner at hy's, since they've never eaten there before. we're just touring all the great steak joints :-) i'm sure my iron levels are through the roof now!

on a funny note, a lot of people have been dreaming about me lately. in the past week, sharon and priscilla both dreamt that i had the baby already. and chris keeps waking up and asking me "is it time?!?!". last night he woke up from 2 separate dreams...the first he thought it was time to go to the hospital; the second he woke up thinking my water had broken :P ironically enough, i haven't had any dreams about the baby...at least none that i remember. perhaps baby isn't coming as soon as i had hoped for :-(

meanwhile, the bh contractions continue...

2nd baby shower

over the labour day weekend, the girls hosted my baby shower with friends and a few family members. i'm not a big fan of "shower" games, but i have to admit that i did enjoy the games this time. the first game was to figure out what the baby animals were called (i.e., kangaroo & joey)...i called them all calfs :-) so much for my animal planet knowledge! the second game was 2 versions of scattergories...coming up with baby-related items that start with t-r-a-c-e-y...and then coming up with baby names that start with c-h-r-i-s-t-o-p-h-e-r. unfortunately the name-game didn't inspire any potentials for baby lok...

this past week we've made a lot of progress at home. i set up the 5-in-1 basinette, chris and my dad set up the crib, we've got a few meals frozen for post-baby, i've even done a little baking for when we have visitors over, and our bags are sort of packed for the hospital.

now, all i can do is wait. and wait. and wait.

catching up

wow, we had a lot going on awhile back that i haven't posted about yet.

back in august, we puppysat caber for the weekend of the PADS fundraising walk. chris and i both fell in love with this guy, and if we could've raised him, we would've. but alas, his destiny lies in calgary where he's being raised now. he'll be back in vancouver eventually...PADS does their assessments and advanced training here :-)

we also puppysat jolie for a day. wow, what a handful she was...thank goodness we didn't have her any longer! we took her to milestone's for dinner, and she kept on running out from under the table...she even barked on two occasions! we've never had a dog do that before :P

and now we're dogless. we keep discussing raising a dog again, and i know PADS would love us to return as raisers, but we have to remind ourselves to wait and see how we manage with our little baby. even though we've had holly, caber and jolie recently, we really miss having a furry friend around 24/7. i think once we get into a routine with the baby, we'll resume our puppysitting. at least it's only for a weekend and we'll be able to see how we manage. after that, who knows :-)