The test results came back negative. I’m in the clear. Hooray!!!
Freakiness. Wednesday, September 26, 2007
The baby dropped yesterday. I’m having 2 Braxton’s an hour. That’s a bit too early for comfort so one of the Docs checked me out today. My cervix has lowered and softened (technical term – effaced) BUT I’m not dilated. Now this may be a bit too much info for some, but I had my yearly this Monday and said cervix was high and hard. That was also too much of a change (paired with the contractions) for the Doc to be comfortable with , so she did a test for preterm labor. It’s running stat in the lab and we should have the results by tonight.
Right now, I’m at work (the doc cleared me unless the test says otherwise). Ian’s at his work. We’re playing the waiting game. I am only somewhat freaked out. Even if we get the news we don’t want, they have lovely meds that can put it on hold.
Nope. Not freaked out at all.
Poor Ian. Tuesday, September 25, 2007
My sweet hubby is sick as a dog. He’s been a little under the weather the last few days, but it finally caught him completely last night. He has a head and chest cold with all the accompanying body aches. Because of the crud, he’s also staying home today and working off his laptop. There is OTC medication and it helps a little but he’s feeling pretty miserable right now.
Our friends have a new baby! Sunday, September 23, 2007
Our friends/neighbor’s, Mark & Laurie, had their baby last night! His name is Shaw, he was born at 11:58pm, was 8 pounds even and measured 19.5″ long.
Susan is quite excited to go visit with them, which we’ll do later this afternoon. She and Laurie have been close pregnancy buddies for the past months, so it’ll be a big deal for her to be there.
Congrats to Mark & Laurie!!
Update – We got to see this this afternoon and take a few photos. Susan held Shaw nearly the entire time we were in the room, but she did start the process with “I might break him,” to which they immediately told her she wouldn’t. I didn’t get an opportunity to hold onto him – partly because I’ve got a scratchy throat and partly because Susan wouldn’t give him up! She explained later that she needed more experience. 
The whole time she was holding onto him, Olivia was kicking/punching him! Susan also did a mental disconnect – the baby in her arms was completely different from the baby inside her.
Halfway through the weekend Saturday, September 22, 2007
Its been a fun and productive weekend so far.
Again, Susan’s family brought us the baby’s furniture, so that was a big change. Next, on Friday, they hung the window shades in the nursery that I was having trouble with.
On top of the furniture, we were the recipient of a great deal of clothing for little Olivia. That meant I got to do a ton of little laundry. Despite their tiny size, they took up several loads in the washer. It also took us a tremendous amount of time to fold them/hang them.
Before her parents left us on Friday evening, we loaded up the cut up tree from the front yard. The big pieces went home with them, but the smaller, more reasonable pieces were moved to the back yard for our us in the fire pit. Now we’ll just need to have a fall party to use some of it!
Susan’s brother Matt stayed behind and we stayed home, eating burgers cooked on the grill, enjoying the warm sort-of fall evening.
This morning I made some bacon and eggs for our breakfast. We killed some time, then went out for lunch and some shopping at Target. Upon returning home, we continued doing basically nothing until my family showed up ahead of the Preds game. They got to see all of Olivia’s new stuff, before moving on to the game.
When Matt took off around 7 to pick up his wife at the airport, Susan and I headed out to eat our anniversary dinner. Believe it or not, we didn’t eat at Rosepepper! We satisfied Susan’s sushi craving by going to Samurai on Elliston. Its a tiny place near Vandy (and near the hospital where we’re delivering!) with all of 5 tables and a 7 seat bar. They have basically no kitchen, serving only sushi – no steak or chicken, etc.
Tomorrow we’ll do very little, most likely, but we’ll trade our cards and kisses to celebrate our first anniversary. Pretty amazing to think its only been a year!
Oh – and about our Olive – Susan is pretty confident that she is firmly settled into a head-down position. Ollie has been getting the hiccups pretty often and she can feel her pretty well at that point. The new position has made the “normal” movements in one way, more subdued, but in another, more aggravating. Since her arms are a little more bound, she can’t swing her fists as well. However, with her legs pointed up, Susan’s lungs are prime target.
Olivia has a proper nursery Thursday, September 20, 2007
Thanks to Susan’s family driving up today, we’ve given Olivia a proper nursery, now that it is has furniture!
You can see the photos in our nursery set – we’ve got a crib, a changing table and a dresser of sorts. Since the photos were taken (15 minutes ago), we’ve already done little rearranging. On top of shifting furniture, there will still have to be a good bit of cleaning Ollie’s daddy’s junk out of there…
Oh – and before anyone is tempted to tell us: we know the stuffed animals have to come out of the crib when she goes in. But for right now? Its a great place for them to live.
Finally – 28 week belly Tuesday, September 18, 2007
As someone (or several someones?) pointed out recently, we’ve not shown Susan’s progression in belly growth. That’s mostly because we’ve not actually taken any photos of her progression. We thought we’d be decent, not perfect, but we’ve got next to nothing. I think for the next one we just have to do it daily so we never have a chance to slack off.
Nonetheless, here we are at 28 weeks and 1 day. Olivia seems to be sitting right out on the edge of her belly at the particular moment of the photo. Additionally, Susan could identify, during an Olivia hiccup fest, that she was head down this afternoon.
Susie is somewhat upset over the growth of her abdomen and backside, but is, of course, overjoyed with the product of these growths.
Maybe we’ll have a few more to share before too long, what with Lesha likely coming for a photographic visit.
Mr Bento returns! Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Realizing that I really, really need to begin taking my lunch to work again, I broke out the Mr Bento that I had purchased a few months back. I got it, hoping that the variety of foods that it could carry in addition to the novelty of the item would keep me interested in taking my lunch to work. Yeah… well… that didn’t quite work out.
These two meals were supplemented by a PB&J sandwich, just in case they didn’t fill me up, which I didn’t expect them to do. I enjoyed the meals, though, so its a positive step in the right direction.
Now can I keep it up? I’m batting .500 right now – one day on, one day off over the past 4 work days.
Race for the Cure! Monday, September 17, 2007
Plenty of people are out there looking for donations, but if you’re still looking for a place, my mother is seeking a few nice people on her fund raising page.
Doctor’s appointment Monday, September 17, 2007
We had a quick appointment this morning, fortuitously timed to be right after our weekend child birthing course.
The appointment was to have Susan’s gestational diabetes test. She chugged the flat nehi orange soda sugar water quite quickly. Then we saw the doctor, asking our string of questions, which, for review, are:
- When do we call you?
- Contractions are 5 minutes apart for greater than 1 hour
- Water breaking
- The baby is moving a lot less than normal
- How do we call you?
- The main office number has an answering service!
- C-sections?
- Only in an emergency (which includes a breech baby)
- Forceps or Vacuum
- Only if we really need to and it’d be the vacuum.
- Low blood pressure versus the epidural (The epidural tends to lower it and she is already low!)
- Let the anesthesiologist know when you arrive – they’ll work it out.
- When will we see you in the process?
- She’ll likely let us push without her for a number of hours. Once the nurse says we’re likely within an hour, she’ll be there. (As I like to say – she shows up to catch!)
- Pediatrician recommendations
- We have a list to review
- Which way is the baby sitting right now?
- Can’t say…
- Any more ultrasounds?
- Not unless something goes wrong
So then she broke out the surprising news – we’re going to 2 week visits now! The next OB visit will be with a different doctor in the practice, which will make the third of the four in the office. This way we won’t end up with a stranger catching the baby.
As for the diabetes test, we won’t know the results for a while. Plus, while they were checking that, they are also taking a look at her iron levels, etc.
Susie and I discussed the idea of “rooming in” and we’ve generally decided that we’d like our Olive to stay with us in the room.
Oh – just for everyone’s information: the labor/delivery/recovery room will allow 5 people, but we likely won’t really take guests here. Susan will have 2 hours of recovery post-delivery and Olivia will be gone for a fair amount of this time, hanging out in the nursery.
After the recovery, we’ll move to a room that is a little small, but technically has no limits on the number of, or the time of, guests. The main waiting room is quite comfortable and the nursery is close. From seeing Jay & Steph’s little boy, it seems that they almost always park them in front of a window of their own for the world to see.
Parking for Baptist visitors is the 20th and 21st street garages… you can’t (technically) park in the garage closest to the OB floor. The walk isn’t bad from the garage and its pretty easy to navigate the hospital.
Hockey! And babies! (not combined!) Monday, September 17, 2007
First – hockey.
We won our second game in a row, and the second game of the season. We’re undefeated so far. And not only did we win – we got a shutout win tonight. Its a nice feeling when it all comes together, much like the league organizer thought we’d do.
As I’ve already gushed to my team on our forum, I feel extremely lucky to play with a group of people that get along so well and play for the enjoyment of the game. We lost horribly for a long time, and I imagine we still will, but we’ve never really been “down” about it. On top of all that, playing this team tonight made us realize how bad it could be – their teammates were berating one another on the ice in the middle of a play! We might skate by and say “next time, do this instead” but never the things they were saying!
Okay. Enough hockey for now… if I don’t stop here, I’ll never stop.
On to babies.
We did the “crash course” weekend birthing classes this weekend. I think they were very informative, but I do worry somewhat about my retention level. I suppose I’ll do some reviewing of the materials she gave us, just as a refresher, as we get closer. We didn’t have to watch any videos that were too graphic – the C-section video actually switched to a 3D animation for the procedure. (Mark & Laurie’s video showed the real deal… and Laurie didn’t watch!)
The fun part is that in the first part of the first of the first class, we had to meet another one of the couples in the class, and then (surprise!), introduce them to the class. The couple sitting behind us were quite nice – they’d just moved from New York City 2 months ago so he could do a fellowship at Vandy. They are due just a couple weeks ahead of us, around Thanksgiving.
I think we may have connected a little better than any of the other couples, because we found that at breaks we’d chit-chat a good bit, getting to know more about one another. At the conclusion of today’s class, I offered them our email addresses and told them we’d love to hang out with them if they wanted some company outside of his co-workers. They seemed genuinely excited by the idea, and even more so when we offered to be their “support” people in town since all of their family was so far away.
It was a really fun surprise to be rolled into the class and I hope that we’ll see them again. Being New Yorkers, they are both hockey fans, so they were pleased to hear the “cheap” prices of Preds tickets. They both love sushi and that drove us into a very deep discussion of local choices!
As far our little one goes, we’ve gotten our pre-registration paperwork into the hospital, so that should make things move a little smoother once we go into (active) labor. Ms. Olivia was very unpleasant toward her mother during class today – digging deep into one side of her little room / Susan’s uterus.
We’ve found that she likes to poke my head instead of my hand. (I’ve been listening for her heartbeat unsuccessfully. I don’t think anyone else gets this privilege.)
Moving to other people’s babies – Mark & Laurie are still looking for signs of labor starting, but apparently to no avail. We got to eat dinner with them after our first class. They cooked a lovely meal on the grill and we all sat outside under the stars. It’s become quite nice, if not even a little chillier up here, so that was a pleasant change of pace.
We also got to see Ben and Dru for a little while, at which point we were all reminded that all three couples’ first anniversary are contained in the month of August! They have their’s at the beginning, Susan and I are next (next weekend!) and then the very next week is Mark & Laurie. For their anniversary, they are hoping for a health baby boy to be at home with them.
Alright – I’m at 700 words now… I think that is enough for one (late) night.
My take on Damien Rice. Saturday, September 15, 2007
The man is undiluted awesomeness. I have seen many, many great live performances in my relatively short years and he topped them all. The staging was fairly simple, the lighting well coordinated, and the band was clearly having a good time. Mr. Rice himself would chat with the audience between sets, giving insights into the songs and how they came to be. The highlights for me were: “Cannonball” which was a completely accoustic rendition and so the crowd went utterly silent to hear every last note, “Coconut Skins” and “Older Chests” before each song he explained how it percolated into being and his feelings about the world in general, and finally he closed with “Cheers Darlin”.
He acted it out. Complete with a roadie dressed as a barkeep serving him wine to drown his sorrows. The band was offstage and the music would pipe in at appropriate times. It was half monologue, half song, and in the end Damien went his dejected, rejected way off-stage by a street lamp light in the snow. Genius stuff, that.
So, yeah, I had a reasonable time.
Damien Rice concert Thursday, September 13, 2007
We went, we enjoyed, we took the obligatory cell-phone snap. Susan can tell you more.
(Title here) Thursday, September 13, 2007
Its been quiet around here…
Susan is feeling better these last couple of days – apparently the iron supplements are kicking in and bringing her back in line.
We’ve done some cleaning around the house and finally went grocery shopping. We’re on a kick to try and eat at home a little more again. Hopefully it will help us save a few bucks and teach us to stay home more. We’re also trying to take our lunches to work, saving money there, too. I’ll probably be worse at that than Susan because I’ve gotten into the habit of going with a group of people at work.
Oh! The first C-League hockey game of the season was last Sunday against my co-worker Jay’s (of Hansen Herald fame) team. It was a fantastic way to start the season, playing against a team that is fun to play against, that we know pretty well, and that we beat! We started the game with a pair of goals early in the first, but they came back to tie pretty quickly. The rest of the game continued like that until finally, late in the third, we had a 3 goal lead. By the end of the game, they had closed the gap by one, but the final score was 8 – 6.
If it hadn’t been nearly midnight on a Sunday night (we went on at 10:10pm), I think the two teams would have gone out for a post-game celebration. Its nice being on good terms with other teams…
We’ve got our birthing classes coming up this weekend, so that should be interesting. We’ve heard pretty good stuff about them, so we’re fairly excited. On Monday we’ll go to the doctor for Susan’s glucose test, but no ultrasound. And no – we don’t know when they’ll do another ultrasound.
Tonight we’re going to a concert – Damian Rice – at the Ryman. I know Susan has been looking forward to this for a while, so I’m glad she’s feeling better now.
That’s about it. Next weekend is calm – our wedding anniversary is that Sunday. The weekend after we’ll celebrate her “grandfather’s” birthday, and then, the first weekend of October – baby showers!
Crazy search criteria Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Okay, okay – today I’m finally weirded out, but not by the pregnancy – by the internet!
The blog software keeps up with what search criteria brought someone to our blog, and usually it is simple stuff like “13 week ultrasound” or “kirk family” or something normal like that.
Today, though? “Sue undies off” And yesterday? “Dirty Hospital Examination Room Photos”
Now the second one might be “dirty” as in unclean, so I let that one go. The first one? Yeah – nobody is going to find that here, so please go someplace else.
I have found a new blog to read (I don’t think you’ll like it Sheila, but I could be wrong) and she has a lot more crazy/creepy search terms, so I don’t feel quite as bad.
The amusing part about this post? It will actually increase the likelihood of someone arriving here because of their odd proclivities.
Ok – back to normality.
