Spread The Love - Find A Cure

Someone I love is in the midst of breast cancer treatments and will be undergoing surgery in the next week for a metastasized brain tumor. Please pray for her and her two beautiful daughters and for every woman afflicted with this terrible disease. If you have the time and means please donate to a very important cause, The Susan G. Komen Foundation. It's easy to donate. You can do in online, through a text or by mail. Every little bit helps!

Spread The Word!

I feel that it is my calling to spread the word (at least my calling for the day) that pregnancy does in fact last 9 months, not 10! Before getting pregnant I saw posts from women all over the internet making the claim that pregnancy is actually 10 months. At the time I didn't think much of their poor math skills and just continued on with my merry life. Now that I am pregnant and have way too much time on my hands I find this idea to be more and more irritating. So here it is. I know it's complex, but I'm sure you all can follow me.

Pregnancy = 9 months

Think of it like birthdays. When a baby is born how old is it? Is it zero or is it one? Your answer should be zero. As odd as it is to think of a newborn being "zero" that is in fact what it is. The baby has entered its first year of life. It is working on becoming "one." The baby will only be considered one year old once it has completed one full year of life. On the baby's first birthday it will officially be one year old and starting it's second year of life. Just because it has started it's second year doesn't mean you would say that baby is two years old would you? I hope not.

Pregnancy is very similar. I will use myself as an example. I found out that I was pregnant at 3 weeks 5 days. In terms of months how far along was I? Zero! I was working on (or in) my first month. I was not officially one month until the following week (some time around 4.5 weeks). At 4.5 weeks I could officially say I was 1 month along and in my second month. So how many months was I? One or two? Correct answer? One. Still with me?

Fast forward to now. I am 30 weeks 3 days. Let's figure out how many months I am shall we. Month 6 starts at 22 weeks 2 days and ends at 26 weeks 5 days. Month 7 starts at 26 weeks 6 days and ends 32 weeks 1(or 2) days. So this big question: Am I 6 or 7 months. Let's think about it for a minute....

Correct answer is....

6 Months!! If month 7 doesn't end until the the 32nd week then I have clearly not completed 7 entire months. I have completed 6 months plus a big portion of the the 7th month. Therefore, I am only working on (or in) my 7th month. At approximately 32 weeks I will officially be 7 months along and working on (or in) my 8th month. Around 36 weeks I will officially be 8 months and working on (or in) my 9th month. I will not officially be 9 months until my due date.

Just like how right now I am 28 years old and am working on (or in) my 29th year. I can't go around saying I'm 29 years old just because I'm in my 29th year can I? Well, I guess I could, no one would arrest me, but it would be really weird if I did, because I'm not 29, I'm 28. In the same way I shouldn't go around telling people I'm 7 months just because I'm in my 7th month. Make sense? If not here's a little math to help out.

Most people with the 10 month misconception are operating under some faulty logic/math. The assumption with the 10 month theorists is that there are 40 weeks in a pregnancy (Correct!). Then that there are 4 weeks in a month (Incorrect! - except for February). The math then looks like this:

40 (weeks in a pregnancy)/4 (weeks in a month) = 10 (months) Simple right?? Sure, if there were in fact only 4 weeks in every month then we would in fact pregnant for 10 months. Unfortunately the math isn't that simple. Let's break it down.

There are 365 days in a year. That comes out to 51.177 weeks in a year. To find out how many weeks are in a month we divided that number by 12 (months).

51.117/12=4.4<----- the magic number!! There are an average of 4.4 weeks in a month, not an even four weeks! If you need a brain break go ahead and take one. I hate math, but I swear this is important!

Ok, ready to keep going? Good!

With our new number let's try that equation again:

40 (weeks in a pregnancy) / 4.4 (weeks in a month) = 9 months!!

Whew!! Glad that's over! So spread the word!! Pregnancy is more or less (frequently less) 9 months, not 10! No matter how you count it!

My civic duty is done for the day!

30 Week Survey

How far along: 30 weeks. Whoohoo, out of the 20's!!!!

Total weight gain/loss: +20lbs :( When the nurse weighed me yesterday I must have made a face (or I may have groaned) because she said "It's all baby honey! Don't worry!" God, I hope that's not all baby!! I mean, I'm no medical professional, but I'm pretty sure the baby is only about 3lbs, then there's a few pounds for the uterus, amniotic fluid, placenta and breast tissue. The rest? The pregnancy books like to call it "maternal stores." As if that makes it sound prettier. What do I call it? Fat! Thank you baby!

Maternity clothes: Yes, definitely.

Stretch marks: Still nothing yet. I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

Sleep: the combination of trips to the bathroom, intense back pain, round ligament pain, and contractions doesn't make for a very restful night. To add to that, I have now started waking up with an insanely stuffy nose and a dry mouth. Turns out this isn't a lot of fun.

Best moment this week: Eating that delicious grilled chicken sandwich. Mmmmmm! Oh! Also my iced decaf caramel macchiato - Heaven!

Movement: Yes, and lots of it. He's quite the little spaz.

Food cravings: I want Chili!

Gender: Boy

Labor Signs: Unfortunately, many contractions, all the freaking time. Thus, the bed rest.

Belly Button in or out: I think it's in belly button limbo. The top half is kind of poking out and the bottom half is still very much in.

What I miss: Walking without pain and regular coffee.

What I am looking forward to: Another week with my little man safe and sound inside my belly.

Other Updates: I went to the OB yesterday and she did another exam and fetal fibronectin test. All looks good. The test came back negative which means we have at least another two weeks. Yay!

Four Weeks and a New Dress

Today marks four whole weeks of bed rest. Who knew it could be done? Seriously if you think it's easy, just try one week of bed rest and then get back to me. That's not to say that it's the worst thing in the world, it certainly could be worse, but the loss of muscle, back/neck/shoulder/everything pain combined with sheer boredom is no walk in the park. Over the past four weeks I've logged countless hours online, become intimately connected to my T.V. (turns out A Baby Story will make me cry every. single. time. - go figure!) and have somehow avoided reading all of my childbirth and parenting books (whoops!).

It hasn't all been bad though. I do get to sleep in every day, I have sole control of the remote, and I have frequent visitors. Turns out being the Queen of Bed Rest makes you semi-popular. Today my lovely church lady friend brought me the most delicious grilled chicken sandwich on a croissant, some decaf iced tea and a mini eclair! Then as if that wasn't nice enough she vacuumed!! I am so thankful for how supportive everyone in my life has been. The phone calls and visits have helped prevent me from losing my mind. It has been an amazing four weeks of discovery and love. Husband has stepped up and taken care of everything. After twelve hours of work he comes home and either helps me finish make dinner or makes it himself. He cleans up the messes, takes care of Mr. Chatner, then continues to do work on the computer. Plus he always finds time to give me a kiss and hug. How great is he?!? Aww, I got all mushy on you.

Today it really hit me how much my life has changed in the last four weeks. One day I was preparing to go in to work and being told I had to go to labor and delivery instead and the next I was taken out of work and put on bed rest. That day I was sure I would go in and they would send me home telling me I was just overreacting to Braxton Hicks contractions. No such luck. I went from going to work every day to be stuck on the couch and watching Dr. Phil. How did I start watching Dr. Phil?? I can't stand him! Or least I couldn't stand him... Today the clock struck 3:00pm and I actually raced (as much as a pregnant bed rest lady can) to the remote because God forbid I miss the McGraw grandbaby making her television debut. (OMG so freaking adorable!) How did I get here? So sad.

I've also developed a serious online *window* shopping addiction. My latest obsession has been maternity dresses. Although I think maternity fashion has greatly improved over the years, for some reason maternity dresses have not. Unless I wanted to pay $75+ for a dress I was only going to wear a few times, it seemed I was going to be stuck in a frumpy colorless sack for my baby showers. Finally I turned to ebay. I usually don't like trusting ebay sellers when it comes to clothing, but since I'm stuck on bed rest it's not like I can spend time looking in the stores anyway. After a month of searching I found this:


Pretty, no? It came today and fits very nicely. It's a hand-dyed silk dress by Japanese Weekend. Their dresses normally retail for $75+ and I got it for $25, quite the steal! I still have my black belt in shopping!

Nursery Progress

If you are expecting some pictures of a a half-finished nursery you're out of luck. Let's not forget I'm on bed rest here. In fact, if I were to take a picture of the "nursery" now you would see a room full of boxes and a litter box. So for now all of the progress is in my head. Really that's half the battle though. Without planning, baby blue would end up sleeping in one of the boxes. Hey, if it's good enough for Mr Chatner...

Here's what I have so far:

We will be using my old crib by Jenny Lind. The plan is to sand it and paint it yellow, either light yellow like this Land of Nod design


or a more vibrant yellow like this one found on the design site ohbeedoh


For the bedding we (my mom) will be making a set inspired by this fabric


And for the wall I think we will be using this decal from etsy seller PopVinylStudio



with the owl and branch in blue and the leaves either in green or yellow and obviously not the name "Lucas Henry" underneath.

So there you have it, a sort of plan. Now how to get it all done in the next six or seven weeks? Looks like Husband has some work ahead of him. :)

525,600 Contractions...

How do you measure, measure my life?

Sorry, only my readers who are familiar with the musical "Rent" will get that reference, but still I think it gets across the point. I may not have had 525,600 contractions, but I sure have had a lot and this morning was no exception.

Yesterday I went on a little adventure (approved by the doctor) and unfortunately may have overdone it. Husband had to run a few errands so I decided to go with him. Most of my time was spent sitting in the car except for a quick trip into Target to pick out a swim suit (boy do I look funny in a bikini) and then what should have been a quick trip into AT&T Mobility to get Husband a new phone. This was where everything turned to crap. Long story short, I ended up having to stand there for about 45 minutes (no chairs in the whole freaking store) while the ditz behind the counter fumbled around with my phone because somehow, inexplicably, the computer switched my SIM card with Husbands. She said it was no big deal and gave me a new SIM card, but when she did that she lost over half of my numbers. After a solid half hour of her fumbling around I told her I was done, to give me the phone and I was leaving. How do I go into a store to get Husband a new phone and end up leaving with mine all jacked up? Lame.

Needless to say, I was pretty pissed and evidently so was my uterus because it's been complaining ever since. This morning I woke up at 5:30 with regular contractions, every 2-5 minutes. Normally, although I feel a little concerned, I am able to brush them off because I know that I had a negative fetal fibronectin and they don't hurt. This time they were accompanied by some pretty uncomfortable cramping. After about 2.5 hours of this I finally decided to call my doctor just to see if I should worry. Unfortunately my doctor was not available so I had to talk with the on-call doctor who I can't stand. Let's just say she's incredibly flighty and the last time I dealt with her she completely brushed me off. This time was no different.

She said that because the fFN was negative I would not go in to labor and that the contractions are fine as long as they aren't changing my cervix. Right... and how am I supposed to know if they are changing my cervix or not?? Check it myself?!?! She told me I could take the Procardia (contraction med) if I wanted to ease my mind, but that was about it. WTF?? I'm not taking Procardia just to make my fears go away! I only want to take it if it is medically necessary. The last time I took Procardia I ended up in the hospital with a terrible reaction (which she knew about).

Then the best part, she actually laughed and said something about how this is my first pregnancy and it will all pass, soon it will all be a distant memory. WTF?? I get that this is all very routine for you, but it's not for me! Don't treat me like I'm some sort of overly paranoid first-timer either. I'm not calling about Braxton Hicks here! These are contractions that are regular and painful and that's NOT NORMAL! At least it's not normal for a regular person. Maybe this is just my lot in life and that IS normal for me and I am actually fine. I don't know. It sure would be nice if someone would tell me, wouldn't it?

Ultimately I decided to wait it out and go to labor and delivery if the contractions didn't ease up. Fortunately they have calmed down considerably and although I'm still feeling crampy I think I'm just going to continue to rest at home. Apparently this is just all one big guessing game. Fun isn't it?

In case you were curious about the Rent reference at the beginning of this post... Seasons of Love from the musical Rent:



Brings me back to high school.

29 Week Survey

How far along: 29 weeks exactly

Total weight gain/loss: +18lbs, at the last doctor appointment. I try not to weigh myself at home so we'll have to wait and see if I've gained anything.

Maternity clothes: Yes, definitely. I can still fit in to some of my regular tops and even my old workout pants though. I'm searching for a nice maternity dress, but I'm beginning to suspect that might actually be an oxymoron. Nice maternity dresses don't exist. I might be better off wearing a potato sack.

Stretch marks: Not yet. I suspect I'll make it a few more weeks and the, wham! Just when I think I'm not going to get any there they'll be, like nasty little purple worms all over my belly.

Sleep: the combination of trips to the bathroom, intense back pain, round ligament pain, and contractions doesn't make for a very restful night. To add to that, I have now started waking up with an insanely stuffy nose and a dry mouth. Turns out this isn't a lot of fun.

Best moment this week: Maybe when Husband came home last night. Friday nights are always nice.

Movement: Yes, and lots of it. He's quite the little spaz.

Food cravings: Nope. None.

Gender: Boy

Labor Signs: Unfortunately, many contractions, all the freaking time. Thus, the bed rest.

Belly Button in or out: Still in. It's getting there though. I have a feeling that within the next few weeks it will at least be flat.

What I miss: The ability to do things for myself, like hmmm, maybe unpacking my own boxes!

What I am looking forward to: Hopefully we'll be sitting by the pool this weekend. Very relaxing!

Other Updates: None.