Come on Ilyana, you can do it!

Here we are at 38 weeks pregnant and I'm understanding more and more just how much of an understatement it is to say a woman gets "uncomfortable" near the end of pregnancy! Walking (waddling), moving, coughing, laughing, rolling over, it all hurts! My feet and ankles have swollen to monstrous proportions (which sometimes can be a sign of pre-eclampsia, but my blood pressure has been excellent) and they hurt to walk on! At my appointment this morning, my doctor wasn't fond of how swollen my feet were getting so she decided to strip my membranes in hopes that I'll go into labor. Membrane stripping is essentially where the doctor separates the amniotic sack from the wall of the cervix. This can cause the body to release prostaglandins which makes the body go into labor. Membrane stripping is supposedly more effective if the cervix is already somewhat dilated and effaced. Currently I am at 4 cm, "very thin", and Ilyana's head is engaged. Here's to hoping and praying that it works! The good news, if it doesn't work, is that my OB felt very confident that I'll go into labor sometime this week. Of course it's all guess work, but I'm hoping she's right! She also said that once I'm 39 weeks, if I go into labor and go to the hospital they will keep me even if my contractions slow down again. I'm glad, it's pretty disappointing to keep getting sent home with no baby! I've now gone in to the hospital twice with contractions (third times a charm, right?!). I went in again last Thursday morning. I had started having horrible back labor and contractions about 2 minutes apart around 11 pm on Wednesday. I tried laying down, walking around, drinking lots of water, taking a warm bath/shower, and they kept going. Finally we went in around 3 am on Thursday. They were consistently 1.5-2 minutes apart, pain to the point that I couldn't help but cry through them, we were sure that this had to be the real deal! We got there and I was dilated to 4 cm but her head wasn't engaged so they had me walk around for a few hours in hopes that my water would break, but instead, after an hour or so the contractions started to slow down, yet again. They checked me again before I left and said that her head did engage during that time though. So basically I keep going into early labor and having it stop (the nurse said it's not considered false labor since the contractions are causing me to progress).

In other exciting news, our house is coming along quickly! All of the walls are up, the electrician was in the other day, the plummer should be in this week, and we got to pick out all the colors, flooring, counters, etc. the other day! It was so much fun! Assuming everything stays on track, they are hoping to have it completed in April! We are so excited to be moved in to our new house!

Information about Ilyana:
EDD: February 27th (11 days)

How mom is feeling: Uncomfortable. Come on Ilyana, you can do it!

How dad is feeling: Excited for Ilyana to be out and for baby snuggles! And sad that Ash is so uncomfortable all the time!

Stalled labor

As many of you probably know, I went in to labor last night only to have it stall after about 10 hours of labor. Here's a timeline of what happened:

February 3rd:
11:30 a.m. -had an OB appointment, dilated 2 cm.

9:30 p.m. -started having and timing regular contractions about 10 minutes apart lasting 30 seconds.

11:30 p.m. -contractions had picked up to about every 3-5 minutes, getting somewhat painful, tried both laying down and walking around, nothing made them slow down/ease up.
-Called the hospital and was advised to continue timing contractions and call back around 2 am if they continued.

February 4th
12:30 a.m. -contractions consistently 2 minutes apart, 30 seconds long, couldn't talk or move through them.

1:45 a.m.- finished packing the bag and headed to the hospital.

2:15 a.m. -cervix dilated to 3 cm. but still thick and head not engaged. Advised to walk to see if I continue to progress.

3:00 a.m. -Still at 3 cm. but 90% effaced and head engaged (-2 station). Admitted to hospital. Contractions still strong and consistent.

5:00ish a.m.- contractions starting to slow to about 4 minutes apart, still unpleasant but not as painful.

10:00 a.m. -contractions continue to slow to about every 15 minutes. cervical check shows little change.

12:30 a.m. -Dilated to 4 cm. but contractions have mostly stopped. Decided to go home to wait for labor to start up again.


So basically they explained that it seems like my uterus is ready to be in labor but is struggling to keep the momentum going. At this point we are just waiting for the contractions to pick up again and once they are strong and consistent we'll head back in to the hospital to hopefully have this baby!

We are obviously disappointed to have everything come to a halt, however, we were both exhausted and I was feeling extremely nauseated from being so hungry so this is definitely a good opportunity to refuel and gear up for labor to start again. I was also reminded that my cervix isn't going to regress so at least I've gotten almost half of the dilating done!

I'll keep everyone updated!

Soon!

We've made it to 9 months, 36 weeks! I meant to write this post yesterday but got distracted cleaning all day... can you say nesting??? But really, it sounds like miss Ilyana will be making her grand debut soon! I had an appointment today and the doctor was surprised to find that I was dilated 2 centimeters! She said there is no way to predict when exactly I will go into labor, but to not go on any long car rides and she highly doubts that I will go overdue. Jake and I are so ready and excited to meet our little girl so we are ecstatic about this news! I went and did some walking today (and used a pedicure gift card afterwards!) to hopefully keep things moving along. I talked to my mom a little bit today and she said that once she was actually in labor (she went 2 weeks over with both my brother and I! Yikes!), things progressed pretty quick, so we are hoping and praying that I will be the same (except sooner!). Miss Ilyana should now be about 18.6 inches and 5.8 pounds, about the size of a head of romaine lettuce. She continues to keep her foot lodged under one of my ribs, which, by the way, feels bruised at this point! Her head is down and in position and she is just packing on the pounds (about an ounce a day) until she makes her highly anticipated entrance.
As promised last week, here is a tour of Ilyana's room! Enjoy!

Information about Ilyana:

EDD: February 27th (24 days)

How mom's feeling: LOTS of pressure from her pushing down. Ready to meet my baby girl!

How dad's feeling: Having nightly chats with Ilyana about coming out soon!