Follow up weigh in...

Next week I will actually count my Wednesday weigh in because I'm going to stay ON PROGRAM and actually lose some of this weight! Good news, is that I am down 1 lb. Still 7 lbs to go before the wedding. Eek. Need to get serious.

I think I am going to join a gym this week. Just trying to decide between two of them. The one I used to go to is $19 a month for the basis membership (no classes) but is charging a $49 registration fee which is crap as far as I'm concerned. There is another one in town that is only $20, no registration fee and that includes all the classes. Sounds like a no brainer, but most of my friends go to the other one. I'm going to see if they will give me the same deal. Can't hurt to ask.

I also just had someone give me a quote for house cleaning. I am sick of this place being a disaster, and I just don't have the time or energy to get to the real deep down cleaning. It takes so long to just get the clutter up and not enough time to get to everything else. Just have to convince John, but I think it will be worth it.

Going out tonight to the beach club for our first adult event there...we've never been to any of the dinner & dancing parties. We are going with a friends who are also members and part of my playgroup. Hoping for a fun night out.

Ok, so that's it from here....see you on Wednesday unless I need to blog to stop eating before then.

Wednesday Weigh In

I had my knee appointment Monday, no more rehab for me. Doctor didn't think it was necessary, said I just need to build up slowly, ice after exercise if I feel anything at all so it doesn't get super inflammed again. But since it appears that one of my "bursa" is not a happy one, I think I will stay away from running. Which makes me a little sad. I see all of these other people who are able to do it and I wish I could too. The doctor said some people are just good at somethings, and not so good at others. He compared it to runners in Africa, saying people from West Africa have never run a marathon because that is no what their body type is good for, they are the sprinters whereas people from East Africa are shorter and thinner and can handle the marathons. So I'm back to walking, although not sure how far I can go yet.

And then there is the diet. I am sort of bummed today. No loss. No gain. I really thought I would have a loss today. I think I will weigh in again Friday to see if I can get myself a loss for the week. Does this mean I'm changing my weigh in to Friday? No it's more of an accountability gain I'm playing with myself. If nothing else it makes me stay on track for another two days. I have an awful habit of chowing down on weigh in day since I have a week to be good....which is probably really hampering my weight loss.

I almost have another reason to lose weight, other than my own personal health and satisfaction. This is our 5th Year Wedding Anniversary...where has the time gone? Wouldn't it be nice to be the same weight as when I got married? Ok, well that isn't going to quite happen by our anniversary but I can be on the way. But we are also seriously considering a trip to the caribbean for December. There are some great prices. Do you think if I tell John I promise to lose 25 lbs if we book the trip he'd do it :)?

My minigoal is 8 more lbs by August 13th, and total loss of 25 by December. Which is more than doable.

So still 8 lbs to lose to my mini goal....can I say only 6 lbs to lose on Friday? Keeping fingers crossed and my mouth duct taped shut!

Friday check in

Aren't I being so accountable? Maybe this means I'm actually serious about this. Oh wait, if I was actually serious about losing weight I wouldn't eat this many cookies.

A few other updates...I had my last "rehab" session yesterday. Yes, John calls it rehab. I told him I really don't think I need to go to rehab, there are two of my favorite bottles of wine sitting on the counter that I haven't even touched...yet! But it is Friday, so one of those will be going into the fridge soon. :).

Back to rehab....the knee is doing well. But definitely not 100%. I admit I don't do my exercises quite as often as I should, but it's hard. Combine this miserable heat with 2 little monsters who crawl all over me when I try to do them....and who wants to do leg exercises at 9:30 at night? But I'm getting there. I go see the doc on Monday, but the physical therapist thinks it would be good for me to come once a week for a few more weeks, and I don't disagree. She had me do some leg raises with the machine and I could barely lift the 1 lb weight....but I did make it all the way around the block last night without feeling any twinges of pain so that is a very good sign.

Well, my kids are playing in the back by themselves so I should probably go check on them. But there is no screaming and no fighting so sometimes I think it's better to just let them play. They fight more when we are around. And Molly will report in if Jack is doing something dangerous, or has done something to him.

John: Molly why is Jack crying?
Molly: Daddy, I didn't even bite him!
Jack: (pointing to his arm) Boo Boo. boo boo.
John: Jack, did Molly bite you?
Molly: I didn't bite his arm. I bit his face.

And good news on the diet front...I am back to the same weight I was last week so I am happy about that. Just means I need to buckle down and hope for a 2+ loss this week. 5 weeks to my cousins wedding and 8 lbs to lose. It would really help if I could workout.

Weigh In Week 2

Let's just say the long holiday weekend was disasterous for a diet.

Trying to regroup and stay away from the cookies, which I was not successful at yesterday. And is it bad to blame the heat for my eating? It's all about convenience and what is available right now....I'll report in on Friday with an update.

Weigh In

Weigh in will be every Wednesday morning. When I first started WW on my own it was February 2001, just after my mother's wedding and before Vicky and Rich's wedding. The pictures came back from my mom's and it was a big wake up call....didn't want to ruin Vicky's wedding pictures so I lost 30 lbs before her big day....

I mention this now because the teacher I went to Chicago with for my conference in May sent me the pictures. I don't think I need to elaborate....

For some reason I just haven't been able to committ to WW. Which is tough for me because I know it does work if you follow the program. I was a monthly member for over a year and woudl go for a few weeks, life would get busy and I'd stop going....start again, etc. In May I finally stopped my membership. It was a waste of money and if being a member isn't holding me accountable like I thought it would, why belong?

Last Wednesday, after the Chicago photo trauma, I found a few excel sheets that keep track of weight. I have a few weight trackers left over from my meetings I did attend and I am going to go it alone again. If I could lose 45 lbs on my own once, I should be able to lose 15? Right?

Today was Weigh In #1.............

Down 2 lbs! Woohoo! Nothing like a good loss to get me motivated to eat right and stay away from the cookies.

Maybe I will try blogging instead of eating.

On the sidelines

Bummer. Running didn't seem to work out so well for me. After my last post, which sounds so incredibly positive, the pain in my knee increased to the point that John wanted to take me to the emergency room. I was crying, I could barely walk...in fact I could barely sit. It was Sunday, so I took some paid meds left over from one of my surgeries coupled with more ibuprofen and was finally able to get some rest. I called the Orthopedic in the morning for some xrays. Good news: no break or torn ligaments. Bad news: Bursitis/Tendonitis and 4-6 weeks of PT.

I have one week left of PT now and my knee feels good. Everyday tasks are easy, I can get up and down the stairs with no pain. Next task is to start walking long distance again....

And what to do about running? Honestly I'm not sure. I LOVED the feeling of running. I loved the way it made me feel, I love the sense of accomplishment. But I don't have time to be injured. With two little ones to take care of, an injured Mommy is not part of the plan. So I think I'm going to stick to walking. Now to to get out there and actually do the walking....

That being said, I'm actually trying to diet again. I am always saying that I am, but for a little while I pretty much gave it up. I haven't really gained, but I certainly haven't lost. 7 weeks until my cousin's wedding and 8 weeks until vacation at the Cape. I WILL weigh 10 lbs less, maybe more. I know I can do it if I focus on not eating like a pig and sneaking in a little bit of exercise. Which reminds me why I loved running, training for the 5K gave me a reason to get out there...now I just have to do it for my own health...which isn't nearly as glamorous :).

Tomorrow is my first weigh in.

Couch to 5K: Week 3

Woke up this morning and immediately was ready to get out for my run. Today was the start of week three and after two days off and I was ready to get back out there. Knee felt good and off went.

Week 3 consists of:

5 minute brisk walk warm up
90 seconds run
90 seconds walk
3 minute run
3 minute walk
Repeat

I got through the full workout other than cutting the second 3 minute run down to 2 minutes...I was very happy. Then I met up with a neighbor and walked another 20-25 minutes which was nice. Overall a great work out.

Now, I am sitting on the couch with Boo Boo Kitty on my knee. The pain is really bad. I mean, really bad to the point where I almost feel like crying. The ice is making it feel better though. Advil doesn't seem to be doing anything since I was basically pain free after popping a few last time.

So now what? I obviously need to rest. This doesn't seem like normal aches and pains and I'm hoping I didn't hurt myself because I am actually enjoying running, which is something I never thought I would say. I emailed my friend who is a trainer and has a degree in exercise science...he might know an answer, right? I just don't want to go to the doctor to have them tell me "you're out of shape", "strengthen you legs so your knees won't hurt"...which I've heard before.

I have an elliptical downstairs so maybe I can move to that for a week or two. It just isn't the same as running outside. I guess the good thing is that I'm not completely discouraged by this since I'm trying to figure out how I can still exercise.

Remember Me?

Let's see if any of my friends still have me in their feeds....if I were you I would have deleted me long ago :). Has it really been almost a year since I last posted?

So what has happened since then? Molly started preschool...I started working 3 days a week, Jack went to daycare 3 days a week....had yet another hernia repair surgery...weaned Jack since he seemed to love the formula...Molly turned 3....went to Disney for Thanksgiving...Christmas...Jack turned 1...I worked full-time for session...and yesterday marked my first day back to part-time!

Wow, how sad that I can recap my year in one paragraph or less ;).

So I'll try to start blogging again. My latest adventure is I have started to become a runner. The last time I tried to become a runner I lived in Willington. I ran a few times before I was injured playing volleyball by the beach at the lake. I took that as a sign I shouldn't run :). But here I am again. I am doing the Couch to 5K. Tonight will be my third training of week 2. It's a 9 week training that claims I'll be able to run 3 miles in 30 minutes after 9-10 weeks......that puts us at about the second week of August so my goal is to run the New Haven 5K on Labor Day. So far I've been doing well. I feel good running, although my left knee is not so happy with me afterwards. Hoping the new sneakers will help with that since I was wearing ones that were about 4 years old.

I'll try to do an update after each run....

Sneaking in a quick blog

What did I say, one per week? Ok...here it is :). Sitting inside on this super hot day. Even with no central air it is better inside than outside today. Took the kids for a super short drive around town so that Molly would nap, worked! She was out in about 5 minutes. So she's been asleep for about an hour and forty five...pretty good these days. Wish Jack would nap that well but the little man is very busy right now. I think he picked the hottest week of the year to learn to crawl and maybe even get a tooth or two. His crawling is getting better, getting up on all fours, rocking. And lots of spinning on his belly. He spins one way, then the other...then back again and manages to get all of the rug. The worst part is because it is so sticky out he is getting all the little rug fibers stuck to him. Ick. And I'm looking around at all of the things that need to be put away before he is all over the place....makes me tired.

Went to the doctor this morning and he isn't sure if I have a hernia or not. He read his operation report and said it should have stayed, even with pregnancy, and by feeling it there wasn't an obvious bulge. So I have to go get a Cat Scan Thursday afternoon. Fun fun fun. I don't think they are as bad as the MRI's though.

Well Jack says he is done paying on the ground....will update again. I promise :).

Almost 7 months....not possible...

I feel like a slacker, and a bad mommy. My blog was my baby book for Molly. I know I didn't update it nearly as frequently as some, but it still gave a pretty good record of what was going on and where and when she reached milestones. Poor Jack....the second child syndrome. So as of today, I am making a promise to myself, Jack and Molly that I will blog. At least once a week. If I can update my Mafia Wars daily I can do my blog too, right?

So where are we.....well the little man is almost 7 months. Next week...time goes by so fast. And the reason I came here is because I wanted to see when Molly crawled, pulled up and all that good stuff. Jack is getting closer to crawling every day and it seems like he on a similar track as she was. He desperately wants to move. Right now he mostly spins around the rug, but he manages to get places. He has a blast playing with all sorts of toys. I'll give myself a few more weeks before we are in full blown child proofing mode. Sigh.

What else is going on? We just got back from a lovely week on the Cape. Brought the kids camping and had so much fun. I was very nervous about bringing them camping, and the first night there I thought I was going to cry. I was so tempted to call a hotel. Both of them were still awake at 10:45 pm, with Molly jumping on the air mattress and Jack laughing at her. Finally I brought Jack back out of the tent and tried to nurse him yet again to go to sleep but he wouldn't do it. So into the car we went and he fell asleep almost instantly. Thank goodness for the magic movement of the car. The rest of the night wasn't so bad. Second night he went to sleep ok but woke up screaming at about midnight and wouldn't settle down inside the tent. I was finally able to get him to relax again by 1 am. The rest of the week was pretty much normal....Jack rarely sleeps through the night anyway, he is always wanting to snack. So he would do that and fall back to sleep. Molly was a dream...went to sleep by 9 pm and slept until 7 am every day. She doesn't sleep that good at home!

Here are a few photos of the trip:

We are still here....

Hello there....long time no blog! We are still here. And doing very well. This will just be a short post since I need to get in the shower so we can head to Grammy's house and the XMas Tree Shop (and maybe DSW too!)

Things here are great. Jack is a blast. Already 3.5 months, we had his baptism yesterday. He is a big man. So much bigger than his sister. Happy little guy, always smiling and laughing. Only fusses when he is hungry and tired for the most part. Still not sleeping through every night but only gets up once, eats and back to bed. Sometimes I wonder if he really needs to eat, he doesn't take a pacifier and I know with Molly we probably would have tried just giving her the bink to see if she would fall back to sleep but that isn't option so we just assume he is hungry.

I've been very busy lately. I am working between 20-25 hours a week back at my old office, but we have a new client and I am the Membership & Grassroots Coordinator for the Connecticut Restaurant Association. I'm really enjoying it. I work most of my hours from home, and go to Hartford once or twice a week. The next few weeks I will be going up a lot since it is the end of session. Molly and Jack will be staying with a friend of mine who was a nanny, but now has a 3 year old boy and a 7 month old boy. We did a trial run last Thursday and everything went well, Molly didn't even want to leave.

What else? Signing Molly up for pre-K for the fall. She will go full day Tuesday and Thursday (8:30 to 3 pm.) I will work or just enjoy sometime with just Jack. I think she will enjoy it, she is so social and would much rather be out with her friends.

Well, off to the shower.

Welcome John Joseph III "Jack"!

Having a Baby....Take 3! What a few weeks it has been! It's so nice to finally be at home with DH, Molly and Jack.

We begin again Tuesday morning, January 20th. I was up for a better part of the night, just thinking about things, what was going to happen if the pitocin didn't work again, but also just the general excitement/anxiety of knowing and hoping that Tuesday would be the day one way or the other. It definitely helped that Molly was already down at my mom's, so I was also able to sleep in just a bit since we didn't have to be to the hospital until between 8 and 9 am. We arrived at the hospital just before 9 am, got admitted and headed upstairs. We were given the same birthing room as we had Molly in, so that felt like a good sign and we were getting off to a good start. They got the Pitocin running at 9:55 am. There was a little bit of miscommunication between the nurse and my doctor so the nurse didn't up my dose as fast as the doctor would have liked. I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes, but the doctor knew I needed significantly more to make them contractions that actually did something.

The doctor came in around 12:30 to check me and I was between 2 and 3 cms, and she said he had moved down some more but still not far along to break my water. She'd be back at 2:30. 2:30....still the same. My cervix was also over the left, which made it difficult for them to examine me as well as feel exactly where the head was. I asked her about some of my options at that point and she was really hesitant to even discuss a c-section and mentioned doing another round of cervidil that night or maybe another type of gel. This was the last thing I wanted! I don't think I could have handled another night of it.

Finally between 3 and 4 pm I started having contractions that felt like they were doing something. My entire upper abdomen was tight constantly tight and while not incredibly painful, they felt different. Good news, when she checked me at 4:30ish I was a solid 3 cms and he had moved more center so she tried breaking my water. She was so close and then he moved and she couldn't do it without risk of a prolapsed cord. Since I had made some progress she was hopeful. She was heading home at 5 pm and the other doctor would be in between 5:30 and 6 and hopefully he would be able to break the water then.

Good news at this point was that because I wasn't officially in labor I got to eat dinner. I had a nice Chicken Caesar Salad and a fruit platter. Yum. The other doctor came in around 6 pm to check me. No progress!! He said the cervix was back over to the left and the head was “bouncing” and he didn't feel comfortable even trying to break my water. The other good news was that he was definitely more proactive in the c-section department. He told me he would give me another 1 to 1.5 hours and if there was still no progress we would have to make a call. Which I was fine with. After 9+ hours on pitocin with little to no progress from where I was last week, I needed to know this baby would be coming and soon. I called my mom to let her know what was going on and that it looked like I might end up with a c-section. While it wasn't what I wanted, I also needed things to be done.

I was still having contractions every 2-3 minutes, but they started to become less painful again. They upped my pit one more time and apparently that did the trick. At about 7 pm I started having more painful contractions again. In the next half an hour I was in serious pain. I was in the recliner and breathing through them, but kept looking at the clock knowing that it was either going to be worth it or it would be over then because we would be looking at a c-section. My new nurse, who was fantastic, came in at 7:30 and told me the doctor was ready to examine me again so I went to the bathroom and came back out. I was standing and looking at the monitor and saw that my contractions weren't even going down...they were basically flatlined at the type non stop. I was seriously afraid my uterus was hyperstimulating and freaking out. But what was actually happening was I was finally in labor! The doctor came in and had to wait for a contraction to die down before examining me but it took only 2 seconds for him to say you are 5 cms, let's break it! That was at 7:44 pm. What a bizarre feeling to have it all come out at once, I had a natural gusher with Molly, but not the same as the hook. Which really didn't hurt as compared to the contractions I was having...

At that point I asked if they could turn the pit down because I was having contractions non stop and I needed to be able to breathe. The doc suggested an epidural and I said I really didn't want one if I was progressing this fast and I went from 3 cms to 5 in 90 minutes and felt like I could handle it a little bit longer. The doctor agreed to turn it down as long as the contractions kept up, he didn't want to lose momentum. I'm not sure if it was the pit going down or the water breaking, but I was able to have a few contractions that were 3 minutes apart and I was able to regain some sense of composure. I also was able to let the nurse know that with Molly I went from 7 cms to 10 cms in about 45 minutes. She said well thanks for letting me know, because we could go from 5 to 10 in that time or less...I'll get things ready. The next few contractions I am fairly certain I dilated a cm with each contraction. I was in serious serious pain. I'm not going to lie. Because it was such a different experience than with Molly and I didn't know how fast things were going to happen, I started to seriously consider an epidural. I had one more and told the nurse I needed one, I couldn't do it. She was amazing and talked me through it and reminded me that just 10 minutes ago I was insistent on not getting one and told me I could have one if I wanted but we should have the doctor check me again because if I was already 8 cms chances are it would only be a few more contractions before it was time to push and she would get me through them. I said ok and no sooner did I say ok that another contraction started and I realized I needed to push...I take that back, not that I needed to but that I was pushing. She told me not to push, HA! and to wait for the doctor. During this time she was also trying to find the fetal heart rate which she couldn't find because he was in the birth canal. A few nurses came into find out if she needed pediatrics and she said no we need the doctor the baby is coming. They were able to get me to lay back and by the time I did the doctor came in the room and he didn't even need to check me because he could already see the head. John was shocked and looked and said, Jen it's there...just a couple pushes and it's all over. The next contraction came and said I needed to push again and the doctor said ok that's fine...if you need to push go right a head. He was still getting his scrubs on. With that push the head came almost all the way out. The wait time between that push and the next seemed forever because I felt the burn, but finally it came (I'm sure it wasn't more than a minute) and the head came right out. It was funny because DH said it's out, and I said oh I know...the pain was gone....with the next contraction I pushed just barely to get the shoulders and the rest of the body out. John Jospeh III “Jack” was born at 8:07 pm. So it was 23 minutes from water breaking to birth. Who would have thought 23 minutes would take this long :).

Happy Due Date to me!

Yay!!!...I mean...oh yeah, it's my due date. Didn't think I would still be here with no baby on my due date, that's for sure. But here we are! Nothing too exciting going on so far today. Just hanging out watching it snow. Kind of bummed there is all this snow, I've heard reports of great clearance sales going on at Babies R Us but there is no way we are heading out today. Oh well.

So to update from the other night. At about 5 am I still having spotting/bleeding which I figured was from my exam but since it was red I got nervous. Called L&D and they said yeah, from the exam but if it got really heavy to get concerned. It didn't...so everything was ok there. Got back to sleep around 5:30 and slept until 8ish. Molly came home from Grammy's house around 10 and then my mom and Michael showed up shortly after so I could go to my doctor appointment. The doctor couldn't believe I was there...she seriously thought I would have delivered. Guess this little guy fooled everyone. We did another non stress, baby is still moving around fine. She told me she didn't think I needed to do another round of the cervidil, great news. I asked how long I needed to be on pitocin with no progress before we talked about a c-section. She said I had to give it at least 12 hours. Ugh. So I asked about delaying it and I'm so happy she agreed. While it would be nice to have the baby by now, after the failed induction Monday/Tuedsay and false labor Thursday I just needed a break. If I went/go into labor naturally that's one thing, but I just didn't have it in me to go into the pitocin Saturday morning.

So I'm just hanging out, bouncing on the yoga ball, trying to walk around as much as possible in hopes that I am a little more dilated or he is low enough to break the water when we get in on Tuesday. Or of course that I go into labor on my own. But so far that hasn't happened. I'm having contractions on occasion, but nothing major.

Hopefully my next post will be welcoming the little guy home....I think we've all had enough of these updates!

Wide Awake...

Yes, I should be sleeping. But I'm not. My head is spinning. Yesterday was yet another draining and emotional day.

I woke up to a pretty low glucose number, and felt a little off. Shortly after I had a pretty decent contraction and then, a few more. I started timing them and asked John to wait a while before going to work to see if they kept up. They did....even after a shower! Woohoo! After 2 hours I was having them ever 3-5 minutes, which is the most consistent they have ever been other than when I was on pitocin the other day. Great sign! I called the doctor, she had me come in for a check and I was 2 cms...even better! She said all signs indicated that I was on my way, I was contracting, cervix looked good......

We headed over to Mary's house so that if things progressed Molly would be there. I continued having contractions throughout the afternoon, all between 2-6 minutes apart. If I sat for a while they would slow down but walking got them going right up again so I tried walking as much as I could. After another 6 hrs of contracting, I called the doc again and they had me come down to Yale. Yale??? But we got to St. Ray's.....they were inducing a patient there and had no patients at St. Ray's..ok fine. So we go down there...still only 2 cms and baby is still too high to consider breaking my water to get things moving. Are you serious???? She told me I could walk around for a bit to see if I progressed but I said no, I'll just go home...again...

So off we went, stopped for some Mexican food. The nurse suggested a glass of wine to relax, which I poured the minute I got home. Watched Grey's and Private Practice, which made me start crying when the guy chose his daughter over the son...ugh heartbreaking...still getting teary thinking about it. Finally fell asleep. Been up a few times to pee and now can't fall back to sleep at all.

My head is just spinning. Between, what was that feeling? Did it break...nope. Is this spotting/bleeding normal? I'm sure it's just from the multiple exams over the past few days. What happens tomorrow? Do I really want to go in for another night of cervidil? How long do I have to be on the pitocin before they offer the c-section? Will she let me have a couple more days to see if the little guy comes on his own? He appears to be doing so well in there, and I've had more than enough non stress tests to show it. Maybe we can hold off on inducing until Sunday or Monday....and then what happens? What if I'm still only 2 cms on Monday? Can I just opt for a c/s on Tuesday? How many days of contracting naturally vs. pitocin do I have to go through if the baby just isn't going to move down?

Aren't we supposed to actually have a newborn before we have sleepless nights?

Trying to have a baby....Part I

Long day....but I am feeling good about my decision to come home.

Long and short...I was in the hospital by about 8 pm last night, finally started the cervidil by 9:30 pm. They ended up having to test my glucose every hour because the bagel I had for dinner wasn't a very good choice and my numbers were running high. The doctor was actually going to start an IV insulin drip but thankfully the pharmacy wouldn't send it up for some reason so they gave me a shot with only 2 units and that brought it down and I was fine...but it still involved them waking me every hour to test. I also had a killer headache from about midnight on, finally asked for tylenol around 5 am and that helped.

Cervidil came out at 8:30 am, Pitocin started around 10:30 am. They didn't actually check my status before starting the pitocin, which I was shocked. They said usually that is standard, they just expect that it has prepped the cervix for dilation so they start up the Pitocin and then check 2 hours later. So at 12:30 doc came and and I had no dilated AT ALL. She said he had moved down, so that is good....but no dilation. I got really down about it, since I was having pretty painful contractions on the pit and really thought things would have progressed.

After she checked me she also had me lay down for a bit since the baby's heart rate was a little high and had them give me some fluids to make sure I was getting dehydrated. After 30 minutes on my side the contractions pretty much came to a halt. I actually thought they had stopped the pit to give me a break while they stablized the heart rate, but when the nurse came into ask if I was feeling them and I said no, I realized that they had just stopped. It was then that I knew it was going to happen today. The nurse had me sit back up and she upped and the contrax started again but no where near the intensity that they had. I kept looking at the clock just waiting for when the doctor would come back in, she said she would be back to check me between 3 and 4 pm. I had already made the decision that if there wasn't significant progress I was done and wanted to go home.

Fortunately she popped her head in at 2:30 and I told her I was done and that I could have contrax that do nothing at home. She laughed (in a good way) and told me I was right and said to give her 15 minutes so she could get the paper work done and she would check me one more time, just in case. As I expected, no more dilation but he had moved down even more. So she told me I could go home for a while and come back tonight for more cervidil and pit again tomorrow. I said no thanks, I'll go home.

Sooo........where are we now? If you've made it this far :). I am having a lot of mucous right now, some which is brown, some is turning more of a raspberry color so I'm going to keep an eye on it because it might actually be new blood mixing in which is a good sign. I was having some serious contrax even upon arriving home but after taking a nap they have slowed and I plan to head to bed soon just in case but DH and I are also pretty exhausted.

If I don't go into labor on my own before Friday I have an appointment at 10:45 to check my cervix to see if I have dilated more. If I haven't , I go back Friday night more another round of cervidil and one way or the other the kid will be born on Saturday since with GD they really want you delivered by your due date.

I'm happy to be home. I knew the pit wasn't working, and I really didn't see the need to be taking these meds that were doing nothing. After an unmedicated birth with Molly, this was not what I wanted at all. If I have to do it again on Friday/Saturday I will, but we will cross that bridge when we get to it.

Thanks for reading all of this if you got this far....it feels good just to type it all out.

Retail Therapy

I highly recommend it. So often I go to the store and all I buy are groceries, supplies, diapers, clothes for Molly or the new baby....maybe something for myself but nothing really nice.

Slept fairly decent last night, woke up a bunch to use the bathroom but wasn't in a ton of pain and fell back to sleep easily. Overall a good night. So I woke up this morning feeling really good. John and I had talked about going to the outlets over the weekend, but I was not up for it at all. Saturday I was having a ton of contractions, to the point that I actually thought something was getting started. A nice warm shower put an end to that, but it left me sleepy and exhausted. Contractions continued through the night, but still at no regular intervals. I have a classic case of "false labor" although I liked the website I found that said they didn't like that term and considered the entire last month "pre labor" since everything that is happening is prepping the body for the real thing, and if you have enough of these stupid fake contractions it can actually make real labor easier. Keeping fingers crossed.

Anyway, back to shopping. So I woke up this morning, texted Lisa to see if she was still interested in heading out to Clinton and was off. I heard a rumor that Kate Spade was having a 50% off the sale price special, and suddenly I needed a new diaper bag. I was just going to use the one I had last time, but after using it for a year with Molly it is pretty grungy. I just needed a good excuse to get a new one...50% off is as good of an excuse as any in my book. So here it is....Lisa says it's trendy.



There were so many to choose from. I really liked the New York Striped bag, but it had no zipper and I just need a zipper. So I'm excited about my new bag and overall it was a nice little trip. Got to see Lisa and Keller, which is always fun. On the way home Molly and I stopped at "Donald's House" for some nuggets, french fries and a juicy box. Molly was extremely well behaved, ate all 4 of her nuggets and was the most pleasant she has been in days. I think she was just so happy to be out of the house. And it was nice to spend some 1 on 1 time with her before the little guy arrives. I was also able to keep her awake for the 20 minute ride home, we stopped half way between home and the outlets, which means I get a full naptime at home. Yeah. I should be resting myself, but like I said, feeling good.

So that's it from here....

I believe

that Contractionmaster.com is BAD LUCK!!!!!

I am convinced. Every time these BH's start to get more frequent and more painful I say, hmm...ok maybe they are real this time. Let's fire up contractionmaster....and then I don't get another one for 15-20 minutes. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Definitely been feeling crampy and having more contractions down low today though, so hopefully moving in the right direction.

That's it from here. Although if I were this little guy I'd stay inside too with all the commotion going on in this house. We have marching band try outs going on, hide and seek, hop scotch, you name it.

Here is a video of Molly playing her bugle.

10 Days to a Better Body

As we walked in to Walmart this afternoon we went by the DVD selection of all the exercise videos they have out for people on the "It's New Year's and I have to exercise now" kick, I saw the video "10 Days to a Better Body" and thought wow, wouldn't that be nice. And then suddenly realized that in reality, in 10 days I would have a better body since one way or the other this baby should be here. The doc said if I haven't delivered by next Friday (38w5d) they will talk about inducing...so IF it hasn't happened naturally within 10 days I will probably be heading to the hospital anyway.

10 days seems like a really short amount of time. In an almost scary, so not ready type of way, even though I am so ready to have the baby.

My sister says she doesn't think the video works that way exactly...hey I'll be losing about 15 lbs in less than a week. Sounds pretty successful to me :).

Christmas in between doctor appointments

This past week was a pretty crazy one! I updated about my doctor appointment on the 23rd, which was eventful but we also had a sick Molly at home. She woke up at 3 am that day with her first stomach bug. Poor little thing was puking . I felt so bad for her. She was pretty miserable. I did take her to the doctor to make sure she had no infection, which she didn't. Fortunately she was feeling better by evening and woke up being her normal crazy, 2 year old self. So we were able to celebrate most of our holiday festivities. We missed dinner with John's side on the 23rd, but saw his mom and uncles at breakfast Christmas morning.

Molly was so excited that Ho Ho came. Her little mouth just dropped when she came to the living room and saw the toys and presents. It was pretty cute. I'll have to try to upload some of the video. After going through presents from Santa and exchanging gifts with John we got dressed and headed over to his mom's, and then down to my mom's for dinner. We had a good time at my mom's. My cousin and his wife and kids were there as well, which was fun. Molly had some playmates, which was nice. She even got to take a bath with one of them! Then we came home and back to the doctor I went on Friday.

The doctor said the baby is moving around fine and everything looks good, but the glucose numbers going down and not needing much insulin is still a concern. I was still contracting everyone 5 minutes or so, but these could continue for a while without actually go into labor. She said at some point they may just decide to induce me since I am 37 weeks today but hopefully will just go into labor on my own soon. I am supposed to continue doing my movement counts and if those go down or aren't as much I need to call. She also said if I end up to the point of needing no insulin at all I need to call because that seems to be when she will make the decision to induce. I told her I was hoping not to induce since I am hoping to not have an epidural. I'm not excited about getting induced, but we'll see what happens. Of course if the doctor is telling me that the baby needs to come out, I will do whatever is necessary..but I wanted her to know what I was at least hoping for. Maybe just stripping the membranes or just a touch of pitocin will get these contractions to become regular. My mom said that's what happened to her. Of course I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that my water breaks and I know it's time.

The contractions are starting to get slightly more uncomfortable, particularly when I am walking around. We went to the mall yesterday and that was fun...I had to stop a few times to breathe through them. They are only that intense every so often when I'm sitting. My hope right now is that these contractions are dilating me, but I hope that they aren't doing so much that I'll eventually have one big contraction that pushes me over the edge and I'm ready to deliver without even realizing it. Oh, and as far as my glucose numbers go I took a tiny bit of insulin today just to keep my numbers in check since we went to a party. I can say that I would have had to take 3 to 4 times as much insulin a few weeks ago to have the same numbers. I'm debating whether or not to take insulin tonight and see what happens.

I have another appointment on Tuesday, and then another on Friday. Tuesday's appointment is with another doctor in the practice, so it should be interesting to see his take on things. I see the doctor from last week again on Friday, if I make it that far. I'll be going crazy if I'm still having contractions this frequently a week from now. Ugh.

36 week update

I had my weekly nst this afternoon. Baby is doing fine, moving aroound like crazy! I was having pretty big contractions, about every 5-8 minutes....not all that painful, just tightening. The doctor asked if that was more than normal, but its hard to say since they don't hurt alot so I don't always notice them. But I wasn't in a ton of pain during labor until I got to about 7 cms.

The bigger concern is that my glucose numbers have been lower and I don't seem to need insulin for meals if I eat low carb. Before I needed insulin even when I was eating low carb. So the concern is that something is going on with the placenta, and/or getting ready to deliver. Since I am already 36 weeks it seems that it is ok if I go into labor, but she said it is too early to induce unless the baby seems stressed. She ended up doing an internal since I'm contracting and I am about 1 cm and she could feel the babies head. He wiggled when she did, which she said was good.

I have to do formal movement checks, 10 an hour 3x a day. And I go for another NST on Friday, then another on Tuesday.

So we'll see what happens! Still having contractions, I feel the tightening but pretty much the same. I'll let you know if anything changes!