The Adventures of the Braswell's: July 2012

This week Amelia is the size of Winter Melon... Seriously, who comes up with this stuff?

Since my last post there have been lots of changes in our neck of the woods! On Wednesday of this past week we had our first false alarm. It started out with me 'loosing my mucous plug' on Wednesday evening (fact 1: labor can still be weeks away after loosing your mucous plug - fact 2: I was not aware of fact 1). This happened around 6pm Wednesday night and our weekly childbirth class with our doula was at 6:30pm so we decided to not get too excited and wait on contractions to start. At that point I was thinking we were hours away from labor so I just wanted to carry on like normal and figured when I started having real contractions that were 5ish minutes apart then we would get excited. Well that night passed and nothing happened... we went to bed late-ish feeling like a 4 year old on Christmas Eve. Around 4:30am Thursday morning I woke up with some pretty bad back pain. My thrashing around woke Luke up so he rubbed my back for awhile before I finally decided to try a hot shower. As soon as I was up and walking around my back pain subsided substantially and I noticed I was having contractions consistently at 5 minutes apart. Of course we got way too excited and Luke started in on his pre-hospital last minute checklist while I got a shower and got ready to go (another fun fact: shaving my legs should earn me an olympic medal at this point).

We took our time and continued timing contractions (still 5 minutes apart, lasting between 45 seconds - 1 minute). Finally, at 6:30am we loaded our bags in the car and started out on our trek to the hospital. On the way I called my OB/GYN emergency number and instead of adding to our excitement the doctor (one I have never met btw) said I didn't "sound like" I was in labor. (Okay, so later on I found out she was right but I'm still bitter at her for killing the buzz). She said to go ahead to the hospital anyways and worst case scenario they would just send me home. Once we got to the hospital my contractions started getting further apart (figures, right?) and sure enough I was not in real labor.

However, while we were there our favorite Mary Poppins nurse was there (we later found out her name is Arline, I still plan on refering to her as Mary Poppins). She was checking the baby's position and discovered that little miss mischievous was actually in the breach position instead of head down like we had been told.

(Insert moment of panic when I was told I would probably need a c-section since I was so late in my pregnancy and turning her would be extremely difficult and not likely to be successful)

After an ultrasound to confirm her suspicions (whoa big baby!) she brought the doctor in. The doctor told us we had 3 options - 1. Go ahead and schedule a c-section (panic moment #2) 2. Wait it out and see if she turned on her own (followed by the thoughts that this was unlikely and would probably also result in a c-section), or 3. Let the doctor and Mary Poppins try turning her externally (followed by the information that this would be painful and also has a semi low success rate).

We decided that we would let them go ahead and try now, and then try every other homeopathic method we could get our hands on if it didn't work (Little did we know that while we were having our minor freak out moments at the hospital my dear dear daddy was researching every possible way of turning a breach baby ever discovered and a lot of them had super high success rates... with no pain.... oh well). So MP gave me a shot to relax my uterus and then they started the process. I was told to relax as much as possible... it was fine at first, I was practicing my deep breathing and it was just uncomfortable but then she got turned sideways and they were digging in deeper to keep her from slipping and I seriously thought I was going to through up on them (Poor Luke might have received some battle wounds from my nails... which are now cut down to nubs...). I couldn't handle it anymore and I finally told them I was going to heave. They stopped but seemed like they thought she had slipped back. Doc pulls out the ultrasound and sure enough they had turned her! They were both shocked and excited and Luke and I were ecstatic! They said it was good we discovered this now because there wasn't much amniotic fluid left in there and turning her any later would've been nearly impossible.

So. Long (long, long, long) story short, God must've known we needed to get our little trouble maker in to the hospital so she could get her little booty turned around. Sometimes it's hard to see His plan and sometimes He makes it super obvious. Thanks God!

And now for the weekly questionnaire...

How far along? 37 weeks 5 days

Total weight gain? 38ish pounds

Maternity clothes? still a combo of oversized clothes and maternity clothes

Stretch Marks? Yes, but actually getting less obvious! Yay for Bio Oil!

Sleep? Difficult but not impossible. My hips have been really achy lately and turning from side to side pretty much takes a fork lift.

Best moment this week? The fleeting moment when I thought we would be meeting Amelia that day... followed closely by the most depressing moment when I realized I didn't know my body as well as I thought I did.

Miss anything? My sanity... haha. Okay, I'm missing seeing my ankles, being able to paint my own toenails, and being outside without feeling like death.

Food cravings? McDonald's diet coke.

Anything make you queasy or sick? pasta.ick.

Gender: Girl!

Labor signs? I thought so, but I was mistaken! Although, the mucous plug thing is definitely still a labor sign in the same way that having a baby in my belly means I'll be in labor... eventually.

Symptoms? swollen hands/feet (yay for flip flops), achy hips/pelvis/back, round ligament pain (basically muscle pains around my belly anytime I move positions) and you know the normal hormonal/feel like I'm losing my mind stuff.

Belly button in or out? pretty flat with one slightly protruding side, haha

Wedding rings on or off? off :( My hands would swell up and then go down and I was afraid of losing them so I went ahead and just put them in my jewelry box

Happy or moody most of the time? All of the above... I'm extremely anxious/excited/nervous to have her out in the real world but the combination of other things going on in our lives adds to the anxiousness which adds to the hormonal-ness... All things considered, I would say happy mostly with moments of breakdowns

Looking forward to? Having our little girl here!

And now for some pictures from our week!