Maggie

Margaret Catherine Kluemper
Monday, November 21, 2005
6:35 am
9 lbs.
19 3/4 inches

She is beautiful and well loved. I promise to write posts about labor, delivery and motherhood, but for now I'm just happy to post that she's here.

1 centimeter

I went to the doctor on Tuesday. She said I was dilated 1 centimeter and 70% effaced. At the time, I considered this wonderful news. I felt like my body was finally making some progress towards launching this kid into the world. I was peaceful and calm on Tuesday night and most of the day Wednesday. I guess I felt like something would happen soon and I could just relax about it. Well that time of calm has passed. I have reverted to anxious waiting and am plotting ways to force this baby out. I told Tony I was going to stop eating to try to starve her out. He just laughed at me and said that was the emptiest threat he had ever heard.
An interesting phenomenon has started to occur at work. Everyday people look surprised to see me. Then, they look at me like I'm crazy for coming to work. It's hard to explain that even though I look like I'm toting a two year old around inside my belly that I actually feel fine. I'm frustrated that I feel well enough to go to work everyday, but I might as well go. I don't have any interest in sitting around my house alone and still not having a baby. We had a Thanksgiving potluck for my floor today. I ate so much food that maybe the baby will give up her current residence just because Mama's lunch is crowding her.
I will sign off this post the same way I leave work everyday. Maybe I won't see you again for awhile. I hope to not update tomorrow because I'll be otherwise occupied. But if I'm still pregnant, I'll post another whiny paragraph about how much I want to get this over with.

39 weeks

In case you were wondering, I still haven't had the baby. I still haven't had any symptoms that the baby has any intention of ever coming out. No contractions, no water breaking, no back aches, no dropping, no dilation. I'm officially aggrevated at my doctor for telling me that this baby will probably come early. If she had never put the idea in my head that I would be done with this by now, maybe I would not feel so impatient. If she would have just stuck to saying my due date was the 21st, I would have another week before I got all anxious to get this process started. Instead she casually mentions things like "this baby will probably need to come out at least a week early" or "you'll probably deliver in your 38th week". She is such a liar.
The spicy food thing is definitely not working. I'm afraid I might be permanently damaging my esophagus with the tabasco flavored food that I've been consuming. This weekend's pepper flavored fare including more level 4 Thai ginger chicken, hot wings, and tabasco with a little bit of chili added to it. And yes, we have finally tried that other way of encouraging labor. It's not very pretty but at least it takes my mind off the waiting for a while.
The baby is very active these days. I hope she is trying to figure out how to escape her confines. Tony says that if she's as directionally challenged as her mother she'll never get out of the womb. My emotions are getting pretty erratic, similar to PMS. I want chocolate and lots of it. I feel like I can't get the kitchen clean enough. I've lost all desire to accomplish anything at work. I've been crying during tv shows, but I think Grey's Anatomy would get to me even if I wasn't hormonally unbalanced. That show has some really sappy endings.
It's good to know Tony and I aren't the only ones eagerly awaiting some signs of labor. Whenever I call anyone, they answer the phone with an excited voice then sound disappointed that it's just me calling to talk.
I have a checkup tomorrow. Maybe some dilation will have taken place, but I doubt it.

Baby Mobile

A few months into this pregnancy the air conditioning in my car gave out. Fixing everything that is wrong with the air conditioner would have cost more than the car is worth. This car is also the one I’ve been driving since I was 16. It’s a two door and not conducive to hauling around a baby. So the decision was made to buy a new car. Tony wanted to get one immediately, but I thought we should wait. So I drove around in Houston without air conditioning from June until now. It’s really not as bad as it sounds because I only drive 5 miles to the bus stop and back each day.

So time passed, and we started to car shop in earnest in October. We have oscillated back and forth over several vehicles at dealerships and from private sellers we found on the internet. By last weekend, I was tired of thinking about cars and had no energy to walk or even drive around dealership lots. I told Tony we could just wait until after the baby was born to deal with it.

Yesterday, my hero went out and found a great car without me. He did all of the shopping, haggling and signing without me. I got to go home and nap while he bought the car. Last night he brought it home to me, and I drove it around Sugar Land for a while. It’s a 2003 silver Volvo with low mileage and nice features. I am so excited about the new vehicle and the fact that my husband was nice enough to let me sleep while he took care of everything.
Maybe Maggie will come out now that she has a very safe and reliable car with air conditioning to be driven around in.

38 weeks

Guess what. I still haven't had any contractions. I really wish no one had ever told me that 37 weeks was considered full term. I know that it's still 2 weeks until my initial due date and 1 week from my doctor's estimated date, but I'm getting very impatient. Every little pain and discomfort alarms me, and I think could this be a contraction. So far each of these pains has meant a) I have to go pee again. b) I have gas. or c) my belly has outgrown the rest of my body and it's just uncomfortable to drag around. The baby is still moving a good bit. I think she is teasing me and poking my bladder because it's funny.

This weekend we did a little more nursery shopping and decorating. We bought a side table at IKEA. This table was a breeze to put together. Nothing like the bookshelf of profanity that sits on the other side of the room. We put the monitor and a lamp on the side table. We've been looking for some decoration to hang over the crib. I decided to make some elephants out of the extra fabric from the curtains. They look kind of cute, and the project is keeping my mind off of the fact that the baby is refusing to come out for a few seconds of each minute.
I consumed a good bit of spicy food this weekend, including the ginger chicken from Thai Cottage with level 4 spiciness. It was really good, but the poor waiter could not keep enough water on our table. After the ginger chicken, I had my one true bout of acid reflux that has occurred during this pregnancy. It felt like I was gargling with Tabasco. Thankfully that passed very quickly. We still haven't tried that other method of bringing on labor. I keep threatening Tony with it, mostly as a joke. But I might get serious about it in a few more days.

The impatience begins

I had my 37 week check up yesterday. My cervix is effaced, but there is no dilation. I was expecting this because contractions cause dilation, and I have had no contractions that I know of. Many women have Branston-Hicks contractions or false labor contractions for several weeks before they go into labor. So far, I have had nothing. Sometimes I think maybe the pain or tightening that I’m having is a contraction, but I think its just gas.

Tony and I have discussed some of the legendary ways of bringing on labor. Probably this weekend we’ll eat spicy food and engage in awkward acts of intimacy. I don’t know if this will help at all, but perhaps it will take my mind off all this waiting for just a little while. I must be crazy to be wishing the pain of contractions and labor upon myself, not to mention all of the sleeplessness and work that comes with caring for an infant. All of that is inevitable, so I want it to happen now.

37 weeks

Yesterday this pregnancy hit 37 weeks. This means Maggie is considered a full term baby. She could come any day now. I'm really trying to be patient and easy going about this open ended timeline. However, I can not stop thinking, "When is it going to happen?". When I'm at home I feel quite calm about the upcoming birth. At work, I'm more anxious and curious. It's hard to think about anything at work without thinking if the baby came now I wouldn't have time to finish this. I feel like my coworkers are prepared to pick up my projects when I start my maternity leave, but I don't feel ready to let go of my projects.

I have a doctor's appointment today. I go every week now. These appointments are very uneventful. Pee in the cup, check my weight and blood pressure, talk with the doctor for five minutes. It's getting to be monotonous. The new addition to the routine is a pelvic exam. Last week no dilation, and I'm predicting the same for this week. Makes me feel kind of down, like I'm not making any progress. I wish I could slow down, relax and enjoy the remaining days of pregnancy, but instead I feel like things should be moving along by now. Most preparations for the baby are complete. I still haven't packed the hospital bag completely, but I'm getting there. I feel like if the bag is waiting in the trunk of the car it will just sit there for weeks, but if I keep putting off packing I'll go into labor and have to pack really fast.