Meeting the Family!

I just realized that Jared is not in any of these pictures!!!!  Trust me, though, he was there!  And compliments to him right off the bat-all the kids were appropriately dressed, matched, and groomed.  That has not always been the case, but he did a great job in this area!

We got a little smarter this year and split the kids up for vists: Jared came during the day with James and Sara, and then he came back after school with the three older kids.  I enjoyed these visits so much, and I think it had a lot to do with splitting the kids up-I got to indulge their questions more, snuggle with them more, and they got more time to meet and greet Jackson.  Definitely a positive!

 Sara had lots of questions and comments-she was adorable with Jackson, a mini Karianna to the tee!

 James was funny, he walked in the room having just had a panic attack with the elevator ride (he hates elevators).  At first, he wouldn't even go to my bed, he just stared at me.  Jared eventually picked him up and put him in bed with me, and he immediately laid his head down on my shoulder....at that point his stare shifted to Jackson, and I could easily read the look on his face:  "What. Is. That.  Why are you holding that baby?  This is wrong...."  It was pretty funny actually, it was almost like me holding a baby was a violation to James!  He warmed up after awhile and was laughing, climbing, and talking like normal, but those first 5-10 minutes sure were funny!

 While Sara got her time, Jared decided to do an experiment with James.

 James was much more engaged when his turn came to hold Jackson, he pointed out all his facial features for me, and seemed enthralled by Jackson's teeny fingers.

 I love this picture, whatever I was saying made James take a sudden breath, and you can just barely see his mouth forming that familiar "Oh!' shape!

 Giving kisses and hugs :)

 The big kids came straight from school right to the hospital, they were so full of excitement!  They burst in the room and immediately started asking to hold Jackson!  I don't even think there was a "winner" for who was most excited-it permeated the room!

Jordan went first, and even though this first pic is bad-quality, I love the look on Jordan's face!

 Karianna went second and honestly, she could have held the baby the entire day-and she will tell you that!

 JD got to go last and surprised me-I think he could have held the baby all day too, he was very, very loving with Jackson!

I was admittedly sad when everyone left-I miss my kids during my hospital stays, but I have to say in the same breath-I need the break.  I know when I get home I am going to feel very overwhelmed trying to balance everything, and I feel like I need those two days to get my emotions in check and to have my own time with Jackson.  I know for sure when we come home though that the kids will be excited!  Most of Jared's family came to visit me later that night as well, and it was very fun chatting with them and visiting!  Brielle is 4 months old, and it is amazing to see the difference between the two!

Jackson's First Bath

BEFORE (he actually looks pretty clean!)

Jackson didn't get his first bath until he was over 3 hours old.  We settled into postpartum, and by that point, it was 9:30pm.  Jackson got his footprints done, at which point we realized that even though his pinkies are NOT crooked, his pinkie toes ARE crooked!  If you look closely at his footprints, you will notice he only has 4 visible toes as a result....

 Jackson didn't particularly enjoy the bath while on his back, but as soon as he was flipped on his tummy, he seemed to enjoy the sensation of the water.  He disliked his hair being washed, and his grumpy little face when he was being dried off is just laughable!

 Once he was all dry and dressed, it became easier to see the unique nature of his brown hair:  he has these little curls built into his hairline.  Everyone calls them cowlicks; I think it looks like someone fingerprinted his hair line, as it looks like a swirl!  He has another big swirl in the back of his head, but off to one side, which is unique as well.  I love to trace the lines of these swirls and put every little hair in their place-it is so adorable!

 

Once he was bathed, dressed, and bundled, he got his congratulatory hat, hand-knitted and very elf-like.  It was the perfect "topping" for Jackson!

Jackson Ammon: Birth Story!

Jackson is here!

Jackson Ammon Lautenschlager was born today, November 19, 2013, at 6:09pm.  He weighed 8 pounds, 3.9 ounces and measured 21 and 1/4 inches long.  He and I are doing very well with a very non-complicated delivery; we expect to be home after our 48 hours hospital stay (Scottsdale Shea).  There are lots of little updates to give, and about 200 pictures to share (okay, I'll curtail that one!)....I will put his birth story below with the basic timeline picture reel and then add updates as they come in the next few days.  We love Jackson already so much-he is such a part of our family and we feel blessed!

Birth Story:

I was scheduled to be induced on 11/19/13 to avoid rushing to the hospital while in labor, and potentially not making it in time.  By 11/19, I was 4 cm dilated, and 80% effaced, at a -2 station.  We spent the night before getting everything as clean as possible, making sure school items were ready for the next day, and verifying our on call babysitters.  By the time midnight rolled around, we started anticipating that phone call from the hospital telling us we could come.  We weren't climbing the walls though-we watched an episode of The Next Food Network Star and then headed to bed around 1:30.  The phone rang right around 6:20am-it was our turn!  They asked us to get there around 7:30am.  I called my mom to come over, we took care of our last minute jobs, said bye to the kids, and took off by 7.  At this point, I'll go into timeline mode...

 39 weeks pregnant and one of the very few belly shots I took this whole pregnancy!  I had to remind myself to take this as a final tribute to pregnancy.

7:40....We got to the hospital, which was probably in record time!  Thankfully we were able to take the carpool lane and avoided most traffic.  We flew through admitting and got into our LDR room by 7:50.  From that point on things went slowly.  Our nurse-who was very kind, LDS, and knowledgeable-just seemed to be taking her time with everything!  I opted to donate cord blood this time around, and had to fill out a ton of paperwork for that, as well as give a lot of blood samples.  I changed into my awesome gown, got an IV started with fluids, got hooked up to monitors, and just kind of waited.  Resting was a good thing, as I had probably overworked myself the day before; I realized at this point I hadn't eaten breakfast and regretted only eating a pear and a string cheese as a light dinner the night before.

10:00....I started having what I would say were real contractions.  I had been contracting on and off all morning, but these ones had a different feel.  I would say they were real labor contractions.

10:45....My nurse finally got the pitocin started.  Contractions slowly came on but weren't super consistent.  They did get progressively harder more quickly, and at that point, I was really just waiting for them to break my water.  Baby was still very high up though, so they wanted me to let the contractions do their job for a while before breaking my water.

2:45....After having to breathe and moan through a few hours of contractions, I asked for my epidural.  The anesthesiologist came within 15 minutes to administer it.  He was quick and fast, and he gave me exactly what I asked for-yes to the pressure, no to the pain.  He said I had good, clear back alignment, and it made it easy for him to place it.  I was resting comfortably by 3:20.  It was also around this point that we learned hospital policy had changed, and they required the patient's own OB to manually break the water.  I realized that meant we would wait until Dr. Schlecht's office closed at 5.  In the moment, I was only slightly frustrated by this; in retrospect, I wish they would have called us in later then, as I was already dilated enough and probably didn't need the pitocin at all.

5:00....Dr. Schlecht arrived to break my water.  I had only dilated to a 5, still 80% effaced.  Made me even more convinced that pitocin was never necessary. My bag of water broke with a huge splash; lots of little blood clots in it, but otherwise clear.  Dr. Schlecht told me she'd probably see me in a few hours-she knows I progress quickly once my water is broken.  Baby was still kind of high up, so they had me lay with a peanut ball in between my knees to help baby drop.

5:25....I began to feel a ton of pressure with contractions and was sure baby was pressing down.  My nurse checked and found I was at 8 cm, 100% effaced.  She went to call Dr. Schlecht back to the hospital.  I began shaking and shivering really bad; I knew I was in transition.  I focused on relaxing as much as I could through each contraction:  I wasn't feeling pain, just a tremendous amount of pressure.

5:30....My nurse checked me again based on my descriptions of the pressure and I was a full 10 and baby was right there.

5:50....My doctor arrived and started getting dressed, breaking down the bed, etc.  I again kept breathing through the contractions.  I was very quiet at this point, just focusing on the moment and fully in tune with what my body was going through.

6:08....I started pushing.  My OB asked when I felt the pressure, and when I told her, they had me push through a full 10 count, take a breath, push through a second full 10 count, take a breath, and immediately go into a third 10 count.  I thought I was practice pushing, but I was still "in the zone", completely in my own head, focusing on directing as much energy as I could downwards, right along with the pressure.

6:09.....Before that third 10 count was halfway done, I felt the pressure release; Jackson was born!  I was shocked at how quickly it went-I literally only pushed for about 30 seconds.  He was ready though, so ready in fact that his whole body just came shooting out.  Not just his head, but his whole body.  This means the doctor didn't have a chance to suction Jackson's nose/mouth to get out the amniotic fluid-he just swallowed it.  Regardless, he was here and I was a new mom once again!

The doctor suctioned Jackson out and immediately handed him to me.  The nurses wiped him off very quickly while he was on my chest and then helped me get him into kangaroo care, right on my chest.  He was crying his little heart out, still covered in a great deal of vernix, and squeezing his eyes shut as tightly as possible.  I didn't even notice when my placenta delivered, nor when the doctor started stitching up my 2nd degree tear.  I apparently had a great amount of cord blood to donate, and that process was easily handled.  I was just focused on loving on my little guy, who seemed beautiful and healthy.

They took Jackson for about 5 minutes to weigh and measure him, as well as get a diaper on his little non-existent bum.  They also did the vitamin K real quick, and honestly, I think I wiped a good chunk of that away as he began to try to open his eyes, but shut them again real quick as if the ointment was hurting him. His apgar scores were 9/9; even though he had amniotic fluid in his belly, there was nothing in his lungs, and he just needs to bring that liquid up and out-he kept blowing spit bubbles, which we giggled at!  They handed him back to me to nurse very quickly thereafter.  Jackson latched on quickly and nursed for a good 45 minutes.  I was in love and just reveling in how beautiful he was.

Can you see the spit bubbles?

I went down to post partum within an hour and a half.  I had the same post partum nurse that I had 2 years ago with James-she had no idea what James had gone through with his heart, and we chatted for a good 30 minutes while she got us settled into our room.  It was nice to have a familiar face as we got to know Jackson more and more.

Overall, it was a beautiful experience.  My epidural was perfect-I felt so connected to Jackson and the birthing process.  I couldn't stop smiling or looking at his beautiful little face and the sweet cowlick in the center of his forehead.  His body seemed so little to me, and the scent of his hair already had me captured.  It is so apparent to me in moments like this that God is so aware of us, and he loves his children so much.  I feel honored to be Jackson's mother, honored to be entrusted with his care. I'll share more of our hospital stay and the various tests/pictures in further posts-for now I'll update with this one and go back to snuggling with Jackson!

Probably the Final Update

I don't know if I am going to remember to update the blog tomorrow, so I'll do it now while Jared is finishing watching a stupid football game (bless his heart-he really doesn't do this much, and he works so hard for our family-I can't complain beyond a crossed out word).

We are just about 27 hours away from induction day; the hospital could call beginning 12am Tuesday morning.  The house is not where I want it to be yet, not because we have been slacking off in terms of cleaning, but because keeping it clean with 7 people living in it is an hourly task.  ;)  I managed to get in all my max work hours this week, then got an email from my supervisor saying she had gotten permission for me to go over my max hours, so I ended up doing an extra 6 hours or so between yesterday and today-it will help make up any time I miss this week.  I did manage to get all grocery shopping done, get easy-prep dinner stuff stocked, and did all the dishes so we should only need to get one more load in tomorrow.  Laundry is all done, folded, put away.  Those are some time-consuming jobs, so I'm glad to have those out of the way.

I feel like the baby has been moving a bit less the last few days-nothing to concern me, but enough to make me think even if I wasn't being induced, I would probably go into labor shortly.  Contractions are currently (as I type) 5 min apart and a bit more than uncomfortable-they've been this way for just shy of two hours.  If I called into my OB, she'd tell me to go in, and I don't think they would send me home.....that's been the case though this whole week, in my opinion.  I'm close enough though.

Today was all about spending time together as a family of 7 before it turns to 8.  We stayed home from church today and had a very relaxing morning at home together.  I love going to church, but it was so nice to not worry about prepping clothes, bags, hair, and then overdoing it to monitor behavior while sitting on a hard bench timing contractions.  I don't want that to sound blasphemous, I just did not want our last real day together as a whole family to be stressful.  Between Jared's work schedule and school, this was our final chance.  Okay, ending my rationale for the night!

We did some early naps and then packed everyone up to drive up Bush Highway towards 4 Peaks-one of Jared's favorite spots.  I was a little nervous to do that in case I went into labor, and as soon as we hit the dirt road (which probably isn't as bad as I made it out to be) I was really questioning whether it was a smart idea or not! We found a great pull off though about 3 miles in, with a great view of the peaks. We hiked around with the kids for a bit, collected bullet shells, Karianna dug for rocks, and we found as many snake holes as we could.  Jared grilled up some hot dogs from our impromptu picnic lunch-thanks heavens for good, accessible camping supplies!  We ate while talking about what we would do if we were stranded-its always fun to hear what the kids would do, and Jared loves teaching them what they should really do.  After packing up dinner stuff, we hiked a bit more and headed home right before the full moon came out.  We pulled off into the Saguaro Lake area to try and take a picture as the moon was beautiful-it was too dark to really turn out well, but it was nice to see!

It was so nice to get away for a while:  take a step back from cleaning the house and actually enjoy the kids.  It's amazing what a little distance will do, and it was good for my heart.  I haven't let myself dwell on any negative thoughts, but I would be lying if I said I didn't have them regarding Jackson's health and, to a lesser degree, my ability to deliver my 6th baby in a healthy manner.  I can't worry about things out of my control.  If I need a c section, so be it.  If Jackson ends up having some heart defects, we will handle it.  I'm not sure exactly how yet.....but we will manage the same way we managed last time.  And that's all I can say about this topic-because I can't dwell on what-ifs.  I'd rather dwell on the thought of having a new little spirit join our family.  That's a lovely thought and I can't wait to have Jackson in my arms in just a few days.

***ETA:  Even with that being said, about 2 hours after I posted this, I had an anxiety attack-couldn't breathe well, rising panic, racing heart, etc.  Such a scary feeling, I knew I needed to calm myself down, but I couldn't do it fast enough, and that induces even more claustrophobic panic.  Jared got me to drink a ton of water, put the fan right on me, and had me lay on my left side.  He helped me focus on breathing smoothly, and the panic began to die down.  He gave me a hand massages for about 40 minutes while we watched a reflexology tutorial on youtube.  I know that sounds kind of ridiculous, but the lady doing the demo had a relaxing accent, and Jared followed her demo so well-it really did release a ton of tension, and I felt completely relaxed thereafter.  I am glad that is over, and we said extra prayers that I will be able to avoid these feelings from here on out.

I'll update when I can with Jackson's birth story.  I'll have the laptop at the hospital with me, and I'll definitely pop up some pics for the kids to see at home before they are able to come to visit.  I'll have to change the title of my blog at some point!  That's a fun thought!

I Might Be Crazy.

I probably am to some degree.  ;)  But I'm also excited about this, so I'll share anyway.  Yes, I am having a baby in 4 days.  I didn't forget that, I promise!

I got asked a while ago to be a part of a project with EO to redesign our main assessments we give to students. We need to align them with common core standards, and we want them to be in effect before our new teaching platform goes into effect early next year.  I applied for the project, was selected, and was excited to be involved with the innovative part of EO.  The project timeline has been delayed for about 3 weeks now, as they get this new content loaded into the new classroom format, get those on the team access, etc-all expected honestly.  We are tentatively slated though to start next week, and it will require approximately 20 hours a week...thankfully, 20 very, very flexible hours that I can do anytime, in my jammies, in bed, with kids around, etc, but that's still a lot of time nonetheless.  It's a short term project-should be done by the middle/end of December.

I also got asked by my immediate supervisor to be on the K-12 recruiting team.  Basically, it's my supervisor and 2 veteran teachers (myself included), and we will be running group interviews twice a week for potential teaching candidates.  EO is hiring 300 new teachers (!) as we just got an enormous contract that requires 1:1 instruction rather than our normal 3:1 instruction; thus, we need a huge influx just to cover this contract.  It's exciting but will require a lot of work to get our teaching staff fully functioning to handle it-hence the recruiting team.  I have a schedule set up for this through the end of December, only requiring about 5 hours a week, but in January, the group interview/recruiting process will be turned over to the 2 veteran teachers (myself included) to run; and down the line the goal is to form a recruiting team in general, which I would be a part of.  I am super excited to do this-I love being involved working with the other teachers and after 6 years with EO, I am pretty well versed in what would make a good teacher, especially with our more strenuous expectations.

I do have to cap my hours at 24/week, so even though we will have a huge influx of students, I probably won't have the availability to actually teach until the assessment project ends in December.

So the next month will probably be a little crazed with the new baby, recovering, and these few extra projects....on top of nearly 30 hours a week with WGU.  See, I told you I might be crazy.  The idea of helping support our family though is amazing to me, and I feel so blessed to have these positions, and the required skillsets, so that I can work at home with fully legitimate jobs and bless our family with an extra financial boost....all while taking care of the kids and staying connected to a field I just love.

I do have to admit, I do take things with EO in a somewhat pessimistic manner these days.  After what happened a year and a half ago with the company restructure, and the horrible way they handled staffing, I don't have much faith in the way they manage employees; as such I will not accept a huge position with them again, especially when WGU is such a good fit for me.  I felt good about these two projects though, so I decided to follow my gut and go with it.  I am not, however, holding out hope for this to be any more promising than just a couple of cool projects, and I fully anticipate not being seen as anything more than a fairly decent veteran online teacher who may or may not be appreciated, depending on the situation.  See-pessimistic.  I love teaching our online students, and I truly believe in the product we offer and want to be help it be the best it can be-and hire the best we can hire.  I just won't set myself up again to be disappointed and let-down as I have been in the past.

And that's the work update!  We'll see how crazy the next month gets!

My Favorite Color

Sara:  My favorite color is brown, brown, brown!

Me:  What?  Really?

Sara:  Yes....it is the color of poop, of course.....but it is the color of chocolate too.  I like chocolate, but I don't like poop....maybe we shouldn't talk about poop.

Love the analysis!

Sara's Encouragement

Today has been a slow day, and Sara could tell I was low energy and not feeling good. Thus, she has been very motivating and has had this same conversation with me multiple times today...I actually missed it when she went to preschool!

"Don't worry mom.  Baby Jackson will come soon and then your tummy will stop hurting.  He is coming in five days, and after five is over, it will be four....and after four is over, it will be three....and after three is over, it will be two....and after two is over, it will be one....and after one is over...."

This is where she always pauses and looks at me expectantly.  I will ask her:  "What happens after 1 is over?"

And she'll whisper, with excitement in her eyes that perfectly correlates with the anticipation in her hushed voice: "Jackson!"

And then she'll add, "And then we can celebrate his birthday and eat cake!!!!!!"

I don't bother to alter that expectation, because by that point in the conversation, I feel better and don't want to squash it.

Love that girl!

38 Weeks

Here's how my day went.

1. To avoid mounting anxiety derived from not being able to sleep, I finally go out to the family room and zonk out on the couch at 4:45am.
2. Woke up at 6:45am to kids wanting breakfast and decide I may as well get up.
3. Get kids to school at 8am.
4. Settle the two little kids down with activities to do so I can work online from 8:30am until 10am.
5. Clean the house from 10-11:15, which for today included vacuuming all rooms, cleaning the kids' bathroom, doing the dishes, wiping down all counters/appliances, sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor, making the boys' beds, cleaning the toy room, generally picking up the other two front rooms, and getting garbage gathered and taken out before the garbage man got here.
6. 11:15, I finally begin my pre-appointment shower...that's a process when you are talking about this type of appointment.  Trust me on that.  Get the kids lunch, get Sara ready for preschool and James ready to go to my mom's house....all while getting myself ready.
7. 12:31, we finally get Sara off on her bus for preschool. They were nearly 10 minutes late, which meant I was 10 minutes late getting on the road to my OB appointment.  I get James settled into nap at my mom's house and take off.  I have to skip switching cars with Jared because I just don't have the time, which means I got to drive the big huge van all the way into North Scottsdale, which I hate doing.
8. I get to my appointment on time, thank heavens (or so I thought at the time).  I wait from 1:15-1:35 to be called.
9. 1:35:  doctor gets called out to deliver a baby.  It will be at least an hour wait.  I opt to wait.  I time contractions during my wait after arranging childcare/transportation with my family; contractions are 4-6 minutes apart, as close as 2 in a few cases.  They are not unbearable, but they are painful and I would categorize them a different from the last week or so.
10. 2:50:  I get called back to a room, as the previous timeline indicated doctor should be on her way.  I do the weight check, blood pressure, urine sample, etc and then wait in the room.
11. 3:10:  doctor is apparently still waiting to deliver baby.  I opt to go back in the waiting room to be more comfortable.  
12. 3:25:  doctor updates that baby is still not here, and she wants the receptionist to just reschedule everyone instead of waiting it out.  I realize there is nothing I can do about this, that this is the nature of the biz.  

But man, am I annoyed.  

I rescheduled for tomorrow, but ended up calling back to cancel my 38 week appointment all together after breaking down in the car about having wasted my entire afternoon, preparing so much, being emotionally so ready for this final pre-natal appointment to schedule my induction and see how much baby has progressed-all for nothing.  This is with contractions still about 6 minutes apart and I could tell they were fizzling, not that this helped my emotional well-being.  

I got home at 4:25 to relieve my mom who stayed so much longer than I anticipated.  I called my OB's office to verify my induction was being scheduled, and they verified it is-I should get a call tomorrow about it with instructions on what to anticipate in 6 days.  I am trying to see that as a silver lining.

So here's the little info I have from my appointment:  

• BP is 130/70, which is great; at this point with James, my BP was 148/96 and I was being sent to the hospital to induce because of pre-eclampsyia.
• I didn't gain any weight again, but I also didn't lose any.  Net gain remains at 22 pounds and that is what it will be for the pregnancy in all since I have no more appointments.
• No clue what my urine showed except that once again, despite my many efforts, I was dehydrated.

That's about it!  I don't know how much more I could have dilated from last week without having gone into labor.  I am sure baby probably dropped more as I have more of a waistline this week and I can feel the baby's head grinding into my pelvic bones (that's the best description I got).  I continue to have very little appetite and nausea, though that's more under control since I'm taking Zofran everyday.  I have to time contracts at least once a day to keep a close eye on them.  Today was, from a positive standpoint, a good run through of what needing to rush to the hospital would look like.  So my bag is fully packed, the computer bag is ready to go, and a lot of last minute cleaning jobs are done-I just need to upkeep all that through the week. I probably have a list of 10-12 extra projects I would ideally like to get done in the next 6 days, but oh well if they don't get done.  

Next week will be busy and crazy, that's for sure...for now, I just want to go to bed and forget about today....Finish the week so I can get into a weekend of true baby prep.  The good news:  Jared said he is bringing home ice cream.  I love that man.

Down to 12 Days

We are down to less than 2 weeks until Jackson gets here, whether he comes on his own or not.  Jared and I are definitely on labor watch, as I have at least one moment during the day where I have to stop and time contractions because they are not painless and they come every 3-4 minutes. They don't turn into anything, which I am grateful for at this point, but we are definitely well aware I could go into labor at any point.  The baby's movements hurt right now.  Every time he gets hiccups, I feel like little bombs are going off in my uterus.  He has always had such big body movements that involve stretching-those just hurt right now too, and it is admittedly hard for me to enjoy these moments.

I had a moment the other day when I woke up from a cat nap and was struck with the fact that this is my last pregnancy most likely, and I won't get to feel a baby moving in me again.  That was a sobering thought for me, and it made me resolve to enjoy these last few days more than I maybe have been in terms of baby movements.  Regardless, I feel so very connected to Jackson, and that is a huge blessing

As a family we have been trying to maximize our time as a family of 7.  Jared took the kids out last Sunday and they drove up to the Peraulta Trailhead, maybe half an hour away to hike around.  As a whole family, we headed to the Barn Park on a rare day off for Jared on Wednesday of this week; it was probably the most relaxing day I have had in a long time as we were there in the middle of the day for the kids' half day, and no one else was there.  The weather was beautiful, and we really enjoyed hanging out as a family.  James shocked us all with his ability at climbing the entire structure and going down slides that made me nervous...I didn't need to be.  :)  Jared has been taking the kids to the track at Shepherd to ride bikes a lot.  I try to go just to watch, but I usually end up needing to rest by that point.  Regardless, the kids have a blast with it. We will head to church together this week as Jared is speaking on charity, but we will probably stay home the week after to prepare for Jackson's arrival as our last Sunday as a family of 7.  We also have plans to go to dinner at the Lautenschlager's house this Sunday before baby gets here.

This is not pregnancy related, but Jared is working on losing some weight right now-controlling caloric intake, portions, and using a lot of the Atkins shakes to get there.  He does so well when he absolutely puts his mind to it; I am grateful he is taking these steps to be more healthy.

Tonight we have JD's 2nd grade performance, which is patriotic in nature; I'll post about that later.  Overall, everything is going relatively well and we are excited for the next few weeks.

37 Weeks

A quick update from my appointment today, I'll put it in list format since I want to go to bed.  I have been so tired the last week or so...I know it was only a few weeks ago that I was saying I had a huge burst of energy and was getting tons done.  I think that's gone and I'm just tired.  I could go to bed at a reasonable time, get up at a reasonable time and be completely wiped out all day.

1. GBS test was negative-yea!
2. Blood pressure was 126/60, still low, which is great.
3. I drank 3 refills of my purple water bottle and I was obviously dehydrated based on my urine sample.  Sigh.  I just can't win here.
4. No protein in said urine. 
5. I lost another pound-net gain of 22 pounds at this point.  I have been pretty nauseous this past week with no appetite and tons of reflux.  Given that this is the 3rd appointment in a row I've lost weight, my OB wants me to start taking zofran twice a day again.  
6. Measuring right at 37 weeks.
7. Heart rate in the 120's consistently.
8. Numbers:  4 cm dilated, 80% effaced, -1 station.
9. I will be scheduled for induction on November 19th, they can call anytime between 12 and 12, depending on when a room is available.  
10. Oh-and I really really hope I make it to the 19th-being this far progressed and so far from my hospital makes me super nervous.