It finally happened

We had our first overreacting-parent pediatrician visit. Whit has been cranky ever since we got home from the baby shower (which is why originally I thought it was just boredom). He had all these crazy symptoms: pulling his hair, scratching his belly, whiny (while playing and in between laughs), chewing his hand, super tired, shaking his head, and was only happy while we were holding him and walking around. So we thought, he's teething. No, his stomach is bothering him. Maybe it's a food allergy? I had given him his first taste of banana Sunday night. Maybe it's an ear infection? We finally take him to the doctor yesterday only to find out...

he has dry skin. Which I knew. His rosy cheeks aren't only from being a cute baby, but he's got his mom's and aunt's skin issues. I try to keep them well-lotioned, but that wasn't enough anymore. Now I'm having to put hydrocortisone (.5%) on his cheeks twice a day and Eucerin on top of that. And the dry skin had moved to his torso, so Eucerin on those spots every chance we get.

I guess we've been inside so much lately due to the cold, that he's drying out worse than normal. Normally I only bathe him twice a week and slather the baby lotion on afterwards, but he needs something a tad stronger. Poor little guy! And the doctor says he's probably teething too.

Good news: The little one is mostly fine. I reaffirmed my love for his pediatrician and the office staff. They are so nice about worried new parents! <---which was one of my questions for them before we decided to use them. And we found out Whitman is now a whopping 19 lbs!

Cool as a cucumber

"It was... soap... poisoning!"

Yesterday was Whit's four month doctor visit, and the boy is growing great! He's 17 lbs, 6 oz., almost 26" tall and head circumference is almost 17". The appointment also meant more shots. Wah wah wah. But, of course, the kiddo was great (and Mama remembered to give him Tylenol beforehand). We have one easy going baby, thank goodness! And I have witnesses to prove it. Monday night was the office Christmas party and Whit was definitely the guest to be seen with. It's funny how whenever we're in a group of people Whit never stays with us long. One minute he's with Ben, then Amy, then Leslie, then Bob, then Melanie. People always ask me if I'm okay with other people holding him for very long, of course I am! Not only does my back need the break, but he loves visiting and I definitely want to foster the extrovert in him.

The best part of the night was the giggle fest he had with my "boss's" (he's a friend of the family so I feel weird calling him my boss) parents. Ben and I have never heard him laugh so hard! Poor guy was having a hard time catching his breath they were so funny. I wish I had gotten it on video, but I knew as soon as I left to get my phone he would be done and I would have missed it.

So from that I've decided my new goal is to make my son laugh every day, or at least smile. Which should be fairly easy, since this kid is such a good-natured little fella.

This party animal is tuckered.

"You have a first grader!"

...is what the pediatrician said when he saw how big Whit had gotten since his two week visit. Whit weighed in at a little over 13 lbs. (about 70th percentile) and was in the 50th percentile for length and head circumference. So hooray, we haven't been feeding him too much! The doc and nurse were also pretty surprised that Whit's been sleeping the night through most nights, has been rolling over for weeks (Dr. said that's a 4-month milestone!), and how strong he is trying to stand up. Everything was looking really good for our visit and then... the shots.

Whit (and us) actually did pretty well considering. He didn't care for the sugar water rotavirus vaccine, didn't even mind the first shot, but shots #3 and 4 pissed him off! He had been such a happy baby while we were waiting to see the doctor, it broke our and the nurse's hearts to see him so upset. The nurse was so sad as soon as she was done she cuddled and apologized to Whit. Ben said she was pretty close to crying, too. Oh! I can't imagine having that job!

He only cried for a couple of minutes and calmed down, but didn't sleep. I was shocked! My sisters and I all require a nap after something traumatic, so I was hoping Whit had inherited that trait. He took a few catnaps the rest of the night, but once the fever started coming it was inconsolable. I had been waiting to see if he would even get a fever before giving him any baby Tylenol, but I know better now. Next time I'm giving it to him as soon as we leave the doctor's office, before he gets a chance to feel feverish!

Stress, stress, and more stress.

The past two weeks have been pretty close to a nightmare. I will say thank God Whit has been fine! He's the only one that's been fine lately and he really has been blessing for the rest of us to delight in while things got rough.

Oy vey!

Yesterday and last night was a little rough! Went to the doctor's appointment and had a tiny stroke when I didn't see our doctor's name on the window. I was so afraid she'd gone into labor before me, but turns out they had been too busy to switch out the signs for the day, phew! Well, we didn't make much progress last week, I'm *almost* 4 cm and still about 80% effaced. But Dr. Redden seems very happy with it all and says that we're just waiting to the contractions to get into a regular rhythm. She also said at next week's appointment (if I make it) we'll do an ultrasound and make sure everything's okay and we can talk about inducing if I want. I was hesitant at first, but I feel my spirit weakening with every passing day. I can handle a lot of things, but it's the days when I'm juggling 5 or 6 symptoms at once I feel defeated. Last night after the nausea, the back pain, the painful contractions, lack of sleep, allergies, swelling and now I'm seeing stretchmarks in unappealing places, once my foot arch started hurting I just hung my head and cried. At least Ben was there for the breakdown, he's been wonderful through the painful/uncomfortable times!

Okay, okay, enough of that! I need to stay positive and think good thoughts, right? I was ecstatic to get a call from my grandma yesterday out of the blue. She was just checking up on me and I was thrilled to hear she is doing well for the most part. She has restless leg issues and said her feet have been hurting lately as well, so I told her she really didn't need to have sympathy pains for me. I'm thrilled my sister just found out she's pregnant too! Which means four out of the five of us first cousins will have babies all within a year of each other, so hopefully they'll be great friends. I'm relieved Ben's work has worked out their issues so there will be no problems when I go into labor. (I may have threatened to waddle into his store and demand my husband loudly if they didn't let him leave when I need him and I might bring the 6:00 news with me.) And even better, Ben found out he's got 5 and a half WEEKS of paid time off left this year. So there will be plenty of paternity time plus a week here and there to visit our family members who can't make the drive to us.

Finally took pictures of the finished nursery, just need to dig through them and post them! Soon...

Still waiting...

Wednesday was our latest OB appointment and good news: I'm 3 cm and mostly effaced! Which means I'm close right? Welllll, I've heard of women walking around at 3 cm for weeks, so who knows? Friday night/Saturday morning I thought was going to be it. Woke up with some really painful contractions (painful enough that I cussed rather loudly without realizing how loud I was and scared Ben half to death), tried to time them, but of course they weren't regular. So I got up, drank a bunch of water, walked around and began to be bored. Thank goodness the Olympics are always on for those of us who can't sleep!

After talking with my mom and finding out all three of her children were late entering the world, I'm getting a little nervous. I had known I was two weeks late, but both of my sisters were also a week late, so I'm sure this is karma just getting me back for making her suffer in the summer too.

I found this article on the blog AND MARY I just read and makes me feel so much better about how I'm feeling right now: "The Last Days of Pregnancy: A Place of In-Between". How true it is! For the past couple of months I've felt ready to get this motherhood gig started, but in the last week or two I've begun getting nervous again. I try to think of the false labor pains as progression, but I either feel annoyed nothing is happening or nervous that I'm about to go into labor and I don't feel ready. I know I'm ready, so it must be these damn hormones again...grr!

I can see why pregnant women feel less smart...

...because once you start to show, nearly every conversation you have starts (or is only) the same five questions.

-When are you due?
-Is this your first?
-Boy or girl?
-Do you have a name yet?
-Are you miserable yet? (or some variation of "Hot enough for you?")

Friday was my last day of work before I'm on maternity leave, and I have to say I'm relieved. Partly because my feet have swollen to dachshund-like proportions once my shift is over and partly because I'm tired of having this conversation with every patient. With the exception of one, we had a woman in who was close to my age and when I went to help her pick out glasses we got to talking. Turns out her due date is the day before mine. It was exciting getting to commiserate with a fellow 37-weeker, especially our poor husbands that just look at us worriedly and ask what's going on whenever we have contractions. Like I have any idea, I'm just as new to this as you are, bud!

Pregnancy bitching moment: I'm all for the bun baking as much as he needs to in the oven, but I've hit that wall: I no longer want to be pregnant. I'm sick of the swelling, nausea, allergies, how painful it is to roll over in bed, sleeplessness and sleepiness, and looking with envy at the normal clothes section of Target. I swear their clothes got much cuter this summer!

Okay, now that I'm done being negative, something positive... our adult gifts! Ben's dad and brother our gifting us a porch swing and some pavers to create a covered patio kind of area. And upon hearing that, Ben's mother and step-dad decided to gift us painting our shed/carport, which right now is close to halfway being done. I'll post a picture in a bit, hm, wish I had taken a before....darn, I never remember to do that!

Well, off to try and get a few more Zzz's before I have to get up. (I've been up since 4 today...blech)

Add this to things to not watch while pregnant...

I've been told before to not watch Alien while pregnant if you've never seen it before, because you are guaranteed to have nightmares. Well, I've had The Business of Being Born on our Netflix queue for a while now and thought, what an appropriate time to watch a birthing documentary! Not exactly. Well, not exactly if you are like me and are a worrywart or you aren't really sure what you're doing during the birth. I've already got my mind set on the epidural, so the talk about doing it natural and at home fell on deaf ears. But I could see how watching this would make people think they were hurting they're baby by choosing my path, which I think is a little unfair. Some of the information in it is really interesting (and terrifying), like the history of hospital births circa 1950s...yikes! But some of the information is just opinions of people, and there's no sources! From a documentarian's point of view, it's kind of weak. BUT, it did get me used to seeing births. There are a couple in the film, and I didn't look away once and I'm rather proud of that. Maybe my fear is finally subsiding. Or maybe I'm fed up with being pregnant and ready for this to be over?

Went to the weekly doctor appointment yesterday and met another of the doctors, this one also seemed painfully shy but was very nice. Unfortunately we didn't make that much progress this past week. She said I'm 1cm dilated externally, but nothing internally, so not technically dilated at all. Which kinda confused me, but maybe a I have a long cervix to go with it being crazy high as well?

Ah well, as excited as I am to meet him, I'm willing to wait until he's fully baked. I just worry about him being late and my doctor wanting to induce. That's the only thing that seems kinda sketchy to me. 

Dropping trou visit...

Oy, I haven't updated in a while! But then again when it hits 107 degrees, life just kind of slows to a crawl. Reminds me of the old joke about that's where our Southern drawls come from: it's too hot to speak quickly!

Since I've been stuck in our air conditioned house the past couple of weeks I've been working on getting the nursery finished. And I swear if I ever see another plastic tie-thingy (those things that hold tags onto clothes) it will be too soon. Why in the hell does a hooded towel need 12 of them?! 12! 

Today was the beginning of our weekly OB visits and that means getting my cervix checked weekly...yay? Really it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be since the doc and I got to talking about the show Pregnant in Heels. Which, by the way, if you haven't seen is pretty darn funny. And has just enough drama to make me feel better about Ben and I's relationship and parenting ideas. Today's favorite quotes from our OB were:

"Yeah, swelling sucks!"

"This is another reason why we should be glad men don't have babies." (talking about the strep B swab)

"No woman has to be a martyr." (talking about when to get an epidural)

I think I'm in love with our OB, hospital, and L&D staff. There's just enough new-age talk that they're not going to judge you if you want to try something different (except they aren't set up to do water births yet), but dammit if you want to go in dilated at 1cm and get an epidural they won't turn you away. It fits right in with our philosophies. Ben and I both are open to new things and are very "wait and see" with this pregnancy, but if something has to be done, then let's do it and not cry about "it's not what we had imagined".   And if I need someone to tell me to stop whimping out, I think these chicks are willing to tell me that. 

Ugh, cramping again! Think I'll go lie down a bit and catch up some more on Mad Men.