Friday, August 28, 2009

Random tidbits

Well, here we are still waiting for Baby Luke. He's thrown us all for a loop, since neither of the other two children have waited this long to come. Part of me is glad he's staying so snuggly, because it's really giving us an opportunity to get into a good routine of helping and participating in the necessary morning and evening activities for the older ones. Samantha is now in charge of picking and packing her "ancillary" lunch items the night BEFORE, and both kids set out clothes for in the morning. It's also given us the chance to set a breakfast and lunch schedule, so there's VERY LITTLE thinking that has to occur in the morning...just lots of routine!

On the other hand, I kinda had my heart set on already seeing his sweet baby boy face by now! As I always say: nothing before it's time, nothing before it's time.

Yesterday at my 39 week appointment, we noticed that my blood pressure seems to be creeping up. The midwife began to talk around bed rest, and I just pretty much stopped her in her tracks and said, "At 39 weeks, I am NOT going on bed rest. We just need to figure out how to get this baby here." She agreed and that was the last I heard of that.

We also had a discussion about being induced, and in general I am opposed to messing with the labor process. I truly believe that God created our female bodies for this beautiful act of love and nurturing, and for the most part, it needs to be allowed to do it's thing. But because of convenience we've been suckered into a series of procedures that ramp up the scariness and difficulty of the natural process. Don't get me wrong, I'm VERY thankful for science and technology and current medical knowledge as it's saved my life (and my baby's) at least once already. And in that vein, if they determine that amniotic fluid is deteriorating (via ultrasound), I'll have no other choice than to be induced. All it may take is breaking my water, or it may take some other medical intervention, but we'll cross that bridge after Sept 2 (unless my BP becomes a problem).

FOOD
One fun thing that I've been doing this summer is cooking and baking...a LOT! I've made fresh blueberry muffins, oatmeal chocolate chip muffins, orange muffins (with icing...that made Samantha gag--WHATEVER!) and this morning for the first time, we made cinnamon rolls (outta the can, sorry to disappoint) for breakfast. Sometimes cooking supper is so mundane and boring but somehow it hasn't been that bad recently. Michael seems to have a penciled in grilling night on Wednesday so that helps and I've been trying to buy enough that we have at least one night of leftovers from each meal that I prepare which really helps. In that vein, I've got three meals (with leftovers) prepped and frozen so that when Luke FINALLY arrives, we've got some of our favorites already bought and fixed. Yeah!

READING
I've been reading some this summer, too. The two series that I've read almost completely are Francine River's Lineage of Grace Series (I have yet to read Unshaken about Ruth as I can't find it in our library system) and Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. VERY different books, but all have VERY strong women...which you'll be surprised to know, appeals to me! :)

I had intended to post pics on this update, but I'm having technical difficulties. I'll try again later!

4 comments:

~aj~ said...

Give Luke a couple more weeks and then let me know if your thoughts on induction have changed. ;)

J/K I'm right there with you in letting things happen when they are going to happen, unless it's to the detriment of mommy or baby.

That's very strange that they wanted to put you on bedrest at 39 weeks. I can understand if your blood pressure was at a point that yours or Luke's health was a concern, but even my friends that have been on bedrest towards the end of their pregnancies get taken off at 38/39 weeks (as long as it's deemed safe) because they've made it to full term and labor at that point would be a GOOD thing.

Luke can't stay in there MUCH longer and we are so looking forward to him joining our family! And good for you for being so organized/prepared beforehand. My hat is off to you! (If I had a hat, that is)

Roland Denzel said...

glad to see you're doing well. Hi to the family! :)

Debby said...

I remember those last days of pregnancy. I could rest with out guilt, I could move slowly, have an excuse to withdraw from a lot of outside activities, and turn my focus within, to my family, to myself. I kind of liked those days, as physically challenging as theywere.

RedWifey said...

AJ, I'm not sure she wanted to put me on bedrest, I could just see her mulling it over and when she mentioned the word I just tried to put it out of her mind. So, yes, we're all in agreement that labor would be a good thing, but if there were a certain protein in the wrong place (indicating true hypertension), I'm pretty sure we would have been talking induction instead of bedrest...surely!

@Roland: Hiya!!

@Debby: The real physical challenge that I face is sleeping. I reach a point about 3 AM that neither side is good and the hip joints are just BURNING...like there's no cartilage there to cushion the ball fitting into the socket. And I just think to myself, if I'm going to be awake this much, I might as well be feeding a newborn.

Alas, he will come out one day or another.