January18

Week 35

January 15, 2002

I went to the doctor yesterday and the test I took last Thursday came back positive: we now know that "labor is imminent". I still can't remember what the name of that test is and what it was that was tested; I think I'm going to call the nurse today to ask her about it because I'd like to know. Last night my appointment was for 4:15 but we didn't even go back into the room until over an hour later (now I remember why I always schedule my appointments for first thing in the morning!!) so by the time we saw Dr. Teague, it was about 5:30, and we had our childbirth class to get to at 6:00. So I didn't think to ask many questions; we were really hungry and getting stressed about getting to our class on time. I'll try to find out today though, I'd like to know what it was that was tested. All I know is that they collected SOMETHING and it was sent away to be tested. I really didn't even think it would come back positive at all, like everything else in this pregnancy, even when I have thought something was going on, I'd go to the doctor and find out it was absolutely nothing. I figured this would be the same thing, so when the doctor said the test came back positive, I was pretty surprised. I'm now continuing to take the "shaky pills" for the next two weeks, and hopefully that will keep the contractions away until I reach full term. I still start having contractions every so often when it's about a half hour before time to take my next pill. Dr. Teague told me if that keeps up or if it starts happening sooner than that, I'll go up to taking the pills every 5 hours instead of every 6 as I am now, and if that still doesn't work, I'll take them more frequently. They seem to be working pretty well though, so hopefully that will continue for the next couple weeks. I'm definitely feeling better about this baby coming now though than I was last Wednesday when I was in the hospital. For one thing, I had the family and friends shower on Saturday (more on that in a minute) so now I at least have a car seat and some things in case she gets here! And this weekend Phil and Mom got the border up in the nursery and we got the crib and changing table from our church friends and got that set up as well as a few other things in the room , so suddenly that's started (finally!) coming together! The Noah's Ark border looks so good, we couldn't have picked a better paint color to match this border! Now walking by the room, it feels like a nursery waiting for a baby, so that's helped me feel more ready I think, too. But mostly, I think I've just been mentally preparing over the last few days of being on (modified) bedrest. Whereas last Wednesday, suddenly we were in the hospital in labor, so I felt totally unready for the experience. Over the last few days I've started to get used to the idea that this baby is coming soon. I'm not feeling nearly as nervous about it at all. I'm still hoping she waits a couple more weeks at least, but I'm definitely feeling more mentally prepared for her now TRULY imminent arrival (I've been saying that for the past few weeks, now it's really true!) than I was feeling last week.

Like I mentioned, we had the baby shower at my Mom's house on Saturday. I got a lot of really great things, and it was so nice seeing so many people that I hadn't seen in awhile. It went really well; the living room was full of people, and my sisters decorated the place so nice. They floated balloons on the ceiling, just like we had at our wedding! They floated the cute little "chewy ark" set (plastic Noah's Ark tub toys) that I had registered for in the punch bowl, which was filled with blue punch. I didn't make the connection, but the "water" was blue just like the ocean. Very creative! Another special touch was that they set out a table full of scrapbooking supplies, and lots of guests used the materials to create scrapbook pages for me. My sisters then gave me a book in which I'll be putting all the pages as well as baby shower pictures! It will be a whole book of baby shower memories. I'll probably use the same book to put pictures and stuff in it from my church shower that I'm having tonight too. They gave away two favors at the shower: baby bottles filled with M&M's (we had several left over so I'll be bringing those to the church shower tonight too) and cinnamon buns, with the message attached "Thank you from Debby's little bun in the oven". Very cute!

Okay, I said I was going to make SHORT, frequent updates now so I'm trying to keep to that. (I just hadn't updated since last week and there was a lot to say this time) Stay tuned for all news on the Natalie front. Oh, but please don't get concerned if you DON'T see an update every single day; Homestead is frequently buggy and for no real reason won't let me update sometimes. Plus, I had a message in my email this morning that Homestead is going down for 48 hours for site updates on January 21st. So hopefully nothing much will be happening early and mid-next week.

January 16, 2002

I found out the name of the test and what it tested. I'm not sure if I'm spelling this right, but I think the nurse said the test was called "fetal fibernectin". If that's not how it is spelled, it is at least how it sounds (she just left a message on our machine last night while we were gone to the church shower so I couldn't ask her to spell it). I tried looking it up on the Internet this morning but I can't find anything about it, even on the sites that list all the prenatal tests. So I have no idea. She said the test takes a sample of cervical mucus (sorry; that's another one of those words that I could do without being in the English language, kind of like "pantyhose" and "moist" - ick!) and tests it for a certain enzyme that determines if the uterus is going into full labor. If it's positive, you are high risk for delivery within two weeks. The drugs that I'm on are supposed to just stop the uterus from contracting, but that enzyme is still there, so usually as soon as you go off the pills your body starts going into labor. At least I know that I probably won't need to be induced, but I don't think I'll be making it to Natalie's due date, let alone my Aunt Patti's birthday or Mexico's Flag Day anymore! Right now I'm just hoping to get through January; as much as I like garnets (it's my favorite stone -other than diamond- :-) and is also January's birthstone), I've gotten used to the idea of an amethyst baby and I'd like to keep her coming at least sometime in February!

I haven't had contractions the last couple of days, but suddenly everything just seems harder. Yesterday was my first day back at work after, well, leaving at lunchtime last Wednesday for the hospital and Thursday leaving early for my doctor appointment (then I had Friday and Monday off for bedrest). I got home from work yesterday and I just wanted to collapse because I was so exhausted. Who would have thought just sitting at my desk in front of a computer all day, yet not able to relax in my recliner like I was at home, would be so much more difficult? Everything is sore and hurting. At work I'm now pretty much an invalid; I basically only get up to go to the bathroom (which is about every 20 minutes or so!) and my co-workers are doing everything else: fetching water, snacks, etc. No one seems to mind though, I think it's mostly just annoying to myself to have to ask someone to get me everything. I'm just trying to get all my outstanding projects finished up so that I can leave knowing I've not left anyone in a bind to finish my work. Natalie, you're going to at least let me do that, right? :-)

I'm sure I'm also more tired today than I would normally be because last night I had my church shower. It was so much fun and a lot of people showed up; Renee (my friend who organized it) said there were around 30 people there. It was such a blessing to see so many people that love and care for us from our church family. I'll write more about both the showers themselves later; I don't want to forget any detail from those but it would take up a whole journal entry alone! I got a lot of nice things, but there is still so much more that I need for this baby, I just can't believe it! Last night after we got home, Phil and I started putting stuff away and in doing so we realized how few things we really have, even in clothes which is what you often get a lot of at showers. Most of the clothes we have are 0-3 months, but we actually might get some use out of those if she comes early! We're also going to need a some winter clothes; most of what we've gotten are lightweight gowns and such. It's gonna be cold the next couple of months! Looking down the road though only just a couple months is what we are really missing. I have a feeling we'll be spending lots of time and money at Once Upon a Child in the next year!! Besides clothes, we still need bottles and a breast pump, a changing table pad, clothes hangers, a bassinet mattress and cover, first aid supplies, grooming and bath stuff, like washcloths, towels, combs, brushes and such, and diapers, we don't have any diapers except for medium size, and a diaper pail, well, the list goes on and on really. And toys. I think we only have about four toys so far! If she's anything like Phil she'll get bored with those in just the first week. :-) This weekend we're going to take the money we got and go shopping for at least a few more of the staples. We'll have to hold off on a lot of things for later on, like cups and bowls, bath stuff for once she's out of the baby bathtub, and baby-safety stuff like gates, and locks for cabinets and drawers. At least she won't need stuff like that for a few months. I just never thought there would be so many things a baby needs as "staple items"!

January 18, 2002

Okay, this will be the last update concerning the test I had last week. I finally found out how it was spelled, so once I did I was able to find out lots of information about it. It's called fetal fibronectin, or fFn for short. (This link will take you to a pretty good article about it that I found, from OSU medical center published in 1996.) It tests for the presence of fibronectin around the cervix. Fibronectin is the glue-like stuff that holds the amniotic fluid sac to the walls of the uterus. After about week 22 of pregnancy, there shouldn't be any trace of this outside of the uterus, and if there is (causing a positive result on the test) then a separation or small break has occurred, causing the substance to leak down. This doesn't mean my water has broken yet, it just means that it has for whatever reason started to separate. Usually when this happens, labor comes within two weeks. So far I've made it over a week since the test, so that's a good thing! One week to go until I'm considered in a safer zone for giving birth! Most babies born around week 37 have no problems at all. She just might be a little smaller. She'd probably be okay if she was born now too, but the chance for breathing/lung problems are just more increased. Babies are gaining 5 ounces or more per week right now, so every day she stays in there cooking the better.

This week has been a real struggle for me at work. By the time I get ready in the morning and get out the door, I've already been on my feet for about 45 minutes and it just leaves me almost in tears. So then I just mostly sit all day in front of the computer, but it's still so much more exhausting then just sitting or laying around at home. Taking a break while at work usually means getting away from your desk for a few minutes, but I can't do that anymore, and as long as I'm sitting in front of my computer it looks like I'm slacking off if I lay back in my chair and don't look productive. I really don't know anymore if I'm going to make it keeping a full work schedule until delivery like I've hoped to do. My manager is trying to get a laptop set up for me, so hopefully that will be put together and I could get the option of working some time from home, even maybe just half days or something like that. At least if I could do that, I could lay down and rest whenever I needed to (and still get the same amount of work done as a normal day here!) instead of trying to bravely push through it and look and act like nothing is different. I'm still having contractions off and on - the same kind I had last week and not Braxton-Hicks. (I can definitely tell a difference now!) Wednesday afternoon around 4:00 I started having them pretty bad again. (Someday I'm going to get a kick out of telling Natalie how long I was "in labor" with her.) After about 20 minutes I took my next Brethine pill just a little early and that helped to make them go away. I think I just did too much; I went to Hometown Buffet with my friend Jaime for lunch, and I think just having to walk around to get my food was enough to push me over my physical limit for the day. Dr. Teague said that if I had a job that required me to stand or walk all day, I'd be at home on bedrest now, but since I have a desk job I could go back to work. I'm glad about that; there's a lot I still want to get done, but it's really hard to not move around at a desk job all day too. I just can't even believe it that this week wiped me out so much and I didn't even work a full week; I've only been in since Tuesday!

This weekend I have big plans once again: to sit, sit, sit! (And sleep, sleep, sleep too!)



	Week 35 January 15, 2002 I went to the doctor yesterday and the test I took last Thursday came back positive: we now know that "labor is imminent". I still can't remember what the name of that test is and what it was that was tested; I think I'm going to call the nurse today to ask her about it because I'd like to know. Last night my appointment was for 4:15 but we didn't even go back into the room until over an hour later (now I remember why I always schedule my appointments for first thing in the morning!!) so by the time we saw Dr. Teague, it was about 5:30, and we had our childbirth class to get to at 6:00. So I didn't think to ask many questions; we were really hungry and getting stressed about getting to our class on time. I'll try to find out today though, I'd like to know what it was that was tested. All I know is that they collected SOMETHING and it was sent away to be tested. I really didn't even think it would come back positive at all, like everything else in this pregnancy, even when I have thought something was going on, I'd go to the doctor and find out it was absolutely nothing. I figured this would be the same thing, so when the doctor said the test came back positive, I was pretty surprised. I'm now continuing to take the "shaky pills" for the next two weeks, and hopefully that will keep the contractions away until I reach full term. I still start having contractions every so often when it's about a half hour before time to take my next pill. Dr. Teague told me if that keeps up or if it starts happening sooner than that, I'll go up to taking the pills every 5 hours instead of every 6 as I am now, and if that still doesn't work, I'll take them more frequently. They seem to be working pretty well though, so hopefully that will continue for the next couple weeks. I'm definitely feeling better about this baby coming now though than I was last Wednesday when I was in the hospital. For one thing, I had the family and friends shower on Saturday (more on that in a minute) so now I at least have a car seat and some things in case she gets here! And this weekend Phil and Mom got the border up in the nursery and we got the crib and changing table from our church friends and got that set up as well as a few other things in the room , so suddenly that's started (finally!) coming together! The Noah's Ark border looks so good, we couldn't have picked a better paint color to match this border! Now walking by the room, it feels like a nursery waiting for a baby, so that's helped me feel more ready I think, too. But mostly, I think I've just been mentally preparing over the last few days of being on (modified) bedrest. Whereas last Wednesday, suddenly we were in the hospital in labor, so I felt totally unready for the experience. Over the last few days I've started to get used to the idea that this baby is coming soon. I'm not feeling nearly as nervous about it at all. I'm still hoping she waits a couple more weeks at least, but I'm definitely feeling more mentally prepared for her now TRULY imminent arrival (I've been saying that for the past few weeks, now it's really true!) than I was feeling last week. Like I mentioned, we had the baby shower at my Mom's house on Saturday. I got a lot of really great things, and it was so nice seeing so many people that I hadn't seen in awhile. It went really well; the living room was full of people, and my sisters decorated the place so nice. They floated balloons on the ceiling, just like we had at our wedding! They floated the cute little "chewy ark" set (plastic Noah's Ark tub toys) that I had registered for in the punch bowl, which was filled with blue punch. I didn't make the connection, but the "water" was blue just like the ocean. Very creative! Another special touch was that they set out a table full of scrapbooking supplies, and lots of guests used the materials to create scrapbook pages for me. My sisters then gave me a book in which I'll be putting all the pages as well as baby shower pictures! It will be a whole book of baby shower memories. I'll probably use the same book to put pictures and stuff in it from my church shower that I'm having tonight too. They gave away two favors at the shower: baby bottles filled with M&M's (we had several left over so I'll be bringing those to the church shower tonight too) and cinnamon buns, with the message attached "Thank you from Debby's little bun in the oven". Very cute! Okay, I said I was going to make SHORT, frequent updates now so I'm trying to keep to that. (I just hadn't updated since last week and there was a lot to say this time) Stay tuned for all news on the Natalie front. Oh, but please don't get concerned if you DON'T see an update every single day; Homestead is frequently buggy and for no real reason won't let me update sometimes. Plus, I had a message in my email this morning that Homestead is going down for 48 hours for site updates on January 21st. So hopefully nothing much will be happening early and mid-next week. January 16, 2002 I found out the name of the test and what it tested. I'm not sure if I'm spelling this right, but I think the nurse said the test was called "fetal fibernectin". If that's not how it is spelled, it is at least how it sounds (she just left a message on our machine last night while we were gone to the church shower so I couldn't ask her to spell it). I tried looking it up on the Internet this morning but I can't find anything about it, even on the sites that list all the prenatal tests. So I have no idea. She said the test takes a sample of cervical mucus (sorry; that's another one of those words that I could do without being in the English language, kind of like "pantyhose" and "moist" - ick!) and tests it for a certain enzyme that determines if the uterus is going into full labor. If it's positive, you are high risk for delivery within two weeks. The drugs that I'm on are supposed to just stop the uterus from contracting, but that enzyme is still there, so usually as soon as you go off the pills your body starts going into labor. At least I know that I probably won't need to be induced, but I don't think I'll be making it to Natalie's due date, let alone my Aunt Patti's birthday or Mexico's Flag Day anymore! Right now I'm just hoping to get through January; as much as I like garnets (it's my favorite stone -other than diamond- :-) and is also January's birthstone), I've gotten used to the idea of an amethyst baby and I'd like to keep her coming at least sometime in February! I haven't had contractions the last couple of days, but suddenly everything just seems harder. Yesterday was my first day back at work after, well, leaving at lunchtime last Wednesday for the hospital and Thursday leaving early for my doctor appointment (then I had Friday and Monday off for bedrest). I got home from work yesterday and I just wanted to collapse because I was so exhausted. Who would have thought just sitting at my desk in front of a computer all day, yet not able to relax in my recliner like I was at home, would be so much more difficult? Everything is sore and hurting. At work I'm now pretty much an invalid; I basically only get up to go to the bathroom (which is about every 20 minutes or so!) and my co-workers are doing everything else: fetching water, snacks, etc. No one seems to mind though, I think it's mostly just annoying to myself to have to ask someone to get me everything. I'm just trying to get all my outstanding projects finished up so that I can leave knowing I've not left anyone in a bind to finish my work. Natalie, you're going to at least let me do that, right? :-) I'm sure I'm also more tired today than I would normally be because last night I had my church shower. It was so much fun and a lot of people showed up; Renee (my friend who organized it) said there were around 30 people there. It was such a blessing to see so many people that love and care for us from our church family. I'll write more about both the showers themselves later; I don't want to forget any detail from those but it would take up a whole journal entry alone! I got a lot of nice things, but there is still so much more that I need for this baby, I just can't believe it! Last night after we got home, Phil and I started putting stuff away and in doing so we realized how few things we really have, even in clothes which is what you often get a lot of at showers. Most of the clothes we have are 0-3 months, but we actually might get some use out of those if she comes early! We're also going to need a some winter clothes; most of what we've gotten are lightweight gowns and such. It's gonna be cold the next couple of months! Looking down the road though only just a couple months is what we are really missing. I have a feeling we'll be spending lots of time and money at Once Upon a Child in the next year!! Besides clothes, we still need bottles and a breast pump, a changing table pad, clothes hangers, a bassinet mattress and cover, first aid supplies, grooming and bath stuff, like washcloths, towels, combs, brushes and such, and diapers, we don't have any diapers except for medium size, and a diaper pail, well, the list goes on and on really. And toys. I think we only have about four toys so far! If she's anything like Phil she'll get bored with those in just the first week. :-) This weekend we're going to take the money we got and go shopping for at least a few more of the staples. We'll have to hold off on a lot of things for later on, like cups and bowls, bath stuff for once she's out of the baby bathtub, and baby-safety stuff like gates, and locks for cabinets and drawers. At least she won't need stuff like that for a few months. I just never thought there would be so many things a baby needs as "staple items"! January 18, 2002 Okay, this will be the last update concerning the test I had last week. I finally found out how it was spelled, so once I did I was able to find out lots of information about it. It's called fetal fibronectin, or fFn for short. (This link will take you to a pretty good article about it that I found, from OSU medical center published in 1996.) It tests for the presence of fibronectin around the cervix. Fibronectin is the glue-like stuff that holds the amniotic fluid sac to the walls of the uterus. After about week 22 of pregnancy, there shouldn't be any trace of this outside of the uterus, and if there is (causing a positive result on the test) then a separation or small break has occurred, causing the substance to leak down. This doesn't mean my water has broken yet, it just means that it has for whatever reason started to separate. Usually when this happens, labor comes within two weeks. So far I've made it over a week since the test, so that's a good thing! One week to go until I'm considered in a safer zone for giving birth! Most babies born around week 37 have no problems at all. She just might be a little smaller. She'd probably be okay if she was born now too, but the chance for breathing/lung problems are just more increased. Babies are gaining 5 ounces or more per week right now, so every day she stays in there cooking the better. This week has been a real struggle for me at work. By the time I get ready in the morning and get out the door, I've already been on my feet for about 45 minutes and it just leaves me almost in tears. So then I just mostly sit all day in front of the computer, but it's still so much more exhausting then just sitting or laying around at home. Taking a break while at work usually means getting away from your desk for a few minutes, but I can't do that anymore, and as long as I'm sitting in front of my computer it looks like I'm slacking off if I lay back in my chair and don't look productive. I really don't know anymore if I'm going to make it keeping a full work schedule until delivery like I've hoped to do. My manager is trying to get a laptop set up for me, so hopefully that will be put together and I could get the option of working some time from home, even maybe just half days or something like that. At least if I could do that, I could lay down and rest whenever I needed to (and still get the same amount of work done as a normal day here!) instead of trying to bravely push through it and look and act like nothing is different. I'm still having contractions off and on - the same kind I had last week and not Braxton-Hicks. (I can definitely tell a difference now!) Wednesday afternoon around 4:00 I started having them pretty bad again. (Someday I'm going to get a kick out of telling Natalie how long I was "in labor" with her.) After about 20 minutes I took my next Brethine pill just a little early and that helped to make them go away. I think I just did too much; I went to Hometown Buffet with my friend Jaime for lunch, and I think just having to walk around to get my food was enough to push me over my physical limit for the day. Dr. Teague said that if I had a job that required me to stand or walk all day, I'd be at home on bedrest now, but since I have a desk job I could go back to work. I'm glad about that; there's a lot I still want to get done, but it's really hard to not move around at a desk job all day too. I just can't even believe it that this week wiped me out so much and I didn't even work a full week; I've only been in since Tuesday! This weekend I have big plans once again: to sit, sit, sit! (And sleep, sleep, sleep too!)