Week 39

Stupid hurricane irene. our power at the house is lost and i have the entry there. I promise, as soon as it's up i'll have it posted.

6 days later... we have power. Here we go!
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Was it just a week ago that I baked myself a batch of chocolate chip cookies ?! It feels like a lifetime ago. Well all things considered it is a different life now. Late in the afternoon Tuesday, August 23, 2011 we welcomed our baby in this world. In a matter of moments our lives changed. 

It all started on Sunday morning. I noticed I lost my mucus plug. I had been looking out for that for about two weeks because from what I hear, once you see that you can assume labor will follow. It might take a week or two but it will follow. So you can imagine my discomfort that I was going to be 40 weeks soon and I hadn’t seen anything. So I see that Sunday morning and I am super psyched. We walked around a lot, put a part of the baby’s closet together, and later went go Guilford for dinner. Monday morning I woke up early as usually but this time instead of lying in bed for another two hours I decide to go downstairs and finish the art project I was working on for the baby’s room at like 6am. Around 6:30ish I noticed a big gush of water and soon realized my water had broke. I tell Anand and we decide to wait until 9am to call the doctor since the office didn’t open till then and I was having no contractions. But around 8am we changed our minds and I called the doctor. He told me to come in the office and see him that morning. After doing some exams, he confirmed my water did break. He decided since I was not having any contractions and the baby was not in a danger, they would induce me either later that day or early Tuesday morning. He sent us back home to wait for a call from the office letting us know when we would have to check in into the hospital. That morning seemed to drag forever. Later in the day we got a call to come to the hospital that day at 8pm. They advised that I eat a big meal since it would be the last one before the delivery. So I did. Hello Malaysian food! Here’s what happened next:

8pm – check into Yale New Haven Hospital.

10 pm – start inducement with a catheter since I wasn’t dilated at all. Contractions start almost immediately.

Midnight- Nurse checks to see the progress – no progress.

3am – super discomfort and I ask the nurse to let me walk around the unit. She gets the doctor’s permission and says I’m allowed to walk for only 15 minutes. The doctor decides to come check my progress. 

3:15am – doctor confirms that I am about 4cm dilated. She okays me to move to labor and delivery to start my epidural. 

5am – epidural injected. Contractions stop within minutes and they start me on pitocin.

6:30 am – about 6 cm dilated.

7-11am – no change.

11am – Noon – contractions get stronger but only 6cm dilated.

Noon – doctors is a little concerned that I’m not more (?) dilated and says to wait for about an hour before she decides what to do (as in go ahead with a C-section). Contractions get strong and are about 3 minutes apart. She does an exam and realizes that my water didn’t break like I and the doctor has though. She breaks my water (yes, I know! What was the other doctor who saw me the day before was thinking?!!)

1:45pm – I’m about 9.5cm dilated and she tells me to get ready to start pushing. Contractions are about 1.5-3 minutes apart.

2:00pm – the earth quakes and I start pushing.

3:00pm- I want to give up. 

3:15-3:30pm- I cry. I whine. I throw up. I void. I cry more. They bring in a mirror to show me the progress. I want to smack the nurse who’s being too nice. I almost cuss my doctor out. I hate her at this point because she won’t put me out of misery. 

3:45pm – I want to give up and tell the doctor I literally can’t do this. She laughs and tells me that it’s almost too late to turn around. The only way they would is if the baby was in danger and the baby was not. 

3:45 – 4:00pm – the room gets busy. There is another doctor in the room and they bring in a cart to start the end of my labor. 

4:03pm – Veer is born. 

Week 38

I gotta be honest. I don’t really remember Week 38. I mean I do, if I break down each day, but as a whole not really sure what happened. My parents came to visit. I went for a walk around my condo complex by myself. I made Idli/Sambar one night. Thank God I have my phone and  I have captured some photos of things thru out the week. Here we go:

This first picture is of my feet from last Wednesday or Thursday. I have never seen them swollen like this before. It’s not a camera angle that makes them look like that. They really are that big. You can call me Ms. Cankles temporarily.

This second picture shows the baby’s butt, foot, or knee pushing out. As you can imagine the belly should be semi round but the left side of the mountain is clearly raised. Use the line going down my belly to see how raised the left side is.

Oh, let me go back and tell you why I captured that photo. Early Wednesday morning, like 2am early, I got up to use the bathroom. Immediately I knew I wasn’t feeling well. I went to the bathroom and came back to bed. I started getting the worst stomach pains I have I ever felt. I had to go to the bathroom again. This time it was a little ugly if you catch my drift. I came back to bed. My lower back started hurting and I felt like I was going to throw up. I suck it up and sit in bed for a while. I check online to see if all or any of my symptoms were a sign of labor. Most sites said it was and recommended to call the doctor immediately.  I couldn’t take it anymore and woke Anand up at 2:20. We weren’t sure if it was labor, so we called Kavita and she suggested we call the doctor too. So we page the doctor at 2:25 and he calls us back within minutes. He said it could be something I ate or a virus. He said if it continued come see him at the office in the morning. He said there is nothing he can do about it and just to relax and hydrate myself since I probably lost so much water. If it was uterine cramps then we would have been in luck. He asked me to confirm the baby was moving. The stomach pain was probably the result of something I ate, which later I realized it must have been the bowl full of pasta that was super high in fiber. And later, I had some broccoli rabe. Back to the baby – well he was moving so much that a whole section of his/her body was sticking out. I have never seen a body part stick out that much. Anand witnessed it and can vouch that the picture doesn’t do justice to what we actually saw. It was pretty cool.

And this last picture is of the baby’s, okay fine, my crazy pregnancy cravings. I promise you that I really am a believer of mind over matter. I think most things you can control. But I swear there are times that no matter how much you try not to think about the warm and delicious Chocolate Lava Cake with Vanilla ice cream from Chili’s it’s something you cannot control. Case in point. So I couldn’t get the lava cake at 10:30 at night but I could make something at home. With my Kitchenaid by my side, I whipped up these super soft chocolate chip cookies in a matter of minutes. From scratch. Oh, yeah. The longest part was waiting for them to bake. By 11pm, my craving was satisfied and the baby was kicking with joy. That’s just the kind of mother I am. I am here to please.

Week 37

The doctor's appointment on Friday confirmed that we are going to have a large baby. the baby on Friday was about 7lbs 6oz and they are estimating the baby to be about 8-9lbs at birth. I told the doctor of my self diagnosis of early on set of arthritis and he confirmed it's not arthritis.. It’s just water retention. I was glad to hear that but I can’t believe even my fingers have retained water. That’s not the worst part. I think my nose grew. My nose ring is a little tight and it digs in deep into my nose. I am afraid I will have to take it out.

Since my last post I feel a little calm. I remember the uncomfortable-ness and just nausea from last week - well, that has passed. I’m uncomfortable but not as much as I was last week. I feel like in a matter of a few weeks, my belly grew so much that normal tasks (walking) are a pain. I’m starting to get knee pain again like I did during month 3. I’m sure it’ll pass once I’ve lost like 20lbs.

We’ve been on a hiatus with the baby’s room. I still have one more wall art to finish and we still need to find a twin size bed for the baby’s room. I think and hope we will tackle that this weekend. Who knows, maybe I can convince Anand to go to Ikea with me.

Before next week I want to pack my bags. The baby’s bag is packed. Anand needs to pack his bag too. We want to find a bed. Learn how to use the breast pump. Buy nursing bras.

I’m not sure if it was a labor sign or something else. I felt menstrual cramping for a few minutes and during the day like a strong jab in my abdomen. It never happened again. But I ask you this? How will I know I’m having a contraction… or at least early signs of it. They get stronger as labor progresses but maybe my threshold for pain is much stronger and I’ll just dismiss it. I hope there is an obvious sign that I’m in labor when it actually happens.

I have one small request to the baby and God  - please don’t make me go into labor at night time or the middle of night. I am so cranky if I don’t get sleep and the whole process would not be good if I didn’t at least sleep 7 hours. Okay, thanks!

Week 36

I did a complete 180 in the last week. I want the baby to come now. No more, “oh I want the bay to come in the last week of August”.  Baby.  Must. Arrive. Now. The extra weight that I’ve gained in the last 2 weeks (probably 5lbs) has really put an additional stress on my back. My back hurts a lot now a days. Saturday night I must have sat funny for like 2 minutes and my back gave out and was stiff for a day. Sleeping was uncomfortable and even walking was uncomfortable. I noticed if I sit in a place for too long it becomes stiff again.

During last week’s doctor’s appointment the doctor told me that she thinks the baby is probably 6lbs at that point and might be 8-8.5 lbs at birth. That’s kinda scary. That’s a big baby. Little butter ball. We have an ultrasound this Friday to see how big the baby is and it might give us a better understanding of baby’s potential birth weight. It will be the first time Anand will see the baby on the black and white screen. He’s super excited.

Since last week- Prashanthi welcomed a baby boy, Niam Pranan Docca, on Sunday. Hetal welcomed a baby girl this morning, Sanya. I slightly got jealous when I heard Hetal had a baby girl because I still think it's a boy we are having. Disclaimer - I will be happy with a boy or a girl.

Here's the last picture (unless we go past my due date) of yours truely at 36 weeks *small weep*: