Appointment update

So I had my OB appointment yesterday. Everything looked fine, my blood pressure was still low (this was worrying me, as last time it started to go up by the end of the pregnancy) and I have gained one pound since my last appointment (3 weeks ago), in a total of 16.5 pounds. She wanted to hear the baby’s heartbeat during a contraction, since I’m having so many lately, but of course I didn’t have any during the entire time I was there. Classical.
She looked at my chart and said that when I was 36 weeks along with R I had 15 pounds more than what I have now! I honestly can’t remember how I was able to work and even get out of bed back then.
She then started to feel and measure my uterus and she said the baby is now fully engaged and my uterus is measuring less than it was 3 weeks ago. That is why I have to pee every 30 minutes and sometimes it feels like something is digging its way out of my vagina, literally. She laughed and said she knows exactly what I mean and it must be funny when women try to explain that feeling to a male doctor.
She didn’t check my cervix, as it is still too early for this baby to be born and we don’t want to speed things up by messing around down there. But with this much pressure, I’m pretty sure it’s starting to efface. She wants me back on Monday, since Wednesday is a holiday here, and she gave me her cell phone in case something happens. We also tentatively scheduled one last ultrasound for the 13th to take some measures and decide on the vaginal birth vs c-section. She sounded much more willing to try a vaginal birth this time and I am so happy. I really hope I can do it, I’m terrified of having a c-section.

It was a good appointment and in a way I’m glad to start going weekly. I can’t wait to put this show on the road.

Enough

I’m starting to feel I’m on the limit with this pregnancy. My hands and feet have been swelling in the afternoon for awhile now, but in the past few days they are no longer back to normal in the morning. On Sunday I took off my wedding ring and will not be wearing it until after the baby is born, which happened at 27 weeks with my previous pregnancy, so I guess it’s not that bad.
I’m tired of course, and I find myself napping on the weekends and going to sleep on the couch at 10 pm. I’m now going to bathroom every 30 minutes or so, and every 2 hours at night. I feel the baby kicking so low it sometimes feels like he is going to come out right there.

Pregnancy is a wonderful time, and I have really enjoyed it this time, much more so than last time, since I gained half the weight, had no acne and felt great all the time. But nature is wise and, when time is near, pregnancy becomes so uncomfortable you no longer want to be pregnant, you forget your fear of labor, your concerns about how your life will change, and you just wish the baby would come out already. I am entering this stage now. I packed my hospital bag this weekend and finished washing and folding the baby’s clothes. I am ready.

This afternoonI have an OB appointment, and I’m afraid that she will just check my weight and blood pressure and ask me to come back in a week, which is probably what will happen. At 35 weeks and 5 days I’m sure she will not want to talk about dates or anything. I so wish I could have a date.

The kidney saga – Part XXXX.

The doctors are now saying it will be at least 2 to 3 more weeks until the surgery, because even if they would schedule it now, my BIL has to go through 2 weeks of immune suppression before the transplant. Apparently they knew this since the beginning but forgot to tell us about it. No comments.
What’s worrying me the most is that they are also saying they cannot find out why he rejected his first transplant (from a dead donor) 8 years ago. They were hoping that the report from the hospital where he had the transplant (a different one) would give them an answer but it hasn’t, and they are confused and worried. They sent samples of his blood to several labs across Europe to see if they can find a new antibody or something that can justify his acute rejection (the kidney didn’t just stop working, as rejections usually happen. He developed an acute reaction and it had to be removed 3 days after the transplant and he nearly died). None of the labs found anything so it looks like we will never know what happened.

So basically what they are saying is, “we don’t know why he rejected the kidney, we think there’s a good chance it will happen again, and we’re not sure it’s worth the risk for both him and the donor”.

I’m really angry about this because this scenario was never presented to us before. They told us we were going ahead with the surgery and they even gave us a probable date. My BIL is so totally convinced this is going to happen (we haven’t told him the latest developments), he is making plans for his new life, he is just so excited. And now there may not even be a surgery at all. It’s just not fair, things should’ve been clear from the beginning. I swear, I would rather the surgery was on the exact same day as my delivery than not having a surgery at all.

Anyway, if they ask us if we are willing to take the risk of him rejecting the kidney we are going to say yes. Zé Maria would prefer to have this surgery in vain (would he reject) rather than forever wondering if it would’ve worked. I think my BIL is willing to risk it too. Let’s just hope they leave it up to us.

Finally

The last bathroom is finally done and our house is all ready! Here are the pictures I promissed.

Before
.

After

34 weeks 6 days

I know it’s been awhile since I last posted and I feel bad about it. But things have been absolutely crazy at work and I haven’t had even a few minutes to write something. I am trying to pass all my projects to the new girl and at the same time trying to finish some things before I leave. Yesterday by 7 pm I was so tired I started timing contractions and they were coming every 10 minutes. It lasted for over an hour, until I decided I needed to go home and rest.

Anyway, there isn’t much to say really. We have another wedding this Saturday but other than that it should be a calm weekend. The other bathroom we’re remodelling should be done today, but they have been saying that for the last 2 and ½ months so I’m not too confident about it. The man who’s doing the remodelling is practically family now (reminds me of the painter in Murphy Brown) and R has become good friends with him. I guess we’ll miss him when he’s gone (not really).

On the pregnancy front everything is as it should be. I feel huge, though I’ve only gained 17.5 lbs so far, which is about half of what I gained with R. And I’m tired, especially because I wake up to go pee every hour or so (not kidding). I keep wondering how on earth I was able to do this with double the weight gain. I don’t remember being this tired.
I’m going to be 35 weeks tomorrow and there’s still no date for Zé Maria’s surgery. I’m passed the stage when I was stressed out about it. There’s not much I can do so I arranged things for the event that we should both be at the hospital at the same time. If it happens, we’re prepared and we’ll live. My BIL, on the other hand, is getting really anxious about it, so I wish they would schedule it already, for his sake.

Rest? Did I say rest?

On Friday I had the wedding. Though I did take the day off, I had the brilliant idea of not leaving R at preschool and instead taking her with me to the hairdresser. That was fun! She insisted on doing everything I did, which included washing, cutting and drying her hair and doing her nails. Everyone in the salon thought it was hilarious (I admit it was funny) but I got out of there poor and exhausted and wondering why the hell didn’t I drop her at preschool.

Then on Saturday and Sunday we helped my sister with her move. No one else showed up to help so it was me and her (the pregnant duo) unpacking and our husbands dragging the furniture. By the end of the day yesterday there were no boxes left unopened but we were all exhausted. So basically I’m glad the long weekend is over and I can come to work and get some rest.

Here are a couple of pictures of me in the wedding outfit. I had no make-up or shoes yet, but you get the idea.

Caution, serious complaining inside!

This pregnancy is starting to take its toll on me. I have been waking up several times at night because of BH contractions and for countless trips to the bathroom. I walk R to school and then I walk to work as I always do but I get there absolutely exhausted. I can barely eat because there is so little space in there, but then half an hour later I’m starving again. And I’m starting to have a hard time breathing for lack of space. I can hardly believe I still have a month to go before the baby is born.

The transplant has not been scheduled yet and that’s stressing me out a bit. I’m a planner, I don’t like to know these things at the last minute and I need to know whether we will be in the hospital at the same time and therefore need to arrange for someone to stay with R. I don’t know whether to wish for it to be as soon as possible of for it to be delayed for after the baby’s born.

So I decided to take the day off tomorrow. We have a wedding at 3.30 pm and had to leave work early anyway, so I just went ahead and took the day off. I’ll go have my hair cut, and have a manicure and just rest. So there will probably be no post from me until next week.

Finally, pictures

You wanted pictures of the remodelled bathroom, so here they are.

This is before .
This bathroom used to open into the kitchen so what we did was we closed this door and opened a door to the hall. Then we basically had everything changed and turned into a "social bathroom". We finished painting it last night.











This is the after















As for the other bathroom, it should be completely done by Friday and I'll post pictures then.

I think I'm going crazy

The beige and the red are done and we’ll start the silver tonight so I may have pictures tomorrow. The hem on the table cloth is also done. Next step is to start putting M’s clothes that have already been washed and folded in his closet. I’m starting to get worried about what I’ll do when everything is ready. I seem to have this urge to do stuff, sew, clean, paint, whatever, after we put R to bed. I guess I still have to pack my hospital bag but it seems too early for that. Oh, and my sister is moving next weekend so I guess I can also help her with that… two 8 months pregnant women dragging furniture should be fun.

Work is slowing down, because my boss seems to have finally realized that this baby is coming soon and is no longer giving me new projects. We have a new girl who started last Monday and I’m supposed to start transferring my on-going projects to her. She knows absolutely nothing about M&A but she seems bright and interested and I still have about a month or so so I think I will be able to go on my maternity leave without too much of a guilty conscience.

Daddy's girl... and yet more nesting.

So we started painting the bathroom yesterday. The idea was to go slowly and take 2 or 3 days to paint each colour but of course we ended up painting all the beige stripes and went to bed past 1 am again. I also cut the fabric to make a round table cloth for a small round table we bought for M’s room. Let me tell you, cutting a round table cloth is not easy. Once we finish the bathroom I will sew the hem on that, which should also be a handful. But hey, I’m not complaining… yet.

This morning Zé Maria went to donate blood and I had to take R to school alone. For the first time since school started this year she did not cry her eyes out. In fact, she gave me a kiss and a hug and just went in the room and didn’t even look back. I’ve been trying to tell Zé Maria he is the disturbing factor here, he spoils her too much and she is much more clingy and dependent when he is around. I think I just proved my point this morning. I called him and made him admit she is a daddy’s girl and he is to blame if she becomes a spoiled brat.

Appointment update

I had my OB appointment this morning, at 32 weeks and 6 days. Everything seems fine, I have gained 15.5 lbs according to her scale, my blood pressure was 110/640 and we heard the heartbeat with the Doppler. I am to go back in 3 weeks.

She looked at the ultrasound I had two weeks ago and asked me if I still had the ultrasound I had with R at 30 weeks, so that we can compare the size of the babies head. So I’ll bring that in next time so we can start discussing whether or not I’m going to have a c-section.

She also said I can paint the bathroom if I feel up to it (I was wondering because of the fumes and all). So the nesting continues.

Nesting - Part II

We’re finally painting the bathroom. One of the bathrooms we remodelled during the summer was painted in white so that we would later decide what to do.
It is a social bathroom (no bath, in fact) and the floor and counter are in red stone. So we thought about using wall paper but couldn’t find any we liked and finally decided to paint red, beige and silver stripes. It sounds weird but it will turn out beautiful… I hope.
So yesterday we spent the entire evening drawing the stripes with a ruler and pencil. It was past 1 am when we finished and you can imagine how my back was hurting after hours sitting under the counter drawing stripes. Why must we do the complicated stuff when I’m 32 weeks pregnant?
Today we’ll start the real painting, which will take a few days since we have to paint one colour at a time, and wait for it to dry before starting a new colour. I promise to post pictures when it’s over.

We have also set up the bassinet in our room, all of R’s old clothes that are usable have been washed and folded and I’ve already bought a few new things. I think there’s a good chance that everything will be ready by the time Zé Maria has his surgery.

Tomorrow is my OB appointment.

Sad times

I’m back from my business trip and my heart is aching. I am overwhelmed by what is happening in New Orleans. As I watched the news alone, in my hotel room, all I could think was what those mothers must be feeling, not being able to feed their children, what those people who lost everything they owned must be going through. I’m so happy to be home now, with my family. I just don’t know what else to say.

The transplant surgeon called to say the surgery will not take place before the 20th. I will be 34 weeks by then so I’m praying it won’t be too long after that. The idea of Zé Maria and I being at the hospital at the same time is stressing me out again. Not only because he might not be able to meet his son for a few days after he’s born, or even because I don’t want to be alone when it happens. What’s stressing me out more than all that is what will happen with R. Of course I know she will stay at my Mom’s, like she has so many times before, when we go out or when we travel. But she will have a new brother and both her parents will be in a hospital. I can imagine how insecure and lost she will feel if it comes to that. I’m praying for a surgery date no later than the 30th.

Meanwhile I’m 32 weeks today and still feeling pretty well. The baby is kicking like crazy and wakes me up all the time but somehow I’m not as tired as I expected. I have an OB appointment next Wednesday and I’ll most likely start going every 2 weeks instead of once a month. Not much longer now.