Due late March, 2009. Still surprised.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

John Updike RIP

Loved the journalism, some of the novels. Met him once at a party north of Boston. 11 years ago or so. One of the homeliest people I've ever seen with a hawk-like profile. Happier to listen. Highly competitive at darts. Sad to think of these lions going. No more books.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

31.5

OB/Gyn visit. Blood pressure 120/70, slight trace of protein in urine. And the reason I feel horrible is b/c during your first pregnancy you have good muscle tone in your pelvic floor. And subsequent ones, you don't. You're feeling what you're supposed to feel a month from now, said my dr.

So... out of breath, had to stand for last half of meeting last nite, and all the constituents are amazed to hear there's 2 months to go. I remember counting the days after I thought I was supposed to have my period and thinking, 'hmmm, that's kind of a lot.' I think I tested nearly 2 weeks late, and the pregnancy stick was an instantpositive, no waiting at all....

I'm just trying to be grateful for something b/c even just breathing is a pain!!

Saturday, January 17, 2009

braxton hicks

yesterday it felt as though thumbelina was sitting VERY heavily in the middle of my belly and today this happened again. My conscious thought was "braxton hicks preterm labor" just like that at the repeated event. This is momentous b/c for my last pregnancy I never had ONE contraction at any point. And duedate came and went and still no contractions. And finally on day 12 I was induced, which was a 14 hour labor (no meds, yay me!) that went very uneventfully except for the part at the end where the placenta didn't detach. So after all that time, I had to have a spinal and my OB gingerly manually extracted the placenta. Truly scary. It might have grown into the uterus which would have been lightsout for that organ.

So Braxton Hicks I welcome. Anything that sets the tone this is a normal pregnancy!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

29 weeks

OB visit, totally uneventful. Negative glucose, trace of protein. I measure at 31 inches, though am at 29. OB startled by how active baby is. "She must have liked what you had for lunch." Baby will settle head down at 36 weeks. Until then, I am the punching bag and she's looking for an exit. They have no plans for an u/s unless they're concerned about size. I was taking iron pills per their request but taking iron pills makes me feel terrible. So I need to get product 19 and double up on the salad.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Why I am doing this

When I was pregnant with my son (at age 42), I found myself reading the very few forums that focussed on pregnancy for women in my page bracket. In the 2 years following his birth, we hoped to become pregnant again, and had brief dealings with a fertility specialist and also tried different herbs and the rest of it. When I turned 45, it seemed like that was it -- we were basically fired from the fertility people (4 IUIs had failed, hadn't done IVF were advised against it) and so we went about our lives. About a year before I conceived I started taking small amounts of Vitex, which seemed to enhance cervical mucous and a few months before started taking MACA because I am a workaholic and welcome anything that extends my day.

For the most part, I found the posts from women who had conceived in their post-42 years hopeful but not nearly frequent enough. For a number of reasons, I haven't posted on forums, but I welcome any readers to share this blog address with other readers who may benefit.

I am keeping this blog so I can keep track of what's going on with my pregnancy and also to give the rest of you some hope. You never know what's going to happen. I can feel the baby kicking and wiggling and it's the most natural thing in the world right now although statistically I probably don't even register.

Friday, January 2, 2009

27 weeks

Due to bad weather we were without power here for nearly 3 weeks and I had too much to do to update this the rare times I had access to email.

I am VERY tired of being pregnant, I'm hitting that exhausted stage virtually every day. Then again, dealing with the holidays, which start mid Dec. and go right thru January is pretty exhausting too. we are blessed in having lots of family and friends and this is the time o f year that visiting goes into high gear.

My inlaws were great and brilliant and gave me maternity leggings and undies. Didn't know such things existed but totally love these.

Have had the tiniest bit of dark brown discharge, but baby kicking a lot. I do not like being really large in the winter -- for my son, spring came w/3rd trimester and it was much easier to stay in shape. Everything here is iced over and we live in the woods so it's easy to talk myself out of going outside. I shovelled our deck on new year's eve and that took a half hour so that's something....

Had the glucose test, get results in 2 wks. Actually, I'm probably fine b/c I'm sure they would have contacted me otherwise....