I apologize, I have not been doing very well at keeping this updated, which is crazy considering how bored I am and how impatient I’m getting! So today is August 10th, we are just about 38 weeks pregnant. If Baby Boy decides to come now, he will be a healthy baby and everything is fully developed…at this point he’s just getting fatter, and of course cuter. Since the last blog, I have to tell you..we’ve had an interesting 3 weeks. Everything with the pregnancy was same-o same-o until July 19th, I had relatives in town visiting, we spent the day out at the lake, it was hot…but not super hot. I managed to drink around 60 ounces of water while we were there, I applied sunblock and by 5:00 I was still as red as a lobster. My cousin has an almost 3 year old that had a cast on his leg due to an accident the week before, he managed to get sand in the cast while we were at the lake and we had to make a trip to the emergency room to get his cast removed and a new one put back on, on the way there…I began having mild contractions 5 minutes apart, about an hour and a half later I was still having them and they were getting a little stronger and closer together, with me only being 33 1/2 weeks at the time..I was concerned. Luckily I was already at the hospital that we chose to deliver at so I waddled to the maternity ward and they wanted to have me admitted, I called Josh…told him to get there. 3 hours later we were sent home, the contractions were 2 min apart but not strong enough, they gave me a shot to stop them and hooked up and IV to give me fluids and sent me home.
2 weeks later, I had contractions throughout the 2 weeks, some strong, but mostly mild. In the evening on Thursday July 31st I began having strong contractions while cooking dinner, I had them for a little while before I realized maybe we needed to start tracking them, we began timing them and for an hour they were about an average of 6 minutes apart, we decided to go to bed and see if they’d go away…we knew if they kept me awake…it would be time to go to the hospital. I woke up throughout the night off and on with another contraction, and by 6 in the morning on 8/1 they were strong and close together, I was also having some strong cramping and backaches in between the contractions. By 8:00 we called in to work, notified the parents that we were going to the hospital to get checked out. Yet another false alarm, contractions were 3-6 minutes apart…but again not strong enough to progress into active labor, I got another shot to stop the contractions and I was sent home.
Here we are 8/10, I still have contractions on occasion but no false alarms, nothing that we’ve even felt needed to be timed. I should also point out that the first false alarm I was checked and I was 1cm dialated and 50% effaced, the second visit to the hospital I was about 1.5cm and still 50% effaced. I have an appointment this Tuesday 8/12, we’ll see if I’ve progressed..I’m hoping for at least 2cm.
Also on top of the false alarms, my cousin who visited last month notified us that 2 of her kids were diagnosed with whooping cough and that we need to be aware so we can watch out for symptoms. I called my doctor told him I haven’t shown any symptoms but is there anything we can do to prevent getting it after we’ve been exposed. The answer was No there is no prevention, and if you do get it unfortunetaly there isn’t anything you can take since you’re pregnant. A week later Josh began getting a stuffy nose a sore throat and within a couple days he started coughing, by the time 9 days had passed and he still had the cough we decided we better get to the clinic, we went yesterday morning…he does have whooping cough and was given an antibiotic to make him non-contagious. The antibiotic will take 5 days to be effective, so we’re praying I don’t have the baby until after Wednesday. I have yet to show any symptoms, I’m going to talk to my doctor at the next appointment and suggest that maybe I get on the antibiotic as soon as I have the baby just to be sure. It will probably effect the breastfeeding process, but I figure I can pump and dump to keep my milk in…and the baby may be on formula for the first week, but eventually we can still continue the breast feeding process. Whooping cough is not so bad in older children and adults, but it can be fatal to infants and the elderly so it is rather scary to think of the possibility of a newborn getting it…but with prayers and being careful I’m sure everything will be fine.
I apologize this is so long, I’m playing catch up. I will try and keep you all updated when anything occurs…which is hopefully soon. In the meantime I’m trying to think of things to do to occupy my time at home to keep me distracted!
