tonyandkirsten.org

I had my weekly OB appointment today. My due date was either yesterday or today, I guess depending on how you calculate it. The doctor measured me back at 3cm dilated (this is the same doctor I saw last week and measured me at 1.5cm — not the one that measured me at 3cm two weeks ago). We don’t know for sure if this means by body has been really making progress toward getting labor going (I’ve certainly been uncomfortable enough to believe this might be the case) or if maybe I’ve been going back and forth between 1.5cm and 3cm over the past couple of weeks. All we know for sure is that right now as I write this, I’m not in labor yet!

They had me make another appointment for next Wednesday (3/28) where if I haven’t gone into labor yet, they will do the usual checks, plus some additional checks to see how the baby is doing. There is greater concern over fluid levels and so on the further things get past the due date. Assuming they don’t find something that causes them to want to induce right then, we’ll schedule an appointment for induction at that point. The doctor said she would definitely want to induce me before the following Wednesday (4/4), but I think they would be willing to schedule it pretty much any time after the appointment on the 28th. We’ll see how things are going, but I think we are leaning toward not stringing things along too much past that point and making the appointment for late next week — especially if there are no signs that waiting a few more days will be worthwhile for any particular reason.

Of course, I’d ideally like to just go into labor naturally — the sooner the better! But, I was induced with Madeline and it wasn’t as horrible as some people make induction out to be so I could survive that again. And, I think it would go a little faster this time around since my body has obviously been doing some work to get ready for labor. When I was induced with Madeline nothing had really happened at all prior to arriving at the hospital, so it took quite a while to get my body going.  Being stuck in the hospital all day long hooked up to monitoring equipment with nothing really happening for 8+ hours was no fun at all.

Meanwhile Madeline and I have tried to have some fun to make the time go by faster.  It’s amazing how slowly each day can seem to go by when you are eagerly awaiting something to happen at an unknown time.  Monday we did a few errands and went to Panera to use the rest of a Christmas gift card to get ourselves a treat.  Tuesday we went to see the “Teddy Bear Band” at the Mall of America.  Yesterday we went to the library, and this morning another mom from church came over with her daughter so the girls could play and the two of us could talk.  At least the weather is improving again, and tomorrow should be nice enough to do something outside.  I think the dreary, damp, chilly-but-not-freezing-cold weather made the week prior to today go by even slower than it would have otherwise.

Here’s hoping for more exciting news soon!

That’s what the doctor reminded me of today, when she told me that she thought I was only dilated to 1.5 cm. (You might recall I was told 3cm last week).  I saw a different doctor this week than last week, and the measurement of dilation definitely involves something of a judgment call.  I also learned that progress toward delivery can, in fact, move backwards.  Apparently the position of the baby at any given time, whether or not any contractions are taking place, and even the angle the doctor does the exam at can affect the results. So, I might have really been about 3cm last week and half that much today.

Not that it really matters all that much…I could still go into labor tonight, or it could still be two weeks.  I did feel confident enough that labor is not impending any minute to make further plans for this weekend.   We’ll see if that was a smart idea or not.

Tonight we had the pleasure of participating in a service opportunity with people from Urban Refuge for the first time.  We helped cook and serve a meal as a part of the Loaves and Fishes program.  Loaves and Fishes provides meals for the needy/hungry with no questions asked in a variety of locations around the metro area.  The location we helped out at serves meals twice a week — some locations do it five nights a week.  People from various churches, community groups and even businesses take turns helping out on a regular basis.  They currently have so many groups volunteering that people from Urban Refuge only are assigned two nights a year! It was really satisfying to help out and serve, and we had a great time while we were doing it.

http://tonyandkirsten.org/pictures

You might have noticed that the link to our photo gallery disappeared a little while ago. That’s because the Wordpress API for dealing with bookmarks changed from version 2.0.x to 2.1.x, and that broke the code I had in my header for the links.

With no functional photo gallery link, I decided it was high time to switch photo gallery software. The plugin to link Wordpress and Coppermine was abandoned by its author. To top that off, Coppermine has had a rash of security vulnerabilities discovered, and it’s a major pain to update when you have a large photo library. Meanwhile Menalto Photo Gallery is easily managed with the Dreamhost “One-Click Installer”. So, I one-click installed it and migrated our photos over.

With some help from the WPG2 plugin and a couple lines in .htaccess, we’ve got a new photo site to debut!

I realize that it’s not perfect yet, and may very well break on your browser. I haven’t thoroughly checked and fixed the style of the gallery to fit within the page. So, if something looks funny, comment on this post, and I’ll see if I can get it fixed.

Oh, and we’ll post pictures of our new baby when he comes!

Although my due date is still a little over 10 days away, we’ve been getting a little excited thinking that baby boy might make his appearance a little sooner. I went to the doctor last Thursday, and they told me that I was already dilated to 3cm. If you aren’t familiar with the process of childbirth, labor is usually really getting into swing by 4 or 5cm (and sometimes earlier for some women), and 10cm is the point where the baby can start coming out.

Of course, they weren’t promising me anything when they told me that I was 3cm dilated. The general gist of the doctors comments was a “could be tomorrow, could be in two weeks or more” sort of thing. But, she did say that it was somewhat likely I would have my baby before the due date.

Thursday night through Friday night we tried to get all the “last minute” preparations done just in case — washing the baby clothes, finding the infant car seat and swing, sorting through boxes of baby supplies to find things we might need right away, getting a bag packed for the hospital, and so on. I have an issue of Daylights that I’m supposed to have finished by April 1st, so I’ve been spending time trying to get that as finished as possible before the baby comes.

All day Friday, and even more so on Saturday, I was experiencing lots of what are called “Braxton-hicks contractions.” Basically these are “practice” contractions that occur as a woman’s body gets ready for labor. Sometimes as real labor gets closer, these “practice” contractions slowly become more like the real thing and are kind of a head start of sorts toward the actual event. By Saturday night, I was getting pretty uncomfortable. The “practice” contractions were starting to last a little longer and they practically had a rhythm to them. I was experiencing even more muscle soreness than normal and in general I just didn’t feel very good. I was pretty convinced this might be the lead in to the main event — so much so we even canceled our dinner plans for tonight to have two of Tony’s co-workers over, figuring that even if I wasn’t in labor I probably would be feeling equally as bad if not worse.

Then, much to our surprise, today was a different story. I hardly had any Braxton-hicks contractions and I felt really good overall. After having brunch with my Dad’s family, we went for a walk around Lake Nokomis. This was partially motivated by the beautiful weather, and partially by the fact that we’ve heard it said (at least anecdotally) that some good exercise can help labor get started sooner. I was feeling so good that we walked all the way around the lake, just taking the “shortcut” over the bridge that cuts off a small portion of the route — still leaving us having taken a walk of about 2.5 miles!

I’m still feeling great tonight, so we’ll see what the coming hours and days have in store!

Herbert Humphrey Hill

Neville Francis Hill

Dwight Ulysses Hill

Ulysses Samuel Hill

Declan Dirk Hill

Susan Elizabeth Hill

Brayden Aiden Hill

Crazy Maddog Hill

Hugh Heman Hill

Harold Hector Hill

Hepatitis Alfred Hill

Hepatitis Bartholomew Hill

Bartholomew Maximus Hill

Linus Rox Hill

George Paul Lawrence Hill

Barry Stephen Dwight Hill

Geoff Andrew Hill

Hugh Ulysses Gavin Hill

Lewis Lance Ibrahim Hill

Phil Bill Hill

Zachary Yves Xavier Walter Vernon Ulysses Trent Seth Robert Quinlan Peter Octavius Nathaniel Mark Lester Kevin Joseph Isaac Hill

Phew! I’m glad I got that off my chest!