Someone needs to teach this kid a bit of patience already!

33 weeks, overlooking the falls at Grand Pacific Junction, Olmsted Falls 

As I mentioned in my last post, sunday night I experienced those regular, timable contractions- ouchy, annoying and a bit troublesome. But luckily after that hour they subsided. I've been feeling good since so I figured I must have just overdone it or something.

Well last night I was admitted into Labor and Delivery because yet again I was having regular contractions, cramping and back pain. I am only 33 weeks so this is way too early for this little guy to come yet!! They hooked me up for a non-stress test on the baby, and thankfully he was doing just fine- nice strong heartbeat and moving like wild. I am dilated 1cm, but they said that isn't uncommon for women who have had children before. I was continuing to have regular, strong contractions so they gave me a shot to stop them and it looks like I didn't move into the Preterm Labor category since I didn't dilate any farther after 7 hours of contractions. I was finally discharged 3 1/2 hours later and sent home at midnight.

We'll see what my OB says this morning, but so far I am to take it easy, and just keep an eye on things. Hopefully this is all just a little "fluke" and it won't happen again. So if you could please pray for this little guy to hold on at least 4 more weeks so he can get nice and fat that would be wonderful. And also that there isn't bedrest in my future. How on earth does one do that with a 3 1/2 year old?!!

***Update
Waking this morning the contractions havn't started back up, and I feel my same old self.  Such a relief!  My appointment went just fine this morning.  Owen had a nice, strong heartbeat at 165.  I am still measuring ahead on my fundal height- 34 1/2 (should be 33).  Dr. O'Neill told me she will probably have me get an ultrasound in a few weeks just to make sure he isn't a huge baby.  Other then that she sent me away with a good bill of health.  I need to keep an eye on things of course and call her the moment anything happens again (many prayers they wont!) But I can resume life as I know it.  Definitely excellent news.  

And now a pineapple!

17.2 to 18.7 in, 4.2 to 5.8 lb

33 weeks: Baby weighs as much as a pineapple

This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.

Baby may grow up to a full inch this week alone, and his brain is developing like crazy. Pretty soon, he'll be able to coordinate breathing with sucking and swallowing. Also, his bones are hardening, and he's started to keep his eyes open when he's awake.


So time is winding down.  I can't believe I only have something like 47 days left- amazing!!  Our little Owen is a busy bee, kicking me like a ninja.  Seriously last night he was kicking my stomach so hard, even Scott was able to see it jump and spasm from the other end of the couch.  I was so happy Scott could finally see with his own eyes how active Owen has become.  Speaking of last night, I had a little bit of a scare.  I dozed off while reading and was awoken about 3:50 p.m. with some cramping.  My first thought was that it was just some round ligament pain from turning a particular way. Well about 4 minutes later I got it again, only this time I could tell that it was clearly a Braxton Hicks contraction.  These are also called "false labor" because they don't necessarily mean I am in actual labor, it is just my uterus preparing itself for the coming birth down the road.  No real big deal until I got another 4 minutes later and then another and then another and another..... I was getting very regular, very strong BH, not painful necessarily... just intense.  And 3-4 minutes apart for a good solid 45 minutes.  From what I read you shouldn't get more then 4 in an hour and I had already far surpassed this.  I spoke with my friend who is a Doula, and she advised me to drink a bunch of water and then lay down on my right side.  If the contractions don't stop after that I need to call my doctor.

So I drank a ton of water and let myself relax.  The contractions didn't go away completely, but they did slow down.  I was only getting one here and another about 30 minutes later and then again an hour after that.  By about 8:00 they were done.  This morning Jackson and I went to the mall so he could run around some in the play yard.  Once I was walking a bit I got two more BH, but so far that is all.  I have my appointment with my doctor on Wednesday morning, so I will bring it up to her then.  I am hoping that all of this is just due to a bit of dehydration.  I have upped my water intake and am trying to make myself rest (a little hard to do with a 3 1/2 year old!) more often.  Fingers crossed and I will keep you all posted!

Ugh, Sleepless Nights Already?

Last night was a rough one.  I get so, so sleepy in the evenings these days. Come 8:30 and I can hardly keep my eyes open any longer.  Well, last night was an exception. Sure I was tired, at least my body was.  But my head I couldn't turn off.  I wasn't contemplating anything exciting, just couldn't settle myself down enough to fall asleep.  So what does one do in times like these... watch America's Next Top Model and who knows how many Law & Order: SVU's I watched back to back.  They had a marathon and it was easier then flipping the station to find something else.  Blah.

Owen has shifted lower in my belly and boy, can I feel it!  It is uncomfortable to sit at a 90 degree angle for more then a few minutes without feeling like I am breaking him in-half inside of me.  Finally 1:00 rolled around and I just figured I needed to get to sleep considering Jackson will be up soon enough.  I could at least try and let sleep take me.  Well it didn't.  Between that enormous full Harvest Moon shining directly on my pillow, my bed feeling like it was made of plywood, and Owen putting tons of pressure on my belly sleep didn't come until after 2:30. And then it was a constant toss-and-turn-and-look-at-the-clock night.  I probably only got like an hour here, a half hour there, etc.

My sweet friend Kelly reminded me that it is my body's way of preparing me for sleepless nights once Owen comes, and how worth it it will be.  She is so true, and I feel bad being a whiner.  But it sure isn't fun while you are in the midst of it!

Tree Climbers

Back in August, we all spent the afternoon at my parents home, enjoying dinner and of course wonderful company.  There is a tree in their yard that defines my childhood.  I lived in this thing.  I loved it as The Boy in The Giving Tree.  Twenty-some years later and the tree is still standing, sure she is missing a few limbs that I would dangle off of and use to hoist myself higher and higher in her boughs, but she is still lovely.  And the kids are drawn to her just as I was.  

Isn't she lovely....

I can not stop looking at this large picture of Jackson.  He looks so very, very much like Scott did as a boy.  The older Jackson is becoming, the more and more like his Daddy he is looking.  It really is neat.  

These little ones are growing at a rapid rate, and I want it to stop.  I'm so not ready.  

Zoo Fun and Even Some Dinosaurs!!

Last week I met up with my sister, our friend Mary and all the little kiddos at the zoo.  It was an absolutely perfect day, weather-wise and wanted to take advantage of it while we still can.  Due to the older ones coming home from school, we couldn't make it a very long visit- just long enough to get the kids tuckered out.

Monkey's looking at monkey's....

We were almost ready to head home, when I realized that the Dinosaurs were going to be leaving this coming weekend and not coming back for quite a while.  Well this is one of Jackson's most favorite parts of the zoo, so I decided to take him for one last look.  Just me and him.

He was sooooooo excited!  Honestly, words can not describe his excitement.  We had to look at all of them of course, but there is one guy in particular that Jackson had his eye out for.... Sharp Tooth.

The mean, and nasty T-Rex.  What can I say, Jackson loves his bad guys!  He was dying to have his picture taken with him, but he didn't want to get too close.  We had to walk on the opposite side of the dinosaurs, you see.... So I told him to go stand on a leaf that was in the middle of the walkway.  He looked over at it, looked back at me, back at Sharp Tooth and then noticed right in front of me was a leaf on the ground.  "How about this leaf Mommy?"  Perfect, honey.

Then we noticed Spike (you have seen The Land Before Time, right?  Oh goodness, if you haven't go and rent it!  Such a sweet animated movie all about Dinosaurs.  A HUGE favorite in our house...)  Anyways, so we saw Spike.   Since Spike is a nice dinosaur, Jackson agreed to go a little bit closer for a picture with him.

Toward the end we came to this guy that has a body like a T-Rex, but a mouth like a Crocodile.  He was pretty cool looking.  Jackson really liked him- he actually got pretty close to this one!  He is called a Suchomimus.  We found a really neat guy at the gift shop on our way out and I just had to get it for him.  Yeah, I was a bit of a sucker like that.  Can't help it!  Aside from his construction toys, dinosaurs are a huge favorite these days.

Jackson and the Suchomimus

Then at the very end they have a dinosaur that you can pose on to have your picture taken.  Jackson decided he could do this since "It's OK Mommy, he isn't real 'cause he has no legs."

"I was really brave, wasn't I Mommy?!" 

It was a really great day, and so fun to do something special- just me and him.  I love this Little Man so much I think I feel my heart stretch larger each and every day.  

31 Week Doctor's Appointment

Last Tuesday my mom and Jackson went along with me to my doctor's appointment.  I wanted my mom to be able to share in hearing Owen's heartbeat.  It was so neat seeing my mom's face when the nurse put the doppler on my tummy.  That is one of the coolest, most special ways of connecting to an unborn baby.  I never tire of hearing it!

The appointment went wonderful.  Owen's heartbeat was loud and strong at 145.  I am still measuring one week ahead on my fundal height. But Dr. O'Neill was fine with that.  Looks like that is just how we roll over here.  And to be honest, if I end up delivering one week ahead of schedule I will be perfectly fine with that!

We are now headed to the finish line.  I go back for my next appointment in two weeks!  Two weeks after that, I go for one more appointment and then I begin going in once a week!!!  How has this moved so fast? I can hardly believe it.  But goodness am I ready.  Not that this pregnancy has been bad or anything.  I still love being pregnant.  (Sciatica and everything...) But I am ready to move into the next stage of our life.  I am excited about becoming a family of four.  I look forward to nursing again, to that wonderful new-baby smell in our house.  I am excited about watching Jackson grow into brotherhood, and see him mature as a little person.  Sure there will be some difficult times ahead.  But my support system is stronger then ever.   And I can do this.  We can do it.

Life is awesome and I can't wait to add even more beauty into it.

Jackson's 1st Indian's Game- and a Foul Ball!!

On August 10th, Scott got tickets from work for all of us to attend an Indians game. These seats were incredible- right behind home plate and only 27 rows away from the field!  We have been dying to take Jackson's to a game for a while now, but  we wanted to make sure he was the right age.  We didn't want him to get too bored and we wanted to be able to all have a fun time.  Well this ended up being the perfect time!

Scott really enjoyed being able to teach Little Man all about baseball, while I really enjoyed listening to their sweet father-son conversations.  Bonding over sports is a very guy-thing.  It was very cute.

As soon as we got to the stadium, Jackson spied the cotton candy.  The BIG. ENORMOUS. Bags of cotton candy.  Of course he had to have a some.  Seriously, I think this bag was as big as him.  It was awesome.

We all watched the game together for quite a while. When the excitement of the game wore off a bit,  Jackson brought a few of his construction trucks out and he had a blast scooping up all the peanut shells and dumping them into a huge pile.  Then the crayons came out.... These things kept him very occupied for long enough for Mommy and Daddy to be able to enjoy some of the game ourselves.

We had heard that there was a kids play area somewhere in the ballpark, so once the 7th inning came we were off to stretch our legs and hunt it down.  Oh man, this place was a HUGE hit!  It had playhouses, tons of cars to drive in, and even a roller-coaster!  ...all Step Two, of course.  They also had a cool place to practice your pitching and you could get your picture taken with Slider.

Jackson had a blast and I really had fun watching him have such a great time.

After getting super sweaty and much in need of something to drink, we headed back to Daddy to watch the rest of the game.  We had only been sitting down for probably 10 minutes and guess what?!  Jackson caught a foul ball!!  ...well maybe with a little help from Daddy...  

It was so exciting!  Not only did we have awesome memories from this being Jackson's first game, but to have a foul ball to take home with us too- wow!  Jackson thought one of the best parts of the whole thing was that Scott stepped in my nacho's and got cheese all over his shoes.  He thought it was simply hilarious.  

While we were leaving everyone around us was congratulating Jackson on his awesome catch.  You could see the pride in all the other men's eyes that this little guy got a foul ball at his first game.  It was very sweet and just added to the positive experience of the whole evening.  What a perfect night.  We couldn't wait to do it all over again!

“I like flaws and feel more comfortable 
around people who have them.

I myself am made entirely of flaws, 
stitched together with good intentions.”

~Augusten Burroughs

Sciatica?! Seriously?!

Monday I was awoken to complete nausea and a "growing pain" type cramping in my right leg.  I took some Mylanta and 2 tylenol and went back to bed.  Two hours later I woke up, no more nausea but instead I had a terrible ache in my back that radiated under my belly, down my leg all the way to my foot.  All concentrated on the right side of my body only.  It was so strange and incredibly uncomfortable. I laid still and felt for Owen, and thankfully he began kicking and moving around right away.  I had the reassurance that everything was OK with him and it was a huge relief.  OK, so that means that whatever was going on was just me, and not anything to worry about with Owen.  I was at the beach the day before and knew that I overdid it a bit in the hot sun, so my first thought was that I had to be dehydrated.  I started drinking water like it was my job, but two hours later I wasn't feeling any better.  Worse actually.  The pain was getting so intense I couldn't find a comfortable position; it hurt to sit, to stand to lay down.  I was a mess.  I called my doctor but alas they were closed for lunch.  Of course.  Mom to the rescue.  What would we do without Mom's, seriously?!

I called mine up and she immediately came over and picked me and Jackson up.  She told me she was putting me in "Time Out", I wasn't allowed to do anything.  Bed-rest for this little Momma.  I finally got ahold of my doctor's office and spoke with my nurse. She said it sounded like I had Sciatica. To take it easy, lay down and get some rest.  She would talk to Dr. O'Neill and get back with me.  And rest I did.  My mom gave me a heating pad, Jackson and I both went down for a nap and didn't wake up until a few hours later.

My nurse finally called me back after talking to Dr. O'Neill and sure enough she said I have Sciatic Nerve Pain.  The way that Owen is laying, plus the weight of my uterus is putting pressure onto my sciatic nerve and causing me all this pain.  On the positive side Owen is totally fine.  I don't need to worry about him.  But on the downside, I have to grin and bare it.  There is nothing really I can do to make it all go away.  I can just do things to help ease the pain and make myself more comfortable.  The nurse told me I was to take my tylenol, lay on my side opposite of the one that was in pain and refrain from any prolonged standing or lifting. Blah.

I went to bed pretty early last night and woke up feeling pretty good today.  But by afternoon I was aching yet again.  Man this sucks.  I love being pregnant and I just hope that this doesn't linger and ruin the rest of this pregnancy for me.  All I can do is pray that Owen finds a new favorite position and gets off of my nerve!

This kid is getting on my nerves already and he isn't even born yet.  That was just me trying to be funny, by the way... I know, I know.  I am completely horrible at jokes....


So anyways, prayers our way will be greatly appreciated!  I really don't want this to linger.....