Copy Kat

I stole this from my sis in law's blog (Jenny). I'm currently hiding from my crazy house because every time I move I get contractions that are really annoying and I'm not in the mood. Griff has crazy play time where we play fetch with Henry in the basement and I'm the middle man. I think it's safe to say I'm not in the mood.  So, instead of that I'm doing this :)

How Far Along: 40 weeks and 2 days

Size of baby: No clue. Griff was born 9 days early and was 8#5oz....she is currently 2 days late. Mama's scared! Just kidding, I have a feeling she will be 7#7oz.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I've gained 25 pounds...and losing...my appetite is gone due to lack of space!

Maternity Clothes: No, I got a few oversized shirts from H&M and have been wearing them with some black stretchy pants I had. I hate buying maternity clothes!

Gender: Girl-Elliot Coco

Movement: A ton, she's like an alien moving around in there...which leads me to believe she will be smaller than Griff

Sleep: Heck to the No

What I miss: running...I stopped a few weeks ago and the Seattle marathon is less than 3 months away! She is not respecting my race schedule!

Cravings: As of this week....Trader Joe's dark chocolate covered pomegranate seeds. YUM!

Symptoms: Lots of rib and back pain, a million contractions every day, heartburn that my Rx Zantac ain't touchin' anymore.

Best Moment this week: I'm over 40 weeks pregnant. The best moment (hopefully) this week will be meeting my daughter!

April Baby?

Not lookin' good for March for this chitlin. After I got my membranes swept yesterday I had crampy contractions every 2-6 minutes all day until right before I went to bed. I almost called the midwife to go in to the hospital but wanted to finish grading some papers. They were getting pretty painful and were every 2.5 minutes. Then...they started getting less intense and further apart. Foiled again!

I think April Fool's Day would be appropriate since she's been foolin' me for a month :)

I felt like crapola all night last night but not from the contractions...just overall crappy....I hope that is a sign that tomorrow is her birthday!!

I wanna see her face!!

I just figured it out...she is holding out for the diamond birth stone. She is a smart little diva! Also, there is a spa in Lynnwood that is free on your birthday....it's lovingly called the Naked Spa because it's kind of like the Turkish Bath I did in Turkey where you get in hot and cold pools and get rubbed down and can walk around nekked without judgement. If she isn't born by the second I'm totally going. Maybe the hot/cold will "smoke her out" (hehe, Anne..). It won't be pretty for the other patrons but that's the deal. Done.

Fashionably Late

Little missy has apparently decided to be late to the party. Little stinker!

I had my 40 week and 1 day appointment today and I'm 3 cm dilated which is better than nothing...these contractions are doing something! Yay!

Apparently she is still high...my burning rib cage coulda told ya that.

The midwife stripped my membranes so I'm hoping that kicks labor into full gear and doesn't just make me crampy. So far...I'm just crampy.

I've been having contractions since 5:30 this morning but obviously they are just annoying and uncomfortable or I would be in L&D right now instead of sitting on my couch blogging :)

Here's the eviction plan:

Stripped the membranes today and hopefully I will just go in to labor in the next 12 hours or so.

If not, I have an appointment on Friday for a non-stress test and ultrasound to make sure she is doing okay in there. I'll probably have them strip my membranes again after all that just for good measure.

Then we wait and if she still isn't here by April 12 we will call out the big guns and induce.

They didn't seem to think I would make it until the 12th but you never know! I would feel so bad for Bella being here OVER A MONTH but I gotta be honest....it's been super nice having her to hang out with/help take care of crazy Griff.  Dad is flying in on the 1st so I'm hoping she is here by then because he doesn't have as long to visit as Bella does!

Fingers crossed!

D-Day

Today is Miss Elliot's due date...and she's missin' her own party! Fashionably late. She's gonna be cool like that.

I was SO ANXIOUS about her coming and when I woke up this morning at 4 with nothing but the braxton-hicks contractions I was sad that she still wasn't here. I'm uncomfortable but the main reasons I was stressed about this was
1. My mom has been in town since the 17th and I feel personally responsible that she is having to stay so long with nary a baby in sight. She doesn't mind and we have had fun with Griffin but I still feel pressure to perform :)

2. The adoption. Weird, I know but our agency had told us that they wanted a 9 month gap from when she was born and when we bring home our kid(s) from Rwanda. Every day she didn't come was adding to that wait list that has already been so long and I didn't realize until today that it was the main cause of my stress.

We talked to our case worker from Gladney today and she had spent the past couple of weeks in Africa so she told us all about that and then told us something that made me want to drive to Dallas and kiss her. They no longer are making us wait the 9 months! Whenever the ministry give us an approval and referral we can accept and travel and be done with the adoption! I'm so relieved I don't care if Elliot waits another 2 weeks to join us. Except for the fact that I want to see/kiss her face so bad it hurts.

It may be the first time our pediatrician gets the question, "Now how long do we need to wait before taking her to Africa for about 5 weeks?" during her hospital checkup...but....such is life. I'm so excited that we don't have to add another wrench into this adoption that I could dance...if I could physically move enough to do anything that looked like dancing...

They are also not changing our age request so we could get 1-2 siblings for Griff and Elliot between the ages of 6 months and 2...may be artificial twinning which we originally wanted to avoid but at this point with the way things have been in Rwanda we don't want to do anything to change the adoption so we will just deat with the potential problems if and when they occur. I've never turned down a challenge so bring it!

I'm posting this on this blob because it's private. I'm gonna have to make Inside Kat's Head private too because of the recent adoption changes and the fact that we are no longer going to inform Rwanda when Elliot is born. SO, if you want an email to get a password for that blog just email me at katarrack@gmail.com and I will send it to you. Grazie!

No baby on the due date but good future baby news so I'm one happy huge woman!

Psyche!

I got my second 'let's induce labor ' foot massage (that was AMAZING) with mom again yesterday. I was hoping the one last Saturday would be the last one....not that I don't like the pampering...but a baby would be so much better! We live within 2 miles of at least 2 little cheapo massage places and I'm really hoping I don't end up there again next Saturday! I told Andrew that every Saturday that I'm not snuggling Elliot I'm hittin' it up.

Anyway, we got them at 3 and I started getting stronger contractions during the massage. We went on a couple of errands then went home and Andrew and I took up mom's offer of going on (hopefully) one last date before Miss Elliot got here and went to dinner. When we got there we started timing the contractions because they were starting to hurt. They were 2-3 minutes apart the whole dinner and getting more and more painful but I was trying to not get my hopes up since this uterus has burned me before.

We decided to go home after dinner and figure out if we should call the midwife, etc. I did just to see what she thought and she recommended getting into a hot bath to see if they stayed strong or got lighter.

Of course they got lighter and started tapering. I kept having pretty uncomfortable ones until we went to bed around 11 but they weren't as frequent and I was able to actually sleep. SO....long story short. False labor. Glad I didn't go in to L&D. However, now I see myself delivering in a car since my uterus is crying wolf. I may not believe labor when it comes for real!

I go back to the midwife on Wednesday so we shall see what she says! Andrew and I were talking about how we just want to see her little face so bad! I just want to see her and know that she is healthy and start learning her little personality.

Compared to this pregnancy and the adoption, Griff wins the award of easiest child to get into our arms!

Lovey!

Bella has been in town for a week now. While I LOVE hanging out with my mom...I feel bad because she didn't necessarily come to just chill with me forever...she came for a baby!

It gave her time to make Elliot a cute little lovey though! I LOVE it!!! I told E that she has to come out to snuggle with it....I ain't puttin' it in there for her!

See how cute??

Isn't it cute?? I want to see her snuggle with it! Like....tonight!

PS-we went to Panera for lunch after the Children's Museum today and some guy behind us in line for drinks said, "Ask the pregnant girl." No idea what he was talking about but other than the fact that my patience to see her ran out a good while ago and now I'm sick with some weird congestion/throat thing...I gave him a totally involuntary death look as if to say, "Be VERY careful what you say to this pregnant girl." and he looked scared...and didn't ask me anything. Well played, big mama. Ask Andrew...I'm not in the mood, people!

Teaser!

I totally thought I would get to meet Elliot today. She is such a tease! I get so excited and then....nada!

I was really cramping with my contractions yesterday and just felt off all day. When we went to bed I had a huge contraction that made me totally think labor was coming and I was so ready.....and that was it. Just one. I've never been so disappointed to fall asleep instead of writhe in pain all night. Does that make me a freak?

Maybe next time!

My sister said she is loving Elliot's spunkiness already...the little stinker :) I hope she is spunky but the only way to find out is for her to come on out and play!

I put her carseat in the car....maybe she is a safety girl and wants to make sure her affairs are in order before she comes out. Fingers crossed!