Unfortunately, he forgot to drop off the baby while he was here!!
Here’s the quick baby update for all of you waiting ones…
Simply put, he’s not here yet :). I think he needs a map towards the exit. If he’s truly his father’s child, then he needs a phone with the latest map quest app. Anything to help him find his way O-U-T.
I’ve had contractions all night long the last 5 nights in a row, about 5-9 minutes apart. A ton of back pain, front pain, middle pain, you-name-it pain. Did I mention “all night long”? Because that’s when they happen…all night long. As soon as the sun starts to peek his head up over the horizon, they gradually come to a very slo-o-o-o-w STOP. And that’s that. 5 nights in a row. The last two nights the contractions have been quite painful, so they’ve made for some long nights. Napping is hard during the day because as soon as I lie down, the contractions pick up. Good thing I’ve had my entire pregnancy to practice not sleeping so this “up all night” thing isn’t too unfamiliar :).
Good news at my 41 week appointment today. Yes, the appointment that I had to make last week that I was hoping to have to cancel. But alas…we took a “non-stress test” to make sure the baby is okay in there, and sure enough he’s happy as a clam. (I think that’s part of the problem.) His heart rate is great and he’s lovin’ life. I’m dilated to a 3, which everyone is excited about. I was at a 0 last week, so all this laboring is doing SOMETHING, for which I am–obviously–thankful. His head is all the way down in my pelvis, which explains why my contractions are so painful…there’s nothing to cushion him down there–just his head against my pelvis. Bone against bone. In other words, “Ouch.” We’re not sure why I’m having so much back labor…it could mean he’s facing the wrong direction, but it also could have nothing to do with that. It seems like he’s facing the correct direction (face towards my spine) so it just seems that back labor is part of my lot. Happy, happy, joy, joy :).
I’m trying to stay in good spirits π but laboring all night every night the last 5 nights is starting to take a toll on me. I woke up this morning to an email from Baby Center, who has faithfully been sending me week-by-week pregnancy updates the last 9 months. This morning’s email was entitled, “Your 1-week old baby.” And I almost threw the phone out the window. You mean, “My 41-week pregnant body!” So that was a little sad. But other than that, I’m hanging in there. In retrospect, (advice to all pregnant moms out there) I should have had something FUN planned every day for the 2 weeks past my due date, so at least I would have something to look forward to each day, other than NOT having a baby. And somehow I can’t bring myself to start planning things NOW because it feels like I’m resigning to be 2 weeks overdue. Every night I’m so convinced we’re going to end up with a baby, and then we don’t… But don’t worry, we have been trying to do some fun things other than sitting around and staring at my belly. We’ve enjoyed having my parents here for the last week as well. It’s just so hard to get out of “Bummer…we’re so overdue! When is this going to end??!!” mode and into, “Let’s seize the day!” mode. We’re trying. π
HOWEVER, this is mostly why I was inspired to write this post. Because the stork DID bring such a wonderfulΒ package to us yesterday, and it was the first thing that boosted my spirits enough to distract me from thinking about “the real bundle of joy” that I’m waiting for the stork to bring.
Several months back, after spending hours searching for bedding for our baby boy, I realized that not a single set out there really tickled my fancy at all. I asked my dear friend from Colorado Amy “Ruth” Wallace (who, along with her mother, is an incredible quilter) if she would be willing to make me a quilt and some wall hangings for decorations. They agreed, she helped me talk through exactly what I was looking for and wanted, and then they got to work in January.
They finished it this past week, and the Stork dropped it on our doorstep yesterday!!
I wish we had a video of when I opened the box…I thought I had pretty high expectations of what to look forward to, but Amy and her mom blew those expectations completely out of the water. My first thought when I opened it was, “I can’t believe they gave this up!” I mean, I know they made it FOR me, but have you ever made something–like a really cute card–for someone and then it turned out SO ADORABLE that you ended up keeping it for yourself instead of giving it away?! Anyone?? Bueller?? Well, I should probably be ashamed of myself, but I’ve TOTALLY done that. Anyhow, that was my first thought when I opened it because it IS SO INCREDIBLE. It is just BEAUTIFUL…honestly, the most beautiful quilt I’ve ever seen. And the wall hangings that go with it are just STUNNING…. On top of that, they made this ADORABLE little hooded bear towel with the same material!! Heaven!!
I ran right upstairs to see how everything looked in our not-yet-complete nursery and, of course, they were perfect. You could literally hear the angels singing when I hung the quilt over the crib…PERFECTION.
Anyhow, here are the photos. You’ll notice I’m very strategically NOT in any of these photos…no one needs to see pictures of a 41-week pregnant lady :).
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| Ta-Da!! The Amazing Quilt!! |
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| The Adorable Wall Hangings!! |
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| The Sweetest Bear π |
We started to put up the wall hangings right away but a little disagreement over where the baby monitor was going to go kept us from being able to make that decision :). (As a side note, two of my friends went into labor after getting into a big fight with their husbands, so I’ve been trying to pick little fights with Brian… As you can imagine, we just end up giggling and kissing after our ridiculous fight “attempts”. This time, when we ACTUALLY had something to argue about, I thought we might have a fight winner. But, we were both so tired after our restless nights of no real sleep that neither of us were up for a fight. We ended up just dropping it and cuddling instead. So much for that good idea…)
All that to say, soon I hope to post pictures of his nursery COMPLETED! It was never really my goal to have it done before he arrived…I more cared about having it organized, which it is. I think we have everything we want to put up now, so it’s just a matter of time…
And, today, we got our final piece of furniture!!! The one I have been longing for…our glider!!!!! Back in the day when we first started talking about “a nursery,” the ONLY piece of furniture I cared about was a rocker that I loved that would support my back well. I think it’s the most important piece of furniture a nursery could have. We have searched high and low for gliders over the months to find the perfect one. Unfortunately, the perfect one was also the most expensive :(. Not quite in our budget… After weeks of being torn over the decision (I wasn’t about to spend even $100 on a poor quality glider, but we really couldn’t justify paying for the one we loved), my parents told us that they would split it with us as a baby gift! Yeah!!! Thanks, Mom and Dad!!!
And…it arrived today!! Another fun event to distract us from the fact that the baby is L-A-T-E.
So, pictures of the nursery to come sometime in the next few weeks…hopefully after we’re able to post some pictures of our sweet baby boy!!!!
