36 weeks! False labor, mini goals and bedrest!

We are SO relieved to have made it to 36 weeks! The ob has been setting mini goals for us to get to and this was our last one!  Obviously any extra time Bella takes to cook is great but getting to 36 weeks developmentally was a huge deal for us. I've officially been in preterm labor for 12 weeks. I'm not going to lie, it's been hard. I can manage the bed rest, Dr's appts ext, but the constant pain of the intense cramping and contractions has really taken a toll on me.  In the last week I really feel like I've hit my pain threshold and have been really overwhelmed by it. I hate to come off as whiny, ungrateful or unhappy b/c I am truly grateful for the chance to even have another child after doing IVF again, things just haven't exactly been easy. But she is more than worth it! 

It's def been an interesting week. I started my weekly OB appts at 34 weeks instead of the usual 36 to monitor my cervix.  At last Mondays appointment I had dilated further to 2cm and was still 80% effaced.  I feel like the Procardia has def stopped working a while ago. The dr told me before that your body tends to build a tolerance to it and it becomes ineffective. For me it never stopped the contractions but it was helping me from not dilating further. Monday night we thought Bella was trying to make her big debut. I was contracting off and on all afternoon then starting later that night I was having consistent contractions ranging 3-10 mins that leveled out to 5 mins apart for about 5+ hours. I called the on call Dr and they told me since i was over 35 weeks to treat things as if i was 40 weeks. Meaning to come in if the contractions stay 5 min  or less apart for more than an hour. I decided that even though they were 5 min apart for more than 1 hr i would still try and labor at home for as long as possible before going in. Good thing I did b/c by 3:30 am they started to spread back out again till they became the usual irregular pattern. It was def a LONG night! I was somewhat disappointed when things did slow since I knew she wouldn't be coming but I'm glad she's given herself a few more days of growing! 

Since today is 36 weeks I am officially off full bed rest status. I know with how i'm feeling I can only handle so much anyway, so its not like I'll be running marathons or anything tomorrow.  The ob also has me stopping the Procardia, not that it was doing anything anymore. I doubt i'll automatically go in to labor or anything but at least it won't be fighting what my body is trying to do naturally.  So now it's a waiting game. If i'm still pregnant at 38 weeks the Dr will be scheduling an induction for 39 weeks. At least we have an end date in mind, but i am hoping to do things naturally since induction was NOT nice to me that last time.  In the mean time I have my next ob appt on Monday. I am curious if I have dilated any further, especially after the "labor" i had on Monday and how I've been feeling all week. I "feel" like things have progressed but you never know. Bella did drop a little this week. Her butt def feels further down and her head is causing constant sciatic pain. I guess we will see whats going on soon! I am seriously excited and anxious to meet this little girl, who know's when she will make her grand entrance! 

How far along? 36 weeks!  YEAH...we made it to our goal! 

Total weight gain/loss: lost 10, gained 21- shes head down

Sleep: not sleeping well b/c of the contractions and cramping, tossing and turning, sciatic pain, hot flashes and having to pee a lot, restless leg pain

How big is baby? prob about 6.5 lbs: about the size of a honeydew

Best moment this week: making it to 36 weeks! What a huge relief to have come this far after being in pre-term labor for the last 12 weeks! 

Movement: she is head down and tends to favor laying on her left side, so i'm always getting kicked and punched on my right side, this little girls is STRONG :) 

Symptoms: preterm contractions, menstral like cramps, exhausted, intense cervical pressure, restless legs, vericose vein pain, sciatica pain, reflux even with meds

Symptoms I DON'T have: nausea

Food cravings: my home made decaf ice tea, chocolate ice cream

Food aversions: none this week

Gender:GIRL! * ~ Bella ~ *

Labor Signs:  preterm contractions, menstral like cramps, and intense cervical pressure, 80% effaced and 2 cm dilated

Belly Button in or out?  in 

What I miss: not making 100 bathroom trips lol 

What I am looking forward to: meeting this little girl!!! 

Brayden's Carnival Fun!

There was a little carnival in town and we've been dying to take Brayden. Yes I was bad and went with them but we weren't there long, it was super small and daddy did all the work. Bray had such a great time! He loved all the lights, rides and kids running around, all he kept saying was "Ooooooohhhhhh". It was the cutest thing!  He's little but there were a few rides he could go on. He went on the carousel, the big potato sack slide and was obsessed with the cars ride.  He went on the cars 3 times he loved it so much.  He even played his first carnival game, which essentially was throwing a soccer ball in to a bin, but he won a giant blow up shark and was so excited! I absolutely love seeing his face light up in excitement, I don't think life gets much better than that.

I absolutely LOVE his smile! 

 weeeeeeeee!

 Look daddy i won a "chomp chomp"

 Mezmerized!! 

I wish this didn't blur a little it's so cute!! 

Bella to Brayden Bump Comparison!

I thought it would be fun to compare my bump with Brayden to Bella so far. I won 't post EVERY weeks pick but figured I would do a couple!  

You can tell ESPECIALLY after 30 weeks how much bigger Brayden was going to be. He ended up being 9lb9oz 22 1/2 inches, where she is guesstimated to be 7-8 full term, but I guess we will see!!! I'm grateful for the growth scan this time around!! 

                 ~ *  Bella * ~                                                             ~ * Brayden * ~

                    20 weeks                                                                       20 weeks

                25 weeks                                                                            25 weeks

                    30 weeks                                                                   30 weeks

                   

35 weeks                                                                    35 weeks 

          

                    

                                                              

    

35 weeks! Cant believe we made it this far :)

YEAH! We officially made it another week! That puts us at 10+ weeks of contractions/cramping, pressure and bed rest! We've made it this far and we are SO close to meeting our little girl!  I am so ready at this point, but I'm hoping for another 2 weeks to get her to full term.  I am excited to be off "bed rest restrictions" when I hit 36 weeks! 

How far along? 35 weeks!  2 more till full term! 

Total weight gain/loss: lost 10, gained 20- shes head down

Sleep: not sleeping well b/c of the contractions and cramping, tossing and turning, sciatic pain, hot flashes and having to pee a lot, restless leg pain

How big is baby? prob about 6 lbs: about the size of a coconut!

Best moment this week: all of Bella's things are organized and ready for her arrival!

Movement: lots of rolls, kicks, punches, hiccups you name it! Sometimes she's just plain violent!

Symptoms: preterm contractions, menstral like cramps, exhausted, intense cervical pressure, restless legs, vericose vein pain, sciatica pain, reflux even with meds

Symptoms I DON'T have: nausea

Food cravings: chocolate ice cream mmmm, granola bars

Food aversions: none this week

Gender:GIRL! * ~ Bella ~ *

Labor Signs:  preterm contractions, menstral like cramps, and intense cervical pressure, 80% effaced and fingertip dilated :( 

Belly Button in or out?  in 

What I miss: feeling "normal", but it'll happen soon enough!! 

What I am looking forward to: hitting 36 weeks and having the worst of my bed rest restrictions lifted!

34 weeks! Another huge milestone and a growth scan!

YEAH we officially made it to 34 weeks! Baby girl needs to stay in for a while longer but today is a huge milestone for Bella's development! Now we are hoping for 36 weeks and then fuller term (37+).  I have a feeling she is going to stay in and has just been giving us one heck of a ride.

It's been a roller coaster of a week! The contractions have definitely gotten stronger and another trip to l&d confirmed that I'm def not crazy, they are there.  Fortunately there has been no additional dilation, so the Procardia is doing something but I have really been struggling the pain.  Of course I'll take it if it means she stays put for a little longer but it's still 24/7 and is definitely hard. I hope i'm not coming off as complaining b/c after all we had to go through to get pregnant again, i really do love being pregnant and she is she's absolutely worth it!

Today was also our growth scan! I have REALLY looking forward to see Bella again! And with how giant Brayden was (and we had NO idea) I was anxious to see how big she was going to be at this point.  Baby girl is growing perfectly! She's 5lb9oz which puts her in the 59%.  They are guesstimating if I go full term she will be b/w 7-8lbs. Which is much much better than the 9lb9oz that Brayden was! lol Other than her growth they also checked all her development (brain/kidneys/heart ext) and everything looked perfect.  :)  After seeing her again I REALLY can't wait to finally meet her!

Here's some pics of our cutie pie, you could even see a little peach fuzz hair during the u/s!

Looking at us, these always seem kinda creepy to me! lol 

 YUP still a girl! lol

How far along? 34 weeks!  Yeah we're still pregnant! 

Total weight gain/loss: lost 10, gained 18- shes head down

Sleep: not sleeping well b/c of the contractions and cramping, tossing and turning, sciatic pain, hot flashes and having to pee a lot, restless leg pain

How big is baby? 5lb 9oz!! (59%) : the size of a butternut squash

Best moment this week: seeing Bella at our growth scan! 

Movement: lots of rolls, kicks, punches, hiccups you name it! Sometimes she's just plain violent!

Symptoms: preterm contractions, menstral like cramps, exhausted, intense cervical pressure, restless legs, vericose vein pain, sciatica pain, reflux even with meds

Symptoms I DON'T have: nausea

Food cravings: chocolate ice cream mmmm 

Food aversions: none this week

Gender:GIRL! * ~ Bella ~ *

Labor Signs:  preterm contractions, menstral like cramps, and intense cervical pressure, 80% effaced and fingertip dilated :( 

Belly Button in or out?  in 

What I miss: not being in constant pain, but if she stays in it's more than worth it

What I am looking forward to:  it's still early but I am so excited to meet this little girl! 

33 weeks!

How far along? 33 weeks!  Yeah we're still pregnant! 

Total weight gain/loss: lost 10, gained 18- shes officially head down

Sleep: not sleeping well b/c of the contractions and cramping, tossing and turning, sciatic pain, hot flashes and having to pee a lot, restless leg pain

How big is baby? about the size of a pineapple 17" long and 4.5+ lbs

Best moment this week: despite ANOTHER l&d trip this week we haven't dilated any further. But unfortunately i'm contracting and cramping 24/7 so I'm praying we stay that way

Movement: lots of rolls, kicks, punches, hiccups you name it! Sometimes she's just plain violent!

Symptoms: preterm contractions, menstral like cramps, exhausted, intense cervical pressure, restless legs, vericose vein pain, sciatica pain, reflux even with meds

Symptoms I DON'T have: nausea

Food cravings: ice cream

Food aversions: none this week

Gender:GIRL! * ~ Bella ~ *

Labor Signs:  preterm contractions, menstral like cramps, and intense cervical pressure, 80% effaced and fingertip dilated :( 

Belly Button in or out?  in 

What I miss: not being in constant pain, but if she stays in it's more than worth it

What I am looking forward to:  our growth scan next fri!! 

32 weeks! One goal down, next stop 34 weeks!

What a week! My contractions have become stronger and more frequent. The cramping is all the time so between the two I feel tired all the time. I can deal and manage the pain, it's just taking a lot out of me. Especially if she stays put, I'll be more than happy to take the pain over her having time in the NICU.  Unfortunately we had two, yes two, trips to labor and delivery triage this week, once on Memorial Day and again  on Thursday. The ob told me to go in if anything gets more intense or changes since they only have a small window to stop things from progressing. Bella as usual has been doing wonderfully, her HB is always nice and strong, movement has been great, I'm just the one that doesn't like to cooperate.  I am definitely registering contractions when I'm hooked up to the monitors. They are not in a typical labor pattern so they hat is great news but still every few minutes a lot of the time. On Monday they doubled my Procardia to 60mg and my FFN was negative. huge relief! It must be doing something, b/c even with the intensity changing by Thursday and with the  pressure in my cervix I still haven't dilated any more than I was. Thank god!  Since I hadn't made any additional progress on Thurs they weren't able to give me any more/different meds. The way they explained it is that if I dilated more it could of mean imminent labor, so they would of put me on magnesium to help the contractions and given me steroids in case she came early. The magnesium is only good for 48 hours. Essentially it's given with the steroids to give the steroids time to work if they couldn't stop me from dilating. But thankfully that wasn't the case. It is a little frustrating. I feel like I never know when/if I should call the ob. Like today has been a BAD day and I'm in a lot of pain, but there's no way to know if it's changing things or not. I do have another OB appt this upcoming Thursday. So i guess we will see how the rest of the week goes from here on out.  Praying the Procardia keeps helping me from progressing and baby girl stays in another 4+ weeks! The dr plans on stopping my meds when (i'm not giving her a choice!) we hit 36 weeks and if I go in to labor they won't stop it. But I am sure she will try and stay in at that point! lol  But that's fine by me! Whew... I'm definitely feeling a little overwhelmed and stressed. Brayden hasn't really been himself, he's due for another fever episode and between being stuck in the house on bedrest, being in pain and stressing I've been extra emotional lately. I know it'll all be over before we know it, and I'll do anything to keep her in for as long as possible, I just really want her to be healthy and not have to be in the NICU if at all possible.  Hopefully all the worrying is for nothing in the end :)

Thursdays L&D trip. Top is HB, nice and strong! Bottom my lovely contractions! 

At least I know I am not imagining them lol 

How far along? 32 weeks!  One mini goal down! hoping to get to at least 36 weeks!

Total weight gain/loss: lost 10, gained 18- she is still laying transverse so it's like shes a baby belt across my middle, I'm sticking out SO far! But i'm still smaller than I was with Brayden and he was head down at this point! lol 

Sleep: not sleeping well b/c of the contractions and cramping, tossing and turning, sciatic pain, hot flashes and having to pee a lot, restless leg pain

How big is baby? about the size of a squash 16" long and 3.8lbs

Best moment this week: not dilating any further! 

Movement: lots of rolls, kicks, punches, hiccups you name it! Sometimes she's just plain violent!

Symptoms: preterm contractions, menstral like cramps, exhausted, intense cervical pressure, restless legs, vericose vein pain, sciatica pain, reflux even with meds

Symptoms I DON'T have: nausea

Food cravings: granola bars 

Food aversions: none this week

Gender:GIRL! * ~ Bella ~ *

Labor Signs:  preterm contractions, menstral like cramps, and intense cervical pressure, 80% effaced and fingertip dilated :( 

Belly Button in or out?  in 

What I miss: being able to get out of the house. soon enough though, she needs to cook a little longer!

What I am looking forward to:  scheduling our growth scan