You get flash face today, because it’s much more pleasant than the actual expressions on my face right now. I’m 41 weeks 1 day today. The count down has started and if he’s not here by Tuesday I have to report to the hospital at 9:00 am for an induction. I’ve got a whole slew of emotions about having to do that and none of them are good. The only plus is that they will just break my water, not start pitocin so I shouldn’t have to be hooked up to all those damn monitors. Every time I think about having to be induced for the third time I start to cry and get upset so I’ve just stopped thinking about it and am trying to focus on the fact that he still has three more days to come on his own, but it’s not working so well.
Yesterday at my appointment I was 4 cm and she stripped my membranes. I had to do a non-stress test and Noah is fine, which I figured. The kid never stops moving. I also went for a second round of acupuncture. I had lots of contractions over the course of the day and night but once again I’m still pregnant today. I’m tired of these contractions. I’m tired of having them every.single.night. and waking up pregnant the next morning. I’m tired of losing my mucus plug only to have it regenerate itself so I can lose it again a few days later. I’m just tired of being tired and my good mood and positive attitude are fading fast. At my appointment Julia said she didn’t think I’d make it through the weekend, but I’m certainly not getting my hopes up because I’ve felt that way for the last 3 or four nights now. I don’t know why my body just won’t do what the hell it’s supposed to do and I hate that I now have a timetable for that to happen. I’m just sad and bummed right now which is making it hard to even be excited that he’ll be here by Tuesday.
41 weeks July 26, 2008
Are you nesting? July 19, 2008
Everytime someone asks me this I just laugh. It’s a never ending thing these days. Most of you who read know me well enough to know that I detest cleaning. Hate it. With a passion. I will wait until no one has underwear to do laundry and until we are down to plastic forks to do dishes. Here are the random things I can remember from the last couple months.
~I’ve reupholstered 3 of the 6 dining room chairs (the others have to wait for this carpal tunnel to go away!)
~I’ve scrubbed just about every floor on my hands and knees.
~Laundry. Yes, you heard that correctly. Christina has been doing laundry. I told Steve not to get too used to it, but right now I’ve got a very limited number of clothes that actually keep this belly under cover!
~Dishes. I know, I can hear you all gasping. This one even surprised me.
~I’ve washed the fronts of all my kitchen cabinets and appliances.
~Rearranged the furniture in most of the rooms. However, Steve really likes how I’ve done the family room and front room this time so I didn’t get in too much trouble.
~Painted and repainted Noah’s room.
~Weeded all my flower beds.
~Scrubbed the kids playhouse and pool.
~Last Monday I got 10 meals in my freezer for after Noah comes. With both the girls we ended up eating out a lot, and I just felt like crap after eating all that junk.
~Today I’m washing windows, dusting, cleaning the floors again, and doing laundry. Oh, and it’s too damn rainy to go to the store so I’m finally taking a stab at homemade cleaners. So far so good! I’ve made a floor cleaner and window cleaner. Let’s just hope my Flip It likes the floor cleaner as much as I do b/c it would suck if that thing broke!
~Oh, and I have to repack my hospital bags today. I’ve been using stuff out of the kids bag randomly since I stuck them in the car and my bag just needs so tweaking since I’ll be at the hospital instead of birth center.
Yeah, I suppose you could say I’m nesting.
Oh, and I’m bored again, but have been banned by Steve from rearranging furniture again so once the kids eat and are watching their movie I have a box of hair dye calling my name in the bathroom upstairs! Yeah! Furniture and Hair. Why couldn’t I have some other obsession?
Steve is convinced I’m having the baby today. He has said the 19th for weeks now, and since he’s a typical man he’s of course convinced there’s no way he will be wrong. He’s never wrong. *rolls eyes*
I’ve never been this pregnant before! July 18, 2008
40 weeks! Had an appointment this morning. The nurse walked in the room, looked at my chart and said, “OH, it’s your day today!” I laughed and said, “Ha! I wish!” She said, “Well it’s your due date.” to which I responded, “Yeah, if only someone would have let the baby know that!” I’m 2cm dilated, 50% effaced, and he’s still way up at a -3 station. Beth asked if I had any signs that labor may be near. I told her I have no idea! LOL Having never actually gone into labor on my own I have no clue. I’ve been really nauseous and have lost two pounds this week. I feel like I’m back in the beginning stages of morning sickness. It’s the worst at night, so I’m keeping this short so I can head to bed. I just got the girls in bed and Steve is off seeing the new Batman movie so I can actually get to bed early tonight. Oh, yeah, that’s another thing that’s bothering me. I cannot sleep. It sucks. I wake up randomly each night and just can’t go back to sleep. Last night I was up from about 2:30-4:30. I keep having these very vivid dreams about labor and the baby and they keep me from sleeping. Did you know that Phoebe, from Friends, is a midwife and that Noah is going to come out the size of a 4 month old? Oh, and I’m also going to give birth in my sleep and wake up and find him laying in bed with me. If only. These are just a few random examples of the fun dreams I’ve had. Although, sometimes my waking up is due to the fact that I haven’t really eaten during the day and I have to have my standard bagel with butter and cinnamon sugar to get back to bed. 
Aside from that I’m actually feeling really good! I never thought I’d be saying that while on the verge of being overdue. I think it’s awfully cruel to give a woman a specific date. You should get a “due month” instead, because technically you aren’t “over due” until 42 weeks. I’m just trying to enjoy what little sleep I am getting because I know that number is going to dwindle very quickly once Noah’s here. They are much easier to take care of when they are in the belly, not out.
Oh, one more thing I wanted to write about (this is not nearly as short as I expected!)-Yesterday I was getting the girls settled in for a movie in the afternoon and the phone rang. It was my osteopathic doctor, Angela. She said that she had thought about me when she heard about the Birth Center and just wanted to call to see if I was ok and tell how great her experiences at Goshen Hospital had been. She told me a little about her first birth with the midwives and reassured me that they will still make sure I get the birth I want even at the hospital. I am seriously amazed at how much my doctors/midwives actually care about me. They don’t have to look at my chart to remember my name. They don’t tell me the same information over and over again b/c they can’t remember if they have told me already. They know my baby’s name and refer to him as Noah in conversation. They know how much my girls love helping out and so they help lift them up and down off chairs to be their assistants. They know my biggest fears about birth and are doing everything they can to make me not afraid. When I have appointments with them I truly feel like I am their only patient. I was seriously a big ball of emotions when I got off the phone with her. Never before have I had a medical professional take time out of their schedule to just call and chat to see how I’m feeling. I’ve just been speechless at how I am treated and told Steve that if we ever move I would love to move closer to the Goshen area b/c everyone I’ve ever dealt with had just been fantastic.
That’s all for tonight. I’m heading up before it gets dark enough for me to see this full moon that is supposedly going to put me into labor 
Better late than never July 17, 2008
I wasn’t in the blogging mood last week, so here is my 39 week picture, a week late Tomorrow is my due date, and Noah is still hanging in there. I had contractions all day yesterday, but after a lovely pedicure
and ice cream with my friends they went away and I’m still here today! I’ll update after my appointment tomorrow morning.
p.s. I don’t think I’ll ever paint my own toenails again, even when I can reach them Thanks for my birthday present Tracy!
37 weeks June 30, 2008
Nothing too exciting to blog about! I am done with my classes at the birth center, and as long as he holds off until Friday we are good! I can’t believe I have less than 3 weeks left (hopefully!). I have his bag all packed and ready. I still need to pack mine, but yesterday I did get some of the stuff I still needed to buy. Oh, I also dragged Steve stroller shopping yesterday! LOL I really wanted the Chicco Keyfit 30 travel system, but with not babysitting anymore money is pretty tight. Luckily my Graco carseat from Addison didn’t sell in the garage sale, so I’m stuck using that. I think we are going to go ahead and get the Joovy Sit and Stand. With the carseat on it both girls can still hitch a ride if they want so they thought that was really cool. We’ll see. There are other things we need first, but at least now we have an idea so I can just send Steve out to buy something when we need it instead of all of us going to Babies R Us. That was FUN! Not. So, here’s 37 weeks. I made Steve take the picture this time b/c I’m tired of taking pictures of myself in the mirror
Maternity Pictures June 25, 2008
I have a friend who owns her own photography business and as soon as I got pregnant this time around I knew that I wanted to get pictures done by her. She is amazing and I was so excited to see how they would turn out! You can check out all the pics here:
Traditions Photography
Some are already edited and some are not.
In the top right corner click on “online proofing”
Then click on my name, Christina Menis
Then click on “View Portraits Here”
Then “Portraits”
The link “Other Portraits” are the ones where the girls had silly smiles or that I just didn’t like as much. I am so excited about how they turned out!! The day we went to get them done the kids weren’t very cooperative and I left their frazzled and ready to strangle them, but looking at the pics you’d never know. So, for anyone in the South Bend area, Eileen is awesome and if she can get good shots of my kids on a crazy day, she gets two thumbs up from me! Before this it had been two years since I had any professional pics done b/c it is just way too stressful. I am so excited for Noah to get here now so I can take him in and have her work her magic again. Thanks for looking!
36 weeks June 20, 2008
Today’s been a weird day. I had my 36 week appointment this morning and while I was in the bathtub I noticed my belly looked a lot smaller than just yesterday. I didn’t think anything of it, but then as I was getting ready I was able to wear a shirt that hasn’t fit over my belly for probably 2 months now. I was also noticing I hadn’t really felt him move at all for a good two hours, which is very usual. Of course I got a little worried and panicky and called Steve to see if he could maybe come with me to my appointment. Of course he couldn’t leave work so I finished getting the kids ready and made sure I got there a little early b/c usually if I get their early I get seen early too. After we talked about the girls sibling class for a little bit she measured me and I’m still measuring right on at 36 cm. I told her about how I had only felt him move about 3 times in the last 3 hours and so she listened to his heart rate for quite awhile and used her hands to move him around. She was looking for accelerations when she would move him and he did what he was supposed to She then went on to tell me where everything was at in terms of his body parts. Well, since last week he has moved from laying face up completely on my right side to laying on his right side with his butt up by my left rib and his spine/back along the left side of my body. I’m thinking that at some point when I was sleeping he flipped over like this b/c I know just yesterday he was still mostly on my right side. His head was also lower than where it usually is so I’m thinking that these changes in position have just altered how much my belly sticks out and how much I’m feeling him move. I feel a lot better but still a little freaked out that there was such a drastic change just over night. I have to do a one hour kick count every day after a meal from now on. Here’s my 36 week pic, you can see a little bit of difference in this one compared to my 35 week pic.
35 weeks June 18, 2008
I keep getting comments about how “small” I am for only having a month left. Apparently the people saying this haven’t see any of these pics! I feel huge. Not much new with my pregnancy, although my best friend had her baby yesterday and she was due 3 weeks before me so I got a little nauseous thinking that I’m next! LOL He has strict instructions that he’s not allowed to come before July 4th though, so let’s hope he listens. Oh, and I’m getting that damn pregnancy nose. I swear it’s doubled in size. Ugh.
33 weeks June 3, 2008
Here’s the 33 week belly.
When I was pregnant with the girls around 33 weeks is when I was miserable and ready to be done. It’s no exception this time! I don’t know if it’s the fact that the weather is warming up or if it’s just that my pelvic pain is so much worse this time around, but man the next 7 weeks can’t go by fast enough.
First night at the Birth Center May 29, 2008
Tonight we had our introduction to the Birth Center. The place is AWESOME! It’s a very soothing atmosphere. It is basically like a three bedroom home. When you come in in labor you get to pick which room is yours. There’s even a bread machine in the kitchen. I was cracking up and wondering if anyone really bakes bread while they are in labor!
After we picked the kids up from Alyssa and Jason’s house I was talking to the girls about a decision Steve and I had made. For a couple months now I’ve been thinking it would be really great to have the girls there when Noah is born. Especially now that I will be at the Birth Center they can be as involved in the process as we want them to be. The midwife even said they are ok with the kids helping “catch” the baby like the dads do sometimes. A couple came to speak about their experience there and mentioned that they had all of their children there for the birth. I was so excited when they said that b/c I’ve been wanting to talk to someone that had done that. Their children were 5, 4, and 2 and they said each of them did awesome and have very positive memories. The mom did a lot of her laboring out in the living room area with them and then when she finally needed to go back to her room the kids stayed out with their grandma. They brought the kids in just for the very end to see him be born. I think I will only have them in there if all goes according to plan and we have the water birth. I figure that way the blood and mess is a little more masked. The conversation went a little something like this:
Me: Hey girls, daddy and I were talking and thought maybe you’d like to be there when your little brother is born.
Alaina: Ok, I’ll be there.
Addi: No thank you. I’ll just stay home and watch Little People.
Now, both of their reactions cracked me up because I totally knew that is what their opinions would be and it was one of those moments where you really had to be there to appreciate the tone with which they responded. I figured that would be how they responded but it was just too funny the way they said it. Alaina was very matter of fact about it, almost as if she had thought about forever and was just waiting for the invite. It was like she was RSVPing to a party. And Addi made it very clear that TV was a much higher priority than witnessing her brother come into the world.
A few other cool things about tonight. Since they got the certification for water birth in February only 2 of the births at the center have been out of the water. The couple that came and spoke tonight also did a water birth and what I thought was so cool was that aside from unwrapping the cord from the baby’s neck the dad completely did the delivery while in the tub with the mom. The midwife helped him and guided him on what to do. The mom said she had to go back and watch the video b/c she couldn’t even remember if the midwife touched her at all during the delivery.
The midwife who spoke tonight, Beth, also said that if I wanted she would throw together a sibling class really quick so I could prepare the girls and they could see where they would be. This is why I love midwives. She’s willing to do this because ONE person is interested in it.
I left the Birth Center so excited and looking forward to getting the birth experience I want this time.
