May 2012 / The Wallace House

The Pregnancy Diaries: 31 Weeks

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

31 WEEKS!!

...only 9 weeks to go! Single digits, baby!!

This week baby is the size of: a head of lettuce. 19 inches long and 3.9 pounds! He is getting so big and yet I still somehow have to fit another 4 or so pounds in here...

How far along? 31 weeks!

Due date: July 22, 2012

Total weight gain/loss: I haven't weighed myself since my last pregnancy post so I don't know! I will try to remember tomorrow and then update.

Maternity clothes? Yes. I still have outfit crises pretty much every day. I miss my skinny clothes.

Sleep: Still sleeping just great. I wake up occasionally with charlie horse cramps in my calves but only 2 or so times per week. Up twice per night to use the bathroom but I always fall right back asleep afterward.

Best moment this week: As of today, I have only 2 months left! That doesn't seem too long but I am definitely getting so excited to meet our little baby!!

Movement: He moves a lot still but there is not so much twisting and turning and rolling as there is little bumps and taps and kicks. I think he is running out of room in there. I sure feel like he is! I also think he has now assumed his heads-down position as I mostly feel his little feet kicking me way up high.

Food cravings: Caffeine! What the-?! This baby loves caffeine. I always want a soda! I also love any type of cold summer treat...popsicles, ice cream, etc. Good thing a medium ice cream cone at Macey's is just 87 cents! But I think I'm in trouble once the snow cone shack a few feet from my office opens up for the summer. I might be a frequent visitor.

Symptoms: Well...

I'm learning to cross my legs when I sneeze.
I feel out of breath after doing the simplest things.
Braxton Hicks contractions!...I used to think that when my stomach all of a sudden was really hard that the baby was pushing out against it but now I'm leaning more toward thinking that it's braxton hick's. They only last 30 seconds or so and are not painful but just make me feel a little bit uncomfortable. They usually only hit when I'm sitting or laying down and I just have to change position for them to subside. When I'm up and about I never really notice any.
I've been very tired compared to how I felt a few weeks ago. I've been going to bed earlier and taking some naps. I mostly just feel exhausted after a long day at work.

Gender: BOY! Seriously, I cannot wait to meet him!!

Labor Signs: Nothing, yay!

Belly Button in or out? Same story as last time. Sometimes it's in, sometimes it's half out. It can't make up its mind.

Feeling toward Pregnancy: I still love feeling my little baby moving inside of me but I'm getting ready to just meet him and say hello! We can't wait to hold him and play with him! But I still feel very lucky to be having an easy pregnancy so overall, I still feel good about pregnancy.

What I miss: Being competitive in games. I'm a pretty competitive and athletic person so it's really hard to be slow and uncoordinated. It makes me feel pretty wimpy. And I hated admitting that I couldn't do that hike on the camping trip. I miss being agile!

What I am looking forward to: California baby shower this week!!!! Yay!!!!

Milestones: The week-by-week countdown is now in the single digits!!! Plus, my doctor appointments are getting closer and closer together! I will see my doctor only 3 weeks from my last appointment and after that we will schedule the appointments only 2 weeks apart! It must mean we are nearing the end!

PS People still think I look huge. Twice today patients told me I must be ready to pop. Nope, two more months left. They were shocked.
PPS I learned that your size has nothing to do with the size of your baby. So just because I look big does not mean I'll be pushing out a 10-pounder. Your size actually just has everything to do with your body build. So basically, just because I'm really short with a basically non-existent torso, I pop out really far. This baby could still come out to be 6 pounds! Here's to hoping!

Camping!

We took a nice little vacay last weekend and went camping with Ryan & Rachel, Camden & Etta, and Kelli & Taylor. We had so much fun! I used to think I hated camping but really I love it when I do it just once a year and just for a couple nights. We went camping with R&R and C&E last year but let me tell you...this camping trip was one million times better!

The main differences of this camping trip compared to last time?

1 hr drive vs 6 hr drive. Ahhh, so much nicer.

An open camping spot on the first try vs dozens of full camping sites

Nice, sunny weather vs WIND and RAIN and SNOW!!

Trees and grass vs cactus and dirt

PS We were at a campground in Nephi called Cottonwood, I think. You should definitely try it out if you're in the Utah County area! (and it's a FREE campsite! - can't beat free!)

Honestly...last camping trip (even though we still had so much fun) has made any normal camping experience seem heavenly.

So many people told me I was crazy to be going camping when I was 7 months pregnant but really it wasn't even bad at all! The worst part had to be using the campsite bathroom at least 20 times in two days (including having to leave the tent at least once each night to hike to the bathroom). But the bathroom wasn't even that gross or anything. Sleeping the first night was fine although I woke up with some sore legs (but I think everybody did). The second night I was a little bit restless but I still got some sleep so I'm calling it good. Overall, camping while 7 months pregnant was definitely not as bad as everybody said it would be. I think I had just as much fun as everybody else!

I'll let the pictures below mostly tell the story of some of the things we did on our little trip:

Camden & Etta had the great idea to make and bring blow dart guns. We made our dart guns out of 1/2" PVC pipe and used nerf darts as our ammo. Let me just say...this is ridiculously fun!...um some of these pictures are not really in order, sorry.

me & T

Ryan

Hike! The girls at our lunch spot. R&R packed us delicious lunches of turkey sandwiches, pudding, and other snacks.

We first tried a summit hike. Didn't really work out so well. This trail was like straight up. No joke. We had been hiking for maybe five minutes and I was just dying. Sometimes I like to pretend I can do everything I used to be able to do pre-pregnancy but reality is...I can't. It's hard for me to admit it a lot of times but really there was no way I was going to be able to go much farther on that hike. You just really don't have the lung capacity at 7 months pregnant that you do non-pregnant. Not to mention I'm carrying an extra 25 pounds which certainly makes things a little more difficult. So we hiked back down and tried a different hike which was much better. It was still fun because we had to climb over some fallen trees, etc but it wasn't too ridiculously rigorous. Manageable for my pregnant self.

He jumped over the fallen trees. I mostly rolled over them. Hahhaha

Baggo!

We had a fun baggo tournament! Camden & Etta took 1st place!

Yes, we are BYU fans.

Etta, blow dart gun game.

Rachel, Etta, Ryan & Taylor played this game where Tom used the blow dart gun to shoot a dart high in the air and then they tried to catch it with their hats. The trick was to not let any darts fall into the fire that is right in front of them. I think they only lost 3 to the flames.

Campfires, of course! We enjoyed s'mores both nights and blueberry cobbler one night.

Camden really likes lighter fluid. I think all boys do.

Burning T's textbook.

Yep, we all slept in the same tent. One huge 8-man tent. We were nice and warm at night!

Zilch!

My handsome hubby :]

After leaving the campsite Sunday afternoon, we drove up to Devil's Kitchen to see...whatever it is we were supposed to be looking at. The red rock formation, I think. I'm terrified of heights so the drive up was not so fun for me and i could not look over this railing without wanting to pass out. My smile might be just a little bit forced. Hahah

Overall, we had a super fun weekend with our friends & family! It's too bad that we and the Bair's are both leaving Utah this summer. We're going to miss hanging out with everyone pretty much every weekend! Maybe we can all get together for a camping trip with kids someday.

The Pregnancy Diaries: False Alarm #1

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Yes, we had a false alarm. At 6am Wednesday morning it was scary. By that afternoon, it was funny. Now, I'm just a little embarrassed about the whole thing. So here's the story:

Monday morning I woke up bright and early (6am) because I was soaked!! My underwear was drenched and the sheet and the mattress were also drenched. My first thought was that I had wet the bed. I don't even remember the last time I did that (since I was probably like 3 or 4). Right after that thought a less embarrassing but much scarier thought ran through my head: did my water break? Since I still have ten weeks to go I knew it was really early for that to happen but I also knew it was possible. I then smelled the mattress to see if it smelled like urine...nope. It smelled like nothing to me. So then I really started to worry that maybe my water had broken - WAY too early.

I tried to wake up T but was unsuccessful and then realized he would have no advice anyway. So I called my mom. Yep, at 5am California time. On the house phone. Nobody picked up the first time so I hung up and redialed. My dad picked up and passed the phone to my mom. At this point I was totally in tears so worried that my water could have broken. I explained what had happened and she said I should call the doctor. When I told her I had an appt that same morning in just a few hours (9am) and asked if maybe I could just wait until then she said no. Then she started suggesting maybe I should just go to the emergency room. She was really worried. I decided I would call the on-call doctor first and see what they said. So I dialed my doctor's office number and talked to the answering service who said they would page the on-call doctor.

Then I decided to attempt to wake up T again. This time I was successful even though I'm not sure he really understood what was going on when I explained myself. I'm pretty sure he fell back asleep while I waited for the doctor to call me back...haha, I guess he wasn't too worried! A few minutes later and the on-call doctor called and I explained that I was 30 weeks pregnant and had woken up to a wet bed. He said I needed to go to Labor & Delivery. I told him I had an appt with Dr Harward at 9am, could I wait until then? No. Go immediately.

I kind of started to feel stupid and didn't really want to go to the hospital in case I really had just wet the bed. But I knew I would feel more stupid if I didn't go to the hospital and my water really had broken.

So. I told T we needed to go to Labor & Delivery and I started to get dressed. He was still lying in bed with his eyes closed by the time I was ready so I asked if he was coming or if I was going by myself. Don't worry, he got up. He wasn't going to send me by myself.

By this point the tears were gone because I realized there was nothing I could do to change the situation. I still wasn't really sure what the situation was but whether my water had really broken or not, crying wasn't going to help. And also I had said a prayer which made me feel more calm.

On the way to the hospital I said to T "well, if it turns out to not be my water, at least this can be our dry run to the hospital!" His response? "Too late to be a dry run." Hahaha. Always witty.

When we got to the hospital we checked in at Labor & Delivery and they took us into a room and had me dress into a hospital gown.

The nurse was so extremely nice and so personable. She hooked me up to a doppler and also a contraction monitor. They asked if I was having any cramping. I wasn't. She found the baby's heartbeat really quickly and he sounded perfectly healthy. I wasn't really worried about that since I had been feeling him moving around since I had woken up. The baby wasn't stressing about the situation at all - just his mama!

The nurse explained they would swab me (similar to a pap smear - ugh) and use a special tape that changes color if amniotic fluid makes contact with it. So we went through the uncomfortable process of swabbing and then she rubbed her little q-tip on the tape and it did not change color! Yay! I had not ruptured. I was so glad since it's way too early for the baby to make his entrance into the world.

Dr. Harward's office is just next door to the hospital so the nurse told me he had just come over and was going to come check me. While I was waiting for him and for the nurse to come back in I suddenly really had to pee. I tried to hold it for like two minutes since I was still hooked up to the monitors and didn't know if I could take them off but after that it was either take off the monitors or pee in the hospital bed. Since I obviously had already wet one bed that morning I just took off the monitors and ran to the bathroom (in the room, FYI). Thankfully, the nurse didn't care that I had taken the monitors off. She just reattached them so Dr. Harward could monitor it for a minute.

When Dr. Harward came in he told me I had passed my glucose test (yay!) and said he would just check me here so I didn't have to go over to his office for my 9am appointment (thank goodness, since I still had to shower and get ready for work!). He watched the monitor and said the baby looked great, etc. I asked him if this same thing happened again how could I tell if it was urine or amniotic fluid and he said the only way to know is to come in to Labor & Delivery and be checked.

He gave me some things to watch for: a gush of fluid, a slow dripping of fluid throughout the day, slowing/stopping of baby's movements. He said your water can break this early even though it's not common, of course. He told me that usually when you wet the bed later in pregnancy it's because either a) the baby kicks you right in the bladder and your body just releases everything or b) you roll into a position where you're putting so much pressure on the uterus which puts pressure on the bladder that, again, your body just releases everything.

I still really don't understand how I possibly wet the bed when I had already been up twice in the night to use the bathroom. First of all, why did I wake up twice just fine and then once just slept right through it? Second of all, how did I possibly have so much urine after using the bathroom only two hours ago and also two hours before that? (and I hadn't had anything to drink since like 9pm). It still baffles (and embarrasses me) but I'm still so glad it was that over my water breaking.

Now I'm just really hoping it doesn't happen again since Dr. Harward told me I would have to go back to Labor & Delivery if I woke up with a wet bed again. The last thing I want to do is be making regular trips to Labor & Delivery for false alarms!!

Even though the whole situation is a little embarrassing I'm glad we went to the hospital because if we hadn't and I had told Dr Harward at my appt that morning that I had woken up with a wet bed he would have sent me over there anyway and then I would have been late to work and would have had to explain myself. Glad I avoided that!!

The point of this whole story?: Baby is healthy & happy and hopefully not coming any time soon. And also. I wet the bed.

PS The L&D nurse told me I was having Braxton Hicks contractions and showed me on the monitor. But I'm not feeling them so hooray!! Hopefully it stays that way.

PPS The title of this post says False Alarm #1 because you just never know how many you might have but here's to really hoping there's not a #2.

Thanks for baking a little bit longer, baby boy. We're not quite ready for you yet.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Utah Sol had a great year.

We played in the semi-final game on Wednesday night. We were down 1-0 at halftime and still down 1-0 with only a few minutes left. I thought the game was over and then Kylie Gardner scores a goal!! We celebrated then I looked at my stopwatch: 10 seconds left! The ref blew the whistle right after kick-off. Since we were tied we played two 5-minute overtimes and then, since we were still tied, went to a PK shootout.

Round 1
Utah Sol shot first. An off-target shot. Miss.
Red Bullets shoot. McKenzie stops it!
Tied 0-0

Round 2
Utah Sol shoots. Natalie scores! Utah Sol 1-0.
Red Bullets shoot. McKenzie stops it again!! Utah Sol 1-0.

Round 3
Utah Sol shoots. Keeper stops it. Utah Sol 1-0.
Red Bullets shoot. They score. Tied 1-1.

Round 4
Utah Sol shoots. Keeper stops it. Tied 1-1.
Red Bullets shoot. McKenzie stops it! Tied 1-1.

Round 5
Utah Sol shoots. Christi scores!! Utah Sol 2-1
**If Red Bullets make this shot, we repeat the PK lineup with the same 5 girls in the same order until 1 team makes it and the other team misses**
Red Bullets shoot. The shot hits the top crossbar and goes over the goal.

UTAH SOL WINS!!!! The crowd went wild. Everyone ran onto the field (including fans)! The girls were so excited. Utah Sol has never made it to the final round. They hadn't ever even made it to the semi-final round. Last year we got out in a PK shootout in quarter-finals and all the years before that they never made it past pool play.

Then we played our final game yesterday. The girls played so well and fought so hard. Blue Angels scored first. Then Kyliee Olsen scored to tie the game 1-1. Kyliee Olsen then scored again to put Utah Sol in the lead 2-1. Blue Angels scored a little later to tie the game 2-2. We were 2-2 at halftime and all the way until the last 5 minutes of the second half. Then Blue Angels scored to bring the score to 3-2 Blue Angels. Unfortunately, Utah Sol just didn't have the time to put in another goal to tie the game and we came out second but I am so proud of how far they came this season. 2nd place is definitely something to be celebrated!!! The girls were bummed but they were such great sports and couldn't stop talking about how excited they were to take second place! I'm so proud of what good sports they are. Look at their facebook updates:

McKenzie: Great game Utah Sol, even though we didn't win, that was the greatest game ever! I love you guys so much and will miss all of you!
Riley: Got 2nd in the tournament!! Oh well who cares if we did not get 1st!! This year Was not the year too win!! This was the year to make us stronger as a team!!
Yasmin: 2nd place! Good game sol! I love you guys!♥ :D let's keep our heads up high!

After the game we celebrated as a team at Pizza Pie Cafe. The girls had so much fun together! I'm so going to miss Utah Sol. I'll admit, when it finally hit me last night that I had just coached my last ever game with Utah Sol I broke down and cried. We've come so far as a team and I'll miss all the girls so much! We have so many fun memories like summer soccer camp, tournaments, intense games, awesome wins, fun practices, late-nights, sleepovers, and many more. I'm so grateful for the two years I had to coach all of these amazing girls! Here's to hoping they all continue in soccer and improve every year and become super soccer stars. I'll be rooting for them the rest of my life whether they are all on the same team or split to different teams.