Let's get this party started!

37 weeks and 4 days in and I am ready to go! I am cramping up most days and baby Weeks has definitely dropped over the last weekend. At my weekly appointment today, she concluded I was a "tight" 1 cm dilated! This makes me hopeful that he'll be on time and make his grand entrance in 2.5 weeks! These cervical checks are not fun though, let me tell you (1 finger is in 1 cm, 2 is 2, then they just start spreading to see if you're further, one would think medicine would have advanced past that, but no). The doctor warned me I may be sore and spot for a while afterwards and that is just what's happening now.

Thus after my first day back to teaching (no breaks with 125 15-17 year old sophomores) and getting checked today, I am spent. I'm giving up on housework for the day and even ordering a sandwich out instead of cooking.

Unfortunately, my doctor was booked all of next Thursday and Friday afternoons, which puts me back for a checkup on Wednesday, my birthday. Hopefully I'll be able to fit in something fun - J has law school Wednesdays so maybe my folks will come up for dinner! I will definitely keep you all updated, I am getting more excited by the day!

No news=Good news

I keep growing week by week, both physically and mentally. I've come to terms that baby Weeks is really going to make it and in the meantime is growing like a weed. Seeing my feet now only happens when I break out my yoga moves, twist at an odd angle, and crook my neck to look down; and don't even get me started on the last time I've seen my "lady parts" - that is a post for another day.

All the while I get more and more excited for his arrival. Over the weekend Jesse was away camping with his brothers, which left me to myself and my cleaning. I was a maniac. I swear you can now eat off of any surface in my home, and I mean any. The outside looks just as good - I trimmed all of the hedges, hoed the garden, cleaned the gutters, washed my car and hung the laundry outside. I also fit in time to put together baby Weeks's changing table. This project made his arrival so much more real. There were hundreds of pieces and directions that might as well have been written in Chinese, but I was determined and head-strong. Hours later, every piece was in place and the table was standing strong and ready for many a diaper.

The other big happening was a big doctor's appointment Friday - I had reached the all important 28 weeks - officially 3rd trimester! This means the beginning of the end of my pregnancy as well as a barrage of tests. The biggest is the GD (gestational diabetes - more info here http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001898/). I walk in and the nurse hands me a 10 oz bottle of orange colored liquid and tells me I have 5-minutes to finish the whole thing. I flashed back to my Keystone Light chugging days and told myself I could do it. Plugging my nose the entire time, I downed the most overly sweet, disgusting beverage of all time in under a minute on an empty stomach (you have to take the test after fasting for at least 4 hours, I had eaten since dinner the night before).

Unfortunately, this was only the beginning. I went in quickly for my regular exam, then was ushered upstairs to get my blood drawn. Starving and shaky, my blood was extracted and I was sent downstairs for one final torture. It was time for the update of my Rhogam shot, so I dropped my drawers and got a shot in the bum.

I received the best news today, however - no news. They said if I didn't hear from their office by 5pm today, my results were normal and I don't have GD! Woohoo! Now it's time to keep moving forward and looking forward to every milestone in the final 12 weeks!

Feeling better every day...

Between my expanding stomach and good news at doctor's appointments, I am finally beginning to breath easy(ier). I had the pleasure of going in today to see Dr. Scannell for a check-up with both Jesse and my mom. We waited for what seemed like forever until the doctor came in with the doppler. Unlike last time where it was rough to hear the heart beat, she got a strong heartbeat in seconds! We all breathed a collective sigh of relief and coupled our celebration with an official date for the gender ultra sound...April 14th! Mom and I enjoyed a tasty and leisurely lunch at the Sole afterward and I'm on track for a great weekend ahead!

I've been feeling great lately minus an insane bout with insomnia. For the past week I have been up, literally all night. Tossing, turning, getting up to use the bathroom, counting sheep, the works. I got permission from the doctor today to take a Benadryl once in a while and encouraged me to get back to working out. I intend to follow her advice and will be back at the gym April 1st!

The HIPA aka the world's biggest pain in the ass.

We've had it with my doctor.

1) I called from my hotel as I saw the bleeding yesterday. Never talked to the doctor.
2) I called back after being in the E.R. for 8 hours. Was told doctor was going to call me back.
3) Left my phone by my bed to wait for call. 8am came. 9am came. 10am came. By 11 we had it and called ourselves. Still didn't talk to doctor.
4)Around noon, the receptionist called back. Not the doctor. Last straw.

Additionally, doctor never asked for my blood type during first appointment, so missed by need for the shot I got yesterday.

You're fired.

Except I have to jump through a thousand hoops to get there. Every time you switch doctors, you have to fill out a HIPA form designed to "protect" your privacy. Except if you don't own your own fax machine, this means you have to go in person and fill out this stupid form.

Seeing as I don't see myself driving down to Manhattan to get my records, I had to get a HIPA form faxed to J's dad's store, scan my license, have his little brother print it out, have his other brother drive it to the store, fill out the form for me and fax it back (thanks, guys). To get my records from my current crappy OB-GYN, J's driving to Worcester with my id, filling out the form, then coming back after an hour of driving (thank, love).

If we can get our driver's license online, buy just about anything under the sun, do our banking via the internet, why can't they just e-mail us a release via a secured server?

Sigh. At least we're moving forward though!