So last Thursday (January 26) we crossed the 34 week threshold. When DH picked me from the train he started talking about his employee in the States who has been majorly misbehaving, and the worst part is that DH & BIL rely heavily on this person's work. By the time we reached the house, DH was saying that BIL is planning to go to the States to look for a replacement. I was so worked out that I started crying and telling DH that I don't know if I would be able to let him go, and he said that he didn't even consider it. We talked through the entire evening and one of the problem was that if that person would not show up for work on Friday, DH & BIL would have to go there over the weekend (which would suck as we had our prenatal classes booked for that weekend). After having dinner and relaxing I could actually think rationally. We decided that theoretically I will only be 36 weeks pregnant when he will go, and at our next OB apt we would ask him what is the probability of me going into labour in the following week. Although, DH said he will not tell his brother that he might go with him until we know for sure.
On Friday, I called DH a few time and it turned out the guy was in and working, which means that at least for the weekend we were safe. In the evening, we were on babysitting duties, and I told my mom that once the baby is born, she'll be returning the favour, LOL. My brother was behaving very well (he usually does, when it is just me and DH), and we left their house around midnight. Since he is 13, technically he can be home by himself, but since he is autistic, last time we left before my parents came back (even though he was sound asleep), I had nightmares about him. This time, I managed to get through to my parents by 12:30 a.m. and they were already on their way home, so I didn't worry.
Both DH & I got very little sleep that night as we had to be up early for our Labour & Delivery class. Notwithstanding lack of sleep I was all wired up and found the class to be very informative and interesting. DH could barely keep his eyes open, but still managed to take away some useful information. A good student I am (and was during my school/university days), we were sitting in the first row at the desk closest to the teacher. I took lots of notes and after lunch we had a tour of the hospital. I have been familiar with the birthing unit as I spent an entire day there when my sis was giving birth to my niece, but didn't know where the assessment room was. It turned out to be a pretty small room with only 4 stalls and a few chairs (if the stalls are all occupied)and all of the stalls were occupied. In the birthing unit there were only two rooms occupied, so I guess it was a pretty quiet day at the hospital. So I was surprised by my own reaction as we were standing in the birthing unit with the teacher (who is an L&D nurse explaining everything), I started looking at the bed and thinking that in 5-6 short weeks, I'll be in a room like this giving birth! It did freak me out a bit.
When we left the hospital and were walking to the car (I found a free parking lot not far from the hospital, but still it was a nice stroll), I told DH that I thought that I my BIL & SIL would have taken the classes, they would have a much better experience with the birth of their oldest son. To which DH replied that he wanted to share his thoughts, but that the decision will always be up to me. He would prefer for me not to take any drugs, if I could handle it and have a natural birth. Well, I have been thinking about the whole epidural situation when I got pregnant, and I've seen the recovery process of with and without an epidural, as my sis didn't have time to get an epidural with her second kid. With the epidural she had complication and couldn't pee and had to spent 4 days at the hospital (here they kick you out 24 hours after vaginal birth), but without an epidural she was out and about 2 hours after giving birth. So, I asked my sis if she would go for the third would she take the epidural, and she said that the pain is very very intense and that if she wasn't told that the baby was coming out now, she would not be able to handle the pain. I also noticed that in all the videos all girls who were going with natural birth had doulas/midwives coaching them, and they did talk about that extra support being what they needed to push through. So, my thinking is that I'll try to go without epidural for as long as I can, trying to do exercises that we watched in the video, and try to have gravity do the job; but ultimately, if the pain will get too much and there will be no end in sight, will have to resort to epidural. I did have this discussion with my US prego friend and she is also of the same opinion and will try to do the same.
After the class we had about an hour before stores close, so we made a mad dash to look at vanities and flooring, and looks like we finally made a decision on those fronts, although nothing was ordered. By the time we were heading home it was getting too late, but DH wanted to have our friends and his brother over, so we stopped by the grocery store and I was a bit grumpy as I was tired and hungry. At the end everyone had other plans, so nobody came, and DH and I spent the evening together. As we were sitting at our computers, DH suddenly asked where was our bassinet for the baby, I said that we did have it and it was in the guest bedroom. We walked there and I showed him both the bassinet and the legs that go with it. He still looked puzzled and nervous. He asked where the other bassinet was that we are planning to put downstairs, and it took a second to realize that he was talking about a play pan. I told him that it was at my sis' friends place and we could pick it up at any time. I asked him what was going on, and he said that he started thinking that the baby is coming very soon, but we have no place for him to sleep, so he got anxious. The thing is that we did have a play pan, but when my US prego friend was here, my sis said that she can take it as she had another one, so she took it, but we never got the one to replace it. It was so out of character for DH to be so anxious, he was my support and rock solid foundation during 5 years of our IF struggles and through this entire pregnancy. But I know how he already loves our little "hamster".
Sunday turned out to be a very bad day for a lot of people, and we were the only ones that didn't suffer much, as our troubles were negligent in comparison to what other people around us had to go through. On the way to our taking care of the baby class, MIL called and said that my SIL's grandma passed away, and that SIL left to visit her parents to be close to them. I was so upset for her that I could barely keep myself from crying, I did have lump in my throat. I told DH that I would not be able to talk to SIL without crying as it also reminded me of my grandma's passing just a few years ago. My SIL already had tickets to visit her grandma in April, and I remember my conversation with her in the fall when she was saying that she really really wanted to visit her grandma as she thought the time was running out. It's too sad that she was correct. When my grandma passed away in April a few years ago, it took us by surprise as well, as my mom was planning to go visit her in May and I was hoping to convince DH to go visit in August/September. So, DH called SIL and her mom to offer our condolences, and I was sitting right next to him fighting back tears.
Well the only bad thing that happen to us on Sunday, was that we were 30 min late for the class, as they rescheduled the class for 30 min early but didn't send an email with the change. We didn't miss much as it was a recap from the previous day. This class was more hands on, so it actually seem to fly by and both DH & I enjoyed it. The highlight was watching the nurse bathing a 10 hour old baby, and then swaddling him. Even with the nurse with lots of experience doing it, it looked a bit challenging as the baby was wiggling his arms and legs, as opposed to the doll that we had, which was quietly laying on the table and allowing to be swaddled, carried and breast fed :). But the baby was so so cute. I can't wait for our little one to make his appearance. I know he is going look just perfect in our eyes :).
After we left the hospital, I was talking to a friend of mine who said that she just got a word that our mutual best friend is heading to the same hospital because her mom felt down the stairs and broker her leg in two spots (the same leg that she broke the year before), and since my friend's parents are divorced, all the burden of taking care of the mom lays on my friend, so I feel very bad for both of them, as they live a good distance apart.
Of course, not long after I talked to my friend, my sis calls that she fell from the stairs and hit her back on the corner of the railings. She sends me pics of her back with a big scratch and bruises, and at the end of the day my BIL goes to his hockey game and gets hit with a puck in his leg. The hit was so hard that after he took his skates off he couldn't walk!
So that was a pretty eventful weekend, but more craziness was about to start. The guys came in on Monday to start basement renovations. They only worked about half a day, but when I got downstairs on Monday evening, they had most of the framing down. DH was happy but also freaked out, as he is the one doing electrical, which meant that he had to start right away, as they were going fast. Tuesday and Wednesday we spent a lot of time in home improvement stores picking up electrical stuff (basically DH picking and counting and planning) and me just standing around and trying to be helpful. He has been working very hard during evenings and late into the night and was getting exhausted (he is still in the basement as I type this).
Yesterday, I reminded DH that our OB appointment was this Thursday. Of course he forgot and made an apt with an appraiser to come in (as we are also applying for LOC just in case), plus the home improvement store was supposed to deliver materials and initially DH was told between 9 and 11 a.m., but then he got a call that the delivery would be between 7 and 11 a.m. As we tried to make decisions regarding the basement and figure out how to plan the morning, DH sat down at his computer and his computer crashed. I felt so bad for him, I couldn't look at him without tears. With everything that we are going through right now, the last thing he needed was his computer crashing. I told him to go to sleep and that we would figure out everything in the morning, and the computer did somehow manage to fix itself (knock on wood). We also managed to do everything that need to be done in the morning and still get to OB's apt on time.
I told OB about my blurry vision spells and he was surprised. He said that it is usually caused by high blood pressure and that during the entire pregnancy my BP was on the lower side of normal (110 over 70), which was the same that showed in his office and what I've been getting at home. The baby's heart beat was good, and I think he even referred to it as being perfect :) I also think that he found the head where it's supposed to be - down, but he didn't say anything, so this is just my assumption, cause he felt the baby at the top with his hands, then found the head with his two fingers and then was listening to the baby's heartbeat at the lower part of my tummy. We also did a swab for the bacteria. I was a bit anxious about it as I read that they take it both in vagina and in the rear, but he did it so quickly that I didn't even had time to react. My next apt with him in on Monday February 13th.
Here is a little update with respect to the pregnancy as we finished 35 weeks, my bb's have been hurting a lot in the past few days, so I think they are getting ready for the big day, since they haven't hurt like that from the time I just got pregnant. On Monday or Tuesday I actually had to go to the washroom to take off my bra for a bit to feel better.
I am also getting bigger, and am bumping into things. Just a few minutes ago, I bumped my tummy as I was trying to get up from sitting at my computer. It was painful and made me worry a bit, as I had a pink line on my tummy, but the little one seems ok. I have also gained almost 6 kg all together (by my scale). At OBs appt this morning the weight was up 4 pounds since my last apt 3 weeks ago. Otherwise, the baby has been pretty active, except for one day this week when he made me very nervous. He would usually "say" good morning when I wake up and lay in bed or definitely by the time I leave the house, but it wasn't so that day. I think I felt him move a bit on the train ride to the office, but he wasn't his usual active self. He didn't move at all until around noon, and by that time I was slowly getting anxious. I had a few fruits and some cold water and he rewarded me with some movement, so I decided that I should not worry, but even for the remainder of the day his movements were very few and far in between. I was happy when the next day and the following day he was back to his usual self. I did ask OB about that and he said it is normal for babies to have sluggish days. I just hope it doesn't happen again, as I hate being normal. It does hurt what he is doing right now, i.e. playing football with my insides and kicking me in my right rib, but I prefer that anytime over the silence.
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