Weekly Check-In Week of 9/25/2023

makingbacon

Estimated Due Date / Weeks + Days:

FTM/STM/STM+:

Team Boy/Girl/Surprise:

Interesting baby fact/Baby is the size of:

Upcoming appointments:

How are you feeling:

Rants / Raves:

Questions:

GTKY: What is your favorite holiday?:

varimama

Estimated Due Date / Weeks + Days: 11/24 31+3

FTM/STM/STM+: TTM

Team Boy/Girl/Surprise: boy 

Interesting baby fact/Baby is the size of: a compsognathus 

Upcoming appointments: 10/4 standard 32 wk appt 

How are you feeling: huge but can’t complain 

Rants / Raves: we did maternity/family photos last night. It started sprinkling on us but the boys were so well behaved for a change that I’m hoping we got some good photos! I felt like a lumpy whale but hopefully that’s not what I looked like! My oldest told me my eyes were beautiful, my youngest looked at me in disgust and asked what I did to my hair and what I was wearing 🤣 to be fair he’s probably only seen me in a dress or with curled hair like twice in his life 🤷🏻‍♀️

Questions: none 

GTKY: What is your favorite holiday?: Now that I have kids I love making Christmas magical for them. I know it’ll be reduced some this year with a newborn and all but I hope we can still have lots of magic for the older two! 

UnwritteN12

Estimated Due Date / Weeks + Days: 34 weeks 4 days, 10/18 C-section 

FTM/STM/STM+: Baby #5

Team Boy/Girl/Surprise: Surprise

Interesting baby fact/Baby is the size of: Not the average cantaloupe. Still a giant.

Upcoming appointments: Wednesday @ the OB. DD2 and DS2 will have to come with me because of the time but DD2 will be thrilled to see the ultrasound. I imagine that DS2 will be sitting in the corner pretending nothing is happening. 

How are you feeling: Sick. I was in bed just about all weekend. It's first trimester all over again. Just this time I have the added weight and a wiggly baby dancing on my bladder. 

Rants / Raves: I'm tired of not being able to breathe. And not being able to get comfortable. And being tired. I think I'm ready to be done. 

My work family is the sweetest. They insisted on throwing me a virtual baby shower this week (they're mostly in the Boston area) and have sent all sorts of packages. I really am grateful to work with such awesome people. 

Questions: nope

GTKY: What is your favorite holiday?: Christmas closely followed by Halloween.

Kiek

Estimated Due Date / Weeks + Days:

34 weeks and some odd days. Due 11/3

FTM/STM/STM+:

TTM

Team Boy/Girl/Surprise:

Boy!!!

Interesting baby fact/Baby is the size of:

Butternut squash? But like a very big one, I’m convinced 😂

Upcoming appointments:

Next week. I forget what day. I should probably check 😂

How are you feeling:

Huge lol. Ready to be done. Lots of prodromal labor which hasn’t been my favorite 

Rants / Raves:

Rant: the prodromal labor that hits the same time every day is exhausting. I’m glad my body is doing a lot of the work ahead of time. But also, I’m an hour from the hospital so I need my body to not do too much more work 😂

Rave: A couple from my church is throwing me a baby shower this Friday which I just can’t believe. It’s so thoughtful and I’m just overwhelmed with gratitude. This is my third, and even though I never imagine we’d be able to have more kids and had long since gotten rid of our baby stuff, I never expected to get a baby shower.

Questions:

Nothing

GTKY: What is your favorite holiday?:

Thanksgiving! Hands down. It always has been. Cooking for people is my love language. No pressure for exchanging gifts. Each part of our families has such special and different traditions of what to do and to make on that day. I just love everything about it. 

makingbacon

Estimated Due Date / Weeks + Days: November 26, 31+2

FTM/STM/STM+: 4TM

Team Boy/Girl/Surprise: Surprise

Interesting baby fact/Baby is the size of: Tail-less otter; head of romaine lettuce

Upcoming appointments: This week

How are you feeling: Still just tired with some random cramping/pain - nothing too exciting

Rants / Raves: Raves: DH took the older boys camping this weekend. He started with just DS1 on Friday night, and then I met them with DS2 and DS3 for a corn maze outing before dropping DS2 off with him to finish the weekend. The boys had so much fun, and we ended leaving our house on time (corn maze was about 1.5 hours from us). DS2 was so excited to be included. Rants: My sister invited DS2 to come with DS1 to her house for a long weekend at the end of October. She lives in a big city, so there are so many fun Halloween activities, but then she uninvited DS2. He's got some sleep issues, aka he historically has a hard time falling asleep (but is doing so much better), and he usually gets up once a night (bathroom break then climbs into our bed for the remainder of the night). Her house setup has a set of stairs between her room and the guest rooms, so I tried talking to her about solutions for the steps because I didn't want him to get confused/lost. He's good on stairs, and he's excellent at opening a baby gate, so covering them isn't an option. She decided it was too much work, and uninvited him. It completely broke his heart when he was asking me about it the other day, and he will no longer talk about his costume. Today, after telling her exactly how brokenhearted he was, she re-invited him. He's a person, not a freaking yo-yo. I haven't responded to her because at this point, I have nothing constructively nice to say. 

Questions:

GTKY: What is your favorite holiday?: I used to be fairly indifferent to holidays, but now that we have the boys, I really like Christmas. I still don't care so much about the gift giving part, I just really enjoy all the activities and events that are available for them. 

makingbacon

@varimama I love how kids react to new looks. DS2 had a similar reaction when I started wearing more colorful maternity leggings lol. I'm glad pictures went well!
@UnwritteN12 I hope your appointment goes well! Is DS2 doing any better with the baby news?
@Kiek I hope you have the best baby shower! Prodromal labor is the worst. 

fitandnerdy

Estimated Due Date / Weeks + Days: 11/29, 31w

FTM/STM/STM+: STM

Team Boy/Girl/Surprise: surprise 

Interesting baby fact/Baby is the size of: coconut

Upcoming appointments: next week for 32w appt

How are you feeling: overall good!

Rants / Raves: my mom had a surprise baby shower for me, which was nice  my first daughter was 2020, so we had to do a zoom shower. It was nice to get an in person shower after the awkward zoom baby shower experience before! 

Questions:

GTKY: What is your favorite holiday?: probably Christmas because I love how it’s such an extended experience. I’m a professor, so off for around a month around Christmas and my husbands company gives them the entire week off between Christmas and new years, so it’s a nice long holiday experience. 

ashsowers2020

Estimated Due Date / Weeks + Days: 11/11 33w4d

FTM/STM/STM+: 3rd baby

Team Boy/Girl/Surprise: boy 

Interesting baby fact/Baby is the size of: I don’t know but he fills my entire belly now 😂 he’s a pro kickboxer at this point so he’s throwing fists and kicks in all directions

Upcoming appointments: 10/6– OB checkup, 10/17– hopefully my final growth scan 

How are you feeling: tired, sore… been having prodromal labor contractions for a week now, these last 2 days have been awful 😖

Rants / Raves: *sorry, this one is long!*

Rant— y’all, I’ve been having prodromal labor contractions for a week now… they suck! They’ve been off and on since last Wednesday, they hurt but they would pretty much subside after a few hours and then turn into normal Braxton hicks. 2 days ago I woke up at 4am with a contraction so painful my immediate first reaction still being half asleep was to tense up, and then I quickly just reminded myself to breathe through it. I had them for an hour and a half inconsistently until they finally subsided to not painful at all Braxton hicks. Finally fell back asleep at 7. A few hours later woke up to another painful contraction, they started up again. Took a bath after an hour of them and they subsided in the warm bath. Got out and within 30 min they started back up again. Resting, changing sides, drinking water, walking, eating…. Nothing helped! I would have a gap where I would have nothing for an hour and then I’d have 3 of them 7-10 min apart. Then again none for 30min to an hour, and then a few closer together. All super painful. This happened all day! I went to bed at 11pm, and after laying in bed for half an hour I realized that baby wasn’t moving like he normally would. I drank water, my husband played music on his phone and put it on my belly, we tried the flashlight on my belly (baby usually moves for one or both of those), poked my belly, switched sides… and he wouldn’t move. Called L&D and they said that especially with how intense the contractions were it’s best to come in and monitor me. We got there closer to 1am after dropping the kids off at my in-laws house. We were hooked up, and of course the contractions stopped and baby started moving like crazy. They monitored me until about 2:30 and then sent me home. And then of course the painful contractions started back up again when I got home and I got no sleep. My husband stayed home from work yesterday and let me rest, as the dr said to take it easy and just breathe through them. It’s apparently normal and as long as they’re not consistently close together they’re okay. They’re not an indicator that im approaching real labor, there’s no way to make these contractions progress or even induce labor, they’re something I will likely just have until I make it to full term 🥴 but the bright side— im learning ways to breathe through them and hopefully this will help me with successfully laboring med free when real labor happens lol I’ve heard from other mamas who have been through prodromal labor that when they went into actual labor it was much quicker than previous labors and it wasn’t as painful/as bad since they learned to get through the contractions before actual labor. 

rave— my husband is the absolute best. He’s been exhausted alongside me the last few days as we haven’t had much sleep between L&D and taking care of the house/kids/taking our oldest to and from dance every day. I’m just saying, he’s amazing! 

Questions: how do I speed up time and make it November already? 😩  

GTKY: What is your favorite holiday?: it didn’t used to be until I married my husband, but thanksgiving. I hated it growing up… my parents always got in a huge fight at the table while we were trying to enjoy our only family meal the entire year. My parents were the most uninvolved parents growing up… us kids ate at the dinner table, while they ate dinner in bed watching tv. I always told myself when I grew up I would always have meals as a family and stuck to that. Anyway, when I moved out on my own thanksgiving wasn’t an important holiday for me… in fact, I didn’t consider it much of one. I hated it. But now having my husband, and my kids, and my husbands amazing family… it’s one of the best days of the year, alongside Christmas. I love getting the family together and the traditions and family time together… laughter and playing games, doing activities together. All of it 

ashsowers2020

@kiek ahh! So sorry you’re having prodromal labor as well. I (literally) feel your pain! We’re not too far out now, although you’re a week closer to being done than me— I’m only slightly jealous 😬 hang in there, mama!!  

@makingbacon I’d be so upset about that! I’m not sure what I would do if I was actually in your situation, but I fell like I would tell her no thank you because she already uninvited him. Like you said, he’s a person not a yo-yo!

ohsmith

Estimated Due Date / Weeks + Days:

11/5, 34w3d

FTM/STM/STM+:

TTM

Team Boy/Girl/Surprise:

Girl

Interesting baby fact/Baby is the size of:

Butternut squash

Upcoming appointments: had one yesterday and have my 36w appointment on 10/10

How are you feeling:

I haven’t felt good all day, my stomach has been hurting so I’m just hoping and praying I’m not getting sick

Rants / Raves:

Rave: my baby shower is on Saturday and I’m so excited to celebrate with everyone and finally get stuff set up in her area of our room

Rants: none

Questions:

Found out baby girl is breech. My doctor gave me a couple things to try at home to get her to turn but does anyone have any suggestions?

GTKY: What is your favorite holiday?:

Thanksgiving! I love cooking and eating and spending time with the family just being grateful for how blessed we are. It’s one of our calmer holidays in the way of not stressing over getting things for every person and what not.

fitandnerdy

@ohsmith my first was breech. Your doctor probably recommended spinning babies. The spinning babies website is insanely confusing IMO. The moves you should look at are forward leaning inversion followed by a breech tilt. Do that a few times a day. I tried all the old wives' tales as well: something warm near your pelvis and something cold on the top of your belly to try to encourage baby to move to the warmth, music near your pelvis, lights on your pelvis, handstands in a pool.. basically anything to try to entice baby to move down. I also saw a chiropractor certified in Webster technique. 

If your still breech around 36-37 weeks, your doctor may suggest an ECV where they push on your belly from the outside to try to manually flip the baby. I tried the ECV at around 37 weeks and it was unsuccessful. I was warned ahead of time that it would likely be unsuccessful as a FTM with fluids on the lower side, but I wanted to give it a shot anyway. If you get to that point and your doctor suggests it, I'm happy to talk more about it. 

Ultimately my daughter did not flip and she was born via C-section. As someone who was hoping for an unmedicated birth, that was not in my plan at all, but I think the planned C-section experience was very nice and having a few weeks to come to terms with it was helpful too. 

Kiek

@ashsowers2020 it’s so unpleasant 😅. Mine comes on the same time every day now from around 3pm to 8pm. A few days ago they were particularly intense and I lost a large part of my mucus plug 🫠. I did not experience this with my girls. This boy is determined to make me exhausted lol. I’m hoping it means I’ll get lucky and he’ll come before his due date. My girls came after their due dates and I did not enjoy that 😂

knottie08fd6e4a38c71b26

Estimated Due Date / Weeks + Days: 35w0d, Due 11/3, Repeat Cesarean scheduled 10/27

FTM/STM/STM+: STM

Team Boy/Girl/Surprise: It’s a girl

Interesting baby fact/Baby is the size of: baby is about 5 pounds 🧐

Upcoming appointments: 10/3 w/ MFM growth U/s/Ventricularmegly/absent CSP check & 10/6 w/ OB growth U/s/weekly check

How are you feeling: nervous/anxious. Once she is out, it’s time for her neurology team to step in and help. Right now I’m just continuing to pray that our ventricles maintain with their stability.

Rants / Raves: definitely not looking forward to a repeat C-section due to having a 20mo very active boy at home who is all about mama. I feel beyond thankful and blessed that I was able to have a non-Covid baby shower this time with more than 6 people, but that people are excited for our little girl to get here!!

Questions: anyone else’s child going to need the NICU or has needed the NICU after birth?

GTKY: What is your favorite holiday?: Christmas, and now getting to see it through his eyes is magical.

medicmomma6115

Estimated Due Date / Weeks + Days: 31 & 3

FTM/STM/STM+: STM + stepdaughter

Team Boy/Girl/Surprise: Benjamin is a boy!

Interesting baby fact/Baby is the size of: a foam finger or a tailless otter

Upcoming appointments: standard OB check yesterday, 10/13 begins NSTs with a growth scan and another OB check

How are you feeling: soooo siiiick and exhausted all the time. I have begun vomiting randomly without feeling nauseous. I’ll be eating and in the middle of eating *BAM* vomiting. It’s awful and they have no idea why. I also feel freakin huge. Im plus size to begin with, my starting weight was 245lbs at 62” height….and this baby has consumed me. 

Rants / Raves: 

Rant: feeling sick and exhausted gives me so much mom guilt because of my 8yo son. He’s pretty understanding most of the time, but I just feel so bad. We took the kids to see the new Paw Patrol movie last night and they both thoroughly enjoyed popcorn, candy and the movie. 

Rant: No delivery planning has been discussed thus far. They don’t want me to exceed 39 weeks which is the day before thanksgiving…which is my favorite holiday. My brother and sister in law will be coming to town for thanksgiving and it would be perfect for them if Benjamin is here to meet him. We don’t see them but a few times a year. We’re in Western NY and they live on the Vermont/NH border. We typically don’t travel there or them here in the winter unless there’s something big because of the icky weather potential. 

Rave: my mom and sister in law are planning a “sprinkle” for Benjamin. We had nothing for baby for awhile. We purchased the crib and dresser, painted and set up his room. But, this will be super helpful to get us the other stuff we need. My son is 8, his daughter is 6….so it’s been A LONG TIME since we’ve had any baby swings or toys or clothes.

Questions: When did you start discussing delivery planning as a high risk momma not allowed to exceed a certain gestation? I don’t know when to start to become pushy. 

GTKY: What is your favorite holiday?: Hands down Thanksgiving. It has always been my favorite because there is absolutely no pressure on gift giving, bunny baskets, or stocking stuffers. I hated Christmas for the longest time because my exhusband was awful, but I’m beginning to enjoy it again after 10 years and being able to witness the magic of it through my son and stepdaughter. It’ll be weird having a newborn this Christmas and neither of us having to work. My old job was 24/7, 365 and we worked at the same Ambulance company so, we’ve both worked just about every holiday consistently so it’ll be a nice change! 

bluepeach565

I wrote all this up and then forgot to post and add mine...I'll post my responses and attempt to go to the current week with a timely response! 

@varimama - loling at compsognathus. I googled that thinking - oh this must be some strange animal I haven’t heard of. Jk DINOSAUR

@UnwritteN12 - that’s so sweet of your coworkers!

@Kiek - I’m sorry your body is giving you so much prodromal labor. Is it painful? I’ve been having lots of what I assumed are Braxton Hicks but they are starting to get uncomfortable. They eventually stop but ugh. I didn’t have this in the last two pregnancies!

@makingbacon - aw man that’s so tough with DS2. I hope whether he goes or not, he can find some of that excitement again.

@fitandnerdy - aw that’s so cute! I’m glad you got to experience a real one. The zoom thing was probably a bit awkward.

@ashsowers2020 - What’s with these 3rd babies and prodromal labor! I’m sadly joining the party. 

@ohsmith - I wish I had some advice for breech, just sending you all of the turning vibes!

@medicmomma6115 - I hope Benjamin arrives for Thanksgiving, that sounds like it would be wonderful timing with your brother and SIL!