We live near a small boardwalk that is a 1/2 mile from one end to the other, so one round trip is 1 mile. Abby and I have a routine of doing this loop about 3 times in about 45 minutes, if we are moving at a good clip and Abby does not need to stop and smell EVERY single flower along the way, we can make it in less than 45 mins.
I say this because after being told I could not Jazzercise, I was planning on relying on dog walking to take the edge off the weight gain. No no no I was not going to do 3 miles in 45 minutes, but maybe 2 miles in...well..in however much time it took.
Josh came with my on my first "non-workout stroll" down the boardwalk. When we finished up the first lap and he saw that I was rounding the bend for lap #2 he abruptly stopped me. "NO! You do not have your cell phone with you. The doctor just told you to stop working out. No more laps."
Josh does not put his foot down like that very often, so when he does, I try to respect it.
From that point on, Abby and I only did 1 lap on the boardwalk, much to both of our dismays (is that a word..dismays?) and that one lap took us about 30 minutes. Clearly, not up to par with our normal routine. Abby was/is pissed to say the least. She LOVES those boardwalk walks and now they were cut considerably short.
However, maybe not short enough...stay tuned
Last Monday we went for our last sonogram, partly because Parker is so low and my doctor just wanted to check things out. This third visit is usually when mom's and dad's get that cool 3-D sonogram picture of their baby where they can pretty much see the baby's facial features. Parker is so low, that picture was impossible. All we got was a vague white-ish yellow-ish profile shadow that basically looked like a squiggly line.
Side note: I fear that my baby will have a severely misshaped head and be forced to wear one of those clear head-shaping helmets since his heads seems to be down so far in such a narrow spot. Let's all pray that is not the case.
Back to the main story at hand...
So the lady doing the sonogram last Monday told me that my cervix was completely in tact and there is no evidence of dilation.
Well on Tuesday, about a week after the sonogram, I went to the doctor. I am 1.5 centimeters dilated and now on bed rest because I am only 35 weeks.
A lot of women I know who are already mom's have told me that I can hang out at this stage for quite a bit and I knew that already and am fine with it. However, keep in mind, this change happened in about a week. I went from no dilation to 1.5 cm.
I am fine with whatever happens at this point. If Parker comes early, great! (As long as it is after next week so I will be a solid 36 weeks), if he waits until the due date or a bit after that is fine too. I have only marginally unpacked some of the baby shower stuff and Josh is slowly, but surely putting together baby items included and LIMITED to the stroller and bassinet. The car seat is still in the car, but not securely.
Last week we went grocery shopping and I had a coupon for diapers that was about to expire, so I picked up a pack and put them in the cart. When Josh saw them he said, "You are buying those already?" I reminded him we are only a few weeks away from baby-time, that the coupon was going to expire and that we only have 1 pack of diapers, which we got as a gift, and that pack will likely be depleted within the first hour of us bringing Parker home.
Don't let out lack of setting-up "baby shop" fool you. We are more than excited about meeting, playing with, and enjoying Parker. However, the mechanics of getting our crap together seems to be lacking a bit. Not to mention that this nesting need I keep hearing about seems to be completely nonexistent within me in all regards.
People keep asking if I have hit the uncomfortable stage yet. My answer to them is this:
I am fine during the day. Around 8:30/9:00 at night, I start to get restless and need to just lay down. (Though I am on bed rest, I am mostly sitting on my couch proped up with a mountain of pillows.) Bed rest is not my favorite, but this is my first sacrifice as a mom for my child and I kind of think that is neat. I am doing something that I do not really enjoy, to make sure my baby is healthy, comfortable and happy and that makes it all a little more bearable.
To wrap things up, I basically feeling fine, save for even more frequent bathroom trips. Abby is confused as hell as to why I am home and we are not at the beach or taking long walks on the boardwalk. Josh seems to think this baby is going to crawl out at any second and I desperately want a pedicure!
