Babies 1st Outing (Well Sort Of)

My Mom is coming down starting tomorrow to spend the week helping me out with Sophia and around the house. She tried making reservations this morning but for some reason (they said security measures) they could not take her credit card number over the phone. She called me and asked me if we would be so kind to run over to the hotel (a block up the street) and finish her reservation for her. Not a problem I said. So we packed up Sophia and the diaper bag, got in the car, headed over to the Hotel and then got gas on the way back. Sorry, Sophi that your first outing wasn't more exciting. Quite anti-climactic huh? Oh well, there is plenty more to do and so much time to do it in.

Babies 1st Roller Coaster Ride (Not Really)

A friend of mine from work, Brandi, had given me a baby bouncer for my baby shower. She swore by the thing and said it would lull and angry bull to sleep. So we decided to try it. On Day #2 of being home, we put Sophia in the bouncer near the slider. It was open with a fresh breeze coming through. The sun was shinning and coming in right on the carpet in front of her. Bandit decided to curl up right in front of her bouncer and take a nap. So we decided to put her in it and try it out. What do you think? Do you think it works........

Bandit & The Baby

One of the first things we wanted to do when we got home was to get Bandit acclimated to Sophia. We laid her out on the couch and allowed him to come up and sniff her. He started at her diaper and sniffed and then sneezed. How appropriate. These 2 don't know it yet but instead of being Thing 1 and Thing 2 they are going to be Stinky 1 and Stinky 2. He then sniffed her legs and licked them a little. He got down to her feet and started licking between her toes and it just sent her reeling. Either too much stimulation or it tickled one or the other.

A little while later he came back and sniffed her face. He then made his way to her hair and started licking her profusely. He was preening her. Welcome to the pack Sophia. Bandit gives you 2 paws up.

Going Home Day

I was exhausted.Sophia had kept me up all night Thursday night. I had to sleep. I just had to sleep. So I took a nap around 9am and slept till about 11:30am. When I awoke, Dan was sitting at the edge of my bed starring at me. It was kind of creepy. He said are you awake I need to talk to you. I was instantly in a panic. He said Sophia was fine, then I asked about myself and he said I was fine. He said because I was doing so well recovering the Dr. had signed off on my discharge papers the night before and we were supposed to leave the hospital on Friday instead of Saturday. Discharge is at 11:00am everyday. It was now 11:30am. OMG!! Crap!! Pack the bags we've got to go. If we stay the insurance wont cover it. Oh no! Dan said to calm down. That because of the mix up and them not telling us we could take our time getting ready and packing up no big deal. OMG! What a scare. Dan had taken the liberty of packing his car with as much as he knew he could pack. Dan had been driving his car back and forth to and from the hospital since he slept each night at the house. The problem was the car seat was installed properly and was in my car. So while I finished signing paperwork, ordering my prescriptions, packing and cleaning up, Dan went back to the house, dropped off his car and unloaded it, picked up my car and headed back to the hospital. Lunch came and I took the liberty of sitting down to relax and eat. Dan finished packing the car, I packed up Sophia, we went down stairs to the pharmacy in my wheelchair, picked up my prescription, brought the car up from valet, packed ourselves in and headed home to start our new life as a family.......just the 3 of us.

Our Hospital Stay

Our hospital stay was awesome! If I could rate the hospital I would give it an "A+++". All of the nurses and volunteers were so nice and accommodating. They really did cater to our every need. They were so sweet. Given my c-section there is not much I can do about anything. They didn't want me out of bed the first day and a half. Someone had to hand me Sophia to feed her and take her away. Someone had to diaper her. Someone had to change my sheets, bring fresh linens, bring me my food and take my tray away, bring me my medicine and help me shift in bed so as not to have anything fall asleep. I was helpless and for this Type A personality chick this was hell on earth. Thank God for the staff at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance and my husband, they were such angels.



I started out on a clear liquid diet. It kind of sucks. They were afraid I might get sick from all of the anesthesia if I didn't. But eventually I was able to get back on solid foods. The hospital food was great actually. They even had a special celebration dinner for Dan and I. I ordered the Fillet Mignon and Dan ordered the salmon. It came with asparagus and yellow and orange carrots, twice baked potatoes and sparkling apple cider. And then to finish it all off, dessert was 2 tiny little pink cakes topped with white chocolate surrounded in white chocolate that read It's a girl. (This was my favorite part hee, hee!!!)

Poor Dan though, the fold out chair that they had for him pulled out into a twin bed. Our Postpartum room was 1/3 the size of our labor and delivery room and it was a bit cramped. Dan didn't even have the strength the first night to open it up. By the time it came to the second night and opening it up, we decided to send him home in the middle of the night to get some sleep. He would have been no good to me in the morning had we not. Plus, nurses were coming and going every hour on the hour to check my vitals, check Sophia's vitals, take blood, deal with lab results, deal with my I.V., give me my pain medicine (percoset, vicodin, Motrin- I.V. grade, and Demerol). Yeah, serious stuff. Could kill a body like mine- you know me I cut my Tylenol in half. Dan says I was so doped up during labor and delivery and then in the O.R. that I started telling jokes- really bad ones at that. I guess he told me to keep my day job and all the Dr.'s laughed.

When it was finally time for me to get up and down I was miserable. My belly and abdomen hurt so much. i don't wish this type of pain on my worst enemy. Thank goodness for hospital beds. I would have to incline the bed, use the side railing to roll myself over, lift myself off the bed with my arms, roll my legs off the bed and then sit there for about 5 minutes, until I could actually stand up. And then I would get dizzy and need another 5 before I could go any where. This got better day by day. Eventually I got the knack of it.

For a regular natural birth you get to stay in the hospital for 52 hours. For a c-section you stay for 96 hours. Our original check out was for Saturday but because I was making so much progress so quickly recovering the Dr. signed me off to go home early on Friday.

It's A Girl!!

We were having an emergency c-section whether I liked it or not. And I was terrified. I have never had major surgery like this before let alone being awake for it just boggled my mind.

They rushed me out of the labor and delivery room into the O.R. area for c-sections. I had 5 specialists who were Dr.'s 1 for the c-section, 1 for the anathesia, 1 for N.I.C.U. babies, 1 OBGyn and 1 surgery Dr. Each one of them had an attending Dr. as well and then we had a team of 5 nurses for the baby aftrwards to do the different things that need to be done for a c-section baby. I loved my anathesiologist Dr., Dr. Ingram. He was awesome. He was there for all 17 hours of my labo and delivery. He was the one who took care of my I.V. meds both times, administered the epidural and no he was going to be taking care of my meds duiring and after the c-section while managing my pain at the same time. He walked me through everything he was going to do before he did it, what everyone else was doing since I couldn't see (there was a sterile curtain put up between my face and my belly) and how the procedure was going to go along with blow by blow narration so I could follow along in the process. He was awesome. ( I even took the time to write out a comment card for him and drop it in the box )  After they were done prepping me, they prepped Dan and brought him in to the O.R..

The surgery took what seemed like only moments and then we were done. Dan was over in the corner with the nurses cleaning her up. But she wasn't crying. Why wasn't she crying? Dan got to cut the umbilical cord and wipe her down. He got to be apart of them weighing her, measuring her, dressing her and giving her the heel prick test and her vitamin K shot. Still no crying. I was still on the table getting sown back up when they brought her over to me and let me see her, touch her, smell her. Wow, you can totally tell she's Dan's kid. She looks just like him! They took her back and started doing some other stuff with her and she finally started crying. So at 1:20am on January 24th, 2012, Sophia Roselyn LeBlanc was born. 7 pounds, 9 ounces, 19 inches long, with a 13 inch circumference head. Yup that's right, my baby is going to be a genius with all that beautiful brain she's got. (That is exactly why I could not deliver her. My pelvic opening was 9 inches- my pelvis never seperated, she was way too big. Regardless she was built to be a c-section baby.)

Labor & Delivery

On Monday morning at 4:47 am I had a major contraction. A real one this time. Another one followed at 9:15 and then again at 10 and 10:30am. I called the Dr.'s office and they said just to make sure that my water wasn't leaking rather than breaking. So we packed up like we were going to deliver and headed off to the hospital. Sure enough, we were 2-3 cm dilated and my contractions were about 15 minutes apart. So they admitted me to the hospital.

We got to the hospital around 12pm. They wheeled me into my room and set me up with all of the monitors and started me on potussin (I think that's how you spell it) to induce my labor and get my contractions closer together. Once they were closer together and I was really starting to get into a groove I got some meds via I.V. to help take the edge off. We did this twice over a couple hours period of time. The contractions were right on top of each other and they were hurting like nothing I had ever felt before. So I opted in for the epidural earlier on to make sure I didn't die in vain during this process. LOL We then broke out the birthing bar and I proceeded to push for 6 hours. That's right......... 6 whole freakin' hours with no progress. I was toast. I couldn't do it any more. I was spent and I just wanted this process over with. I started to cry.

The Dr. came in and said we had 2 options: option 1 was to continue to push for a natural child birth (which is what we wanted and that he could use the forceps and vacuum on her head to guide her out. (Problem with option #1: I didn't want to push any  more, it wasn't going to be a natural childbirth any more because I had already taken all the meds and I was so tired and in so much pain that the idea of prolonging this seemed like sheer stupidity on my part). However, the Dr. said, he couldn't guarantee that it didn't turn out to be an emergency c-section if he still couldn't get her out. OK so option #1 didn't sound so good. What was option #2 looking like: emergency c-section now! Holy crap......now????!!! NOW!!!!! He said. My heart rate was going up, Sophia's heart rate was going up, I was starting to panic, I had run out of energy, I was now crying and this would be the fastest quickest way to end all of this. (Problem with option #2: Sophia's head was wedged in my pelvis. She was too low for the Dr. to do a traditional c-section. He thought the incision would have to be higher and much longer and probably still have to do an episiotomy to make sure he had enough space to get her out). BUT....... the Dr. said, he couldn't guarantee this one either.WHAT!!! Wait so you give me 2 options and neither are an option. What the FRACK! He said that it would be messy and not ideal either. The scarring would be bad and if he couldn't un wedge her from where she was would would have real problems. Oh my God I am going to die on the operating table having this baby. Holy Crap! (more tears) I looked at Dan and told him I loved him more than he would ever know. I told him he had to decide, that I had already checked out and was too emotional. That I was in no shape to make decisions and that I just wanted it to stop. Please make it stop I begged him. He opted for the c-section.

1st Official Labor Contraction

I really worked my body over yesterday. We hit the mall again and walked all 3 floors of the Galleria. I was winded, my back hurt, I was hungry, my cramps had kicked up and all I wanted to do was go home. It did me a bunch of good this morning though. 11:33am this morning I had my first official labor contraction. Wow! My sister Cindy was not kidding when she said it would stop you in your tracks dead. Phew! Let's keep um comin'. I want to get this dog and pony show underway. "Bring it on"!!!! "Make my day"! It's time to "Say hello to my little friend". Sorry, been watching way too many movies lately.... bored out of my mind.

Today is Sunday, a good day to have a kid. Sounds good to me. So keep your fingers crossed and say a prayer. Looking forward to not having to induce her because she is late. The sooner she comes the better.

This One's For The Boys

Listen up ladies, yup that's right I am talking to you! Do you have kids? Are you married? Do you have a special man in your life? Then I am talking to you! This one's for the boys!!!!!!!

For 9 months out of 12 months, for 40 weeks out of 52 weeks, for almost a year out of my life, my husband Daniel has stood by my side. He has gone to every Dr.'s appt. and sonogram, tucked me in to bed, fluffed my pillows, made sure I had good nutritious food in my belly, cleaned the house like Cinderella so my hands won't have to touch the chemicals, run errands for me to make my life easier, driven me around so that I am more comfortable in the car, gotten up with me in the middle of the night to check on me to make sure I am ok when nature calls, picked up my pre natal vitamins from the pharmacy, held my arm as we have waddled around to help stabilize me, offered me a hand to get up and off the couch (as it does suck you in so), walked the dog incessantly day and night so that he doesn't pull me as we walk, offered kind words of encouragement and love when I have complained or have not been feeling well, and just plain out every day loved me!!!!

My husband is a Super Hero. I can't imagine going through this entire process without him. I am one of the luckiest girls on the planet. If you happen to have a special man in your life like this, please tell him how much you love him every single day. Do not take him for granted. There are so many guys out there that would not do this for you where if this man is in your life tell him. Profess your love for him along with your adoration and appreciation.... daily!!!! Let him know just how special he is and try to do things for him in return. Men just want to help. To fix things. To make things better. This is just their way. And I am so glad that this has been what Daniel has been able to do over these past 9 months.

My dearest Daniel, your are my one true love. The love of my life and my soul mate. You make my life easy. Loving you comes naturally. You are my other half. I do not know where I would be without you. You make life worth living. Thank you for all that you do for me. I love you from the bottom of my heart.

What's On Tap For Today

Pancakes! Yup, at 4:52am there is nothing better than pancakes. So my Hubbie and I will start off the day with a hearty meal of pancakes, eggs and sausage prepared by yours truly. (Did I mention Dan didn't sleep either so he is also up as well...) We have a friend stopping by to drop off baby bump pics this morning around 9am and then it's off to the grocery store for some fresh fruits and vegetables, milk and a couple of other staples for around the house. (Refer back to my scurvy comment on a previous blog about 3 back LOL). Need to put gas in the car so we are not stranded when this baby comes, looking forward to walking the Galleria today and doing some sightseeing. Thanks to a good friend Mycah, I have a bunch of freebie coupons to use at the mall: free cookie, free lunch, free makeup, free facial, free makeup brushes.... woo hoo. Looking forward to turning them in and having a fun filled day at the mall all about me. (Hay, I am not being selfish here. Dan gets to get out of the house and go to the bookstore- his holy grail of pitstops along with the video game store. Trust me, this makes him a happy camper! And the two of us get quality time away from the house and get our minds off of this baby). I have been working on Sophia's baby book and picture album. I have a couple of more things I can do today in reagrds to that but not much till she gets here and we can actually start taking pictures of her. Other than that, that's what's on tap for today. Looking forward to the weekend though. Not that the weekend would be any different from the weekdays since everything runs together now that I am off work. The weather is changing. It is going to be raining. I love the rain. We could definitely use it. It is also great for curling up on the couch with someone special along with a mug of hot coco. Definitely looking forward to doing some of that this weekend!

It's 4:52am and I am not sleeping!!!!

Yup, that's right. It is 4:52am and I am awake and blogging along. Yuck! I hate this. Too hot, too cold, can't sleep, have to go to the bathroom, can't breathe, stuffed up, stomach hurts, cramping and contractions ..............and still no baby. Really! Mucus plug gone....check. Dilation.... in process. Cramping and contractions....hell yea! Now if I could just get some sleep. Everyone keeps telling me to. That it is super important especially now before the baby comes. Then why is it so hard to do. Jeesh! Have been taking cat naps during the day to help but it seems to make matters worse at night. I just can't win. I'll take a crying baby any day.

Great Baby News!!!

Went to my next baby Dr.'s appt. Thursday afternoon. Good news. Dr. says we are 1-2 cm dilated. Now I know that that is not much but it is something. A big something since nothing has been going on around here in the last week or so. So excited. Can not wait. I feel like I have a new lease on life with the process. I was really starting to drag my feet thinking this was just not going to happen any time soon.

Called and texted all of the normal suspects and told everyone the news. A few more people to call Friday to update. We are finally in the home stretch. Wish us good luck!

Cookies, Cupcakes & Chocolate..... Oh My!!!

"Gimmee Cookie" is the regular response from Cookie Monster. One of Jim Henson's Sesame Street characters that I grew up with. It was his favorite food..... his only food if I recall. I have always been a healthy eater. I love, love, love fresh fruits and vegetables in the house and when I don't have them I throw a temper tantrum with Dan. I drag a foot, shrivel in size and complain I have scurvy from not having fresh fruits and vegetables (I wont explain just look up scurvy on line). He hates this and thinks I am being ridiculous. I am 9 months pregnant and all I can think about is junk food. OMG! I think I finally have my first craving!!!!! Well shut the front door and stop the presses. Really! Seriously!!!! 40 weeks pregnant and now I get a craving. Good Grief!!!!

I want cookies, cupcakes, chocolate, chips, salty snacks, licorice, gummy bears, popcorn smothered in caramel, coco puffs, caramel apples, fudge, bags of chocolate chips (all to myself), ice cream, cake, pie, need I say more. Oh it is so glutenous. It's terrible. I just want to stuff my face with junk food. I no longer care how much I weigh or how much I have gained. Does it really matter. I am dropping it off in the hospital in another day or two anyways!!!! Oh the shame!!!! It's just bad. Bad, Bad, BAD!!!! I think I need a junk food intervention. Ugh, I need to break myself of this now before the baby gets here. I cant eat like this after the baby gets here I will balloon up. The exact opposite of what my goal is once Sophia gets here. Yikes! That could be a huge problem.

I will have to think long and hard about this one as to how to stop it. Let me grab a cookie and ponder the possibilities........ LOL

"Nemo, swim down, swim down"

In Disney's animated film Nemo, Nemo and his friend Dori get caught up with a school of fish in a fisherman's net. Their only chance of survival is to "swim down" as a team and break the net to get free. I am proud to say my daughter is "swimming down". My belly is no longer round. It is oblong and shifted to the left. (It truly looks like the bride of Frankenstein. Its one of those train wrecks where you keep saying don't look, don't look but you just have to. You should have seen people staring at me at the mall yesterday) LOL Sophia has stretched out, legs and feet extended up in my ribs and lungs with the rest of her body laying comfortably in my pelvis. This girl is ready to go!!!!!

I was up all last night with cramping and contractions. Praise God we are back on track and we are getting this process going again. I don't think I could go another week without anything happening. I would probably induce out of sheer insanity.

Looking forward to hopefully having a day time birth if there is such an option to check that request box. I cant imagine what type of sleep deprived beast I would turn into if we went into labor in the dead of the night. Hopefully today will be the day. Good things on tap for today. Dan has a blood donation this morning and a hair cut this afternoon. This is perfect! I get to get out of the house, do a little local sight seeing but not stray too far where we would be far enough away from the hospital to cause concern.

On another note, I got fantastic news that a previous colleague and good friend of mine Darriett is pregnant as well. Congrats!!! So excited for you and Ken. As soon as Sophia is here we can get together and properly celebrate your wonderful news.I am soooooo excited for you two. I know this is something you have been praying for. Great things happen to wonderful people!!!

Hello Cramping & Contractions!

Today Dan and I took a walk around the mall. Wow what a difference. I did all that walking around Long Beach yesterday and nothing. A little walk around the mall and we got the contractions going again. Thank God!!! Sitting here waiting for Sophia to head towards the light. Today feels different. She feels a lot lower. More pelvic than stomach today.She doesn't feel like she is hanging off of me like she has been, this time it feels like she is hanging down. This feels like progress. I hope so. I also hope that I am not dreaming this or hallucinating either. That would suck. So ready for this to be over. Dr. said it should be an easy labor and delivery. What exactly did he mean by that? No labor pains, no long hours of labor, what? You can't do that to a pregnant woman. He got me all excited and amped up and now I am just waiting in anticipation. It's sheer torture. Countdown to my next Dr.'s appt. this Thursday.

Babies, Babies, Babies

My friends keep telling me every where they look they see pregnant women now since they are so used to being around me. Personally I think it is an epidemic..... a good one that is. Kind of bummed out though. Some of my family and closest friends are pregnant right now and due in the coming month or so. With Sophia taking her sweet time to come out and then having to be home with her for the first few weeks I am going to miss all of the festivities and baby showers.

My friend Shannon's baby shower was this past Saturday. She's having a boy. Congrats Shannon. So sorry I couldn't be there. Just waiting on my little bundle to decide what she wants to do. Glad to hear you got the shower gift. Enjoy.

My sister Cindy's baby shower is the 28th. She is having a boy. Congrats Sissy!!!! Lil' Roy is what Auntie Pam is going to call him. Can't wait. First baby boy in the family in a while and the first baby boy for all of us. Seeing as though we assume that Sophia will be here in the next week, I am going to have to take a rain check on the baby shower. Will make sure a special care package gets in the mail for my littlest nephew and will definitely get together with you guys a few weeks after Sophia arrives.

My girlfriend Lauren is also pregnant. She is having a girl. Congrats Lauren and Jon! Her baby shower is on the 29th. Same dilemma. I have no idea when Sophia will be here, no one does. So yet again special care package in the mail for Lo's pink bundle of joy and we will have to have a Mommy and Me play date after Sophia gets here.

Only so much that I can do at this point in time. It's funny. There is this movie called "Failure to Launch". The premise is about a guy who wont move out of his parents house and make a commitment in relationships. I kind of think that is what we have here with Sophia. A "Failure to Launch". LOL I will keep all of you posted as the next week goes by. We have another Dr.'s appt. on Thursday. Hoping for some good news.

A Productive Monday

Got up this morning around 9am. Got breakfast, showered and got cleaned up. Tackled the dishes, kitchen and the bathroom. Dan did the trash, made the bed, walked the dog. Not bad to get all that done by noon.

Fun times ahead today:
My mother-in-law and father-in-law are headed our way for the day. Looks like a walking trip around Long Beach for some fresh air and some encouragement for Sophia to come out and some seriously good Chinese food for lunch. Can not wait. It will be good for me to get out. Walking around Target and the grocery store have started to bore me. Walking around the complex here has done the same. Same old, same old. Nothing new to see or hear or do. Really looking forward to a change of scenery in Long Beach and some good old fashioned salted sea air in my face. It's like milk..... "It does a body good"!

A Lazy Day Sunday

For those of you who know me, you're all to familiar with the fact that I am a type A personality. A little high strung, the stress keeps me on task and I am way organized. The 2 letters R & R are not in my vocabulary. But thanks to my hubbie, I am slowly learning how to relax and chill. For example, today. Neither one of us slept well last night and we found ourselves taking a mid morning nap today and sleeping again till almost noon. After finally getting up and a make shift breakfast, we hung out watching TV and movies all day in our PJ's. So unlike me. But soooooooo fun. It was so relaxing and chill. Even Bandit our dog pulled out his blankie and curled up on the couch with us.

Now I am well rested, happy go lucky, belly fed, well snuggled and yet.....................still no baby. Argh!!! I live to go into labor another day.

Happy Saturday

The day is only half over but it has been a grat day so far. Today has been a lazy day Saturday. Slept it, slept great by the way, a big Saturday morning family breakfast: eggs, sausage, toast, pancakes, coffee and some quality time with my Hubbie and the dog. A quick shower to refresh myself and I feel like a new woman.
Ahhhhhhh! This is what every Saturday should be like let alone every weekend. I guess this is the calm before the storm. Its actually kind of nice if you can say that given the circumstances.

On another note though, my cell phone has been ringing off the hook since last night, friends, family, loved ones all checking in to see if the baby is here yet since our due date was this past Wednesday. Wish there was more to report. I will keep you posted. Stay tuned.

An Anti-Climactic Dr.'s Appt.

Went to the Dr.'s yesterday for our weekly appointment. Nothing special. Sophia is as big as she is going to get. I am as big as I am going to get. We are all just waiting on her. Dr. said to give it another week. He went over the hospital protocol yet again: If my water breaks go to the hospital. If the baby stops moving for a long period of time, lay down and drink cold fluids. If she doesn't start moving again go tot the hospital. If it hit the 5-1-1 rule (contractions are 5 minutes long, a minute apart, for approximately an hour GO TO THE HOSPITAL!!!

Outside of that nothing special or exciting to report. I am out on maternity leave now and am taking it easy at home. Putting my feet up, relaxing, snacking, taking walks with Dan and the dog and running short nearby errands to keep myself from getting cabin fever. Other than that, hopefully we will have some more exciting new things to share with all of you in the next few days.

Due Date Day!!!!!

Today is my last day of work before I start my maternity leave tomorrow. I am working from home thanks to contractions and no sleep last night (and still no baby ARGH!!!!!). Today is also my new due date. It was originally 1/26/12 and the Dr. moved it up about a month and a half ago. I think for lunch today I will walk across the street to the mall and get a bite to eat. The fresh air and the walk may do me some good and get the baby going.

I keep having pep talks with Sophia:
Go towards the light, go towards the light.
No more room at the inn, get going!
I only built this condo so big. There is no room for renovations and long term stays.
You can't stay in your room forever!!!
But nothing seems to work. I think I am going to do a lot of walking tonight. I find a lot of movement really gets me in pain. Not that one would purposely want to be in pain but if it helps this along I am in. Wish me good luck!

The Elevator Is Falling, The Elevator Is Falling!!!!!

Yup, that's right. There are a few fears that every pregnant woman has. Delivering in an elevator, getting in a car accident, losing a baby or the baby coming out as an alien. We have all had these fears and nightmares, thank goodness many of us have never had to experience any of these things. Until yesterday...... Yesterday I really thought I was going to deliver in the elevator in my building on the way down after work. You see, I got stuck in the elevator 2 days before my new due date (1/11/12).

I got in the elevator at about 4:50pm. I hit P for Plaza to go to the lobby. When I got to the lobby, the bell dinged but the doors didn't open and then the elevator shock a little and fell a bit (not by much) and then settled. It then went up to the 4th floor (which I had not told it to do) dinged again and the doors once again did not open. Then I didn't go anywhere at all. It just stayed there at the 4th floor. The floor buttons were not lit up so I hit P for plaza again. The elevator slowly went to the 1st floor, the bell dinged again and the doors finally opened. I ran out of the elevator as fast as I could. My heart was racing, my stomach was in my throat, I started cramping right away from the stress, I was breathing heavy and I was scatter brained.

I went over to the security desk and filed an incident report with them and then left to go home. Upon arriving home all I wanted was a hug from my husband. A realllllllllllllllly long hug hello. I didn't want to let go. I was so frazzled. Needless to say I still had to go to work today and yes I did take the elevators up to my floor. What's worse is I got the same elevator! YIKES!!!

One more day to go at work until my orignal maternity leave date. Maybe I will take the stairs tomorrow.

Made It Through Sunday, Just Not Off The Couch

Well it's Monday and still no baby. Cramping but no contractions at least not yet anyways. I guess you could call yesterday a lazy day. I made it to the couch but never made it off of it. Kept my feet up, relaxed as best as I could, even took an hour nap. Nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary. Just tired. Ready to do this. Ready to be done. I guess I never really understood how pregnant women at this stage in the process could feel this way. I now have a new found respect for my preggers-in-waiting. I get it now. You are just so tired of feeling this way, waiting, not knowing, that it starts to drive you crazy. My body is shot, my brain is shot and I am just cranky because I feel numb all over from the constant cramping all the time (by the way today is day 8 of this!). I keep telling myself it is all worth it. That this too shall pass. That in the grand scheme of 9 months 8 days is nothing. That 8 days is much worse than a few hours of labor and that 9 months is far shorter than the rest of my life spent with my little girl. I keep reminding myself of my personal positive mantra: I am doing this, I am doing this! Not just I can do this because this may put some doubt in my mind while birthing. I cant turn back the hands of time and go um no I really don't want to do this but thanks. Nor can I say can we just skip this part and go to the happy pleasantries after she is born and clean and pink and less wrinkly. I am fully committed whether I like it or not and I AM going to HAVE to do this. So a couple of more hours, maybe a couple of more days. Sophia will be her soon. (For my sake I sure hope so!!!)

Cinderella & The Ball......

I finally made it. Didn't think we were going to get here..... the ball that is or should I rephrase that, my companies annual awards banquet. Every year the first Saturday of the year, my company puts on an awards banquet to honor the top producers of the year. I got the dress for Vanessas's wedding in June and wanted to wear it for the awards banquet to get double duty out of it. I had the gown, I had the prince and even the coach so to speak to get me there, I just wasn't sure if my daughter was going to allow me to do all of this.

I got up Saturday morning and had a pep talk with Sophia. "Mommy wants to go to the party tonight sweetheart. She wants to wear her pretty dress. If you can just wait one more day so mommy can do this, I promise I will get you a pony when you are big enough". (OK so I didn't promise what type of pony or what size. Give me some credit, the kid wont know the difference LOL). And like the little miracle she is, she was quiet most of the day. She let me get done what I needed to get done. I was able to get all dolled up and go to the banquet and enjoy myself for a couple of hours until I really started cramping and getting tired. No big deal. I came, I saw, I enjoyed (and indulged) and then I was ready to get out of there. And I even got to wear my dress!

Moral of the story..... bribe your kids, it works!!!!!

Busy, Busy & Still No Baby

Thursday was a busy day. Work from home, off to big bosses meeting at the Montage Hotel in Laguna and off to a Dr.'s Apt afterwards. Well sort of. I didn't make it to the Dr.'s appt. By the time Dan and I got out of the meeting and hit traffic on the way home, we didn't make it back out to the South Bay area until 5pm. Not bad except my Dr.'s appt. was at 4:15pm. Oops. So we had to reschedule.

Thursday was another busy day. Back to the Montage for the company Kickoff meeting and then out by 1pm. Da and I drove to the Dr.'s office to make up our appt. Dr. says she is doing really well and at this point we are just waiting on her. Everything else is a go. I told him to take her out and he just laughed. I was being serious. I think he thought I was being sarcastic. I over indulged at lunch at the Montage and got myself in a bit of trouble with the Dr. They always take a urinalysis first thing when I go in to the office. There was a lot of sugar in the reading. Um, I think that would be from the 2 Cokes, Lemon Bar, white and dark chocolate iced cookie and cream puffy thing (hay come on I'm pregnant I can live a little plus they were small mini sized like petite fours just for tasting) I tasted along with my turkey sandwich, chips, garden salad and marinated vegetable salad. It was all really good. Just some of it was not good for me! LOL Other than that he went over hospital protocol with us again and told us what to expect, when to go to the hospital and what to do when all of this goes down. Just for precautionary sake, if we actually make it to the end of next week he made me make my next weeks appt. scheduled for Thursday.

So here I am.......still waiting.

Contractions, Contractions, CONTRACTIONS!!!!!!

Welcome to Pre Labor! Yup that's right we probably have another 24 to 72 hours before I really start working on popping this kid out. I have been having tremendous cramping since Monday and have had increasing contractions 3-4 on Monday 6-7 yesterday. Today has been very mild though. We are in the home stretch. Working from home tomorrow morning, company meeting at 1pm at The Montage Hotel in Laguna Hills (Dan's gonna drive me- he's nervous about me being so far, by myself). Company Kickoff at The Montage Hotel on Friday (we will see how I am feeling when I wake up that morning- if I am all good I will do the morning meeting only and have Dan drive me again) and then if I actually make it to Saturday night- our company awards banquet (we will go for dinner and pictures only then sneak out- no use being there all night feeling miserable). It's countdown time in a crunch. No one knows when Sophia will get here. Looking forward to it though. Just want to get the rest of the icky-ness and not feeling well pain stuff out of the way.

I am looking forward to my Dr.'s appt. tomorrow afternoon. I can't wait to see if I have started dilating yet. That will tell me a lot about where we stand and what to do going forward from here. Stay tuned and keep posted. Baby is on the way!!!