Heading to the hospital now! Baby is officially on his way and dear God does it hurt.

*this posting contains too much information, so don’t read it if you don’t want the gory details…
Midwife says I should have Baby in my arms in 24 hours. I am 3cm dilated, 50% effaced, and she can touch Baby’s head with her finger. I was so upset about an hour ago, with all the waiting and so forth that I wanted to cry but I am so happy now!!!
Every time you go to the midwife you have to give a urine sample, so I was doing that and I …

I think I am losing site of the prize here. For the last few days I have been viewing labor as the end goal, to the point where I have almost stopped thinking about the baby himself. I have been having contractions ranging from mild to quite painful for about 3 days now, averaging 20 minutes apart, but nothing is really happening. It is really frustrating. Its hard because I can’t really get a good night’s sleep, or even a good nap. The thing is, I have started to come …

At first I thought it would be the right thing to do if I soothed Jen and calmed her as we reach the homestretch of her pregnancy. After 30 seconds of that, I realized that sometimes in life you have to sit back, wait and enjoy the ride.

Needless to say, Jen is a wee bit cranky (she knows it) now that baby is a few days late. What does this mean? Well if you are anyone on the streets of London and more specifically the High Street Kensington of London, …

Just got back from the midwife. Everyone is healthy – my blood pressure has dropped just a little down to 100/60 (anything above 90/60 is normal – not sure what the high parameters are). But this is no cause for alarm because the baby has a very strong heartbeat and everything else is fine.
Last week they told me they would do a membrane sweep today, but since I am having contractions on my own, they want my body to have a go at just finishing the process naturally. Stupid Nature. …

I am 38 weeks and 5 days today so I should be measuring around 38 cm from pelvic bone to the top of my uterus, but I am coming in at a whopping 39.5 cm!!! As with everything in pregnancy, this could mean:
A. Nothing
B. Baby is big
C. Baby is ready
D. Something totally different
Unless you are more than 3cm larger than expected, it probably just means he is a little bit big. The midwife nicely said that since I haven’t an ounce of fat on me, it isn’t me it is …

Today is our 6th wedding anniversary. In keeping with both the British (plate) and American (iron) traditions I have purchased Jennifer full iron plate mail armour for her to wear to all the Renaissance fairs and reenactments she so deeply loves. These traditions can seem antiquated, so luckily the “modern” guide to anniversary gifts recommends the much more progressive wood as the 6 year theme. Whilst Jen’s wooden shield won’t provide the same level of protection her armour will, it does cover all my bases. How I long for the …

I had my last antenatal class tody which was followed by my biweekly midwife appointment. My regular midwife was gone and in her place was and older lady who was very upset because she was running behind schedule. She had me hop on on the exam table and tried to find the baby’s location, to make sure he was staill in the proper position for birth. She was pressing really, really hard – to the point where it hurt! Finally she said, “Well, I can’t find the head.” Ummmmmm… where …

I fell down today! Ow. Everything is fine. Baby is fine, I am fine, Michael is fine – all verified by the midwife. It was raining pretty hard this morning, and there is a dusty area across the street on the way to the bus stop that gets kind of slick when it rains. As I was thinking about texting Michael once I got to the bus to warn him about the slipperiness, the ground just kind of went sideways. I landed really hard on my butt, then smacked my …

Apparently in late pregnancy your body starts to release massive amounts
of a hormone that makes all your muscles, joints and tendons start to
relax, as you prepare to give birth. Unfortunately, this includes
relaxation of the little valve at the top of your stomach. Since the valve
is loose, you tend to get terrible heartburn. I have been really lucky the
whole pregnancy and have had essentially no negative symptoms, but I have
this one in a bad way. So I was looking for some safe solutions and I saw
a bit about acupressure on the …