low and behold, i do believe in miracles! and if this one is correct, then we might have a baby on the way soon. the 'nesting stage,' as they call it has finally arrived in all it's magnificent glory!
after an hour passed and they continued on, i finally took the plunge and called the doctor. mind you, i have only called the doctor twice my entire pregnancy1.) when i couldn't walk for days due to back pain and 2.) for a prescription for pepcid because my throat was constantly on fire from heartburn and indigestion (supposedly brayden is going to arrive with a head full of hair...as the old wives tale goes)...i just haven't wanted to be 'that lady.'
on the phone, the nurse said to make my way to the birthing center. i knew they were just going to monitor my contractions and the baby's and then send me right back home. which is basically what they did....however, i was having 6-8 contractions every hour...but it wasn't time. they gave me a horse pill to stop the contractions...which didn't help and told me to call if i was having more than 6 every hour.
here's my beef with the whole counting thing....if i sat and counted my contractions every hour, i wouldn't be checking into the family birth center, rather i'm be making a beeline straight for the loony house! i would go crazy!
the contractions have continued on since and are only more painful now. regardless, they have not stopping my recent obsession with cleaning and organizing. i have officially confused my dogs and worn them out immensely as i run up and down the stairs. they have no idea what to think! i haven't done one single thing around this house in the past 9 months. you might think i'm exaggerating, but jared will gladly testify! now, i'm unstoppable! i've done everything from 9 loads of laundry (those loads to include baby clothes, blankets, etc.), organizing the pantry and cabinets, to scrubbing the baseboards! jared's biggest surprise...i finally hung up all my clothes that have been in our room since my family was in town. he was running out of bribery options and was about to just give up.
so here i wait. cleaning frantically. i guess i better start counting.
the only thing that seems to be constant in my life these days is change....and my craving for fla-vor-ice popsicles. call it silly, childlike, what ever you wish, but i'm addicted. so addicted that one at a time just will not do. maybe my mind is trying to prepare my body for the fact that during labor this is all i get. and at this rate, that is fine by me!! give me one of these (any flavor), along with bags of ice for my hands and feet and i am one happy little lady!
much to my surprise, i am not expecting my first child, but my second. over the past month, our puppy lulu has mysterously transformed into a human.
- animal planet is her favorite channel...as long as there are animals on the screen, she is captivated.
- her dog bed does not meet her standards....she must sleep on the same Egyptian Cotton sheets like the rest of us and her head must be rested on a pillow.
- after realizing that the pool is not a giant bathtub, she enjoys the outdoor pool life.
- she has separation anxiety when her mommy and daddy leave.
i think it is time mother nature and i had a come to jesus meeting. this heat thing is out of control and seriously cannot be good for this whole global warming ordeal. last night i kindly demanded that the thermostat remain at 73.....and that was only me being nice. i'm pretty sure 68 would be more ideal and conducive to my condition. however at this rate, i'm officially emptying out jared's wallet as rapid speeds. tacking on another $100 to the electric bill would probably cause him to strongly consider slapping a "return to sender" stamp on me and ship me home!
it's not that i have not enjoyed being pregnant, but seriously...those women in hollywood who make comments like "i have never felt sexier" and "i have enjoyed every minute" is full of you know what!!! being pregnant has been exciting, but my days of excitement are quickly coming to an end. I'm ready for the next phase.
In addition to being hot all the time, I feel kind of gross. I get out of breath just walking across a parking lot. And my back hurts. My feet hurt. My ankles are swollen and my toes look like cocktail wieners. My engagement ring barely fits on my ring finger and I'm thinking I should stop forcing it on each morning. and the leg cramps - good lord almighty, the leg cramps have arrived with a dreadful vengeance!! i wake up in tears and loud hollers. poor jared and lulu wake up thinking an axe murderer has enter into the room. when brayden moves around, it feels like he's just got no room left in there. my doctor continuously reminds me that there is room and my stomach will continue to grow. thus far she had not proven to be misleading. it seems, from my perspective, that brayden can't find a position he likes, but he's going to keep trying no matter how much it might feel like he is stretching the very limits of my uterine walls. so i imagine we -- me and my sweet boy -- are equally uncomfortable, as we count down these remaining six weeks of gestation. people keep telling me that i should enjoy these last few weeks of peace and quiet, before there's a crying baby keeping me up all hours of the night. i assume these people have no recollection of what it is like to have leg cramps keep them up all hours of the night. at least babies, even crying ones, have a cute factor to them. nobody keeps photo albums of their leg cramps. at least i hope not. but then again there are very strange people out there...
forgive me as i sign off to go massage my sore and swollen calve muscles with bengay.
jared and i had a doctors appointment this afternoon. brayden is doing well and growing fast. he is already 5 1/2 lbs. at first i was worried but my doctor quickly comforted me saying he should be between 71/2-8 1/2 lbs. i'm happy with that.....as long as i'm not popping out any 10 pound baby!! according to the dorctor's words, everything is "perfect."
47 more days!
today has been yet another lazy day for jared and i...mainly consisting of naps. at this rate 6 weeks seems like an eternity away! I find myself singing "i will survive, hey, hey!" every now any then....
here in the knetzer household, jared and i have spent the past 2 weeks immersed in the political realm. as an american citizen i feel that is my civic responsibility to be well educated about american government and politics. the beginning of these past 2 weeks consisted of watching the democratic national convention. my political views are conservative however, i feel that it is important to know what goes on across the board...otherwise i'm making uninformed, uneducated and ignorant decisions. so, i spend that entire week listening to each speech...michelle obama, hilary, bill, biden and obama. hardly impressed to say the least. i'm always intrigued by obama's capability to captivate his audience. i've known people like him before. he's the kind of person who after listening to them speak about the sky being purple will walk away from the conversation seriously considering whether or not the sky really is purple! i'll give it to him, he's a very charismatic and captivating person. but i'm affraid that's as deep as it gets.
i'm pretty sure every american agrees that we are in need of serious change. however, i truly believe former mayor rudy giuliani said it best,
change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy (website)
jared and i listen to talk radio every now and then. one of the radio hosts conducted a survey in manhattan and interviewed individuals who were registered voters. all of them were obama supporters. what was most shocking about this interview was the fact that they do not know why they were voting for him other than for the reason of:
- getting the troops out of iraq(even if it is at the cost of loosing the war and our troops dying in vain)
- tired of paying $5/gallon for gas (even though not one of them knows what obama's energy plan consists of)
- they believe he is going to bring about change (even though obama doesn't have a political record nor has he ever actually brought about change....unless you consider helping people move out of asbestos infested homes as a community organizer...as one of his spokesmen informed us).
with the announcement of sarah palin being on the mccain ticket as VP, there has been much excitement as well as controversy. funny how the questions she is interrogated with in the first week of her announcement, are questions not one person has asked obama in his 19 months of running for president. i don't have an issue with anyone questioning her political record and what her accomplishments have been, but is it really necessary to drag her 17 year old daughter through the mud or the fact that her husband had a dui 22 years ago. what about obama's admitted heavy drug use around the same time or his affiliation with criminals and communist fascists? i find it ironic that the party who supposedly is for the middle class and minorities, is berating one who is just that. perhaps their justification is due to the fact that she is a conservative and actually had her child even after finding out he had down syndrome.
after her speech at the rnc, she had the media in a tizzy as they stated her speech was full of pithy, hateful attacks on the obama/biden ticket. i'm sorry, but obviously they have a hard time accepting the truthful facts. last time i checked, sarah palin has more executive experience than obama and biden together and actually has a voting record that doesn't just say "present."
pers
onally i'm quite sick of all the ignorant political rhetoric and democratic propaganda that has flooded all forms of media. for example, i watched the first 20 minutes of the vma's this evening and was repulsed. who is russell brand anyways?? i don't know about you, but he looks like he's been on a coke binge and needs to be in a nut house! and does does he really think we care what his political views are?! he's british and cannot even vote in america. his comments, which no one laughed at, about palin's pregnant daughter were comments that disgusted me. i'm sure if they were remarks about obama's daughter, he would be beaten and burned for years to come. ironic? of course not. go back to britian.... being a soon-to-be first time mother myself, i have never felt the need to be well informed as i have in this election. i've realized you have to be very careful however.....it's quite obvious who the media is rooting for. political brain washing. when it comes down to it, there is a huge difference in someone claiming to do great things and someone who has done great things. i want a president who is capable of bringing about change, not someone who has a hard time making a decision. voting 'present' as commander in chief won't do the trick. promising words are great, but it's time to really look at the facts.
thankfully this past weekend, hurricane gustav missed panama city beach. now my attention is at the plethora of hurricanes that are lurking out in the atlantic. even though gustav didn't make landfall here, i definitely felt it's affects. i had heard from multiple people that with the drop in barometric pressure, women are more likely to go into labor. i asked my doctor if this was true, and being someone who is quick to discredit old wives tales, i figured she would say it was false. to my surprise she laughed and nodded her head 'yes.' gustav may not have sent me into labor, but i certainly felt like it could be a possibility. i spent all day yesterday on the couch with my swollen feet propped up, wedding rings off, and my stomach feeling an immense amount of pressure. quite uncomfortable to say the least.
if these hurricanes doesn't calm down, these next 6-8 weeks may turn into much less!