Preggo Brain Strikes Again

Following is one of our favorite recipes for a lazy evening:
One box of saffron rice, cooked according to directions. In a separate pan, heat a can of black beans with garlic, chili powder, cumin and green onions if you have them. Once the beans are warm, serve on top of the saffron rice. I like mine with sour cream, Shawn likes his with salsa verde. What neither of us like is this dinner made with CLOVES instead of CHILI POWDER!!!!! Hello! How stupid do you have to be to grab the cloves (which admittedly resemble chili powder in coloring at least) instead of chili powder????? I swear.

No News is....Good News?

I had my weekly doctor's appointment on Wednesday morning. After an eventful start (my car had a flat, which I discovered driving to the appointment!), the appointment was a non-event. They didn't check me, so I have no idea how things are progressing, and the don't want to see me until the 1st week of January. Apparently, things are going swimmingly. I'm a little frustrated. However, I feel a trillion times better now that Christmas has passed, and we're still without baby. Now, if I can make it through New Year's, I will be very happy.

Ultrasound, Take 2

We had our last ultrasound today. The baby is definitely head down (YEA!), and facing to my side. I have a few tricks to try to get it to turn face back, to reduce the chance of back labor. Everything else looked great. We watched the baby "practice" breathing - you could see the diaphraghm moving up and down. The tech also showed us the baby's hair! Just some on the back of the head, but I was glad to hear it, since I was bald bald bald when I was born. I have a check up tomorrow, so hopefully, I'll find out important things like how/if I'm dilated.

Update

Had my weekly doctor's appointment today. Nothing too exciting to report. My Group B Strep test came back negative, so I'm happy about that. One less thing to have to worry about. One in three women has GBS, and it usually doesn't present any symptoms or problems. For newborns, however, it can cause very serious infections, so if you have it, they give you antibiotics through the labor and delivery. Yuck. I will do anything to avoid having any needles present. If I can avoid an IV, I will truly have triumphed. I'm not squeamish about needles, just don't really like them. It's like bugs. They don't scare me, I just don't like them. Other doctor appointment news: they didn't even do an internal. Never in a million years thought I would be disappointed by that, but I was really hoping the doctor would tell me how things are progressing. I'm hoping they'll do one next week. I have an ultrasound on Tuesday to check the size and position of the baby for sure, and then the weekly appointment on Wednesday. Stay tuned.

It's Like a Party in My Head

I had a very informative doctor's appointment this afternoon. All good news. The baby is head down, and doesn't have much room to flip. (I know they still can, but it seems like a good chance this one will stay in position.) The baby is measuring exactly right for my dates, so slim chances of giganto-baby. Additionally, Dr. M said I am not dilated at all, but 50% effaced. I know women can walk around for weeks both slightly dilated and mostly if not completely effaced, but I am taking this as good news; slim to zero chance of a Christmas baby, but evidence that I will not be pregnant forever! Yea! Last, I have a scheduled induction date for the 23rd. This is in case it looks like I will be pregnant forever. I said I wanted to go as natural as possible, so we picked as late a date as we could to increase the chances of me going into labor on my own. However, at least we have an absolute guaranteed end date on the calendar. All of this is good news. With every bit of information I get about how/where the baby is positioned, how big it is, etc, I feel better and better about my chances for a normal, natural birth. Whew. Next appointment is Thursday the 18th, so I will post whatever I find out then.

It's Official

My belly button has popped. It now protrudes all the time. How cute.