STILL NADA.  I’m still 1 cm dilated and soft, same as the past 2 weeks.  She said I have about 1 cm left until I’m completely effaced, which I’m estimating to mean that I’m about 70-75% effaced.  She offered to strip my membranes this week to try to bring on labor.  She said in 50% of women, the babies come within a few days.  But I wasn’t too keen on having my amniotic sac manually ripped away from my cervix just yet….plus I’ve heard it isn’t the most pleasant experience (as you can probably guess).  Neither PB nor were actually expecting Baby Bear to come this week, so we weren’t really prepared.  I wasn’t expecting the MD to offer this soon, so I was caught a little off guard.  And I just found out that my mom is currently sick with a throat infection and is on antibiotics.  Not a great time for her to come down and be around a newborn.

With all those things in consideration…plus, we still have a good 6 days until the due date and didn’t quite feel like forcing anything just yet, we declined the stripping.  But the MD said that if the baby isn’t here by next week (40 weeks and 1 day old…I’d be in my FOURTH trimester), she would have to try the stripping before thinking about induction. 

So…..we have another appointment scheduled for next week hahaha. 

My co-worker who was due two weeks after me….she just had her baby last night!!!!  Actually this is the longest she’s ever carried, she usually delivers about 5 weeks early…this is her first full term baby!  And even going into labor at 37 weeks, her baby girl was born at 8+ lbs!!! Imagine if she went the full 40!  Everyone is saying that her baby will be Baby Bear’s future girlfriend hahahaha.

My due date is in exactly one week!  Looks like the baby won’t come on our first date anniversary since I pretty much still feel NOTHING.  I thought I had some random Braxton Hicks contractions yesterday, but now I get confused and can’t really tell the difference between the baby shoving his butt out and a BH contraction.  I would feel like I was having one, and rush to write down the time…but then it would be over in like 2 seconds when the baby moved again.  If you look at my sheet of timed contractions, almost all the times are crossed out! hahaha!  I hope my water breaks first so I don’t have to worry about whether or not it’s real.  But that only happens in like 10% of women.  sigh.  People say that you know….but some people at work didn’t actually know because I guess it wasn’t as painful as they expected.  Those were also the ones who got to the hospital too late to get an epidural!  I don’t want to be one of those. 

We think the baby’s going to be late!  We’ll see what the doctor says tomorrow at our appt.  If the baby doesn’t come by next week, I’m going to have to have non-stress tests done to make sure he’s doing okay in there…that means additional appointments…sigh.

But I developed this weird rash on my feet.  I have no idea what it is.  They’re small red bumps and not particularly very itchy, but I feel them.  I know PUPPPs is fairly common in the third trimester, but this doesn’t really look like it.  The pictures look more like wheals or pretty bad maculopapular rashes…unless that’s the more advanced form.  But that usually appears on the belly.  I think it could be Prurigo of Pregnancy, which apparently is even rarer, but is supposed to look like tiny bug bites, usually on hands, legs and feet.  That description fits a little better.  Great. I may have to “borrow” some steroid cream from work tomorrow if it gets worse.  It sucks having it on your feet….you can’t even scratch it once your shoes are on.

PB and I went to church this week…and we’re still relatively new there, so not a lot of people have met us yet since we don’t really stay for snacks afterwards.  Today, they had a lunch afterwards, which we stayed for and people kept coming up to us to introduce themselves.  Then they would ask when I was due…and I’d say next week.  tee hee.  It’s fun to watch people’s faces change when they hear that.  But it’s such a small world.  The pastor had us break up into small prayer groups at the end of service.  In my prayer group was a girl who said I looked familiar.  I didn’t recognize her at all, so I didn’t really think anything of it (the pastor’s wife had mistakened me for someone else last week, so I just figured there was someone else there that kind of looked like me).  Turns out, she’s from NY and went to Stuy and had seen me in the halls.  But we really like it there

9 days until my due date…I’m in the single digits.  I told Baby Bear he wasn’t allowed to come out last night because I didn’t want to miss the season premiere of Grey’s.  BTW, I was expecting everything in the commercials to actually be part of the show…not part of someone’s dream/a sike-out….I was kind of annoyed.  But I love that new army guy character that they hooked up with Yang.  “So?”  hahaha.  I hope he sticks around.

PB and I both got thrown little showers at work this week.  I actually ruined the surprise because I walked into that area before they were able to gather everyone and saw my cake just sitting there hahaha.  PB isn’t really into the shower thing, but got thrown one because he works basically with an entirely female staff (there is only one other male nurse on his unite).  It was really nice of them.

Meanwhile, I still feel nothing.  I get like ONE Braxton Hicks sometimes during the evening.  And we get all excited and record the time on a piece of paper and wait and wait for the next one….and nothing.  Sometimes when the baby moves and sticks his butt out, it sort of feels like a contraction because that area feels all hard.  And then we get all excited again and write the time down, but then we have to cross it out because he moves again and that feeling is gone in like 2 seconds.

We would love for him to make an appearance on Sept 29…our 1st date anniversary (7 years ago!!!!).  But at this rate it doesn’t seem likely.  We do have another appt that day, so at least we’ll know if there’s progress.  They start talking induction at 41 weeks, but I really really would prefer not to be induced since I hear the contractions are way more painful through induction.

October 5th!  According to my Fit Pregnancy magazine, over 12,000 babies are born on Oct 5th every year.  They said to expect extra crowded delivery units around that date.

That’s Baby Bear’s expected birthday!

Sigh…went to another MD appointment.  Absolutely NO progress since my last visit.  Still 1 cm dilated…he did say that I was thinned and soft, but that’s about it.  I nervously asked him at what point do we start talking induction.  He just laughed and said for me to be optimistic since 90% of women deliver before they reach 42 weeks.  I was like 42 weeks?!!!! (I thought he was going to say 40 weeks).  I don’t want to be one of those women truding around in their FOURTH trimester.  But I probably won’t dilate much more until I start having more frequent contractions (I barely get them now).  He said, “I’ll probably see you back here next week”.  NOOOOOOOO.

Good news is I’m Group B Strep negative. WOOHOO! No antibiotics for me!

My coworker, who is due 2 weeks after me, is now 3 cm dilated and slated to go any day.  But this is her third kid and she always delivers early, so I guess this is normal for her.  But she is really big and REALLY low…she looks like she can go at any minute.  I think she’s going to beat me to it hahahaha.

On the other hand, it’s nice to still have a few extra alone days with PB!

PB and I blew up my old exercise ball today (which by the way I’ve never exercised on….I’ve always just used it as a fun chair to sit on). 

People at work think I’m not going to go anytime soon (the same ones who told me weeks ago that there’s no way I’d make it to week 40 because I was carrying so low).  They are actually betting on the girl due 2 weeks after me going this weekend (it’s her 3rd and she always goes really early).  They even switched my schedule so that I am no longer an extra next week…but now I have to work a real shift.  Humph.

I tried to not go into labor last week (as if I can control it) since PB was working night shift and I’d have to figure out by myself whether or not the labor is real enough to call him home from work.  But now he’s back on days…so he’ll be home with me at night.  For some reason, everyone I know goes at night.  So now I can let the bouncing begin!

And…sigh…the stretch marks came.  I thought I avoided them…but at week 38, I got them.  DARN.  It’s not so bad though…just a little ring of them around my belly button…i guess the skin there is super think.

On a good note, I’m starting to get SOME signs.  (TMI coming up). Like I’ve gotten diarrhea every FREAKING DAY for the past week, which happens before you go because the stuff your body produces to prepare your body for labor basically causes diarrhea.  And it’s not just once a day.   Some people have diarrhea for WEEKS before they go (some get it just the day before).  It’s like having a stomach virus for weeks.  Some people vomit too…but luckily I haven’t had that (yet).  And since your body produces other stuff that loosens your pelvic bones…other bone connections loosen too…especially in the weight bearing joints.  So my left leg regularly pops in and out of the hip socket.  Ouch.

I try to sleep on my side as recommended…but I’m naturally a back sleeper.  So sometimes, I stuff an extra pillow behind my back to keep myself from rolling over.  Sometimes I wake up and my pillow is no where to be found.  For example, a few days ago, I wake up in the middle of the night to pee and I see my pillow on top of PB’s chest and he has his arms wrapped around it HUGGING it.  So I just leave it since I was too groggy to wrestle it away from him.  Then I wake up in the morning and it’s on the FLOOR next to him. hahaha. hmph!

But we need some movie rental recommendations.  Any good movies out that are on DVD now?  (No horror flicks please…I can’t handle those).

So now i’m for real full term!  I’m actually quite relieved that Baby Bear is all grown up.  With my job requiring me to be so physically active at times, I was afraid that I would go earlier than recommended.

So is everything ready? uh.  sort of. hahaha.  Our hospital bags are still only 34 packed.  I think mostly because I don’t know what the weather will be like…especially with that recent record setting heat.  We did put the car seat base in this weekend.  And we have our pediatrician picked out (first and second choices)…they’re only 10 minutes away…and I can drive there myself…i think hahaha.  And we washed all of Baby Bear’s sheets, blankets and clothes up to 3 months of age.

We finally came up with a middle name for Baby Bear.  We ended up not doing the “J” thing because we didn’t like any of them enough.  We went through the top 500 names and finally decided on one that we both loved.  It’s a very “white” name hahahaha.  I guess his whole name will be very “white”…but oh well…i feel like every name is considered “white” until you meet an asian with that name.  Growing up, I always thought my name was very white, until i met like 1000 other asian J’s. hahaha.

There’s one thing that freaks me out about going into labor.  I’m scared that I won’t recognize the signs.  I know people say you’ll just know.  And I know what contractions/water breaking should feel like.  But what if what it actually feels like is different from what I’m expecting it to feel like.  And then I write it off as something else…until the baby is coming out…and then I’m like, OH….that’s what that was.  When I was smaller, I was able to tell when I was getting the Braxton Hicks because my stomach would get rock hard.   But now, my stomach is always hard because the baby’s so big in there.  Sometimes when he moves around, it feels like what the Braxton Hicks used to feel like.  So I don’t know if they’re actual contractions, or if it’s just him moving…..or even if it’s just gas (which I get QUITE a lot now too!).

The other thing that scares me is having my water break at work or in public.  I wear an overnight pad to work every day now just in case hahahahaha.

We pretty much have everything set up for Baby Bear.  It’s a little bare looking because we didn’t really go all out with the nursery thing.  We wanted it to still be our guest room and we knew we would be too lazy to have to take all the stuff down later on.  Plus, because we rent, if we painted, we’d have to paint it back to white later.  So we just gave him the basics.  None of the woods match hahaha.  I’ve had that former loft bed forever (PB sawed off the legs, so now it’s just an elevated bed).  But we just can’t get rid of it because it’s so practical (we store tons of stuff underneath).  But whatever, Baby Bear’s a guy…he won’t care!

I love that the bed is in there.  PB and I will just sleep on that bed until we think it’s time for Baby Bear to sleep on his own.  And then we’ll just move back to our regular bedroom.  That way we won’t have to move his crib back and forth and he should be already comfortable where he is. 

His sleeping corner:

His dirty diaper corner:

His junk corner (that stuff will be moved out into the living area later since we’ll be using it so often)…then it will be his Sweet Peace swing corner:

*see protected*

Well, not technically.  I’m still a few days short, but the MD gave me the go ahead today.  Basically, if I were to go into labor today, I’d have the baby, they wouldn’t try to keep the baby in longer.  He’s good to go!

I had my GBS test today, which was similar to a pap smear.  I hope I’m not positive for it, but the MD said like 30% of all women test positive.  It’s not a big deal, but they just run antibiotics while you deliver.  The only thing is that they normally run penicillin.  And I’m allergic to amoxicillin.  I’ve never actually had any other penicillin other than amox, so there can be a chance that I’m allergic to only amox (it has to do with the chemical structure of amox, I won’t bore you with the details). But they consider it all the same and won’t take the risk.  But the penicillins are a more basic antibiotic….so if you can’t have them, they use a stronger antibiotic.  I don’t even take antibiotics as is, so I would hate for them to use a broader spectrum antibiotic because of the allergy.  I guess I’ll just have to see what the results show.

I also had my first internal!  I have read horror stories about how much it hurt and all the bleeding afterwards.  But it didn’t really hurt at all…it WAS very uncomfortable though, lots of pressure.  I am currently 1 cm dilated (9 more to go!), which is almost nothing hahaha.  But the MD felt the baby’s head and said it’s “right down there”, so he’s nice and low!  It doesn’t really mean much.  My coworker’s wife was 3-4 cm dilated at this point, and still ended up going a full 40 weeks.  Some people are completely closed and go right after.

Unfortunately, the MD spotted my cankles, which I’ve been getting recently.  I self-diagnosed myself with at least 2+ pitting edema.  It’s pretty bad around my ankles.  She asked what my salt intake was.  I said normal (which may be a lot for some people because I love salty foods)….and then she asked what I had for dinner last night.  Okay, let me just say that I had a crappy dinner last night…but it was the ONLY night in weeks that I ate crappy.  I was like DARN…she just HAD to ask about last night.  I was like, “uh, chicken nuggets and tater tots”. hahaha.  I got the bad patient look.  The rest of the week i had baked chicken and steamed veggies..it was just yesterday.  She told me to cut back on the salt and elevate my legs when I can.