Got a taste of labor this morning

Don't get too excited - I'm still pregnant.

This morning I had my 38 & 1/2 week appointment. We took the kids with us since our neighbors were there to help watch them and possibly take them home in the event I was sent to labor/delivery. Well, after a week of pains and contractions (that I'm starting to feel), there was no change from last week and I'm still only 6cm dilated. How this could be, I have no idea! Luckily, I felt like my OB was becoming sympathetic to my misery (or -as Sam noted - every sentence I spoke this morning was pressure talk to get this delivery going). My OB stripped my membranes while checking my cervix. Two things about that are 1) OUCHY OUCH OUCH!!! and 2) a little more than 2 seconds warning would have been nice. It was just a glimpse of what labor is going to feel like - which, oddly enough, I've forgotten the level of pain laboring a baby can bring. After my OB was done, he spoke the words every 9-month pregnant woman wants to hear "Have we set a date for induction?" When he asked, I was too shocked and in awe of those words I couldn't respond right away. I felt like I needed a moment to take those words into my reality. So, now, he has me set to come back on Monday morning for induction! YAY!!!

So, that all happened at 10am. We were advised to stay in the hospital and walk around just in case something were to happen immediately. After 3 hours in the hospital (with the kids mind you) nothing happened and we came home. It's now 5pm and still nothing, only pain from getting membranes stripped.

Nevertheless, as Sam keeps reminding me, it's what I wanted - to get closer to having this baby! If it's not going to happen naturally over the weekend, I'll still have Monday!

PS: When asked when does he think the baby will come, Peter response is "100 weeks"!!!

I sure hope he doesn't know something that I don't know!

Another funny kid saying - this time in public!!!

Sometime last week, we took Peter to Great Clips to get a hair cut. I had done it before, but not the greatest job. Also, being 9 months pregnant doesn't make one want to bend over and cut a moving boy's hair! So, there was the typical haircutter at Great Clips cutting Peter's hair as he sat nice and still in the chair. When she was starting to cut around his ear, she said to him,

"Now don't move! I don't like to hurt little boys!"

Not a second passed and Peter replied,

"I don't like to hurt big mamas"

I about died of embarassment! Even after that comment, she still did a nice job on his hair!

Iowa 2008 Flood

The river crested over the weekend. FINALLY! It seems that the worst is over as levels are slowly but surely going down, interstate roads are starting to open back up, and the news channels aren't pre-empting shows all day long with flood coverage.

I feel like we can finally let out a huge sigh with the scare of being separated from the hospital. Although there's still pretty badly flooded areas of town that creates sort of a separation from east and west Iowa City and Coralville, the feeling is that citizens are looking forward to recovery and rebuilding.

Here are some pictures from press-citizen.com that show only a few of many flooded areas in

Iowa City/Coralville.

This one shows Park Road bridge which was the first one to flood over the Iowa River. There are some fears that the bridge may be damaged enough with debris and water that it may actually collapse.

This second picture shows the bridge we normally would take to get to the hospital, Highway 6 bridge. I discovered it to be closed while going to my Friday morning appointment - talk about anxiety!

And alas, Burlington brdige - our last hope to get to the hospital. The river reached pretty much to the bottom of the bridge. There actually should be a sort of a waterfall to the left of the bridge, but in this picture, it's just turbulent waters.


Here is a street level view of Burlington bridge at its worst. Most of that water came from a tunnel that they were pumping dry to let electrical something to dry for UI buildings to regain power. My big question at that moment: "Was pumping the water right onto the Burlington Bridge the BEST solution, be it the only bridge connecting east Iowa City to the hospital?" Of course, this was coming from me, the almost 38-wk pregnant woman with a 6cm headstart in dilation.

This aerial shows Coralville strip that has a lot of businesses and restaurants. It's quite amazing that this wide aerial view doesn't even show the complete area of flooding!

Old Chicago is one of the restaurants on the Coralville strip. It's probably had 5 feet of flooding, whereas some other parts were reported to get as high as 8 ft of flooding!

It's obvious that the time for waters to recede, clean up and recovery will be quite extensive. I just hope it all goes smoothly and quickly, and this city that I love being a part of will be back stronger than ever!

What could possibly be causing me this headache? Just read the following:

Last night was quite the long one for both Sam and his brother Jim. As you know, Sam was leaving for Moline airport to pick him up and I thought I'd just have to hold off on labor for 2-3 hours. Well, luckily, nothing baby-related happened, but it turned out that Sam was gone for close to 9 hours!!! With delays due to storms and tornado watches and aircraft malfunctions, Jim didn't land in Moline until 4am, close to 6 hours later than scheduled. On top of that, a section of I-80 was closed due to flooding and the detour around it added about 45-50 minutes to travel time. Also, Sam said it was pouring rain the whole way there. What a welcome to Iowa for Jim! Needless to say, both Sam and Jim are taking naps this afternoon!

This morning was my 37 & 1/2 week OB appointment. Before I got to the clinic, I noticed that the flooding around Iowa City has gotten considerably worse. First of all, I discovered that only one bridge that connects us to the hospital remains open. With all traffic going on that one bridge, it took almost twice as long for me to get to the hospital. This is not something I want to find out when a quick labor seems likely.

I did make it to the appointment just in time. I was hoping I was 8 cm dilated and would get admitted, but that didn't quite happen. I was 5 cm dilated, which prompted my OB to admit me for observation on a monitor for contractions. After 2 hrs on the monitor, I had dilated a little more to 6 cm and had several yet irregular contractions, none of which I felt. Apparently, this wasn't enough for induction. I think the problem for my Ob is that I'm not at the proverbial 39 weeks. So, unhappily, I got discharged with the directions to return if my water breaks or I feel any contractions (like the ones I couldn't feel?!?!).

What makes this most nerve-racking is the flooding issue. It helps that my next door neighbor Mark is an OB and works with my OB with research and such. My OB actually told me that when I do find myself in active labor, drive to the hospital with Mark in the car with me. He also told Mark to bring home some sterile gloves and supplies - just in case. EXCUSE ME! I'd much rather have the baby at the hospital and not in my Subaru or my home! I guess I should rest assured that there is professional help so close to my home, but seriously! I'm sure if I gave birth on our bed, that would most definitely become another form of natural birth control for us!

Flooding-wise: they are forecasting that the river levels will rise another 4-5 feet by Monday. I think that much more water would most likely flood that last bridge for us! If that closes, the ride to the hospital could take as long as 30 minutes - which, by the way, is how long it took Natalie to come once we reached the hospital last time!

So, Tylenol anyone?

Anxiety to the max

As my 37 week appointment approached this Friday (of course, Friday the 13th!), I'm getting more and more anxious as to what will happen. Likely (and hopefully), my OB will check my dilation. If things progressed like with Natalie's pregnancy, I could be close to 7-8cm dilated by now, at which point I'd hope I would not get sent home - again. Also, we are having record flooding in Iowa City. Unfortunately, the Iowa River separates us from the hospital. We've been eyeing bridges and making alternative routes. It looks that a couple bridges could get flooded over with the water level just 3 or so feet roaring below. They are forecasting that by next Wednesday, there will be possibly a 3-4 feet increase in the river levels!!!

So, with all that in mind, I'm feeling my heart racing a lot!

As for the weekend to come, it comforts us a lot that Sam's brother Jim will be visiting us from Chattanooga, TN from Thursday night through Monday morning. Making sure the kids have someone to watch them as we go into labor is one of the MAJOR things Sam and I have worried about. Having Jim in the house would make MUCH easier and faster! I'd feel terrible if Jim's weekend turned out to be a big babysitting job for him, but we would owe him dearly!

Peter also made a joke (all conjured up in his head by himself) tonight that made a slight possibility pushed into the forefront. Here it goes:

Knock knock

Who's there?

Uncle Jim and the baby at the same time!

Ha ha ha ha ha!

Trust me, we laughed but through a little bit of fear that he knows something we that don't!

I would be in quite the pickle if I go into labor while Sam is an hour away at the Moline airport!

Let's hope that doesn't happen!

Update of the peapod

All is good! Ear infections have cleared up and everyone seems to have recovered. Well, Sam still has a little cough but nothing like 2 weeks ago!

Baby #3 progress is going quickly. My 36 week check up was today, and I'm already 4 cm dilated! Today, I'm speeding up the preparations like packing the hospital bag and a bag for the kids, getting laundry caught up, making phone number list, and anything else left undone. "Go!" time is probably just around the corner!

Our primary plan is to send the kids to our next door neighbor's Donna and Mark when we go into labor. They have a 3 year old daughter Lily, with whom Peter and Natalie love to play with. I explained that they'd be going to "Lily's house" when the Mommy and Daddy need to go to the hospital and they might possibly need to sleep there (in case of an overnight delivery). Now, Peter and Natalie couldn't be more excited for this baby to come. Peter has even asked that I go to the hospital now! :)

This morning, Sam took Peter and Natalie for a walk around our neighborhood. Sam told me that Peter kept looking for the perfect flower to pick for Mommy. He was eyeing some of our neighbors nice landscaping, but luckily Daddy was there to prevent any flower swiping! :) Maybe Peter was remembering the flowers I picked from our own landscaping:

I just dropped the hint to Peter that HyVee also sells flowers that Mommy would like! :)

Attack of the ear infections

Just when we thought we were on the road to full recovery, we encountered some pain in our ears over the Memorial Day weekend. Luckily, a clinic was open on Monday where Peter, Natalie and I got checked out. As suspected, all three of us has some kind of ear infection. Unfortunately, after our appointment was over, Sam also felt like he might be getting an ear infection and since then has had more pain in his ear. :( The kids both got amoxicillin and I got an ear drop. I gotta tell you; even for a pharmacist, it's hard to get three drops in your ear canal! One good thing to this story is that Peter and Natalie LOVE their medicine. They almost fight over who gets to take theirs first! Let's hope the infections clear up and we'll all be feeling back to 100% soon!