Because this post will be very long and wordy, here is a belly pic at 32.5 weeks:

How much bigger can she get? Stay tuned. 7.5 more weeks to go!

Ok, onto the preterm labor stuff..

So Saturday we went to my dad’s family picnic in Pennsylvania. On the way back during the 2.5 hour car ride I started contracting… and contracting and contracting. I’ve been having contractions since my last episode, but nothing like this.

Just the day before with my midwife we were discussing how she was worried how I would know when I really needed to go back to the hospital to stop the contractions given that I have them so often. I told her I thought I would know, that they would feel different and not stop like they normally do.

Well these sure felt different.. I was crampy even down in my legs and in my back and these were actually painful unlike the other ones that were just tight. Plus they were incredibly consistent coming every 2-4 minutes for over an hour. Some were so strong I couldn’t even talk through them!

I told my mom who was driving that I thought she’d better take me right to our local hospital when we got back in our home area. This turned out to be a mistake..

My midwife had told me that if I needed to, I could go to any hospital because preterm contractions are considered an emergency that needs to be stopped. I figured I’d go to Good Sam because I had been there the week before for my cervical length ultrasound and at least they’d have me and my insurance information in their system.

I couldn’t believe how rude the nurses and the OB on call were!

They kept asking me why I had switched from Good Sam to Phelps. And when I said I wanted to be delivered by midwives the nurse said “We have midwives here you know.” The OB on call kept making comments about how strange it was that after the first episode they didn’t put me on Brethine for the rest of my pregnancy to keep the contractions at bay (um, because it’s a drug that makes you feel pretty awful most of the time, it makes your heart race!) etc.

Anyway, they put me on the monitor and immediately put in an IV and gave me a shot of terbutaline and said I’d have to stay another hour on the monitor. By now we know the drill.

At this point, its midnight so we are both very very tired. And I don’t know if you’ve ever been in one, but I find hospital beds to be the most uncomfortable things, particularly when you can’t shift/move around without setting off the contraction monitor or losing the baby’s heartbeat.

We have about 5 minutes left until our hour is up.. and of course, I start contracting again. Damn, another hour, another shot of terbutaline.

Finally at 3:30am they discharged me after I’d gone an hour with only minor contractions. Actually, I think I was having more than were showing up on their monitor due to adjusting it, but I wasn’t going to tell them because at that point I just wanted to go home!

I’m a little worried that if I have one more episode like this they may put me on bedrest.. but for now things seem to be OK. My midwives are monitoring me weekly (instead of bi weekly) now, so we’ll see what they say friday.

I just really want to stay out of the hospital until it’s for reals. Hopefully at full term!

I guess he thought I was showing too much cleavage. Actually his exact words were “You’re not sexy Ari, you’re pregnant Ari!”.

Even he knew that one came out badly and hopefully not how he meant it, but I changed the shirt anyway that night.

But yesterday I decided to wear it anyway because A) I’m mad at Jeff right now and B) It’s only going to fit my belly for about another week or so.

I took pictures because the shirt is one of the ones I blogged about from Forever21.. it’s the bright orange one, but obviously in an off white color.

Without further ado, me sporting the “Your not sexy” shirt at almost 30 weeks.

Look at that side view, I can’t believe I still have 10 weeks of getting bigger, where will it all go??

In other news, I had my first appointment with the midwives this week. I went to the Open Door Community clinic where judging by the whole procedure they aren’t too used to treating people with private insurance. The assistant even asked me why I was there, did I lose my insurance? No, I just want to deliver at Phelps Hospital and have a midwife attended birth!

The clinic is in Ossining, NY about 5 minutes from Phelps hospital which is not in Tarrytown as I’ve been saying but rather in Sleepy Hollow. How cool is that? Jasper will be born in Sleepy Hollow, so romantic sounding… Much better than “Suffern” which is where my ex OB delivers and incidentally the subject of ridicule a sex and the city episode. Remember when Aidan makes carrie go up to his country house? It was in Suffern. (It’s also the town where I grew up!)

Now that I have to go in every two weeks the 30 minute drive is a little bit of a hassle, but will hopefully be worth it. Just keep your fingers crossed that I don’t go into labor during rush hour or I may give birth on the Tappan Zee bridge!

19 Weeks

And I look like I’m carrying twins! Seriously, my belly button is already really shallow, threatening to pop out at any second.

And yes, this does mean we are back from our baby moon, a little burnt and weighing 5 lbs more (those damn cruise buffets!) It was wonderful though, the perfect relaxing vacation. More on that later..

At last, the long overdue belly shot:

15.5 weeks.

All the women on the nest second trimester message board go on about how at 22 weeks they are JUST starting to show and have gained like 2 lbs… All I can say is maybe I’m carrying a wildebeast, but you can most definitely see that I’m pregnant (or very fat at least!)

I wonder if it’s because my antroverted (tipped forward) uterus?

Belly Pic, 9 weeks pregnant

So I thought I had gotten off pretty easy being that I haven’t really had much morning sickness to speak of. Or so I thought.

What I have been experiencing is constant hunger, the kind that makes you want to gnaw your hand off and feel like you are going to absolutely DIE if you don’t eat.

So much so, that I have gained 10 lbs in the 7 weeks since I found out I was pregnant. For those of you that don’t know, that is ridiculous, you are only supposed to gain about 4-5 lbs for your entire first trimester, if that!

The hunger is perplexing because it persists at inexplicable times, for example 15 minutes after I finish a meal.

I finally found out through some researching that SOME women experience as hunger what others experience as nausea, so basically I have had morning sickness, just that mine makes me inhale food instead of well, the opposite.

The other area where I seem to defy the norm is that I am 9 weeks and 1 day pregnant and I am most definitely showing.

Everything I read says you don’t typically show until closer to 15-20 weeks.

It may be hard to tell in the picture above if you don’t know what I used to look like (how could you?) so I will explain.

See the semi-circle that has become my tummy? I never had that before. The thing about me is that when I gain weight, I never gain it in my stomach which has always been totally flat, instead I gain it in my butt, thighs and love handles. That is where the 10lbs is, not my stomach which for all its convexness is rock hard, not an inch to pinch.

I also wonder if the fact that my uterus is tipped severely forward also makes it sort of stand out more.

The good news about the hunger actually being morning sickness is that it means it should actually end around the same time that normal morning sickness does, at the beginning of the second trimester, which is only about 2-3 weeks away.

My butt and thighs can’t wait!