You can't hurry love, no you just have to WAIT...

Tuesday Feb 26, 2008

...and apparently the same is true of babies. They take their own sweet time. Every day when I come in to work, someone says to me, "Oh, you're still here!" Yes, I'm still here. Still waiting. My due date is DAY AFTER TOMORROW and I'm still waiting. I guess the most frustrating part is that the doctors got me all hyped up that this baby is big and would probably come early, and now he'll either be right on time, or even late.

Lots of people have given me strategies for going into labor:

Eat a lot - your body needs LOTS of food to prepare for a long labor.
Walk around - it helps move the baby down.
Drive on a bumpy road - I guess that's supposed to bounce the baby down?
Eat fried fish. (Kemp's anyone?!)
Eat eggplant parmesean. Apparently there's a restaurant in Atlanta whose eggplant parm is known to make women go into labor - and I'm almost willing to drive to Atlanta to try it!
Eat spicy food. As if I needed something else to worsen my heartburn...
Spend some extra special time with the hubby (if you catch my drift).
Clean your house. Yeah, the nesting thing isn't really happening for me - I'm still as big a slob as ever.

So I tried to ask my doctor if there is any truth to any of these or if there is any other way to start up labor. Her answer? "None of the above." Yep, babies just decide when it's time, and until then, there's not much we can do. So I'm considering this lesson #1 of parenting - I am no longer in charge of my schedule. Baby is. :-)

Posted at 03:31PM Feb 26, 2008 by Jen Foster in General | Comments[3]

The big game...

Wednesday Feb 20, 2008

Okay, so I haven't told that many people about this little "name game" secret, thinking that if I lose this bet, I'll have to lose face in front of too many people. But, today's the big day of the big game, so I'm going to 'fess up publicly.

Last September, before the start of basketball season, before we even knew if Torquil would be a boy or a girl, I made a bet with my dear Aunt Beth. She's a wonderful person, with one minor personality flaw -- she is without a doubt the biggest UNC basketball fan on the planet. She is the one who taught me (a true red-blooded, third generation Wolfpacker!) to say "Go Heels!" when I was about 3 years old. I think that's probably the last time mom let her babysit for me... but I digress.

For those of you living under a rock (or otherwise uninspired by college basketball), State plays Carolina today. Yep, this is the "big game" for State fans. The one we'll gloat about for months to come, even though we got waxed when we played Carolina at home. The one we'll brag about even if we don't make the NCAA tourney. "But we beat UNC at home!" we'll say with great pride.

So, the bet ... Waaaaay back in September, I agreed to the bet that IF this baby is born today AND we beat Carolina, I'll name this child Sidney after our coach, Sidney Lowe. I figured Sidney would work as a name for either a girl or a boy. Plus, I really thought the odds are in my favor. What are the chances the baby would come a week and half early AND we would win? (Unfortunately, I think the chances of him coming early are better than the chances of us winning!)

So, now my dilemma ... do I wish for Carolina to win (I'd rather stab myself in the eye with a dull pencil!) or do I wish for this baby to stay in a little longer? I think I'm going to have to wish the baby to hold out for just a few more days. He was showing no signs of movement toward the outside world at my last doctor's appointment, so I think I'm good. Plus, the majority of first babies are a little late. But you just never know, and there's enough doubt there to make me worry, if only a little. We had a hard enough time narrowing the names down to 4 - I don't need another wrinkle in those plans. Please, just don't be born today!

And, on the subject of names and favorite teams, my brother knows of someone who was such a big UNC fan that they named their son so his initials would be RAM (for the Carolina mascot - Ramses the Ram.) That led me to realize that we could actually name our son so his initials would be WUF (for our mascot, Mr. Wuf.). William Foster wouldn't be too bad. But William Ulysses Foster? Walker Umstead Foster? I think we need to stick with our final four. And just pray that labor is still a few days away!

Posted at 10:23AM Feb 20, 2008 by Jen Foster in General | Comments[0]

The crud...

Tuesday Feb 19, 2008

Quick - What's worse than the exhaustion you face during the last few weeks of pregnancy? I've discovered it. It's being sick during the end of pregnancy. I had a cold a week or so ago, and truthfully never felt THAT bad. I spent a lot of time blowing my nose, but otherwise was able to function. But this weekend, I came down with something way worse. Derek's medical diagnosis? "The Crud." (This from a veterinarian who regularly diagnoses "lumpy jaw," "wooden tongue," and my personal favorite, "bovine viral diarrhea virus." I'm not making these up.)

The Crud includes runny nose, coughing, sore throat, and fever. Worse, it totally and completely saps what little energy I had. And it stinks. I've spent the past 2 days on the couch, with the highlight of my day being the chance to get up and get more orange juice. Unfortunately, the effort of taking the 10 steps from couch to fridge is so exhausting I have to take an hour-long nap. And the best part? I can't take any good drugs. The nurse seriously recommended Vicks VapoRub and hot tea. I can't even spice up the tea with bourbon & honey!

My mom says to look on the bright side because every cough gets this baby closer to being born. My thought is that this had better go away soon cause I can't take care of myself, much less a kid in this state. I just keep using my dear Appie's favorite phrase:
This too shall pass. I've had to tell it to myself over & over, and while I don't believe it yet, I'm going to keep saying it until I believe it, or until this really does pass.

Posted at 05:53PM Feb 19, 2008 by Jen Foster in General |

The dreaded disease...

Monday Feb 11, 2008

Well, I've finally gotten it - the most dreaded side effect of pregnancy. Worse than morning sickness, more dreaded than stretch marks ... I've developed "THE WADDLE."

Okay, I know that those of you who see me regularly are thinking, "Girlfriend, you've had the waddle for weeks now! Get over it!" But I'm just now finally admitting it to myself. I mean, really, could we have come up with a less attractive name for it? Waddle? As in a duck - waddle, waddle, quack quack?! Uggh.

I'm told that there's a legitimate reason for it. As your body prepares for delivery, your ligaments are stretching and loosening up your pelvis. Whatever. I'll tell you the real cause - it's this gigantic belly hanging in front of you. While it would seem that my ever-growing rear end would balance things out, it apparently doesn't. It just gets hard to stand up straight or walk when you're carrying all that weight on the front! And my feet are most certainly not used to carrying around an extra 30+ pounds.

Good news, though - only 18 more days to waddle through. Man, are we really just down to DAYS now?! My how time flies.

Posted at 12:04PM Feb 11, 2008 by Jen Foster in General | Comments[1]

BIG news...

Friday Feb 01, 2008

Gotcha! He's not here yet. (Sorry - that wasn't very nice, was it?!)

The "Big" news is that Torquil is getting very BIG! I know, every mom thinks her baby is huge and that her belly is huge. But mine really is. The highlight of my doctor's appointments these days is when the doc lays her trusty tape measure across my belly from top to bottom and pronounces me "still growing." Gee, really? I hadn't noticed! About a month ago, the doctor said I was measuring "a little big." Two weeks ago it was, "You tall women can hide some big babies." (Trust me, I'm not hiding anything.) Last week, they said, "Okay, you're measuring about 2 weeks ahead of your due date, so we need an ultrasound to see just how big he's getting."

Derek's comment:
We want a bun in the oven, not a whole loaf.

So yesterday, they do the ultrasound. I was excited, thinking maybe I could get a good look at him and get a hint about what he'll look like. Not so much. He's so big, you can't get more than one body part on the ultrasound screen at a time! So the tech meausred the circumference of his head (please be small, please be small!), his waistline, and the length of his leg bones. Each of those measurements gives an estimated due date. They ranged from Feb 1 - yikes that's today! - to Feb 20. None went to Feb 29, my target date. But they take all those measurements together and create an estimated weight.

Torquil's weight, as of the end of January: 7 and a half pounds. Y'all, keep in mind that he's still got FOUR weeks to go! That's the size I wanted him to be at delivery! And the best part is that they could be off by as much as a pound and a half ... either way. So the reassuring doctor tries to tell me that he might be only 6 pounds at this point. You all know me well enough to know what I'm thinking ... that he could be 9 pounds already. That would be one seriously big preemie. I'm re-thinking that cute little size newborn outfit we were planning to bring him home in - and looking more closely at his big boy clothes.

The positive side to all this is that friends say that big babies sleep through the night sooner than little ones. And I'm pretty sure he won't be as big as this 17 pounder born in Russia this fall:
http://babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/bigbaby.jpg (Check out the look on the other kid's face! Priceless!)
Anybody else got a positive way to spin it?

Posted at 05:48AM Feb 01, 2008 by Jen Foster in General | Comments[1]