Oi! Enough with the fake contractions.

Now I say fake contractions, but they feel real.  Oh, so painfully real.  

I had my first set of Braxton Hicks just last week at 23 weeks and two days.  I wrote down everything that happened so that I could give my doctor details...and now I have them for this post.  Here's how my day went:

-I woke up Wednesday morning at 6:00 a.m. with hip pain and lower back pain.  It was mild, but I usually don't wake up with pain (it progresses throughout the day) so I was a little uneasy.  

-At about 7:10 a.m. I took two aspirin free Excedrin, which was ok'd through my MD for pain and headaches.

-Got to work around 7:30 a.m. and walked to the other side of the building to hear about a co-worker's daughter who is 10 weeks ahead of me.  She had gone into pre-term labor the night before that was thankfully able to be stopped with no complications.  I walked back down to my office and the pressure in my back started increasing.

-At 8:15 I was in serious pain sitting at my desk.  Nausea, heavier breathing, sweating, painful tightness on either side of my belly button, a burning pressure in my lower back.  Crashing into my body in waves.  I was in bad shape.  Thankfully, I work in a hospital and asked a nurse in my office (who had worked labor and delivery for years) her opinion on what she thought was going on...Braxton Hicks. 

---Let me make a note at this point, that before she said it was Braxton Hicks I kind of thought it may be in my head since hearing about my co-workers daughter.  But when I doubled over in pain at my desk, I kind of figured it was actually something going on that was just a coincidence.

-As suddenly as the serious pain came on, just before 8:30, I was back to just mild back and hip pain.  I immediately picked up my phone and called my OB next door (thankfully in the same hospital I work in), and asked what the hell just happened.  I wanted my doctor to know what was going on.  I described what happened and asked a basic list of questions like if I was ok to stay at work, what should I do to help, when should I worry.  Basically, as long as I stayed off my feet as much as possible and kept my feet up when I could for the rest of the day, if they didn't continue, then I would be ok to stay at work.  IF they escalated or continued into the afternoon then I needed to come in.

Thankfully for the rest of the day I was able to have as little activity as possible and kept my feet up at my desk between patients.  So, I was only dealing with mild pain in my lower back and hips and a slight pressure that would increase with activity like walking.  Not bad at all.

I'm going to say thankfully again here.  Thankfully, they did not continue and I have not had them since.  Most sources online say that Braxton Hicks are usually pain free, but there are cases where they can occasionally escalate to a painful level.  I haven't been in to see the doctor since they didn't persist, but I haven't felt any complications so I think I'm ok.  Baby G is still moving around in there and I haven't had any spotting or serious abdominal pain.  Thankfully.

Food Fail

This past Saturday I really wanted to do something homemade.  Since we're gearing up to move, we haven't had many really good home cooked meals lately.  I saw a cooking show where they made spicy deviled eggs and slow cook "cowboy" beans with canned beans and I thought, sure, let's make baked beans on the stove and deviled eggs.

Instead of "cheating" and using canned beans, I decided to go full homemade and do real beans.  I ran to the grocery to pick up essentials between DS's truck errands (fixing a truck is an all day thing with multiple trips to and fro).  I knew I'd need a pound of navy beans, eggs and an onion.  Everything else I already had in stock at home.

Saturday night, I put the navy beans in a big bowl filled with room temp water to let them soak overnight.

Sunday around 11 the beans had been soaking at least 14 hours, so I swirled them around to check for bad beans and drained them.  There wasn't a single floating bean so I thought they must have been freshly bagged.  I looked at a few "on the stove" baked bean recipes to get the gist of cooking times, which seemed to be generally around 2-3 hours.  I started cooking.

3/4 pound bacon, chopped while partially frozen and rendered
used 2 Tbsp reserved bacon grease to saute 1 medium onion, finely chopped
added the bacon back to the onion 
add 1 12 oz can of tomato sauce
add 3 cans of water (using the tomato sauce can)
add 1 12 oz can light beer
add 4 Tbsp ketchup
add 12 dashes of Worcestershire sauce
add 3 tsp "bar-b-que" seasoning 
add 3 tsp garlic powder (we like the garlic in our house)
1/4 cup brown sugar (my 1/4 cup was heaping since I like them a little sweet)
add the beans and stir

It looked like a thick soup at first so I brought it up to boil and reduced it to a simmer.  I checked back every now and then and stirred it around.  I cooked it until the liquid began to thicken and it had reduced a lot.  It ended up cooking around 4 hours.

I also made deviled eggs toward the end, nothing fancy.  Boiled the eggs, cut up some sweet baby gherkins since I'm obsessed right now and after slicing and separating the eggs, stirred mayonnaise, mustard, the pickles, pepper and a tsp. of pickle juice (I just saw this on the  aforementioned cooking show).  Stirred it all up and....it was egg yolk soup.  

Ok, so the eggs turned out runny but tasted a.ok, so we ate them.

The beans...did not cook all the way!!!!  The flavor was awesome but we could not get over the texture.  Not hard, but way too al dente.  DS and I could not figure out how they were not cooked through since I had soaked them overnight AND cooked them for 4 hours!  I will not be making baked beans from homemade again!

*******EDIT:  I put salt in the beans before cooking, which is a GIGANTIC no-no!!!  That is probably why they were a little too hard for our taste.  Do not put salt in them and they may turn out wonderful.

Let's talk nipples!

No, not the baby bottle kind, those I haven't even started looking at yet.  Let's talk the real thing.  The double wham-o's.  The two pieces of anatomy on my body that I don't even recognize anymore.

Everyone knows pregnancy changes your body.  Some changes are small and some are really big and make you question...who's body is this???

I don't recognize my stomach.  I look a bit like a sick albino tiger.  I had some stretch marks before becoming pregnant but whoa-my-gosh, things have escalated quickly.  I apply "belly" lotion every night now but I feel as though it is in vain...some people get marked, some don't.  I've been marked.  Maybe if I had started earlier on this stuff, I'd be in better shape.  Who knows.

It smells good and at least things can't get worse by using it.

We're all told "your boobs will change" and it's true, they're growing, have on and off bouts of tenderness, and are sometimes itchy.  I had large breasts to begin with so while I have noticed some overflow on my bras, I've been able to move the clasp in the back to accommodate the growing thus far.  All of those changes are "doable".  The one thing I cannot get over...my nipples.

My nipples are no longer my nipples.  They are larger, darker, always "hard", very sensitive, sometimes painful, more dimply and dry/chapped.  I haven't had any leakage yet so I have no idea why they are already dry and chapped.  My nipples are not my own.  I fear they will never be what they once were again.  

DS has been really supportive on this.  I berate my stretch marks, bigger booty, and nipples almost daily but he has been a trooper and has stuck to all of the good guy scripts.  Not once has he agreed with my self-deprecating.

I guess if I can get over this monumental body change, I can handle all of the rest...right?

Getting ready for baby

Turns out, there is quite a lot that needs to be done before baby gets here.  There are general guidelines as to what needs to be done, but really the get-ready list is catered and specific for each expecting couple.  

Here's what DS and I have to do to prepare:

-Gather addresses for announcements.  Fortunately for us, my mom is on the ball.  I called to ask her to keep a list from the shower including both of our families and we would use that plus whomever else we'd like and she said she was planning on working on announcements for us while she was staying with us when little G gets here.

-Pick out our announcements.  I think we're going to go through tinyprints.com for our announcements and pre-pick which design we like.  That way, once we have the perfect pic of her, we can upload it and have them at our doorstep within days...then mom can get to cracking on addressing and sending them out.

-Waterproof the homestead.  Not for the baby, but for me.  We have a Cali King Tempur Pedic and I shudder to think of the damage my water breaking on that bad boy would do.  I have a gift card for Bed Bath and Beyond, so we may end up with this one:  Leakproof.  

-Pick a pediatrician.  Luckily for me, I work in the hospital that I'll be delivering in, so I can get clinical opinions of where little G should go.

-Pre-wash baby clothes.  I want everything to be ready before little G gets here, so I need to pre-wash all of her clothes and blankets.  I'll wait until after the baby shower since little baby clothes don't take up much in the washing machine and we don't have a full load of tiny clothes/blankets yet.

-Buy a nursing bra.  I have a night sleeper nursing bra that would only be for night.  Not a ton of support, but keeps the boobs in general position.  I also have a great roomy sports bra that I can easily whip 'em out of.  What I don't have are nursing bras that I can wear during the day...in public.

-Attend classes.  Since I work at the hospital I'll be delivering at, you'd think I'd already be signed up for all the classes, but I'm not.  I want to do a Lamaze class just to see what it's all about and maybe a swaddling/diaper change class just to get a last practice in.  I seriously need to get on this though because those classes fill up fast.

-Think of a birth plan.  We haven't really put anything down in writing yet.  I know most birth plans fly out of the window, but DS needs to know what to do just in case there's an emergent situation and he has to make the decisions.  Plus, if we know what we want going in, it'll be easier for him to advocate for me.  I liked this template on thebump.com.

-Get a baby notebook with a folder.  Since I've already started printing things like a birth plan template, I'll need a folder to keep everything in.  

-Get a baby book.  Actually, we got one this weekend and we are so excited to start filling it in.  Also, we will be packing it in our bags for the hospital trip because it has a place for her teeny footprints.  Ask the hospital you'll be delivering at if their nursing staff will help you with this.  Usually, if you have it available, they'll go ahead and stamp while they stamp the hospital paperwork.

-Stock up on hand sanitizer.  You will need this if you plan on letting a lot of people touch your baby after delivery and once home.  Our family will all want to hold her, so everyone will need hand sanitizer.  You'll want something gentle and unscented.

-Pack 3 bags.  2-3 weeks out from due date (this will depend on your doctors plans as well), pack three bags...one for mom, one for baby, and one for dad.  DS will need to bring electronics to keep entertained if it's a boring and long labor.  He'll also need to bring snacks and camera equipment.  My sister will be taking tasteful delivery and baby photos so we will need all of the batteries, lenses, etc. ready to go.

Of course we have to get the nursery ready.  We're moving into a new house within the next few weeks so nursery time will start then!

 Anything I've forgotten???