39 weeks! Brought to you by the word “Anterior”
January 7th, 2008 by: cheyenne
[How much bigger can it possibly get?]
Officially “term” and officially insured!! It’s all very exciting. Starting at 36 weeks, the doctor checked my cervix to see if there was progression and lo, there was: I was already dilated a little—enough that she said she could reach in and touch the baby’s head—and the cervix was thinning out. Also, the head was low and lining up “nicely.” Ahhh, good stuff. A week later, my cervix was quite a lot thinner, there was more dilation and the head was squarely smack in the middle of my pelvis, mere inches from the exit, and “engaged.” Which is to say, wedged down in a funnel and quite probably stuck there for the remainder of the pregnancy.
Poor baby with her head stuck down in a hole! I keep imagining the old cartoon scenario where the unfortunate hero gets his head stuck in, say, a bucket. Trying to dislodge the bucket, he employs both arms and legs, feet desperately pushing against the bucket. I feel like this baby is trying out some of the same moves.
Also, all this effacement and dilation and head engaged business sounds pretty serious; I just might be having a baby here in the next week or two (cough). Happily, the midwife at the clinic went on about how the positioning is perfect (head wedged down in a hole = good positioning from everyone’s standpoint except possibly the baby’s) and complimented me on my ischial spines, which are “wide and roomy” with “pleeeeenty” of space for the baby. I of course made her repeat a few times just how great the insides of my pelvis were; pregnant girls like to hear things like this.
The frontal view = Oh My God.
I had to have Joshua tie my shoes the other day. Then I had to have him untie the freaky knots he tied because they were different than the knots I usually tie. Eating at a table is also getting difficult because it is uncomfortable to lean forward. Unfortunately, if I don’t hover directly over what it is I am trying to eat, I will spill food down my shirt, get drips on the belly-shelf, and any cleavage drops won’t be discovered until I’m lying in bed and wondering where all the crumbs came from.
At this point it is difficult not to over-analyze every pang or movement because I worry about whether I will know when I’m in labor. “Hmm, my back has a weird twingey ache… COULD THIS BE IT?!?” only to discover after timing it for half an hour that I’ve been leaning up against the laptop’s power supply. Of course, the general consensus of every single person who has ever been pregnant (note: this is a formidable group who is not shy about offering advise) is that there is absolutely NO mistaking actual labor for anything else. But it still makes me wonder how many of those women spent quality time unwittingly sitting on their laptop cords.
January 7th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
You are so beautiful. I love your glow. Good luck! We are rooting for all of you!
January 7th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Oh WOW! You look amazing! I think that may be one BIG baby in there. Can we start the weight pool? …. I say 9lbs, 5 ounces (Griffin’s weight).
(NOTE: Opinionated and contrary me is against the opinionated concensus…. It was only in retrospect that I realized I had been in labor for about 9 hours with Sebastian… well not actually in labor… but I was having actual contractions from about 10 am on….. I thought I was just dehydrated…. didn’t realize it was labor till about 7 pm when I was around a clock and found out they were about 5 minutes apart. They did get painful at around 10 — but managable.)
You’ll have such fun! Really!
January 7th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Oops… that wasn’t steve, that was me.. Connellan
January 7th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Heh… jut got the email. Looks like Antonia beat you by a few days (at least)
January 7th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
How amazing! Three cheers for the word ‘anterior’. Thinking of you all.
January 7th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
My clue that labor was beginning was the definitive “pop” when my water broke… in a restaurant. For that reason, I kinda recommend leaning forward when attempting to eat (ha!). I was kinda excited and kinda pissed off because I was darn hungry and had to put my food in a ‘to go’ container. Good luck!
January 7th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Ha- that glow is the bright light reflecting off my taught belly! I just noticed too that the frontal belly shot features a stretching leg or some body part making things all lopsided.
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Here’s hoping that “nice roomy spines” doesn’t mean my body is preparing a nice roomy head to make things exciting for me… That said, I was something like 9.5lbs and my brother 10. Ayyy. I can’t believe Griffin was so big–you are so tiny!
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Antonia was actually betting I’d go first–silly girl! Now she gets to be all smug… smug and SHRINKING. (Sigh)
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“Anterior” is my new favorite word these days, right after “ischial spines” and “synecdoche” but that’s a whole other story… :)
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Ayy–water breaking in the restaurant? I was just thinking I had run all out of things to stress over too. Now I’ll start carrying a towel everywhere I go.
January 7th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
you look radiant, i want to hug you and I’m jumping up and down and laughing at your wonderful writing of the relistic account of your feelings. And the real direct explanation of your baby wedged, I’m so smiling, all our love .
jeff
January 8th, 2008 at 7:00 am
Wow! Almost there! Good luck with everything. We’re wishing you, Joshua and the soon to be released baby, the best!
January 8th, 2008 at 8:04 am
Cheyenne—-you are so gutsy (no pun intended) to share this miracle with all of us. And you are lookin’ good, girl. And trust me, you will KNOW when labor begins. Not that it is a painful knowing—-but it is just profound. And you will KNOW. Hang in there until I get there, OK??? Anytime after January 10 will suffice. Everytime the phone rings, we think….maybe it’s baby-time! You look so happy! Love, Mom and Dad
January 8th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Simply amazing! Hard to believe belly skin is so stretchable. You look beautiful!
January 8th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Hey girl, you’re looking great! Jerry’s actual comment “oh my god, what did Josh do to her? That’s bigger than a basketball! But she’s still a fox.” Wow, looks like you’ll be three, any day now. We’re glad we can get the updates via internet, you’re our entertainment while we’re stuck in the boat yard. Our best to all three of you!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:52 am
We are so veryvery excited for you and Ronin (and Josh, of course!) What a spectacular event this will be. I wish I was there to shoot it. Wishing you all the best, love chris & kevin
January 10th, 2008 at 7:06 am
careful there, cheyenne, somebody wants to shoot your baby…
January 10th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Oh we’ll definitely have the camera and Joshua is in charge, except he’ll be busy keeping me from tearing the bolted-down furniture out of the floor. I would love to have all kinds of pictures of the whole event except of course, not any unflattering ones of me; the words “laboring walrus” keep coming to mind–not that I intend any disrespect toward birthing women in general as I’m sure a laboring walrus is a beautiful thing. However, Chris is probably the only person who could manage to keep the walrus aspect out of the whole L&D scene and she’s inconveniently located in Texas… Ah well.
January 11th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I’ve been reading your updates for ages (lurking). Hope all goes well with your new baby. Fair winds for you all.
Claire
January 12th, 2008 at 7:53 am
Hey Cheyenne,
Thanks for the comment on the blog last night. It inspired me to search out your belly shots and lo. Lo! You do look like you’ve swallowed a basketball! But you also look radiantly gorgeous, as always. I’m not sure how much bigger our little guy can get. I keep trying to convince him to come out before he gets too big, but as you can see, he’s completely ignoring me so far. I’m sending you all our love and wishes for a safe and speedy delivery. Good luck, girl!
-ilana
September 11th, 2009 at 5:38 am
wow! you look hot!
January 27th, 2011 at 2:13 pm
I think you are pretty
July 13th, 2011 at 7:26 pm
i love you
July 13th, 2011 at 7:27 pm
i love you
July 13th, 2011 at 7:28 pm
i love you
October 2nd, 2011 at 5:48 pm
You are very verry hoy