Unfortunately that didn't give Chris and I the feeling we could travel very far. A couple of days before Baby Girl Bell reached term, we had received the unfortunate news that Chris' uncle on his mother's side, Jim Russel, had passed away. We had seen him on our recent trip to Arizona and felt fortunate that we had had that experience with him. On the same day we were informed that Heather's dad, Stephen Allen, had suffered a profuse bleed and had also passed away. Both funerals were to take place on the same weekend. Being only 2 1/2 weeks away from my due date going to either was out of the question for me. Not wanting to risk something happening or missing the delivery Chris opted to stay close.
In preparation for our hospital stay Chris and I went to a short presentation held by the hospital called 'Tea and a Tour'. The presenter went over how the the whole process would go and what to expect. The only labor and delivery and postpartum experience I was familiar with was from McKay Dee hospital where I had worked. I discovered that I had simply assumed that everything would be the same with Kaiser. I was glad to know what the differences would be. The last part was a tour of the L&D and postpartum rooms. Since Chris and I had already seen the floor and rooms, and because I had to go to the bathroom, we skipped out on the last part of the tour. The information was very useful, but adding to our delight was winning the raffle that gave us some baby onesies and a reusable bag.
For about a week I had had that same cold that seemed to not want to come or go. One day I would feel okay and the next I would feel like I had an entire freight train running through the sinuses in my face. I was even more tired than usual (if that is possible), and all of the late pregnancy symptoms seemed to be exacerbated by the simple discomforts a cold can bring on. I felt bad for Chris because I kept complaining and all I felt like doing was laying down or taking it easy. In all, I wouldn't consider the last little bit of pregnancy as being too difficult as far as I was concerned. I didn't have profuse amounts of swelling and I still had ankles. My hands would swell off and on during the day making my rings a little tight and I thought about taking them off. I had been dealing with my contractions for over a month now so they almost seemed normal. Though when tired, and especially with being sick, at the end of the day I would be pretty well exhausted and the contractions seemed like it was pulling energy from my body that I didn't have. I still didn't have much reflux or heartburn. My eating had ramped up a bit. With my squished stomach I was eating less at each sitting and those smaller meals made me hungry more often. I had a usual routine of what I would eat each day: breakfast was cereal, second breakfast or first lunch was peanut butter and jelly toast, lunch was usually a lettuce and cheese sandwich or leftovers from dinner the night before, an afternoon snack of yogurt and an apple or maybe some cereal, dinner with Chris was whatever I could muster to cook that day, and I always looked forward to a late evening snack of Cookie Crisp cereal. I did get weary of eating so often and became kind of lazy when it came to eating healthy. The last few months I gave in more and more to eating cereal (which I think I could have eaten for every meal) and not making as many meals. I realized that the majority of my pregnancy food supply had come from milk and bread, usually in the form of cold cereal. On a good note, my restless legs were not as bothersome at night, which saved Chris from having to massage them before going to be. Also, Baby Girl Bell had dropped low into the pelvis so she wasn't pushing too hard on the ribs or diaphragm. It also meant that she was in the right position for birth. With the pressure I felt while walking I figured Baby Girl Bell was as low as she could get without actually coming out.
At my next doctors appointment the doctor confirmed this by saying that she could feel Baby Girl Bell's head through the small opening in the cervix. That meant she was right there. But still, she hadn't decided that she was ready to come out! I was okay with her not coming that very day because I still had a few more things on my list before I felt completely settled. My car needed to be cleaned out - I didn't want a fresh, clean baby in a dirty car, I needed to pick up a hamper, and I still needed a few more items from the baby store. Of course Baby Girl Bell could come without these things being done and everything would have been just fine, but my need to have everything ready was in full force. Even though I had some errands left to do, I was disappointed when Dr. Wang told me that I was only barely above 1cm dilation and my cervix effacement hadn't changed. With all of the contractions I was having I thought for sure something had to be going on. She did say that my cervix was softer, so that gave me hope. She brushed over the results of the ultrasound and reconfirmed what the ultrasound tech had said about everything looking good and Baby Girl Bell doing well. My fundal height measurement was small once again, but bigger than last time. Doctor Wang figured that the low number was due to Baby Girl Bell's low station in the pelvis and it wasn't anything she was worried about. Doctor Wang said she would try and stretch the cervix a little and strip the membranes if possible. I was ready for anything that would help the process move along.
That night I realized just how uncomfortable labor contractions were going to be. Whatever Dr. Wang had done to my cervix made my pelvic region uniquely uncomfortable and painful. I knew I wasn't in labor as my contractions were still irregular, but each tightening of the uterus caused more pain than anything I had yet felt and I figured labor pains were only going to be worse. More now than at any time I was ready to have the pregnancy end. Over the next couple of days the intensity died down and things returned to their normal erratic-contraction-heavy-baby-head-in-the-pelvis kind of state.
At 38 weeks I realized that the actual due date was creeping closer and that I might actually make it to March 9, and possibly even surpass it. Four weeks earlier the doctor assured me I was not going to reach my due date, but now she was talking about my proposed induction date of 41 weeks, or March 16 (though she suggested I probably wouldn't make it that far, either). I could only hope. I knew it to be true that first time babies could progress a little bit and then sit for a while, but I guess I supposed that my continued contractions would be doing something to make things move along a little faster and I would somehow evade this generalized group. Chris and I had fun researching ways to induce labor, though we hoped we wouldn't have to resort to any of them. I didn't really like the idea of being induced, largely in part of it meaning I had passed my due date. I had finished all of what I considered my necessary errands and I was ready for Baby Girl Bell to show up.
My mom was getting anxious as well. She figured she would have been back in California by now helping to take care of a newborn. Each day she would call and ask if there was 'any change'. If she missed a phone call from me she was sure it was because I had called to tell her I was in labor and would call back continuously until I answered and told her nothing was happening. I figured it must be hard to be on her end just waiting for the phone call and then once it came having to drop everything and find a flight out. I assured her that as soon as we knew we were in labor she would be the first one we would call. At least it got her to answer my phone calls quickly. My mom had a moment of panic when she tore her ACL skiing and thought it would prevent her from coming to help once I had the baby. Thanks to a knee brace and some anti-inflammatories she was assured that she would be able to make the trip without a problem and the injury could be repaired later.
As my belly continued to stretch I began to run out of clothes that fit my pregnant body. I only liked to wear pants with adequate stretch in them so I switched back and forth between my two pairs that had the full belly panel in them. Shirts that once covered my baby tummy now left a gap just before the top of my pants. I didn't mind, though. I didn't have anywhere to go and only wanted to be as comfortable as possible as the pregnancy discomforts increased.
My excitement for Baby Girl Bell to arrive started to turn into frustration as she seemed far too content to be in the womb. I hadn't even reached my due date and I was already feeling like the end was never going to come. (I know...pretty melodramatic and hopeless). Chris blamed it on Dr. Wang telling me I wasn't going to make it to my due date in the first place. I figured my mood had something to do with that as well as being tired of my continual contractions.
