The New Cabe has Arrived in France

So today I'm filling in for my favorite blogger.  She is at the hospital taking care of our new addition.  Yep, Jacob Matthew Cabe finally decided to make an appearance this morning at 4:48 AM.  I am in no way as talented or skilled as Kim so I'm not even going to try.  I will leave it up to her to fill in the details of the last 24 hrs, but I thought I would at least post a few pictures for everyone to see.  With the promise that there will be many many more to follow.

The most important point is that Kim and Jacob are doing fantastic.  Everyone is healthy and feeling well, with the exception of a little sleep deprivation.  Jacob weighed in at a whopping 3.795 kg (8lbs 6 oz.)  and 50cm (20 in) long.  He has beautiful blue eyes and a head full of dark curly hair.  I have truly been blessed with a wonderful wife and a beautiful son, what more can a man ask for on Thanksgiving. 

Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers.  They are greatly appreciated.

Now for a few pictures.

Tic Toc, Tic Toc

40 Weeks.  5 Days.  2 cm.

(or at least I was 2 cm dilated yesterday morning at my midwife appointment.  But she also said it could be 4-5 more days!)


Dear Jacob,

You have been a model citizen of my uterus over the last 40 Weeks (well 38, since you didn't exist for the first 2) and 5 days.  You didn't give me morning sickness, stretch  marks, crazy food cravings, or (many) hormonal break downs.  You listened to me when I asked that you not come while your daddy was in China.  And, after he came home, you obeyed and waited a little while longer until your grandmother could get here from the US.  You even did as you were told when your daddy asked that you not come on Saturday night during the Clemson game.  You have been a very good boy.  But now it is time to come out and meet everyone.  Please.

Your dad and I have tried every trick in the book to coax you out, but you seem to be taking your sweet time. 

So, desperate times call for desperate measures.  I read on some new-age/touchy-feely website that perhaps you are receiving negative vibes from the outside world, or perhaps you are fearful of the birth process (and truthfully, I am too...).  If this happens to be the case, let me assure you there is nothing to fear out here.  There are only a bunch of people who already love you a lot and just want to meet you.  And I promise, I forgive you for all the middle of the night bathroom trips, the way that you are able to simultaneously ram my bladder with your head and jab your feet into my ribs (you must be tall like your dad), and the seemingly endless hiccups that, without fail, always start around 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning.  All's forgiven.  You can come out now.  We love you.  And your daddy really, really wants to meet you.

Love,
Mom

Jacob at 33 Weeks

 

Pregnancy Math Must Have Been Invented By a Man

40 Weeks...
and
3 Days...

Where did this whole "pregnant for nine months" come from?  Everyone always refers to nine months when talking about the length of a pregnancy.  There is even a movie starring Hugh Grant called Nine Months.  I don't know how math works in Hollywood, but if you take 40 weeks and divide by 4 weeks per month, I get 10 months.  How about you?  And even if you take the 2 weeks of pregnancy where you aren't really pregnant, that is still 38 weeks.  My math still gives me 9 and a HALF months.  Just ask any woman who has gone past 36 weeks, believe me, Weeks 37 and 38 definitely deserved to be mentioned! AND considering that a lot of women go all the way to 42 weeks, that is TEN AND A HALF MONTHS.  Even if you take off the 2 weeks at the beginning, we are back to 40 weeks- still 10 months.  Where did nine months come from???

And lets go back to the 2 weeks of pregnancy/but not pregnant.  If the doctors aren't counting those 2 weeks, then why are we still counting them?  Think of that poor high school girl who gets knocked-up the first time she has sex.  For the first two weeks of her pregnancy, she was a virgin???  Does this make sense to you? 

Like I said, it must have been a man who came up with all of this pregnancy math.

Now that I have ranted, let me say that I am so incredibly thankful for a full-term, healthy pregnancy.  As long as Jacob is healthy and continuing to thrive, he is welcome to stay a few more days.  But, it just seems like a cruel joke that for most of your life, you hear that a woman is pregnant for 9 months.  And even when you realize that it really is 40 weeks, when you hit that nine month mark you feel like you should be finished.  But you still have a month to go.  And then when you go past 40 weeks you start to go a little crazy (see ranting above...).  All of the over analyzing of every little stomach twitch and gas bubble that you feel, wondering if THIS is the start of labor. It is mentally exhausting!  Add this to the lack of sleep and hormone overload....let's just say that is a volatile cocktail.  Ooooh, a cocktail....

Yeah.  Take all of the above, and subtract the ability to sip on a nice cocktail to calm your nerves, for the past nine (TEN!) months...

Today, Matthew, Mom, and I headed to a local park that is located on a hill overlooking the city.  There are lots of hills and stairs winding in and out of the landscaping.  That and eating spicy food has amounted to a whole lot of nothing- except for sore legs and heartburn.  I have a midwife appointment tomorrow morning at 8:30, so we will shall see!  I really want this to happen naturally and without having to be induced, so everyone think nice, cervix-thinning thoughts, please. I know, I know, TMI.  Blame it on the crazy pregnancy hormones.  It affects my censoring abilities. 

D-Day

Today is my official due date.  And this due date did not pass without a trip to the hospital.  Although, not exactly for the reason I was hoping for!

Last night, I was up all night, going from feeling extremely nauseous to becoming sick as a dog!  I had read several places that some women experience this type of thing of a day or so before labor begins.  Kind of like the body purging everything before, well, purging the baby!  However, this is France and the number of gastro bugs that go around is insane.  And, it really worried me when I could not even keep down a single cracker or sips of water.  I was afraid I would become dehydrated, and didn't even want to think about the repercussions for Baby Jacob.  AND, I felt so incredibly weak, the thought of going into labor already exhausted?!?  I honestly didn't know if I would even have the energy to push!

My loving husband emailed our wonderful doctor, who told us to come in and he would see us.  (Did I mention our doctor is the chef of the department? ie the head honcho.  And he worked us into his busy schedule instead of sending us to a midwife).  They monitored Jacob's heart rate and checked for contractions for about an hour.  As well as checking my blood pressure and temperature.  The doctor did an ultrasound to check and make sure everything was okay with Jacob.  He looks great!  The doctor estimates that he is 3.4 kg/7 1/2 lbs and 52 cm/20.5 in.  Next, he took a blood and urine sample to rule out food poisoning or some other type of infection. 

All the results have come back normal, so for now I am just trying to keep down some fluids and rebuild my strength.  Now is the time that it is really nice to have my mommy here! :)  She has already made me chicken broth and jello and is at my beckon call.  Between that and the back rubs from Matthew, if I wasn't feeling so crappy, I would feel like a princess!

Based on the very low-registering contractions, it seems Jacob isn't going to make his entrance into the world anytime soon.  Which is fine by me until I start to feel better/stronger.  Thank you to everyone for the sweet messages on Facbook/texts/emails/etc.  I promise to do my best to keep everyone updated on our progress.  

For now I leave you with a picture my mom took.  When she took it, we weren't sure if it would be my 40-week picture, or our 'leaving for the hospital to have a baby' picture.  As it ends up, just the 40 week picture (please excuse the bags under my eyes!)

39 Weeks (and 6 Days) Update

It is hard to believe that my due date is tomorrow!  I feel like a yo-yo, going back and forth between being SO ready to meet, hold, kiss, cuddle, and simply stare at this baby... and then I have moments of total fear, "I don't think I am ready to be a parent" "I am not ready to give up my free time" "My life is never going to be the same, and I really love my life right now"...

BUT, ready or not, here he comes! 

My mom flew in on Sunday night, and I am so excited that she will be here for the big day.  We did find out that only Matthew is allowed in the delivery room, but knowing she is at the hospital will be such a relief.  Another great thing about her coming is that she brought all of the nursery bedding from Pottery Barn.  Finally!  You might remember my earlier post about starting Jacob's nursery.  His nursery also serves as our guest room (aka my mom's room for the next 7 weeks), our home office, and our general junk room.  It is definitely not what I envisioned as the nursery for my first born.  We will only be here for about a year more, so I shouldn't complain.  It serves its purpose, and I guess it could always be worse.

I have been working on some little arts and crafts projects (mostly to keep me busy while Matthew was in China for those 5 weeks in September and October).  It was nice to finally be able to put his bedding on the crib and see (almost) everything put together. 
(And for those of you who are worrying about my mom's ability to sleep sharing a room with a newborn, have no fear.  He will be sleeping in our room in a cradle while she is here.)

I also had a doctor's appointment Monday afternoon.  Everything still looks great, but he thinks it could be next week before I deliver.  He went ahead and scheduled an appointment for next Monday morning, so we will see if I make it to that appointment or not.   I feel much better than I thought I would at the end of a pregnancy.  I haven't gotten any stretch marks, my belly button hasn't popped out (yet?), and except for the ridiculous swelling in my ankles and feet that make it so that only my tennis shoes fit, I really don't have any complaints.  I have actually really enjoyed being pregnant.  I thought at this point that, if it was offered, I would jump at the chance to be induced.  However, for now, I am quite content to stay pregnant and enjoy feeling his kicks, movements, and hiccups.  But, ask me next week and you might get a different answer!

So, for now, Mom and I are just trying to stay busy and enjoy our time together. 

39 Weeks (and 5 days)

I would like to thank the acadamy...

I have been blogging for over 2 years now, and I love when complete strangers write comments on my blog entries.  How they find my blog, boggles my mind, but I love it.  I also find it completely astonishing when I see the map widget on my blog that shows where my readers are from.  I have had visitors from all over the world.  Amazing!

Now, I am extremely proud to announce that I have won my first blogging award.  I know!  So exciting!

Keith over at A Taste of Garlic bestowed upon my blog the very prestigious "It’s really hard to reach my feet Award" for my entry last week about my hormonal breakdown at the medical lab.

I would first like to thank baby Jacob for causing these insane hormones that reduced me to tears in the middle of French medical lab.  But most importantly, I would like to thank my husband.  After all, without him, none of this would be possible.  ;)

I would also like to thank Piglet over at Piglet in France for visiting my blog and leaving a comment that told me I had won this award!

Total. Hormonal. Breakdown

On a day-to-day basis, my horrible French isn't really a problem.  It can be frustrating or embarrassing at times, but it isn't the end of the world.  I will say that since I have been pregnant, my French has gotten worse. Mostly because not having French classes and 'pregnancy brain', is a very bad combination when trying to learn a language!

Yesterday afternoon I headed out to the medical lab by our house. Each month during this pregnancy, I have to go to this lab for urine and blood tests.  Today I took with me an extra prescription from the anesthesiologist.  During our appointment with her back in September, she told me I would have to get this test to see if I had an infection, because if so, I wouldn't be able to get an epidural.  So, just like for the last 8 months, I went into the lab with my prescription and my little vial of urine (lovely, I know).  I was prepared for all the of the normal questions I have struggled with for the last 8 visits.  This time however, the girl starts trying to tell me/ask me something.  And no matter how many times she repeated it, I could. not. understand. her.

Then the pregnancy hormones kicked in.  I could feel myself start tearing up.  By this point, she had completely given up trying to get me to understand, so she just told me to have a seat in the waiting room.  I tried to calm myself down, hoping that whatever she tried to tell me wasn't that important.

A few minutes later, a young guy comes and leads me to a back room to draw my blood.  He starts to tell me something, and I pick up on some of the same words that the receptionist was saying to me.  And I still can't understand what he is saying!  So, here come the tears again.  I am trying so hard not to cry, and I am frustrated and embarrassed, so I start sweating.  It was horrible, I know I looked like a mess.  I am telling myself over and over again that it is just the hormones, "Pull it together, Kim.  You are fine.  This is not THAT big of a deal."  etc, etc.  Doesn't work.  He finishes drawing blood and takes me next door to another room with a table that has stirrups.  Up to this point, I have only had blood drawn, or the one visit where I did the glucose test for gestational diabetes.  Nothing that involved a table and stirrups!  Then he says something else (that, yet again, I didn't understand) and leaves. 

At this point I am a complete wreck.  So I call Matthew.  Luckily, he answered the phone and when the guy came back I just handed him the phone.  And, of course, as soon as he starts explaining the situation to Matthew on the phone, suddenly I can understand what he (and the receptionist) has been trying to tell me.  Basically, part of the prescription was for a vaginal exam to test for Group B strep.  He was the only one that was there at that moment to give the exam, but if I wanted to come back tomorrow, there would be a female nurse that could administer the exam.  At that point, even though now I understood what was going on, I was so embarrassed by the not understanding, and the crying, and the sweating... I just wanted to be finished.  And I definitely did not want to come back tomorrow and go through all this again!  The guy was so nice to me, even though I am sure he didn't know what to do with this blubbering, sweating, almost 39 week pregnant woman!  With the exam finished, I couldn't get out of there fast enough!

I wrote most of this blog yesterday, but waited to post it because I was having a total pity party for myself.  I was feeling so alone and far away from family and friends.  But, today is a new day.  The experience yesterday does make me SO incredibly thankful that this baby didn't decide to come early while Matthew was in China.  If I couldn't even get through a 30 minute ordeal at the lab, I don't think I would have survived a who-knows-how-long labor and delivery at the hospital by myself.  Speaking of being thankful, I have been blessed with a normal, healthy pregnancy.  And, although far from family and US friends, I am surrounded by a wonderful group of friends here, who are constantly offering to help with whatever I need.  And, my mom arrives on Sunday!  Hopefully, Jacob decides to hang out until his 'Maudy' gets here.   I am also extremely thankful for a wonderful husband, who gives me back rubs every night, and who (even though he laughs at me) puts on my socks and shoes for me because it is really hard to reach my feet!  Matthew and I are trying to enjoy every last minute we have that is just the two of us.  We have had lunch dates and dinner dates, and lots of lazy, cuddle time on the couch.  Although, I have to say, I am really looking forward to cuddle time with both my boys.  Soon, very soon...