we begin

hey all! I'm going to try to use this website over the next couple of weeks to post updates on my overall health, our imminent labor, and hopefully the baby's arrival. I will even try to update the site when we eventually go into labor!

I'm trying this out because between sleeping so many hours of the day and being busy with various aspects of prenatal care, acupuncture, and baby preparation (not to mention everyday life!), it's been hard to keep everyone individually posted about what's going on. so if you're interested, check back at your leisure--I'll try to post a little bit every weekday. you're also welcome to share this site with others who care--it's going to be a bit too tedious for anyone who doesn't know us personally, though.

here is the update/backstory: we became 37 weeks pregnant this past Tuesday, May 8th, which theoretically means the baby could come at any time between now and four and a half weeks from now (damn those first babies!). a few months ago, I started having health issues that made it more and more difficult to do physical things; eventually I stopped working and began resting more. today, my care team believes that the baby is just fine--she's about 7 pounds and ready for birth at any time. however, I've been told to slow down a lot, avoid exerting myself, and try not to get into the situations that make me dizzy/faint/pass out. on Wednesday of this week I went in for acupuncture and felt a lot better afterward--in fact, two people told me that I looked better (unprovoked!). also, after a variety of in-hospital and out-patient testing and monitoring (blood work, ear-nose-throat, fetal monitoring, an echocardiogram, oxygen, testing for pre-eclampsia, etc.), the senior midwife in my practice basically agreed that it's probably a mechanical problem (the uterus pressing more and more on the vena cava, thereby restricting blood and oxygen flow more and more as the baby gets heavier), which is nice because we're finally all in agreement and can act accordingly.

so that's the latest! sorry for the dry and technical post--I'll try to liven things up a bit when I post on Monday.

p.s. we still don't have a name for the baby--"Thistle" is just how we refer to her in utero.