This is the morning after our first night home with Baby Champuru. I slept off and on last night, in between feedings and peering at her in the co-sleeper beside me. We experienced some early morning fits of crying that lasted only a few minutes, but enough to pierce the silence of the wee hours and make me wonder how many of my neighbors are going to be giving us stink eye in the morning.

This morning, sleep-deprived but powered by OCD-tendencies (and 800 mg ibuprofen) to get the house up to snuff for baby, I have been working non-stop while Hubby watches baby sleep soundly in our bedroom. Here’s what I accomplished this morning:

- Cleared out the nursery of extraneous “stuff” by taking things out of their boxes and finding an appropriate place for them instead of in the crib, which has been our temporary storage area for the many generous gifts given by friends and family. (THANK YOU!)

- Unpacked my hospital bag.

- Cleaned the bathroom and living room.

- Did three loads of laundry.

- Made phone calls to doctor’s offices for follow-up appointments for myself and Baby Champuru.

Now it’s about time to check on baby to see if she’s ready for her next feeding. She must be starving by now, since she and daddy haven’t stirred for the past three hours!

I am working on writing my “birth story,” but I wanted to get this quick update out to let everyone know that I survived the arduous 26 hour labor and am hitting the ground running! Also, thanks to everyone who sent me Twitter messages, e-mails, and came to visit me in the hospital. I still have to catch up on my messages, but I’ll be going through them in between the frenetic cleaning and organizing, feedings, and (oh, yeah) sleep.

Quite possibly by this time tomorrow, Baby Champuru will have arrived on the scene.

Bright and early tomorrow morning, I’ll be going in for inducement — just in time to fight the peak of rush hour traffic. We’re leaving an hour and a half early just in case, because you never know when there might be an unforeseen accident or stall to snarl traffic even more. If we’re early, we’ll just cruise at the coffee stand to relax before the real excitement begins.

Derek was kind enough to loan us his Hele wireless broadband card, so Hubby will be bringing his laptop to the hospital and we’ll try to make some updates from there. Just a heads up: Dreamhost was having some “issues” and champuru.net was down for a while today, so if you can’t get to this site tomorrow, check Twitter (microblog) and Flickr (photos) for updates.

I have heard that inducement can take a long time, even days. A twitter friend told me that for her second child, it took two days — her third child took three. Three days, people. Oh, my goodness.

As Hubby was busily rushing around the house cleaning, I called out to him: “Oh my gosh, someone on twitter said it took three days to deliver after she was induced!”

“Well, that’s better than them pumping you up with more drugs and making the contractions more intense, right?” he replied. Always positive, always looking for the silver lining. That’s just one of the many reasons why I love that man.

I would opt for slow and steady over fast and furious any day. After all, we’ve waited 41-1/2 weeks, what’s another couple of days? Right? Well, whatever the case, I’m just praying that the outcome will be a healthy baby — with no complications for Baby Champuru or myself. Even if it takes three days.

This will likely be the last blog update from home since we’re leaving the house early tomorrow morning. So, please wish me luck, pray for us, and check back for updates!

Here we are at week 41 and this is the last tummy shot you’ll see on champuru.net, because I’ll be induced on Friday, October 3, 2008. That’s in two short days.

Today, we went to lunch with Mahealani at Assaggio Ristorante. Something she said really got me thinking: “psychologists say that, for a couple, having a baby is like dealing with a crisis because of how much your life changes.”

A crisis.

Hubby and I have been through our share of tough times during the past 17 years (15 years of marriage this year). It was during those times of trial and testing that our relationship experienced the most growth. I expect this to be no different.

The birth of Baby Champuru will be an exciting, yet frightening time for the both of us as we are faced with the challenges of being new parents. Everything will be new to us. Neither of us has changed a dirty diaper, bathed a baby, or even handled a newborn. Despite the infant care classes we attended and numerous books and magazines I’ve read, I still feel sorely unprepared for my new role as mother. I really hope that Baby Champuru will be patient with me as I tackle the steep learning curve ahead of me.

Hubby and I have been trying to cram in as much “togetherness” time as possible, knowing that our quiet dinners out will soon be a thing of the past. For 17 years, we have come and go as we pleased, stepping out to dinner whenever and wherever on a whim without much thought for things such as the availability of a changing table in the restroom and a family-friendly atmosphere. Now, venturing out of the house will take much more planning and preparation with a new baby. That is only the tip of the iceberg.

But, those changes are good. It launches us into a new chapter in our lives. One that we have prayed for — for years — and now it’s upon us and I’m still wondering if I’m ready.

Ready or not, here she comes!

When your pregnancy goes into overtime, additional testing is required and today I arrived at the Queens Medical Center for another AFI (amniotic fluid index) and NST (non-stress test). This is my third NST and my second AFI since last week. It’s definitely made us more familiar with Queens and now we’re not worried about getting lost on the big day. I almost opted to deliver at Kapiolani for the mere fact that it is nearly impossible to get lost there, whereas Queens can seem like a labyrinth of hallways. The thought of being in labor and getting lost on our way to the Labor & Delivery Unit is frightening to a first time mama like me.

We started with the AFI, the ultrasound administered by a new technician who just moved to Hawaii. Last week’s ultrasound took all of 15 minutes, but today it lasted nearly 45 minutes. I can’t blame the technician completely, though. Baby Champuru was being pretty uncooperative, moving around and making it tough for the ultrasound tech to get a doppler reading of the blood flow in her brain. She kept moving her head, which was apparently in an odd position. So, the technician ended up calling in a more experienced staff member who was able to get the reading despite Baby Champuru’s hyperactivity in the womb. “She’s rockin’ and rollin’ in there,” the technician remarked.

Twice during the scanning, I started to feel faint from lying on my back and had to ask her to stop while I sat up to recover. I suspect that the uncomfortable position that I was in, with my back arching, my knees locking, and my feet dangling off the edge, contributed to the problem. The baby was likely putting pressure on the inferior vena cava, causing my lightheadedness. Thankfully, I managed to get through the test without passing out and the test results were good.

We then went upstairs to the Labor & Delivery Unit for the NST. Baby Champuru was still bouncing off my uterine walls when they hooked me up for the NST. I was pushing the button to track her movement almost continuously for the first several minutes. During this time, her heart rate was running higher than normal. I wonder if my discomfort during the ultrasound test had stressed her out? Or maybe it was the exciting episode of Monk that we were watching TV that was making her excited? The nurse kept me on the monitor for almost an hour and had the on-call doctor review the results since she thought her activity level and heart rate was running high at times. The doctor looked at the graph for a few minutes and said that baby was fine and that he would be more concerned if she wasn’t moving as much. Very active is better than lethargic, which may indicate a problem with the baby. With that, the nurse let us go and said, “see you Friday!”

9/29/08 Stats:
40 weeks and 5 days
Blood Pressure: 107/68
Weight gain so far: 12 pounds (no change in weight since 9/22/08)
Fetal Heartbeat: Good
Cervix Dilation: 1 cm

The day started with a trip to the OB’s office for my weekly appointment. We went through the same routine: urine sample, weight, blood pressure, fetal heart rate, and cervix check. Everything looked good and the best news of all is that my cervix is finally starting to show progress at 1 cm dilation.

I asked the doctor about whether it was an option to delay the inducement to sometime after the two weeks overdue point, but she said that it is preferable to induce sooner than that to reduce the risk of complications. I’ll be 41 weeks and 2 days by then. She answered my questions to my satisfaction and so she bid us farewell for now and proclaimed, “see you at the hospital on Friday!”

In the meantime, Hubby and I are making it a point to go walking every day and perhaps I’ll indulge myself in a nightly foot massage, too. Maybe Baby Champuru will surprise us and beat the inducement date.

I spent most of the day lounging around the house, watching the Discovery Channel (MythBusters and Planet Earth), and napping for the better part of the afternoon. For some reason, I felt exhausted today even though I didn’t do much of anything — well, besides two loads of laundry. I decided that it wasn’t a such a bad idea to allow myself to rest in preparation for the upcoming big event: labor and delivery. Whenever that may be.

After my appointment with the OB tomorrow morning, perhaps we’ll get a better idea. At the very least, I’m hoping that I’ve moved past zero on the dilation and effacement progress. Also on the agenda is discussing the possibility of postponing the inducement date, which is presently scheduled for this Friday, October 3. I’ve been thinking about it, and I’d like to go as drug-free as possible — and using drugs to induce labor just doesn’t feel right to me. Of course, if the health of the baby necessitates it or it is deemed medically necessary, then I am not opposed to inducing. But, inducing just for the sake of inducing — or for my personal convenience or comfort. No.

The subject of inducement came up only because I inquired about it. At my last appointment, I asked my OB, “at what point would you consider inducing?” I don’t know if she thought I was asking because I wanted the inducement, but immediately she started looking at the calendar and said, “let’s schedule it for Friday, October 3.” I suppose I should have asked more questions at the time, but I always feel somewhat rushed during my OB appointments and I often need time to process my thoughts before questions come to mind. Now that I’ve had a week to think about it, I hope to get some things clarified.

I’m hoping that the doctor will order a BPP (biophysical profile) on Baby Champuru. I’d like to know how large the baby is. After all, that is one of the big concerns when you have gestational diabetes. Of course, if Baby Champuru is already pushing 8-pounds, I’d opt for the inducement. We’ll see what the doc says tomorrow. Hopefully she won’t just dismiss my concerns and insist on staying with the original plan.

I notice that the baby dropped a little and I am breathing a little easier, and as expected, there is more pelvic floor pressure and some minor discomfort in my lower abdomen from time to time. The Braxton Hicks contractions are picking up and it seems that Baby Champuru has been more active today than before. I am hoping that these are signs that Baby Champuru is getting ready to make her big debut.

More updates to come!

Last night, Hubby and I joined Mahealani and Lucy for dinner at Phuket Thai (pronounced “poo-ket”) at the Mililani Town Center. As a vegetarian, Mahealani was pleased to discover Phuket Thai’s extensive vegetarian offerings on the menu. All of us have a pretty decent tolerance for spicy food, so we decided to order everything “hot.” I was a little concerned, since I didn’t know what to expect. I mean, how spicy is “Thai spicy”? Normally, when dining out at restaurants and “hot” is offered, it barely registers on my taste bud thermometer. However, Thai food is known for setting people’s tongues aflame, so I wondered if I could handle it.

Green Papaya Salad

First out was the green papaya salad. Oh. My. Goodness. The first bite already had my tongue tingling and beads of sweat immediately surfaced on my cheeks. You know it’s spicy when the first bite already evokes a physical reaction. Obviously, I wasn’t the only one feeling the effects. Everyone at the table was reaching for their water glasses to put out the flames.

This worried me. If everything we ordered was that spicy, I would not be eating much - lest I find myself going into labor right there in the restaurant.

To finish my modest serving of salad, I had to empty my water glass. Woo. That bugger pretty much kicked my okole — and for me to admit that, well, it’s got to be hot.

Oyster Sauce Chicken

But then the other dishes started appearing and while they were spicy, they were not nearly as spicy as the green papaya salad. In fact, they were all very tasty, with just the right amount of spiciness to keep things exciting and the water glasses nearly empty. I say “nearly empty,” because the service is good and the servers are very diligent about keeping your glasses full. I guess you have to be at a Thai restaurant.

Sweet and Sour Fish

My favorite of the night was the Sweet and Sour Fish. The little chunks of pineapple and the tender pieces of fish made it a delightful dish.

Thai Fried Rice

The Thai Fried Rice was delicious, too, although I had to eat that in moderation due to my carb-restricted diet. If not for the gestational diabetes, I would have eaten two bowlfuls.

Vegetarian Peanut Curry

And of course, the obligatory peanut curry…

Needless to say, I managed to finish dinner without going into labor. Maybe next time.