*hugs Gale* Keep us posted!!!!!!

Sakai - Have you considered walking in the evening or early morning? At least that way it won't be ridiculously hot.

Hi Sacha! You may get more ladies for fall/winter mamas as the fall/winter mamas realize they're pregnant or become pregnant ;-) I think I'm juuuuuust inside the "summer mama" party at Aug 24th! LOL (Dr thought I was Aug 4 until the ultrasound!)

Contractions got stronger but no change in my cervix. :-/ Still having sporadic contractions but they aren't regular anymore this morning. Let the waiting recommence.

Bianca- I normaly do walk in the mornings but i don't like going without DF as i am getting really bad cramps in the hips and legs. He's at work in the mornings and so I'm kinda stuck walking around the house.

Gale- Hmm false labor? or real labor that just hasn't stuck? sucks though that it's been going on for so long for it to just tapper off like that.

I have Dr. apppointment today...I wonder if they will check me for dialation. I'm 2 days from 38 weeks. When do they normally check for dialation?
I know my Dr. was thinking of inducing me if i'm dialating because the OB's will all be pout of town the days before my due date.

Edit: Just got back from my appointment. They wern't going to check me till I was 38 weeks, but because it's only 2 days away I asked my dr. and she was more than happy to have a quick look.

So I'm 1 cm and 80% thinned out.

I know I'm late but congratulations Mindi! She's lovely!

I'm very stressed in terms of where the heck I'll be living when the baby comes. I'm hoping something will work out.

I'm starting to get more aches and pains, but swimming is wonderful. I'm going to live there this summer.

Hang in there, everyone!

Mindi she is so cute! Congrats. I agree that the baby is way more efficient at getting out milk then the pump. If you can get naked from the waist up and get into bed with baby and put her to the breast whenever she shows any signs of wanting to nurse. DS lost a pound just after birth and he wanted to nurse consistently in those first few weeks. i had him on my breasts every 30-90 mins sometimes for 45 mins. i would keep waking him if he dozed shortly after getting on the breast and did lots of skin to skin. He had almost doubled his birth weight by 10 weeks. Also if you can get your DH to make you up a food basket with muffins, fruit, nuts, etc to keep near you with your water bottle. You really do need to eat and drink lots especially when it is hot.

Gale - I hope things pick up for you again.

Sakai - you may beat me to the finish line Not sure if I am dilated at all but when my midwife checked on Friday morn. Baby had dipped into my pelvis and I was measuring 2cm less then last week. Not really feeling any other signs of eminent labour though and am torn between wanting labour to start and holding off as i have soooo much left to do and really am not ready at all to bring a baby home.

So exciting everyone

Thanks y'all! And thanks for all the advice! I think Miss Laney is going through a growth spurt! It's all eating and crashing... busy busy busy

Mindi your little girl is so adorable!

I'm still holding up and have started to have sporadic contractions -- never more than three in a row, but glad to know that things are still moving forward

I have started calorie counting again. I know it's a little early but my Dr. asked that I slow down my weight loss, so I thought I would just make sure I'm eating 2300-2600 calories each day and ensure that I'm trying to get a good portion of those from healthy foods. It really hasn't made much of a change to my eating except I've cut out the cookies/milkshakes that I've been wanting at the end of the day.

Have a great day ladies. More babies to come soon I'm sure!

I am getting close to the 200 lb mark. I'm around 193 right now and started at 178 lbs. I know the doctor is okay with how I'm doing but I'm starting to feel panicky and eating disorder driven again. It's freaking me out and I'm trying hard to just eat and exercise in a healthy way. Did anyone else feel this way?

Oh, and I'm 27 weeks on Wednesday. I'm just crossing into my third trimester. I feel so behind all you ladies.

I hope everyone has a great week. Take care!

Racrane-...yeah i broke down in tears the day I went over my heviest ever mark. it took years to get down to 220 from 260 (mostly from falling off the wagon for a few months every year) and now I've gained it all back plus some. 277 now. And I was trying soooo hard not to gain more than 15..pish, I gained 40..

I can't wait to get back to my working out and getting back to work and going on my normal diet without worrying that I'm hurting my baby. It kills me that I know I have to wait 6+ weeks before starting.

You're doing good because i slacked in working out once I hit the middle of my second tri...I just felt so clumsy i was worried I was going to hurt myself. I did swim for a month but it made me sooo hungry that i would go home and eat a huge meal and then go to bed. @.@ so I stopped that.

I think if i don't go into labor by next week I'm gonna cry. LOL I'm so ready to not be pregnant anymore. i feel like a walking bomb and the anxiety is killing me.

Butterflymama- I don't know, I have a feeling that I'm going to be over due, because life likes to spite me like that. At least you have a 100% sure end date. lol

Is 80% thinned out 2 weeks before due a sign of anything? I know I can be dialated for weeks and it means nothing. but I don't know anything about thinning out. She hasn't even dropped yet. @.@

Sakai- Thinning out just means your cervix is preparing for labor. My doctor said it can happen as early as two months before you deliver to the same day. I wasn't effaced at all until ten hours after they began the induction, then went to 70% at 2 cm dilated where I stayed until i ended up in emergency C-section. Hopefully she comes soon for you. Any woman whose been pregnant can sympathise with you about the last month being no fun.

Racrane- As for the weight gain, it's normal to feel that way when you reached your heaviest yet or a breaking point you don't want to be at. My heaviest was 268. I started at 254 and ended at 282. I cried when i hit 270. He's 20 days old today and i'm down to 249. As long as you are eating pretty healthy and working out, most of the weight should come off shortly after- but don't expect it all to fall off right away. I was told- it took 9 months to put it on, expect the same to take it all off.

Sprkle- You're so close as well!!

Gale- Baby yet?!?! Hopefully this was the weekend for you!

Sasha- Welcome! As other ladies mentioned, the second half of the pregnancy did fly by. Though the end drags out a bit. Sit back and enjoy it while you can.

Mindi- She's adorable!!

Drece has been waking up more often now and DF is still working two jobs so focusing on school has been a bit hard for me. Other than that, all is well over here. He's finally an ounce heavier than his birth weight and his head is no longed coned from getting stuck during labor. I wish I could start working out already but doc won't let me because the chance of ripping my incision open. He wants me to wait until 8 weeks =/ I'll probably end up waiting until 6 weeks because i'm already sooo impatient. I'm just watching what I eat right now.

No baby this weekend. I'm 37 weeks today. I have an ultrasound on Thurs that I'm anxious to go to. I've been measuring 2-3 weeks ahead so if we got my dates wrong (a distinct possibility) then I'm more like 39 today. Meh. We'll just have to wait and see. I'm ready to not be pregnant anymore, but I'm not sure I'm ready for a newborn just yet. It makes me exhausted just thinking about it.

My mom helped me get my kids' closet cleaned out this weekend. I have boy clothes from sizes NB - 5T and they were all shoved helter skelter into one closet. Now it's all nicely organized and stored. It made me really glad we're having another boy, I don't have room to store complete wardrobes for boys and girls!

I hope you're all having a great weekend! Cuddle those little babies and try to get a couple hours of sleep.

Thanks Keller and Sakai. I'm trying very hard to be okay with all this.

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend.

So tired!! I'm feeling like a zombie. The baby had started to drop earlier, but he must have dropped the rest of the way over the weekend. I have to pee like every half hour... this is an adventure. I have an ultrasound tomorrow afternoon - the Dr. wants to determine if the baby is as big as my tummy is measuring, if so she wants to schedule an induction. So we'll see how this goes. I'm ready to not be so huge.

racrane -- the easiest way for me to think about the weight was to only think of the health of the baby. It wasn't about how I felt or how I was dealing with body image issues, I'm making a lung today, I'm making toes tomorrow, etc. Feed the baby -- but don't feed the baby only french fries

I was obese when I got pregnant, I had lost weight, gained some back in a bit of depression and was just kind of floating along. So I didn't need to gain very much weight, but as I crossed the 30 lb mark, my Dr. asked me to stop/slow, so now I'm calorie counting again, but mostly to just make sure that I don't eat too few or too many calories. I don't have a scale though, we put it away when I got pregnant to make sure that I focused on the baby and not on myself. We'll get it back out once he's here.

Racrane I totally hear you about the weight stuff. When I got pregnant with this baby I was about 7 mons into a really healthy lifestyle change. I was losing weight (40 lbs) and exercising and my mind was in the right place. I loved my body instead of loathing it and it felt good and healing to give myself healthy food instead of deprivation of all the unhealthy food I had loved so much in the past (french fries are my obsession)

I wasn't planning on getting pregnant so when I first found out I can't say I was overly excited. One of the first thoughts I had was "Oh no I am going to gain back all the weight I just worked so hard to lose) Well after that first U/S and seeing my little appleseed I started to be really happy to be pregnant and I decided no I would still stick with my healthy lifestyle and try to only gain 15-20 lbs.

Then the horrible morning sickness started and the only food I could tolerate/keep down was junky food (veggies made me gag just thinking or preparing them for my family) I lost about 10 more pounds in the first trimester and slowly put that back on as baby grew. I was doing really well and went into the third trimester with only a 5.2 lb gain over my pre-pregnancy weight. I was really happy. Well the last 3 weeks I have gained 9lbs! I am now over the 20lb weight gain goal I had and am trying not to be freaked out. Part of it is water weight and part of it I know is that my anxiety levels have been pretty high this past month and well I have turned to my emotional eating. every day I try to eat healthy and every day I end up consuming something I wish I hadn't. Pregnancy is a crazy time, I don't really have good advice for you but to say that sometimes you just have to do what you can do and let nature take it's course. Just wanted to let you know you are not alone in the feelings.

Good idea! I wish I would have done this...I keep feeling horrible when I step on the scale so now I try and avoid it. Good mindset to have though - focus on the baby and get back to WL once baby arrives.