Thursday, February 28, 2013
Almost 39 Weeks...
We had our (6 hours short of) 39 weeks appointment tonight. He didn't check me other than to measure my stomach and listen to the heartbeat. Last week at our (6 hours short of) 38 weeks appointment, I was having a ton of contractions to the point where you could see my stomach getting hard. But those are few and far between at this point. He said that if I'm still pregnant at my (6 hours short of) 40 weeks appointment, we would start talking exit strategy. I'm really hoping to avoid an induction because so many of them lead to c-sections and I REALLY want to avoid that! So hopefully this baby decides to get the show on the road in the next week!
Friday, February 15, 2013
Kid-isms
Some funny things kids have said in the last couple weeks....
"You know, babies are a lot of work. You should probably check out a book on that so you can learn what you're supposed to do."
"Did you have that baby yet?" (Do you SEE me kid?!?)
"You were absent - did you go get your baby?" (Same reaction as above)
"Good thing it's a boy. Cause you know a lot about sports and Mr. H knows a lot about Legos. That's stuff you gotta know if you are having a boy."
"Wow. Your belly is BIG. Like even bigger than it used to be. I bet that hurts!"
"Will you bring the baby to school to help teach and see us?"
"Are you quitting your job for ever? Or just quitting for a little while?"
And my personal favorite...
"My mommy had a boy and he is 9 months old now. Once when she was still 'nurse-feeding' him she had to take me to the doctor and he didn't come. But there were 2 other babies there. And they were crying! And my mommy's boobies started leaking! She got milk everywhere! All over her clothes and everything! IT WAS SO FUNNY! That could totally happen to you!"
"You know, babies are a lot of work. You should probably check out a book on that so you can learn what you're supposed to do."
"Did you have that baby yet?" (Do you SEE me kid?!?)
"You were absent - did you go get your baby?" (Same reaction as above)
"Good thing it's a boy. Cause you know a lot about sports and Mr. H knows a lot about Legos. That's stuff you gotta know if you are having a boy."
"Wow. Your belly is BIG. Like even bigger than it used to be. I bet that hurts!"
"Will you bring the baby to school to help teach and see us?"
"Are you quitting your job for ever? Or just quitting for a little while?"
And my personal favorite...
"My mommy had a boy and he is 9 months old now. Once when she was still 'nurse-feeding' him she had to take me to the doctor and he didn't come. But there were 2 other babies there. And they were crying! And my mommy's boobies started leaking! She got milk everywhere! All over her clothes and everything! IT WAS SO FUNNY! That could totally happen to you!"
Thursday, February 14, 2013
First Real Trip to L&D
I earned myself a trip to labor and delivery today. Very exciting times. On the way to work, I was driving along (all by myself, unusually enough, because I was supposed to leave work 25 minutes early for a dr's appointment) and poof I felt the tell tale back flank beginning pains of a kidney stone. I have experienced the pain twice before in my life. Once, I was at school and had no idea what it was so I stayed at school for lots of hours at which point it eventually became unbearable and I wound up going to the ER. With all the medical stuff I've gone through, that was by far the most painful thing I've experienced. I actually told the nurse "I need to call anyone I ever said I was having '10' pain for and apologize because I knew nothing!" I also remember telling her "Now I know why people become drug addicts" when she gave me the morphine. The second time I had a stone, I knew right away so I went to the ER and said it was starting and I wanted the meds before it got bad. I'm pretty sure "DRUG SEEKER" was stamped all over my chart that day because I came before it got bad so I was still coherent, standing, and able to answer questions unlike the first time. But a CT scan confirmed it and they managed my pain.
Knowing there's a 36 week 6 day baby inside of me, I figured there would be no CT scan or xray or heavy drugs to manage the pain, and while I was 99% sure it was kidney pain, several people at school asked if I was sure it wasn't labor. So I called the on call guy and asked how I tell the difference. He was confused because I was coherent and speaking in complete sentences so I explained that I thought the pain had just started, and I recognized it as kidney pain - that I wasn't in the 'kill me now' stage yet. He told me to go to L&D to get checked out.
A nurse met me and hooked me up in triage and I hung out for an hour and a half or so while I waited for Mike to arrive. (Poor guy, when I called the office got all deflated because his surprise baby shower was supposed to be today!) About a half hour after that the doc showed up after finishing someone's C-section. They told me that I was having lots of contractions (news to me, I thought it was just the baby moving) but that the pattern of contractions was consistent with bladder/kidney irritation. (Who knew those things could be related?)
They did an internal exam to make sure the contractions weren't doing anything. The first exam he did blind, and he said "well, you're either having this baby right now, or that polyp got huge." So then he did a second one to see what was going on. To the best of their knowledge, the contractions are not doing anything. However, the previously large polyp has now reached "gigantic" and "Hey nurse come check this out because you won't see it again" proportions and is blocking some access to telling exactly what is going on there.
FYI if a doctor ever precedes something with the sentence "You should think of a happy place right now" - what he's about to do isn't gonna be very nice. :)
So they sent me home. They can't 100% diagnose a stone without an xray but told me to just super hydrate and hope for the best. Yay!? ;)
Knowing there's a 36 week 6 day baby inside of me, I figured there would be no CT scan or xray or heavy drugs to manage the pain, and while I was 99% sure it was kidney pain, several people at school asked if I was sure it wasn't labor. So I called the on call guy and asked how I tell the difference. He was confused because I was coherent and speaking in complete sentences so I explained that I thought the pain had just started, and I recognized it as kidney pain - that I wasn't in the 'kill me now' stage yet. He told me to go to L&D to get checked out.
A nurse met me and hooked me up in triage and I hung out for an hour and a half or so while I waited for Mike to arrive. (Poor guy, when I called the office got all deflated because his surprise baby shower was supposed to be today!) About a half hour after that the doc showed up after finishing someone's C-section. They told me that I was having lots of contractions (news to me, I thought it was just the baby moving) but that the pattern of contractions was consistent with bladder/kidney irritation. (Who knew those things could be related?)
They did an internal exam to make sure the contractions weren't doing anything. The first exam he did blind, and he said "well, you're either having this baby right now, or that polyp got huge." So then he did a second one to see what was going on. To the best of their knowledge, the contractions are not doing anything. However, the previously large polyp has now reached "gigantic" and "Hey nurse come check this out because you won't see it again" proportions and is blocking some access to telling exactly what is going on there.
FYI if a doctor ever precedes something with the sentence "You should think of a happy place right now" - what he's about to do isn't gonna be very nice. :)
So they sent me home. They can't 100% diagnose a stone without an xray but told me to just super hydrate and hope for the best. Yay!? ;)
Saturday, February 2, 2013
35/35/35 (One Day Late!)
Since my favorite baseball player was #35, whenever that number pops up I tend to notice.
Yesterday I hit the 35 week mark in this pregnancy. I try to enjoy little things like that since there's no guarantee that I'll ever be pregnant again. Thanks to some simple math, I could figure out that from the 35 week mark, there are 35 days until a due date. Whee! (Then you could add on the 35 month journey, for triple 35's!)
I had a doctor's appointment on Thursday evening with nothing real exciting going on. I'm enjoying the current string of boring. He did hem and haw a little about whether to give me another Rhogam shot because of a spotting incident earlier that day. (That ruined my 15 day spotting free streak!) I find it fascinating that some doctors in the practice are completely nonchalant about the whole thing and others think deeply about it each time. Eventually the decision was no based on when my last shot was. I hit the 25 pounds gained mark - THAT was exciting. ;)
I have one last shower at work next week. The last two girls at work to have first babies didn't make it to their shower date, even though we do them about a month in advance, so there's been much teasing in that department.
Comments I got this week:
From adults: (Notice the back and forth...)
"Are you having twins?"
"You're so small! How could you be due in 5 weeks?"
"Wow, you really dropped!"
"We'll really be able to tell when you're ready to go, because that bump is so high."
"Aw, your Ravens jersey still fits!"
"Wow, that jersey doesn't fit at all anymore does it?"
"Where did you find a maternity Ravens jersey?"
From kids:
"You're STILL pregnant?"
"Did you have your baby yet?"
"How's that cat doing in there?" (I often get asked 'what kind' of baby it is by the kids. They mean boy/girl, but since they ask what kind I always say it's a kitten and they giggle. So one 5th grader just calls it "the cat."
Yesterday I hit the 35 week mark in this pregnancy. I try to enjoy little things like that since there's no guarantee that I'll ever be pregnant again. Thanks to some simple math, I could figure out that from the 35 week mark, there are 35 days until a due date. Whee! (Then you could add on the 35 month journey, for triple 35's!)
I had a doctor's appointment on Thursday evening with nothing real exciting going on. I'm enjoying the current string of boring. He did hem and haw a little about whether to give me another Rhogam shot because of a spotting incident earlier that day. (That ruined my 15 day spotting free streak!) I find it fascinating that some doctors in the practice are completely nonchalant about the whole thing and others think deeply about it each time. Eventually the decision was no based on when my last shot was. I hit the 25 pounds gained mark - THAT was exciting. ;)
I have one last shower at work next week. The last two girls at work to have first babies didn't make it to their shower date, even though we do them about a month in advance, so there's been much teasing in that department.
Comments I got this week:
From adults: (Notice the back and forth...)
"Are you having twins?"
"You're so small! How could you be due in 5 weeks?"
"Wow, you really dropped!"
"We'll really be able to tell when you're ready to go, because that bump is so high."
"Aw, your Ravens jersey still fits!"
"Wow, that jersey doesn't fit at all anymore does it?"
"Where did you find a maternity Ravens jersey?"
From kids:
"You're STILL pregnant?"
"Did you have your baby yet?"
"How's that cat doing in there?" (I often get asked 'what kind' of baby it is by the kids. They mean boy/girl, but since they ask what kind I always say it's a kitten and they giggle. So one 5th grader just calls it "the cat."
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Well there's a new phrase...
I recently joined the ranks of "every 2 weeks" appointments instead of once a month. And shortly in the next couple weeks I will graduate to EVERY week. Yowza, it's getting closer.
At one of my recent appointments, the doc used the phrase "Well aren't you just a model pregnancy now." uh WHA? Model? Me? In the health department? Crazy. Around 25 weeks my spotting really tapered off. I wasn't willing to verbalize it because it felt like every time I even mentioned it to my husband that it would come back with a vengeance! I went from every day, to a few times a week, to a couple times a week, and then right around Thanksgiving I went 10 days. Of course with my brain as soon as it comes back I freak out because now spotting is NOT the everyday pattern, and at this point spotting can be a sign of early labor. But they told me just to call if it breaks its normal habits of how it feels, etc.
The baby is bigger now, and for the last few weeks the heartburn has kicked in. Once Christmas was over and I took chocolate out of my diet I got rid of the 24 hour a day kind, but it can still be really uncomfortable. I have Tums in my school bag, lunch box, kitchen, and upstairs bathroom. Just yesterday I was cursing myself for not thinking to put it in my purse! Usually I have my school bag with me when I'm out of the house, but when I got to 30 weeks and the spotting was so minimal, I started running more than one errand at a time and so I was actually out of the house for like 5 hours between baby class, lunch, and shopping. Go me!
We have a basic nursery now, and have enjoyed celebrating with both friends and family at two showers. We are just using a dresser/changing table that belonged to my brother & me. My parents got us a crib and a "cubicals" shelf from Target to hold all the "stuff." The nursery was painted, the electrical outlets were fixed after I made a big spark trying to change the outlet cover, and we got new carpet in the whole upstairs with the money we didn't go on vacation with last summer. It's pretty and the cat is on a timer to see how long it takes him to puke on it somewhere, since it's approximately 1/2 of our house.We picked a dark tan color because it will hide both cat fur and any stain we can't clean all the way out. (Although our new pet stain carpet cleaner is the greatest invention ever - you can literally watch the stain disappear in front of you after you spray, just like a commercial!) Hopefully this pet stain remover works on kid stains too. ;)
Last night I built the bouncy/vibrating seat and the rainforest play mat. Cat digs the play mat with all the 3D animals on the mat and the dangling toys from above. He didn't so much appreciate the loud noises it makes though!
At one of my recent appointments, the doc used the phrase "Well aren't you just a model pregnancy now." uh WHA? Model? Me? In the health department? Crazy. Around 25 weeks my spotting really tapered off. I wasn't willing to verbalize it because it felt like every time I even mentioned it to my husband that it would come back with a vengeance! I went from every day, to a few times a week, to a couple times a week, and then right around Thanksgiving I went 10 days. Of course with my brain as soon as it comes back I freak out because now spotting is NOT the everyday pattern, and at this point spotting can be a sign of early labor. But they told me just to call if it breaks its normal habits of how it feels, etc.
The baby is bigger now, and for the last few weeks the heartburn has kicked in. Once Christmas was over and I took chocolate out of my diet I got rid of the 24 hour a day kind, but it can still be really uncomfortable. I have Tums in my school bag, lunch box, kitchen, and upstairs bathroom. Just yesterday I was cursing myself for not thinking to put it in my purse! Usually I have my school bag with me when I'm out of the house, but when I got to 30 weeks and the spotting was so minimal, I started running more than one errand at a time and so I was actually out of the house for like 5 hours between baby class, lunch, and shopping. Go me!
We have a basic nursery now, and have enjoyed celebrating with both friends and family at two showers. We are just using a dresser/changing table that belonged to my brother & me. My parents got us a crib and a "cubicals" shelf from Target to hold all the "stuff." The nursery was painted, the electrical outlets were fixed after I made a big spark trying to change the outlet cover, and we got new carpet in the whole upstairs with the money we didn't go on vacation with last summer. It's pretty and the cat is on a timer to see how long it takes him to puke on it somewhere, since it's approximately 1/2 of our house.We picked a dark tan color because it will hide both cat fur and any stain we can't clean all the way out. (Although our new pet stain carpet cleaner is the greatest invention ever - you can literally watch the stain disappear in front of you after you spray, just like a commercial!) Hopefully this pet stain remover works on kid stains too. ;)
Last night I built the bouncy/vibrating seat and the rainforest play mat. Cat digs the play mat with all the 3D animals on the mat and the dangling toys from above. He didn't so much appreciate the loud noises it makes though!
Monday, December 17, 2012
Passed a TON of tests!
Unlike last month's appointment which took over an hour to be seen and get out of there, tonight's appointment was only 10 minutes. I want a doctor that will stay and talk if I deem it necessary or if there's something to be said, but I don't need small talk if it's not necessary. Bing bang boom! It was basically all good news. Happens rarely, but it's my favorite type of appointment!
I don't have gestational diabetes. Yay! Even more importantly, I did NOT create antibodies based on our positive/negative blood types so my previous Rhogam shots did their jobs. (I didn't get to get my shot tonight because they're out of Rhogam, so I have to go back tomorrow, but that is ok.) I don't have syphilis either. (surprise. Not.) And I'm not anemic. (They told us at baby class that half the people who come in to the hospital in labor are either anemic or approaching it because the baby sucks iron. My cholesterol probably stinks these days, but I love red meat and it's good for not getting anemic so yay for that. Plus he said he'd extend my prescription for PT as long as I felt it was helping me. Quadruple yay!
AND, we were in the car at 6:10 for our 6pm appointment. I dig it.
I don't have gestational diabetes. Yay! Even more importantly, I did NOT create antibodies based on our positive/negative blood types so my previous Rhogam shots did their jobs. (I didn't get to get my shot tonight because they're out of Rhogam, so I have to go back tomorrow, but that is ok.) I don't have syphilis either. (surprise. Not.) And I'm not anemic. (They told us at baby class that half the people who come in to the hospital in labor are either anemic or approaching it because the baby sucks iron. My cholesterol probably stinks these days, but I love red meat and it's good for not getting anemic so yay for that. Plus he said he'd extend my prescription for PT as long as I felt it was helping me. Quadruple yay!
AND, we were in the car at 6:10 for our 6pm appointment. I dig it.
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Monthly Visit
I forgot to update after our monthly visit on Monday night. We met the 4th doctor in the practice at this visit. He's a nice guy, and was absolutely fascinated by my medical history. While I appreciate the care and interest, it turned what is usually a 10 or 15 minute appointment into an 82 minute appointment and dinner at almost 9pm. Most of it he wasn't even really talking, he was reading my history and making exclamations like "Wow!" or "That worked? That never works!" Yup. I know. My body is committed to helping doctors of all flavors "Practice" medicine.
To determine a trimester, when you divide the 40 weeks by 3, you get 13 1/3 weeks. So I figured somewhere in the 26-27 week range is the beginning of the 3rd trimester. Instead, this doctor said he considers the 3rd trimester after the viability date of 24ish weeks so that I'm already there. Viability, can you believe it? Of course nobody would WANT their baby to be born this early, but it's technically possible that it'd live if it was. It's much more preferable to keep the baby inside and healthy for lots of more weeks.
I also got a flu shot. I have never ever gotten one before because of my weird reactions to all types of medicines, but it was highly recommended that I do so. It's apparently better for the baby to get the medicine if I have an issue than for the baby to deal with me getting the flu if I get that. I usually get sick over the winter, but I have never been officially diagnosed with an official strand of influenza. I guess this would be a lousy year to start that trend.
In the coming weeks, I have to have a bunch of important tests done. Luckily they can run them all from one set of blood work.
The standard one is the test for gestational diabetes. I would hope not to get that, of course. But having to conform to a diet or medicine for 12 or 13 weeks would be do-able because there would be an end date in sight. (The GD goes away the second they cut the cord if you develop it.)
The other one is related to our A-/A+ blood type issues. They have to test me to see if I was sensitized to the Rh factor. That would be dangerous because it would hurt any future babies. I got the Rhogham shot after my first m/c and again during a bleeding spell early in this pregnancy. (It wasn't necessary with the second m/c because I wasn't pregnant long enough.) Those shots were supposed to protect me. Hopefully they did their job! Unfortunately, there's a chance for a false positive (positive is the bad result) because of that shot I got in the ER this time. If my body hasn't completely processed it, it would make the test come back positive even if I wasn't sensitized. That's a little frustrating.
So hopefully it all goes well!
To determine a trimester, when you divide the 40 weeks by 3, you get 13 1/3 weeks. So I figured somewhere in the 26-27 week range is the beginning of the 3rd trimester. Instead, this doctor said he considers the 3rd trimester after the viability date of 24ish weeks so that I'm already there. Viability, can you believe it? Of course nobody would WANT their baby to be born this early, but it's technically possible that it'd live if it was. It's much more preferable to keep the baby inside and healthy for lots of more weeks.
I also got a flu shot. I have never ever gotten one before because of my weird reactions to all types of medicines, but it was highly recommended that I do so. It's apparently better for the baby to get the medicine if I have an issue than for the baby to deal with me getting the flu if I get that. I usually get sick over the winter, but I have never been officially diagnosed with an official strand of influenza. I guess this would be a lousy year to start that trend.
In the coming weeks, I have to have a bunch of important tests done. Luckily they can run them all from one set of blood work.
The standard one is the test for gestational diabetes. I would hope not to get that, of course. But having to conform to a diet or medicine for 12 or 13 weeks would be do-able because there would be an end date in sight. (The GD goes away the second they cut the cord if you develop it.)
The other one is related to our A-/A+ blood type issues. They have to test me to see if I was sensitized to the Rh factor. That would be dangerous because it would hurt any future babies. I got the Rhogham shot after my first m/c and again during a bleeding spell early in this pregnancy. (It wasn't necessary with the second m/c because I wasn't pregnant long enough.) Those shots were supposed to protect me. Hopefully they did their job! Unfortunately, there's a chance for a false positive (positive is the bad result) because of that shot I got in the ER this time. If my body hasn't completely processed it, it would make the test come back positive even if I wasn't sensitized. That's a little frustrating.
So hopefully it all goes well!
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