Alan was a bit overzealous in shaking the Parmesan cheese, especially since the lid wasn't closed all the way. His hair, clothes, the floor and table were covered. Oops.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
First Backyard Fire of 2011
It seems a bit ironic to be blogging about the warm weather that allowed for our first backyard smores of the year during this ridiculous April snow shower... We had a great time roasting marshmallows, playing in the backyard, and reading our bedtime story next to the fire.
 |
| I'm pretty sure I told Nate not to feed Kai. |
Go Swifts!
The spring soccer season has finally begun. Nate's team played their first game two Saturdays ago; last Saturday the game was cancelled for poor field conditions. It was chilly at Wingra, with the breeze blowing off the lake, but the kids played wonderfully. The two teams were evenly matched, and despite the other team playing with elbows and shoves, Nate's team held their own. Nate played sweeper for a lot of the game--He's finally learning how to play offense, but still be aware enough to run back for defense (no goalies until 3rd grade). I'm proud of him!
 |
| Abbie spent much of the game running back and forth to the playground with some friends. She has become SO athletic! |
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Never Mind the Good Baby Thing...
I made my first trip to OB Triage last night. 29 and 5--Not too bad. Towards the end of Nate's baptism yesterday, I started noticing some contractions. Seeing that there were more important things to do (like refreshments and socializing), I chose to ignore them. Then we got home and my back started to hurt. So I started timing them. That's when I realized that they were coming every 3-4 minutes like clockwork. So I got in the bath, drank about 20 oz of water, and laid down. Of course they'll stop, I stupidly told myself. But two hours later, of course they hadn't stopped. I called the doc on call, who ironically was the same doc who saw me when I started bleeding on Thanksgiving; she said I needed to come in. Even though the contractions weren't painful, she was worried because I was having some cramping, backache, and bleeding (dang placenta!), along with my history of Preterm Labor. Luckily my parents are in town for Nate's baptism (I'll post on it soon!), so we dropped the kids at their hotel, told them to eat pizza and watch a movie, then headed for Meriter.
My contractions spaced out a little bit by the time we arrived, but they were still coming and seemed to be getting a little stronger, though they definitely were not painful. My back, on the other hand, was just killing me. The triage beds didn't help... Baby was happy as can be on the monitor, moving all over and quite reactive, despite being only 29 wks. The contractions were strong enough to be picked up by the toco--I don't know why, but I sometimes worry that I'm imagining them (even though I know I'm not), so I felt somewhat vindicated (against myself) by seeing them trace on the monitor. The med student came in, then left because she was an old friend from high school, then sent in the resident. The resident was not super concerned because I had a cervical length check (U/S) last Tuesday, which showed that my cervix was very long. Everybody was so excited about this--It was so reassuring, things are looking great, etc. Ha. I got checked for infections as they can cause contractions, but luckily there were none. The resident then did a speculum exam and told me that my cervix looked closed and fine, but she wanted to check me too. I was so relieved and feeling good about heading home. And then she checked me. She told me I was 1cm dilated--I wasn't too worried about this, as I'm a multip and that can happen earlier/before effacement in multips. She looked worried, though, so I asked if my cervix was still nice and long. Then she told me that I was 60% effaced. CRAP. So I got sent back to the monitor to wait for the lab results and get rechecked in a couple of hours.
Contractions continued to space out. Unfortunately my Fetal Fibronectin came back positive. This doesn't really mean anything, but it's not reassuring like a negative. A negative FFN means that you have less than a 1% chance of delivering in the next 2 wks. A positive result, though, doesn't mean that you will deliver. So basically, only a negative result is useful. The attending came in and talked to me about how I would probably be admitted for 48 hrs. for tocolysis and steroids. I masterfully convinced her that if my cervix hadn't changed when they checked me again, I should be allowed to go home. (L&D used to be my career, I'm so reliable, I'll call and come back ASAP if the contractions start up again, etc.) She looked reluctant, but finally agreed. Being a former L&D nurse married to a doctor has its benefits, I guess. There was no further change in my cervix, so I got sent home on bed rest and told to follow up with my doc in the office tomorrow.
I'm trying to stay positive, but in all honestly, this sucks. There are definitely benefits to doing this with older kids, rather than a two year old, but there are other complications with that, as well. Nate has to get to and from school every day. Abbie has to get to and from school 3 days a week. Nate has choir and soccer practice. Abbie has ballet and Frontier Girls. And then there's the fact that I can't just expect Abbie to take care of herself all day. I just don't know how we're going to do this. Alan doesn't exactly have a schedule that allows for flexibility (at all). He has patients scheduled all day, clinics at which he's the only doc, and patients who rely on him. He can't just go in late and work extra at night.
And now I'm going to end this post before I get sucked into the negative whirlwind that's threatening to take me under. We'll make it work somehow. I've done this before; I can do it again. We'll eat a lot of crock pot meals and the kid will watch a little more Netflix. We'll survive. We just need to keep this baby in for a while longer--That's what matters.
My contractions spaced out a little bit by the time we arrived, but they were still coming and seemed to be getting a little stronger, though they definitely were not painful. My back, on the other hand, was just killing me. The triage beds didn't help... Baby was happy as can be on the monitor, moving all over and quite reactive, despite being only 29 wks. The contractions were strong enough to be picked up by the toco--I don't know why, but I sometimes worry that I'm imagining them (even though I know I'm not), so I felt somewhat vindicated (against myself) by seeing them trace on the monitor. The med student came in, then left because she was an old friend from high school, then sent in the resident. The resident was not super concerned because I had a cervical length check (U/S) last Tuesday, which showed that my cervix was very long. Everybody was so excited about this--It was so reassuring, things are looking great, etc. Ha. I got checked for infections as they can cause contractions, but luckily there were none. The resident then did a speculum exam and told me that my cervix looked closed and fine, but she wanted to check me too. I was so relieved and feeling good about heading home. And then she checked me. She told me I was 1cm dilated--I wasn't too worried about this, as I'm a multip and that can happen earlier/before effacement in multips. She looked worried, though, so I asked if my cervix was still nice and long. Then she told me that I was 60% effaced. CRAP. So I got sent back to the monitor to wait for the lab results and get rechecked in a couple of hours.
Contractions continued to space out. Unfortunately my Fetal Fibronectin came back positive. This doesn't really mean anything, but it's not reassuring like a negative. A negative FFN means that you have less than a 1% chance of delivering in the next 2 wks. A positive result, though, doesn't mean that you will deliver. So basically, only a negative result is useful. The attending came in and talked to me about how I would probably be admitted for 48 hrs. for tocolysis and steroids. I masterfully convinced her that if my cervix hadn't changed when they checked me again, I should be allowed to go home. (L&D used to be my career, I'm so reliable, I'll call and come back ASAP if the contractions start up again, etc.) She looked reluctant, but finally agreed. Being a former L&D nurse married to a doctor has its benefits, I guess. There was no further change in my cervix, so I got sent home on bed rest and told to follow up with my doc in the office tomorrow.
I'm trying to stay positive, but in all honestly, this sucks. There are definitely benefits to doing this with older kids, rather than a two year old, but there are other complications with that, as well. Nate has to get to and from school every day. Abbie has to get to and from school 3 days a week. Nate has choir and soccer practice. Abbie has ballet and Frontier Girls. And then there's the fact that I can't just expect Abbie to take care of herself all day. I just don't know how we're going to do this. Alan doesn't exactly have a schedule that allows for flexibility (at all). He has patients scheduled all day, clinics at which he's the only doc, and patients who rely on him. He can't just go in late and work extra at night.
And now I'm going to end this post before I get sucked into the negative whirlwind that's threatening to take me under. We'll make it work somehow. I've done this before; I can do it again. We'll eat a lot of crock pot meals and the kid will watch a little more Netflix. We'll survive. We just need to keep this baby in for a while longer--That's what matters.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Good Baby, Naughty...
Baby flipped and is head down. Hurray! At 29 weeks, we're hoping this means he'll stay that way. Unfortunately, his placenta is not behaving. It was low-lying at my 20 wk U/S, causing me to bleed through most of my first and part of my second trimester. But I hadn't had any bleeding since about 23 weeks, so I was very hopeful that the placenta had grown up towards the top of my uterus. Until Sunday, at least, when I started to bleed again. U/S today showed a very low-lying placenta. Crap. We'll check it again in a few weeks, but at this point, a C-Section is looking like it might be in my cards. I know it's not the end of the world, but it's major abdominal surgery. After working L&D, scrubbing into who knows how many sections, seeing it from the other side, well, let's just say that I definitely do not want to be the patient. But a healthy baby is all that I really care about, so if that's how we get him, so be it. (I'm still praying for a miraculous placental migration, though...)
Also, because Gestational Diabetes is one of the few pregnancy complications I haven't experienced, I failed my 1 hr. Glucose Tolerance Test. I didn't fail it by much, but enough to earn myself a 3 hour trip to my doctor's this morning. I had to fast for 12 hours, drink that nasty drink again, then have my blood drawn pre-drink, then at 1, 2, and 3 hours post-drink. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be--I only felt like puking for the first hour or so. Plus Alan brought me the new Official Illustrated Guide to the Twilight Saga (it just released today). That made time go much faster. If I ever have to do this again, though, I'm going to be sure that the regular lab phlebotomist is in that day--I ended up getting stuck 8 times for the 4 blood draws because the CNA wasn't super hot with the needles. I almost offered to do it myself. Ugh. I should find out the results tomorrow.
Despite the placenta complications and possible GDM, things are going pretty well. I'm supposed to reduce activity until the bleeding stops, but I'm not on bed rest, so I can't complain. (Reducing activity includes delivering 6 Stampin' Up orders, baking 24 cupcakes, a birthday cake, refreshments for a baptism Saturday, and taking care of 2 kids and a house, right?) My weight gain is still on the lower end, although I started this pregnancy bigger than I was with Nate and Abbie, so I'm still struggling with feeling too big. My belly seems fine, but the rest of me just feels yucky big. I honestly can't wait to have this baby so that I can lose weight. I hope I'm still so motivated with a newborn. I'm having more and more Braxton Hicks, sometimes strong enough that I have to stop walking, but nothing painful. Thank goodness! This baby boy reminds me a lot of Nate in that he gets the hiccups about 10 times per day. Nate always seemed to have the hiccups too. He is also still very active, although I have noticed 2 quiet periods over the last three days. Abbie likes to pretend my belly is a bongo drum and pound on it, so even if the baby is sleeping, it never lasts long. She also really enjoys talking to the baby and poking/prodding at my belly to try to determine where he is in there. She's actually gotten pretty good at figuring out which side he's on, etc. Abbie has changed the baby's name to Noah (from Roxanne), one of my favorite names, and calls him that all the time. Alan isn't sold on the name, though, so we're trying not to call him that too much. It's sort of become a habit, though--We'll see what happens when he comes. She may just call him Noah no matter what we name him. Nate is still pretty nonchalant about the whole thing. Mostly he just cares that the baby is due when school is ending and swimming lessons start--That's probably the most interest I get from him about the pregnancy, how many weeks til the baby comes, i.e. how many weeks til school's out?
11 weeks to go...
Also, because Gestational Diabetes is one of the few pregnancy complications I haven't experienced, I failed my 1 hr. Glucose Tolerance Test. I didn't fail it by much, but enough to earn myself a 3 hour trip to my doctor's this morning. I had to fast for 12 hours, drink that nasty drink again, then have my blood drawn pre-drink, then at 1, 2, and 3 hours post-drink. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be--I only felt like puking for the first hour or so. Plus Alan brought me the new Official Illustrated Guide to the Twilight Saga (it just released today). That made time go much faster. If I ever have to do this again, though, I'm going to be sure that the regular lab phlebotomist is in that day--I ended up getting stuck 8 times for the 4 blood draws because the CNA wasn't super hot with the needles. I almost offered to do it myself. Ugh. I should find out the results tomorrow.
Despite the placenta complications and possible GDM, things are going pretty well. I'm supposed to reduce activity until the bleeding stops, but I'm not on bed rest, so I can't complain. (Reducing activity includes delivering 6 Stampin' Up orders, baking 24 cupcakes, a birthday cake, refreshments for a baptism Saturday, and taking care of 2 kids and a house, right?) My weight gain is still on the lower end, although I started this pregnancy bigger than I was with Nate and Abbie, so I'm still struggling with feeling too big. My belly seems fine, but the rest of me just feels yucky big. I honestly can't wait to have this baby so that I can lose weight. I hope I'm still so motivated with a newborn. I'm having more and more Braxton Hicks, sometimes strong enough that I have to stop walking, but nothing painful. Thank goodness! This baby boy reminds me a lot of Nate in that he gets the hiccups about 10 times per day. Nate always seemed to have the hiccups too. He is also still very active, although I have noticed 2 quiet periods over the last three days. Abbie likes to pretend my belly is a bongo drum and pound on it, so even if the baby is sleeping, it never lasts long. She also really enjoys talking to the baby and poking/prodding at my belly to try to determine where he is in there. She's actually gotten pretty good at figuring out which side he's on, etc. Abbie has changed the baby's name to Noah (from Roxanne), one of my favorite names, and calls him that all the time. Alan isn't sold on the name, though, so we're trying not to call him that too much. It's sort of become a habit, though--We'll see what happens when he comes. She may just call him Noah no matter what we name him. Nate is still pretty nonchalant about the whole thing. Mostly he just cares that the baby is due when school is ending and swimming lessons start--That's probably the most interest I get from him about the pregnancy, how many weeks til the baby comes, i.e. how many weeks til school's out?
11 weeks to go...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)