We have now made it to 33 weeks! Only 7 more weeks left at the most. Jeremy and I are both getting very anxious and excited for the baby to be here. The nursery is completely ready except for hanging a couple of shelves and getting the letters that spell his name put up. Jeremy has put a lot of sweat into the nursery for which I am very grateful. I think we have all the basics covered in case (heaven forbid) the baby comes tomorrow. I am also excited for the showers I have coming up in the next couple of weeks- one with the girls at work and one with the ladies from HHBC. Bless them all; they have barely gotten to know us and they already want to celebrate our miracle with us.
On another note, I have been feeling pretty good lately and all my lab work, blood pressure, etc have been normal for which I am very thankful. My only complaints are the back pain that comes with being 8 months pregnant and constant Braxton Hicks contractions. Often I have 10-20 contractions an hour. Dr. Houk put me on procardia daily and terbutaline as needed to decrease the contractions. As a result of the contractions I have not been getting much sleep lately and my joint pain has flaired up. Dr. Houk also recommended that I keep a consistent scheudule of sleeping during the day and being awake at night. Hence I may not answer your calls/texts immediately during the day and more and more of my posts may be at 3am. Anyhow, I am just thankful that I am not dilating and that the baby has been tolerating the constant squeezes well. I remind myself often that all of this will be well worth it once I can hold our little man in my arms.
Please pray for energy and strength to get through the three shifts that I have in a row starting tomorrow night and that the non-stress test I am supposed to do early next week goes well.
Oct 28, 2009
Oct 26, 2009
The weekend
It is Monday morning and back to the grind, sort of. I guess I don't work again until Thursday night, but we have an appointment with Dr. Houk this morning, Jeremy has to work from 3pm to close, and I have Bible study tonight. I worked on Friday night. Saturday morning Jeremy went to a career seminar at HHBC while I caught some z's. Saturday afternoon we watched some football and we are slightly disappointed in our Jayhawks' performance.
Sunday we enjoyed church and going to flock. Then it was to my parents' house for burgers and pumpkin cookie baking. Mom and I baked several dozen pumpkin cookies for the guys Dad works with, my Bible study, a flock pumpkin carving party, and us. We had pumpkin cookies coming out our ears.
After watching a little more football and a short nap Jeremy grabbed the pumpkin from the front porch and we headed to the pumpkin carving party. Jeremy carved a nice turkey in our pumpkin while I chatted with the girls (hand me a carving knife and you might as well warm up the car for a trip to the ER because I will probably lose a finger). It was pretty funny to see the porch lined with turkeys, ghosts, The Office characters, crosses, and collegiate logos once everyone had finished carving their pumpkins.
After the party Jeremy and I had a few quiet hours of talking at home. We both cherish the quiet moments in our new home because we know that the quiet moments will soon be few and far between. I am really looking forward to my birthday dinner on Tuesday and a massage and shopping on Wednesday with Mom.
Sunday we enjoyed church and going to flock. Then it was to my parents' house for burgers and pumpkin cookie baking. Mom and I baked several dozen pumpkin cookies for the guys Dad works with, my Bible study, a flock pumpkin carving party, and us. We had pumpkin cookies coming out our ears.
After watching a little more football and a short nap Jeremy grabbed the pumpkin from the front porch and we headed to the pumpkin carving party. Jeremy carved a nice turkey in our pumpkin while I chatted with the girls (hand me a carving knife and you might as well warm up the car for a trip to the ER because I will probably lose a finger). It was pretty funny to see the porch lined with turkeys, ghosts, The Office characters, crosses, and collegiate logos once everyone had finished carving their pumpkins.
After the party Jeremy and I had a few quiet hours of talking at home. We both cherish the quiet moments in our new home because we know that the quiet moments will soon be few and far between. I am really looking forward to my birthday dinner on Tuesday and a massage and shopping on Wednesday with Mom.
Oct 16, 2009
Oct 13, 2009
Glucose Tolerance Test
As soon as Dr. Houk found out about our little trip to L&D he wanted to see me in his office yesterday. I still was not dilated and he put me on Procardia in addition to the Terbutaline to help stop the contractions. So far the Procardia is working as long as I take it regularly.
This morning I went in to have my glucose tolerance test (gtt) done after following a special diet for 3 days and fasting for 12 hours. For anyone that is not familiar with gtt's, they draw your fasting serum glucose level then make you drink 100 grams of sugar in a 4 oz drink within 3 minutes and then draw your serum glucose level every hour for 3 hours. Meanwhile you try to cure your boredom by reading really pointless magazines in the hard lab waiting room chairs and can not eat or drink anything. Drinking that much sugar and in that little amount of time on an empty stomach makes you have the worst belly ache and want to vomit. For two and a half hours I felt terrible and it was all I could do to hold it down because I did not want to go through this again. With lots of prayer I got through it and now we wait to find out whether I have gestational diabetes or not.
This morning I went in to have my glucose tolerance test (gtt) done after following a special diet for 3 days and fasting for 12 hours. For anyone that is not familiar with gtt's, they draw your fasting serum glucose level then make you drink 100 grams of sugar in a 4 oz drink within 3 minutes and then draw your serum glucose level every hour for 3 hours. Meanwhile you try to cure your boredom by reading really pointless magazines in the hard lab waiting room chairs and can not eat or drink anything. Drinking that much sugar and in that little amount of time on an empty stomach makes you have the worst belly ache and want to vomit. For two and a half hours I felt terrible and it was all I could do to hold it down because I did not want to go through this again. With lots of prayer I got through it and now we wait to find out whether I have gestational diabetes or not.
Oct 12, 2009
Our first visit to L&D
We had another interesting weekend. I worked on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights (I refuse to work 3 shifts in row again until at least March, if ever). Friday morning I went home and slept for a few hours while Jeremy was at work, then I got up and cleaned and made a pot of chili. David came into town for a visit around 7pm.
Saturday the boys watched football, went car shopping, and planted some tulip bulbs for me. I have had several contractions a day for the last few weeks, but they were spuratic, sometimes 5 in an hour and sometimes I would go 5 hours without having one. Late Saturday night the boys put on a movie. My contractions started to pick up a little bit and it was late so I went to bed. I had 8 or 9 contractions over the next hour and a half. I tried all the tricks to get them to go away. Finally they slowed a little bit and I was able to fall asleep. I thought these were normal Braxton-Hicks contractions that everyone complains about. I woke up a few times during the night with them and really thought hard about waking Jeremy up and telling me had to go to the hospital or do something, but I didn't.
Sunday morning we got up and got ready for church. I had a few contractions while getting ready, a few on the way to small group, one or two during small group, and several while we ate lunch at Panera. I decided I better not run the errands that I had wanted to get done so we went home and I laid on the couch and in bed for a few hours. My contractions had increased in frequency and intensity and about 4:30pm I had had enough. I still thought that these must be the Braxton-Hicks contractions that everyone complains about. How was I going to live like this for the next 2 months. I didn't want to be the annoying first-time mom that is calling once a week, but I called because I didn't want the baby to be stressed and got the on-call doctor. Needless to say he was upset, said that this was not normal and that I was going to delivery this 31 weeker at home if I didn't get to the hospital immediately. So off we go to the hospital. I could tell that Jeremy was pretty nervous the whole way there because he was silent. Long story short, I was in pre-term labor, contracting once every three minutes with regularity and pretty high intensity, but I was not dilating. I got a shot of terbutaline, a fetal fibronectin test (fFN- predicts whether you will go in to labor within the next week or two) which was negative- praise God, and told to go home, keep well hydrated, take it easy, and take terbutaline to get the contractions to stop.
So that was our busy and scary weekend. I am taking it easy today, tomorrow I go to the lab for a three-hour glucose tolerance test which I have had to diet and fast for, and Wednesday night I am scheduled to work. Please pray that the contractions stop, I don't have to take the terbutaline every two hours (it makes me feel terrible), I don't get put on bedrest (we can't afford it), and that I pass the glucose tolerance test.
Saturday the boys watched football, went car shopping, and planted some tulip bulbs for me. I have had several contractions a day for the last few weeks, but they were spuratic, sometimes 5 in an hour and sometimes I would go 5 hours without having one. Late Saturday night the boys put on a movie. My contractions started to pick up a little bit and it was late so I went to bed. I had 8 or 9 contractions over the next hour and a half. I tried all the tricks to get them to go away. Finally they slowed a little bit and I was able to fall asleep. I thought these were normal Braxton-Hicks contractions that everyone complains about. I woke up a few times during the night with them and really thought hard about waking Jeremy up and telling me had to go to the hospital or do something, but I didn't.
Sunday morning we got up and got ready for church. I had a few contractions while getting ready, a few on the way to small group, one or two during small group, and several while we ate lunch at Panera. I decided I better not run the errands that I had wanted to get done so we went home and I laid on the couch and in bed for a few hours. My contractions had increased in frequency and intensity and about 4:30pm I had had enough. I still thought that these must be the Braxton-Hicks contractions that everyone complains about. How was I going to live like this for the next 2 months. I didn't want to be the annoying first-time mom that is calling once a week, but I called because I didn't want the baby to be stressed and got the on-call doctor. Needless to say he was upset, said that this was not normal and that I was going to delivery this 31 weeker at home if I didn't get to the hospital immediately. So off we go to the hospital. I could tell that Jeremy was pretty nervous the whole way there because he was silent. Long story short, I was in pre-term labor, contracting once every three minutes with regularity and pretty high intensity, but I was not dilating. I got a shot of terbutaline, a fetal fibronectin test (fFN- predicts whether you will go in to labor within the next week or two) which was negative- praise God, and told to go home, keep well hydrated, take it easy, and take terbutaline to get the contractions to stop.
So that was our busy and scary weekend. I am taking it easy today, tomorrow I go to the lab for a three-hour glucose tolerance test which I have had to diet and fast for, and Wednesday night I am scheduled to work. Please pray that the contractions stop, I don't have to take the terbutaline every two hours (it makes me feel terrible), I don't get put on bedrest (we can't afford it), and that I pass the glucose tolerance test.
Oct 4, 2009
Two months to go!
Well, it is now October. Last weekend we went to our first Cowboys game with my parents and Ryan. We had a lot of fun tailgating. OSU football is very much a family affair and not so much about the drunk college kids which was nice. I could not bear to put my son in orange(or myself, loyalties aside I would have looked like a giant pumpkin) so I wore black. Come to find out, OSU was playing Grambling State whose colors are black and yellow. Oops!
This weekend Jeremy and I went out on a date to the movies on Friday after decorating letters for the nursery, painting a closet, and cooking dinner. Saturday we went to a few garage sales to try and find a changing table, then to the grocery store, and then we both went to work. Today it was rainy and cool, very much a fall day. We went to church, over to my parents' house for a bowl of soup, and then Jeremy went to work and I watched football with my dad and brother for a while. It was a productive and relaxing weekend.
Jeremy and I are trying to enjoy the time together (and the sleep) we have now, but the arrival of our little guy can't come soon enough. December seems so close and yet so far away. We had another appointment with Dr. Mirabile this week. Everything went well and we got to see Peanut on ultrasound again (pictures to come as soon as Jeremy can get them downloaded because we all know that I am technologically challenged). Praise God for a healthy baby and healthy mommy so far. We have another appointment with Dr. Houk on Wednesday. Hopefully we will get a more definite plan for delivery in place. We will also be doing another glucose tolerance test. Pray that this comes back normal and that he finds my swelling and contractions to all be a part of normal pregnancy as well.
We pretty much have the house ready for Peanut. The glider and ottoman for the nursery should arrive in the next week or two and we don't have anything up on the walls in the house, but we have made a lot of progress. Maybe Grandpa David can help Jeremy with one or two of the remaining projects when he comes to visit this next weekend.
I realized this week that I probably should get my Christmas shopping done pretty soon, at least before the baby arrives. But with the flu going around so bad I don't really want to leave the house except to go to work and doctor's appointments. I guess I will have to come up with some kind of solution to that dilemma.
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Baby's 2nd Picture
Baby's First Picture
7 weeks
