Sunday, November 30, 2008

Pregnancy: November 23-30, 2008

Sunday, November 23, 2008
Lots of baby movement on Friday, and I am so happy about it. :) While driving over for chili fixin's, I noticed the beautiful Gingko trees with their bright yellow leaves just about to fall, and I felt a sense of peace come over me. Our little boy may come early, or he may not, but everything will be fine and will work out the way it's supposed to work out.

We also finished packing our hospital bags today, "just in case" we end up in there sooner than we planned. We'll be putting them in Joel's car along with the baby bag, a pillow, and some blankets. Then we'll be set up in case we have short notice to get to the hospital! :)

Monday I'll be turning 36 years old, and Tuesday I'll be at Week 35. Wednesday is my next prenatal doctor appt., and then Thursday is Thanksgiving. What a week we have ahead of us! Can't wait to use our new fetal heart monitor and maybe make some recordings of it. Whee, baby stuff is fun!

Monday, November 24, 2008
Today is my birthday! As a friend said earlier, she thinks the greatest gift is tumbling in my tummy right now. :) It's so true... sappy, maybe, but true. I think this is the right time for me, even though it's quite a bit later than I anticipated starting a family, because I'm with the man who will be an amazing father to my kid(s) and who is already an awesome husband. This weekend, for instance, he set up a surprise birthday gift for me-- he drove us to San Francisco to see a special movie (Slumdog Millionaire) that was only playing in the City. It was outstanding, by the Director of 28 Days Later & Trainspotting. Great movie, great cinematography, great action & emotion & music and everything else. I loved it. That would have been good enough, but then the day continued. We spent the day in the City (with frequent breaks for my hips, of course), and then ended up at one of our favorite places-- Amante, in North Beach-- for fish tacos and calamari with bloody mary cocktail sauce. Delicious... it was a great day, and made even better by the fact that Joel set it all up himself, on his own, all for me. I felt so cherished!

And then, Sunday night, he showed his true colors again. I had been having a lot of stomach pain/discomfort, and a sort of sour, hot, uncomfortable feeling all day-- I felt kind of nauseated, like I was going to be sick. At around 11 or so, we finally realized it was probably heartburn, caused by (a) baby compressing my stomach and (b) hormones that relax your esophageal muscles and really open the door for acid reflux/heartburn. Woo-hoo! Joel went right out to Walgreens for some medication so that I would be able to get at least a little bit of sleep. It was seriously one of the kindest, sweetest things he's ever done for me; I was deeply impressed and felt very taken care of, which was both refreshing and awesome. I took the Zantac 75, which didn't seem to kick in for awhile, and then tossed & turned all night while propped up on my pillows. I think I slept for about 3 hours total, which should make for an interesting day today, coupled with the fact that I think I'm coming down with a cold (yucky congestion!). /:)

So now I'm going to start monitoring my diet a lot more-- I found a few lists online of what *not* to eat (citrus, spicy foods, acidic foods, tomatoes, etc.) and what is okay to eat (apples, bananas, bread, milk), and that I shouldn't eat lying down or close to bedtime and should avoid drinking a lot while I'm eating small meals. As if small meals is the problem-- I hardly have an appetite any more, probably because Baby is jammed up against my stomach right now and I just can't seem to eat much at all. Which sucks, really, considering that Thanksgiving is this week! I'll have to do taste-tests instead of atually eat. (Is this a new weight-loss regimen, or what??) Well, maybe it won't be that bad... maybe it'll just keep me from pigging out too much!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008
I took Monday off after having little to no sleep on Sunday night, and lots of discomfort. After lots of rest and taking it easy, I decided I was ready to return to work on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I also slept hardly a wink on Monday night as well, which started me off on the wrong foot Tuesday morning. I went in to work with intentions of doing a lot of wrapping up-- finishing up projects in motion, setting up some planning/prep for upcoming projects, and getting a sort of "How To" procedural guide for my administrator, who will be taking over when I go out on maternity leave. I was having a fairly rough morning, but we finally made it over to the meeting with my admin. to go over the plans, when BOOM! She gets to witness me breathing through a particularly rough contraction. Slightly embarrassing, but oh well. At the meeting, I shared with her that I was only planning on being at work one more week (through Dec.5), primarily due to these latest developments with the pregnancy. She was very understanding, and I felt a lot more supported about it.

We went back to our office, and I made another unpleasant discovery-- more bleeding. It wasn't quite "blood," per say; after reading up about it some, it might actually be the beginnings of the "bloody show" starting up. (Awesome to read about, I know...) I decided to leave, go home and get off my feet, call the Birthing Center for advice, and possibly go in for monitoring. When I got home and rested, though, everything seemed to calm down a bit-- for awhile, anyway. Until evening, there was no more "show"-- but there was a whole lot of discomfort. Basically, I'm feeling what I can only relate to a combination of menstrual cramps and the feeling you get when you think you have food poisoning-- these intermittent waves of pain and cramping in the lower abdomen, stomach, and lower back areas that make you think you really have to go to the bathroom quickly, except that when you do, nothing happens. I'm also feeling a general sort of aching and tenderness in that whole area, from my stomach down to my pelvis; sometimes it almost feels like I might be bruised "down there" or something, which I'm sure is a completely normal part of pregnancy. Uncomfortable, but normal.

Anyways... I have my next Doctor's appt. Wednesday morning, and hope to find out what's going on. I am so very very uncomfortable right now, and it really feels like things are changing rapidly. A couple of weeks ago, I was feeling pretty great, minus the hip pain when I walked. Now, I'm getting hardly any sleep, was in the hospital twice last week after finding blood, have been cramping/contracting very strongly for the past two days, and feel just drained of energy and achy all the time. I really doubt this kid is going to wait until New Year's to make his arrival. Or at least, if this type of pain and discomfort continue, I HOPE it doesn't keep going for another 5 weeks! Sheesh!

Friday, November 28, 2008
12:30 a.m., Black Friday:
I just got back from 6 hours in the Family Birthing Center. Those nurses over there are sure getting to know my face by now! I'd had a pretty bad Wednesday, and Thursday didn't seem to be going much better-- I was having lots of lower back pain, especially around the tailbone area; cramping; nausea; overall achiness and soreness; and (as usual) a complete inability to sleep longer than 2 hours or so at a stretch. I had planned to go over to a friend's house for Thanksgiving, but ended up cancelling because I felt so unwell. At around 1:00, I noticed that the bleeding had re-started, and this time it was bright red, which scared me. I called the FBC and the nurse suggested it was from the pelvic exam on Wednesday, and told me to monitor it and come in if I felt the urge or if it got worse. So, around 6:30, I did!

Apparently, the contractions aren't letting up; I was having them about every 4 minutes. The nurse gave me a shot of Terbutalene again, but it didn't do much to slow them down; they went to about once every 8 minutes, which was still not quite what they wanted. So, my doctor recommended a new medicine (Nifedipine/procardia), which actually started to work; the contractions slowed to every 12 minutes. As long as I don't have more than 1 every 10 minutes, we're good. :)

I will have to keep taking the Nifedipine once daily to keep the contractions slowed down until our prenatal appt. next week, at which point Dr. Altman will check me out. Today, the nurse who did the pelvic exam said I was dilated to 1 cm, which of course doesn't necessarily mean anything-- I could be at that point for weeks. That is actually good! This boy needs to stay inside and incubate a little while longer. :)

More updates later, after some attempts at sleeping.

Saturday, November 29, 2008
Great news! Joel landed a temp job for the next two weeks, working for an IT employment agency that will place him with a winery doing some pre-Christmas projects. Even though this job is only temporary, it is a great way to get started with the employment agency, and the recruiter has already told him she is searching for full-time placements for him. Woo-hoo! The only down-side to this is that he'll be in Sonoma this first week, carpooling up with other temp hires and staying in a hotel through Wednesday (we think). This means that I *definitely* need to hold off on going into labor until at least Thursday, because I need him to be there when the baby is born! :)

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