Blogging via Bed Rest, episode 1

Catchy title, huh?

Well, its certainly been a memorable day, to say the very least!

The day started pretty typically, slept in, had an OBGYN appt, and the rest of the day went to hell.

For the last few days, I had been feeling "off", nothing too specific, just generally achy, headaches, some neck pain, I thought my ankles had been swollen but nothing really came of that. I had initially had a doctor's appt on Thursday that I was able to reschedule for today, which was obviously meant to be.

I continued to just feel achy and a bit more lethargic than normal at my appointment, where my blood pressure was in the 130's. This was very new for me as I typically run 100's-110's. My midwife, Janice, who I LOVE, said I just didn't look myself so upon repeating my BP several times and seeing that it continued to be high, it was decided that I'd have labs done for PIH (Pregnancy Induced Hypertension) and I was to collect urine for 24 hours to measure protein in it. (PIH issues secrete proteins when they shouldn't into blood and urine). Matt was on duty but was at my appointment with me and stayed with me while I had my blood drawn. Most of you know, I DON'T LIKE NEEDLES! I give shots and draw blood with no issues but a needle in my direction is another issue. I did just fine with the blood work and went about my day and ran a few errands. Within an hour of leaving the doctor's, my phone rang. Janice had called to tell me that I hit the trifecta and had won myself a hospital admission as my ALT's were very high. Normal range is around 20, I was 109. She warned me to prepare for at least an overnight stay and to pack a bag and head on in. Ha. This of course made me panic, call Matt in tears, and somehow explain to him that my labs weren't good and I had to go in.  Its odd packing for a hospital stay for an unknown length of time, I showered and grabbed books, DVDs, laptop, all fun stuff thinking this would really be a short visit. That has yet to be determined.

A confused/concerned/worried/anxious Matt and I arrived to get checked in around 1:30. We saw one of the other midwives, Shanna, who took us to our room (which is nice) and attempted at getting us settled in and letting us know what the plan of the day was. Since midwives typically oversee low risk, healthy pregnancies, I'll be followed my an OBGYN MD as well as them. Shanna explained to us that they were primarily concerned that we were dealing with preeclampsia. The plan from the time I got in the door was to monitor my urine for 24 hours, continuous fetal monitoring, get magnesium sulfate and betamethasone and play wait and see. All seemed easy enough. Ha. I've always prided myself on having super veins, apparently with preeclampsia, blood vessels constrict, including veins, allowing venous access to be a bit of a challenge. Again, I DONT LIKE NEEDLES. Today, I'm a pin cushion. I got poked 3 times to attempt IV access. The 4th and final attempt was done by an anesthesiologist, if he hadn't had gotten it, I'd have unholstered Matt's gun and shot someone. The 1st attempt made me pass out, the 2nd and 3rd attempts had me in tears saying no more, I want to go home. As soon as IV access was established, they started the magnesium sulfate, a smooth muscle relxant used to lower my BP and prevent seizures. Ummm scary. Mag sulfate is known in the medical community for not being a joy to be on. I had always heard of severe nausea, but I got lucky and didn't have any. The issue though, is they gave a high dose to begin with and as soon as its done, you feel better. The 20 minutes of my bolus was sheer hell. Mag makes you feel like you're burning from the inside out. It makes you hurt, it makes you uncomfortable and it makes you woozy. I pitty anyone on mag. I spent our ultrasound at maternal fetal medicine in a mag induced stupor, it sucked. I watched some of the scan and listened to what the sonographer said but I was hiding under wet cloths begging it to be over. Baby looks good, she's 3lbs 14 oz and her bones look good, as do some of the vessels that they eval'd. Midway through the scan, my high dose bolus of mag finished and they assured me that the feeling of being burned alive would fade, it did, but not 100%.

From the ultrasound, we came back to our room where I was rehooked up to the fetal monitor and my BP was checked. Since we've been at the hospital, my BPs been in the 130's and 140's. Shanna, one of the midwives came back in and checked on us as well as the OBGYN attending my case, Dr Shumate. Also checking on us was a perinatologist who works with maternal fetal medicine, whos name escapes me, but I didn't like her much. She seemed to think that we were not dealing with preeclampsia but didn't give us a clear idea of what else this might be. Dr Shumate, however, is convinced this IS preeclampsia. From his perspective, I'm to be in the hospital a few more days, he was hesitant to tell me how many so its happier when I get to go home theoretically early. He pretty much told me that I'm on bedrest until the end of the pregnancy and to kiss my gym days goodbye. Assuming my blood work and BP goes back to normal, upon discharge I'm home on bed rest, going to the doctor's for blood work twice a week and I get the joy of doing 24 hour urine collections weekly to test for protein. He also said to expect to deliver early, maybe around 36 weeks. The baby by the way, is breech right now (butt down) but everyone thinks she'll return over the next few weeks to be head down again, like she was at our 28 week and very normal appointment.

So thats the scoop, the hospital sucks but they're all very accomodating, even to my requests about needles. I'm on an antepartum floor with lots of other women who are on bed rest and need monitoring for whatever reason, they dont want to be here either. I'm also on the floor of the NICU. A neonatologist came to see us today to tell us what to expect if I was to deliver this week or next. He informed us that baby would need to be hospitalized until she can maintain proper body temperature, have no breathing issues, and feed well from a nipple. It was reassuring to hear that should she come now, the likelihood of her being on a venilator or CPAP or BiPap was extremely low and that she'd come out crying and just be little. We're not wanting her here now but its some comfort to know that if she comes, its ok. She has been moving and active the entire visit, it seems like this illness is more of a me issue than her, but the more medical issues I have, the potential for her increases so we've taken every precaution imaginable, including me getting a shot (in the butt that hurt like hell) to prepare her lungs incase she comes early. I get the joy of another shot tomorrow.

We're really lucky to have family and friends close by, and I'm so excited to be at the hospital in the city where Matt works. We've had lots of PD visitors, including Matt's new seargeant, who I hadn't met before tonight. Police family comraderie just amazes me. He stayed with us a while and chatted and joked and made sure Matt and I were doing ok and I was just so touched that he stopped to check to make sure we were alright, this after almost 2 hours past his shift and he had a ways to drive home. We enjoyed visits from other PD friends who were kind enough to swing by for hugs and allow me to send them to Trader Joe's for my uber specific requests, I will not eat hospital food, thank you very much.

More tomorrow as more information becomes available, in the meantime, we're just chillin' at Evergreen and would welcome calls, texts, and visits, just tell us when first. Also, for our out of towners, we love Skype, so feel free to log on and we can chat!

Best Title Ever

Nanny Rachel: Best Job/Title/Experience EVER!

Landon and 4 day old Chase and I. Baby A can't wait to meet you!

Sneak Peaks

I was never one of those people who would patiently wait for Christmas to come to see my gifts, I remember opening some and re-wrapping them some years. Being patient and waiting for baby is no exception. The people who wait to find out the sex of their babies are a very rare breed. Sure, there aren't THAT many surprises in life, but I'm a planner, how could I NOT know what the gender of my child is? You have to get the proper accessories, paint the right colors, choose a theme, all things detailed!

I've heard for a while about "free" 3D and 4D ultrasounds for a while, some friends had had them in the past. Typically for a healthy pregnancy, a mom to be might have 2 ultrasounds the entire pregnancy. I had one at 9 weeks to make sure the baby was in fact in the uterus, and another at 20 for basic measurements and finding out her gender. Turns out these "free" ultrasounds are actually PAID ultrasounds. Cha-ching!!!! Phillips Medical has been working on trialing new and high tech ultrasound machines for some time and they actually PAY moms to be, regular Joe's, cardiac patients, and non pregnant people to come in for studies. $50 an hour.....yes, I'd like to come in and be scanned for 8 hours please. :) Hard do decline a chance to sit back with your feet up, see your child, and get paid, especially since no other ultrasounds are scheduled unless complications come up. Also, since ultrasound poses no risk to baby, why not just do it! (I might volunteer for non OB scans too it was so fun)

Today was my first of several appointments. Baby was in great position and did relatively little squirming during the scan. I'll go in another 2-3 times, more if I can schedule it. Hopefully Matt will be able to join me on one of the scans, he slept off his night shift today. It was neat to see the baby, she's got very chubby cheeks and continues to be interested in her hands, like she was at her 20 week ultrasound. She's increasingly more active each day. During the scans she was "waving" and opening and closing her fist and we were lucky enough to get a DVD of it. No 6 fingers on my child!

Enjoy the video and the few pictures!

Going Green

We've gone green! Literally! No, it isn't us being environmentally conscious, although we are! (we recycle, reuse bags, use fabric ones, come on, we're not complete wasters!!!)

Matt and I embarked on our biggest (and last!!!) baby project and in only 24 hours time, got it done and fabulous!

Furniture shopping for baby or adults can be challenging, particularly with "today's" prices and quality of craftsmanship. Initially in registering for our furniture, we decided to make it easy and register for a pretty simple looking dresser.....(see left) Eh, nothing to write home about. It certainly would have been functional, but the more we thought about it, the more we figured we'd be spending a few hundred dollars unnecessarily (might as well spend that on baby clothes, right? Or personal trainers? Or homeowner's insurance if we're getting really realistic), and we weren't sure if the quality of the wood and neither one of us really wanted to put another item together with nuts and bolts. Sooooooooooo, we got creative!

In our storage unit, amidst skis, golf clubs, a head board, boxes upon boxes of the most random stuff you can imagine, crutches, file cabinets, our Christmas tree, yadda yadda yadda was an old antique looking dresser that Matt's parents had bought 30 some odd years ago when they were in California. JACKPOT! The dresser had been beautifully made and in spectacular condition. Sure there were a few scratches here and there, but with 30 year old furniture, what do you expect? (yes, its 30, the dresser is older than me, lets all move on) . While the dresser looked great, I wasn't a fan of the cherry colored finish, as neutral as it was, it just wouldn't have looked right in the baby's room (and the rest of our house for that matter) where we have dark, espresso colored wood. Project time! We decided we'd revamp and refinish the dresser. Since there was a light layer of finish on the wood, we figured we'd sand it down and paint over it with an oil based baint similar in color to our crib and changing table. We weren't overly thrilled with the thought of using oil based paints so in doing research at Home Depot we were given the idea of trying spray paint..... what an idea it was! Matt thought bringing some more color to the room would be a good idea and to be honest, I was hesitant to have a green dresser but I figured, he's got vision, lets just go with it. (yes, mom, I am go with the flow!) We bought all of our sanding and painting needs and also bought new hardware for the drawers, a very nice brushed steel that looks awesome with the paint.

So off to the in-law's (aka Grandma and Grandpa or whatever they're deciding to be called when the baby arrives) we went ready to trash their garage. Our project began pretty simply, removing hardware, sanding fronts of drawers and the various sides to the dresser. Luckily, as stated before, not much sanding was necessary. We got everything sanded and washed a bit and we hit it with apple green spray paint. I continue to be amazed at how easy of a project this essentially was! For anyone who needs to refinish furniture, spray paint is the way to go! There are such good quality paints now it is nothing like you expect grafiti to look like, which is what I was envisioning for our daughter's room... The paint we got was "satin" finish and looks like we labored for a long time painting it, and all after one coat! We've definately been pleased with the progress we've made in essentially little time. Ironically, even the hardware we chose fit the holes from the initial peices, all except a few drawers where we had to do some drilling, although you'd never know by seeing the finished product.

It was really fun (maybe more so for me than for Matt) to do a project together, especially since Matt has long proclaimed that he's not a project guy, I'm pretty sure that stems from mild PTSD from another life. :) The dresser came together beautifully and from start to finish was a mere 24 hours. (that being said, its still drying a bit in the next room). Its neat to be so pleased with a finished product and know that we only spent $100 on this, primarily because the hardware was $5 each. Money well spent!

This dresser is similar to ours but from Pottery Barn Kids... I'm not one to knock PBkids, it is afterall where we got our crib bedding. Sure this dresser looks nice, decent amount of drawers, seemingly well made, as it should be for $899!!!!!!

So to that I say, Pottery Barn Schmottery Barn! Take a look at our project!   

Pictures of the work in progress:

Just a few clothes waiting for the dresser.....

Baby Room In Process

Matt and I have been intermittently working on converting our former office into the baby's room and its definately been a work in progress. This past week however, we've gotten a lot accomplished.

Matt painted our "accent wall" a few weeks ago and it looks great.

This week we were able to clear up some of the boxes of stuff around the house and either take them to storage, toss them, or open and build whatever has been inside of them, the main attraction this week being the crib.

We also brought home and assembled our stroller and car seat set after the inlaws and my mom graciously purchased them for us. With all of the boxes and various styrofome bits around the house, it was a perfect opportunity for Landon to come over and not only help Matt build the crib, but build his own fort/castle as well. The attention span of a 4 year old is clearly not too much, but was pretty helpful to Matt in handing him tools, parts, opening boxes, but Landon really just wanted the boxes. I pretty much just fed the construction crew while things were getting built.

Earlier this week as a project for myself, I began designing the baby's wall with vinyl wall decals. I love the finsihed product and would advise anyone who wants to decorate but not paint to buy decals. Very easy to apply for the most part, easy to remove, and no clean up. At this point, the decoration on the accent wall is done. We have another decal with the baby's name on it to put up but will wait until we either stop keeping her name a secret or until its much closer to her due date since people will likely be in and out of her room checking things out. A few people know her name but have been sworn to secrecy upon threat of being shot, most have complied. Matt slipped at work the other day but is pretty sure that the people he was talking to didn't catch on. We'll see. Its a matter of time before one of us slips again, we call her by her name a lot.

This past week we also got THE chair which we both love. Its an ultra plush very soft gliding chair with matching ottoman. The neutral color looks great in the room and can either be a nursery chair or an every day chair. Can't go wrong with chocolate brown.

We've got most of our big nursery stuff done, next we'll eventually set up the matching changing table and get the box as well as numerous other baby things out of our guest shower, we're beginning to look like hoarders. Our BIG project will be to get the dresser out of storage, sand it, refinish/paint it, get new hardware and bring it in so we can start putting clothes away. It'll be nice to have a usable shower again, even though it hasn't been used as a shower in years. It does make a great storage locker though.

We might buy a few more must haves over the next few weeks as well, like a crib mattress and changing pad and cover, other than that, our main purchases are done!

Enjoy the pictures of the progress we've made.....still more to do!