Monday, January 30, 2012

So I'm A Bird

Photo by: Sommai


This past weekend I felt great, the best I've felt since the premature labor started! So I tackled all sorts of projects off my 'before we have 3 kids under 3' list! By Sunday evening I had reorganized my closet and dresser, cleaned under the bed, organized the living room closet and finished up some other projects (project posts soon to follow!). Sunday night, Alan laughed as I showed him my newly cleaned and organized closet and said, "I'm not sure if I have a wife or a bird!" I immediately wanted to know what that was supposed to mean. He said, "well, there are all these sticks and twigs around, seems like you are trying to build a nest."
"Haha," I said. "I'm just trying to make your life easier, especially when I'm in the hospital for 4-5 days. You'll thank me!" And as any good husband said, "You're right dear." 


I can't deny it, throw in pregnancy on top of a little bit of a type A personality and the itch to organize, clean, and cook get a bit crazy. However, I am happy to say that our house looks and feels so much better!




Friday, January 20, 2012

Premature Labor

A week ago I came down with the stomach virus and by Saturday evening I was having contractions every two minutes and were lasting 30 seconds to a minute. The other scary part was that the contractions were actually starting to hurt! In between puking, I called my Dr. office and left a message for the on call doctor. He called me back within a few minutes and told me to go to labor and delivery. The bad part was my kids were sick with it and I didn't want to leave them. My mom came over and offered to stay with the kids, but the awesome husband said he would stay.

So my mom and I arrived at the hospital and went to L&D, I believe this was around 10pm. I was admitted, the nurse checked me and thankfully I was not dilated. I was hooked up to the monitor to check for the baby's heart beat and to monitor the contractions. The contractions were still coming every 2 minutes and pretty painful. Between the nurse taking my history, Alan calls worried about the kids that keep getting sick and he couldn't reach the pediatrician's after hours number. So my mom calls the pediatrician's emergency line and I talk to the nurse there. She tells me what to do for the kids, keep them hydrated and monitor how many wet diapers they have. Other than that, there isn't much they can do unless they get dehydrated.

 My mom calls Alan back. I puke some more. The nurse gets an IV started and gives me zofran to ease the nausea. Once I stop getting sick, the nurse gives me procardia to stop the contractions. The medicine makes me flushed and my heart race. The nurse goes back to taking my history. Baby's heart rate is still high. We wait. The contractions are getting further apart, still painful, but seem like they are getting better. The nurse tries to draw blood, but I'm too dehydrated and my veins don't cooperate. Nurse calls for lab. Lab tech is taking too long so another nurse comes in to give it a try. She fails twice. Calls lab again. While waiting for a lab tech the nurse wraps my arm in warm wash cloths to get the veins to surface better. Lab tech finally shows up and has success. She draws blood to test for infection and to 'type' me in case they would have to deliver the baby. Four hours go by and another dose of procardia. This second dose ease the contractions much more and get them to space further apart. Meanwhile, they tell me to try to sleep, which is impossible as I wonder how Alan is doing with two sick kids. Contractions continue until 5:30am. They had been going on for 12 hours.

Alan calls the next morning (Sunday) and sounds stressed, kids are still puking. My mom leaves and goes to my house. She takes Meredith back to her house. Things calm down. There is talk of me getting to go home, but Dr. decides against it.

I end up staying in the hospital until Monday morning. I was never so happy to leave! My mom takes me home where Benjamin, Meredith and Alan seem to be doing much better. However, I notice blisters on Benjamin's hands and along his mouth. I get him to open his mouth and I see one on his tongue. I call my mom, "what does hand, foot, and mouth disease look like?" I call the pediatrician, Alan takes him in, Dr. prescribes medication to ease the pain and says Meredith will probably get it too. Later that evening I get sick, later that night Benjamin gets sick. I thought we were over this.

Tuesday, my mom was going to come over to help with the kids, since the Dr. said to take it easy. My dad texts Alan, mom is sick. I feel horrible that she caught it. Eventually this evil stomach virus makes it's way to my sister and my dad.

Finally by Thursday, everyone seems to be on the up swing and the disinfecting began. Today I took the kids out to Target to get the essentials that we were out of. First time we had been out in over a week! It was a rough week to say the least! Thankfully, we are all much better and Meredith has yet to get hand, foot, mouth disease! I'm not sure how we would have done it without my family, thank God they are close by and swooped in like heroes!

Getting back

November started the whirl wind of activities and it has just now let up! Between Benjamin's 2nd birthday, thanksgiving, Christmas, new year's and wrapping up with Meredith's first birthday...life is just now starting to quite down! The kids have colds and mild ear infections we discovered this week but hopefully the medicine will clear this stuff up quickly.
I love the fact that January and February are quiet and slow, we need that time to prepare for #3. The repeat c section is scheduled for March 5th. Just 7 weeks away! And dearest Meredith I hope you are sleeping through the night by then!
I'll leave you with a picture of baby #3 taken at 25 weeks. I am now 32 weeks.