34 Weeks

This week was really relaxing, which I needed. I only worked a day and half this week, which was a nice break for me. On my half day off I got a pedicure and went shopping with one of my friends. That evening Mark and I were going to have our Newborn Care class, but the instructor forgot to tell us they moved the class to the past Thursday. So, they are doing special class for us in a week.

We had the girls for Thanksgiving this year. Every year we have the girls for Thanksgiving, we allow them to cook at Thanksgiving meal just for the four of us (about to be 5 of us). They pick out the menu, from the main course to dessert and even a special drink. Of course I help them with all of this and I made them simplify it a little this year because I could stand all day long. The girls fixed a turkey breast, broccoli and cheese casserole, sweet potatoes, dressing, gravy, rolls, and pumpkin pie. We also had sparkling grape juice as a drink. Usually they will make the drink, but again I told them we had to make it simply this year. Even with this small dinner, it still wore me out. I did take frequent breaks and rest while I allow them to finish up easy items. The one good thing about all this food it that we had leftovers for the rest of the weekend, plus what we will bring back from mom’s house. We spend Thanksgiving at my mom’s house this year since we were not traveling. We did not have a big crowd at mom and dad’s but it was nice to relax at mom’s house. Late that afternoon we watched the Madagascar 2, it was really cute.

On Friday, Mark and I took the girls to see the new Muppet movie. We really enjoyed the movie, it was so cute and we all laughed the whole time. It is nice to go see a movie and not worry about if it is appropriate or not for the girls. The rest of the weekend we spent resting and decorating the house for Christmas. I love Christmas time. I also labeled all my Christmas cards and will mail them out on Dec 1, I am thankful to have those completed. I also was nesting a lot this weekend. The guest room was driving me crazy. So we decided to take out the bed so we could have more room. We do not have a lot of guess that stay with us, but we do have a blow up mattress if we do have a guess any time soon. We are hoping to put our house on the market this spring and by this time next year we should be in our new home. We really need more space; our house seems to be shrinking.

Baby girl is still doing well and is moving all over the place. Starting with our next appointment we will have weekly appointments with Dr. Rister. During our next appointment we should be scheduling our c-section, I cannot wait. I am planning to work three more weeks and they will go by fast. Another mile stone we hit was 34 weeks. Dr. Rister said she needed to stay in until 34 weeks and we made it to that point. We feel a lot better about things down that we are on the downhill side of this mountain.

33 Weeks

This week has been really busy for us. We had two ultrasounds and two different doctor visits. Yes, that is four appointments total. My insulin is still high so they added another shot to my day. I am now on three shots of insulin. I am taking 15 units in the morning, 10 units at lunch, and 35 units before dinner. Both doctors (Dr. Amar and Dr. Rister) said that it is normal for my numbers to keep going up.

We also went to Because of You for our second ultrasound. I love watching her on the screen and seeing her movements. She would yawn, smile, scrunch up her face, etc… She is adorable to watch. She also seems to have my nose, cheeks and lips, along with Mark’s legs and fingers. She has really long legs and fingers.

Our second ultrasound was with Dr. Rister’s office, which is never too exciting. They are so plain and it feels like a medical procedure. That is why I like Because of You. At Dr. Rister’s office they took all of her measurements. She was measuring at 32 weeks and 5 days (just two days behind) and weighed about 4.5 pounds, which is average at this stage.

The next day we had our appointment with Dr. Rister. I think he is really concern about me, but is just not saying anything at this point. I do not think he does not want us to worry at this point. We are still looking to have the c-section to week of Dec 19^th. Less than a month away and she will be here. We are so excited, especially me because I am tired of pricking my finger and giving myself shots.  The rest of the pregnancy is great and I feel wonderful. The only time I feel bad is when my blood sugar goes up.

32 weeks

I will have to say after last week, this week was much easier. I am glad we did not go to Oklahoma, because I think it would have pushed me over the edge. We did go to Red Lobster for our anniversary on Saturday. For the rest of the weekend, I pretty much rested, but I still did not feel well. I even stayed home from work on Monday, which I hated to do. After what happened the week before I decided I better now push myself, if I am not feeling well. I think my blood sugar is making me feel bad. My blood sugar is still really high and is going up, no matter what I do. I know next week they will be upping my insulin again.

One thing I failed to mention last week was my work was throwing a joint baby shower for a co-worker and me. The shower was going to be last Monday; however, over the weekend my co-worker end up having her baby (I know they planned the shower really close to her due date) and I ended up in the hospital. So on Thursday they throw me a baby shower. My co-workers are so generous and I received lots of great gifts. They also were giving me a hard time about using cloth diapers, even though they pitched in and bought me two. I brought some other diapers to show them, and once they saw how they worked, I did not hear another peep out of them. Later that night I used up all my Target gift cards online to buy everything else left on my registry that could be bought online.

I still have a few more items I need from Target and Babies R Us; however, the majority of everything has been bought. The only really big item we have left is the high chair. I am going to wait until after she is born to buy the chair, unless it goes on sale. After I buy a seat protector for my car (I have leather seats), I am going to install her car seat. I was reading a baby book and it recommended installing the car seat during the beginning of your 3^rd trimester in case you have the baby early. After our experience last week, I think we need to car seat installed. Last week also prompted me to start thinking about my hospital bags. I started packing MaKayla’s bag and now I need to pack my bag. I also finished up my c-section birth plan, which I will take to my doctor next week. I feel like we are getting closer to having everything done, now we just have to wait on baby girl.

31 weeks

This week was a crazy week. At the beginning of the week, I attended the HR Southwest Conference in Fort Worth. After coming back from the conference we had our first child birth class at Pinwheel Kids. They let us choose the classes that were related to our situation. Our first class was on c-sections and we learned a lot of information that night. Then on Friday I received another great massage from Amy. I am loving these pre-natal massages, even though they do not compare to a regular massage. I am already to set up my next one.

Over the weekend we made a trip to Ikea to finish buying some organizational supplies for MaKayla. I almost have her stuff completely organized. I know I will rearrange it again once she is here. I also attended my last baby shower of the year. I have enjoyed attending the baby showers because it gives me a chance to visit with people I have not seen in a long time.

Then, this week ended with a trip to Labor and Delivery. About 9:30 pm Sunday evening I started having contractions. I had a few here and there, especially when I pushed myself too hard.  This time something felt different, they were lasting long and they were harder. Mark fixed me a bath, hoping this would help relax my muscles, but it did not help. I even tried a heating pad and they were not going away. After 45 minutes, we called the doctor’s office and spoke to the on call doctor. He told us if they keep progressing and I am uncomfortable to go to Labor and Delivery. Once the one hour mark hit we decided to head to Labor and Delivery. At this point my contracts were about 2 to 5 mins apart.

I do not think I have ever seen Mark drive as fast as he did not night. Mark is a turtle when it comes to driving and for those who know me well knows that is not my style of driving. Well on the way to the hospital we ran into construction and traffic was stopped. I tried to talk Mark into taking one of the on ramps to get off but he would not do it. When I finally started having another contraction, I talked him into driving on the shoulder (he already had his flashers on). I am sure all those people did not appreciate us driving in the shoulder, but I did not care. By the time we reached the hospital, I had about three contractions. We go to the registration desk, luckily we had pre-registered; however, we still had to fill out more paperwork.  While we were filling out the paperwork, I had my worse contraction yet. I was in tears crying because it was so painful. They hurried up the paperwork and got us back to a room.

When we go back there they put a heart monitor on me, which MaKayla did not like. She did not like the contractions either. Every time I had one she would start moving around and pushing. It was kinda funny that she knew exactly where that heart monitor was on me. She would kick it, push it, or anything else she thought would make it move. At one point she was lifting it off my stomach. After they watch her heart rate, examined me, and ran some test, it was determined I was slightly dehydrated and had a bladder infection. At this time I gave me a shot in my leg to stop the contractions. The good thing was that I was not dilated.  The on call doctor recommended I stay overnight in the hospital.

Finally about midnight we were able to go into a regular Labor and Delivery room. They also started an IV on me so I could some fluids. I did not sleep very well that night. MaKayla moved the whole night and was constantly kicking the monitor. Everything she kicked or I moved our could hear it come across the monitor, so all that was keeping me up along with the nurse coming in about every 45 mins.

About 6 am I started feeling pain in my stomach again, so I called the nurse for another shot. After 20 minutes, I sent Mark for her and they assured us they would be right there. Then 10 mins later my IV went off, so I called the nurse’s station again. One of the other nurses came to check on the IV, but did not bring the shot. Finally at 7 am, when the new nurse came on she brought me a shot.  The bad part was this nurse was in a hurry because she needed to check on someone delivering a baby. She pushed that medication into my leg really fast and it burned so bad. I was not too happy with her at this point. She unhooked me so I could go the bathroom and sent in another nurse. When I got back in bed the new nurse asked where did all the blood on my gown come from? I told her I was not sure. When she lifted up my gown I had blood running down my left from that shot. So she cleaned up the blood and then noticed that my left had huge whelps and was swollen.  I told her the shot from last night did not do that to me. I knew it was from that other nurse pushing that medication in too fast. This is the second time that has happened to me when I stayed in a hospital. A year ago when I was in the hospital for food poisoning, the nurse was pushing some medication into my IV and she received an emergency call. That nurse pushed that medication in so fast I was in tears and she blew out my vain. When she came back in my mom told her to leave and get someone else. They had to restart a new IV, which at this time I had about 3 IVs. Next time I am in the hospital I am going to remember to make sure these nurses slow down when it comes to give me a shot.

About 8 am, Dr. Rister came to see me and of course he was teasing me as always. The first words out of his mouth were What are you doing? He was just shaking his head.  I told him eating a popsicle, which was my breakfast.  In all seriousness he told me I did the right thing. He said if I had not come in that the contractions could have pushed me into labor. I told him I was worried about coming in at first because I did not want them to send me home telling me it was all false labor. He reassured me that I can come in anytime I am worried. Also, he said he did not want to see her until at least 34 weeks, at the earliest. Then he released me from the hospital. I felt pretty good going home, but after my shower I passed out on the couch. I slept off and on for most of the day.

For our one year anniversary we were going to ride the Amtrak train up to Oklahoma City over the weekend; however, we decided after my hospital stay not go. I think Mark is trying to plan something special for us around Waco, since we cannot go on our trip. Needless to say I am disappointed, but I would rather be safe and take care of MaKayla than to risk another trip to Labor and Delivery.

30 Weeks

This week has been fairly interesting and busy. On Sunday I left for the HR Southwest Conference. I have not attended this conference in about 7 years. I had a lot of fun with my co-workers in Fort Worth. I was worried how I was going to manage my blood sugar, but it was really easy. My sugar is still high and they are adjusting my insulin again. Right now I am on 15 units in the morning and 20 in the evenings.  Baby girl is staying really active and we are getting more excited each day.