Growing Baby Gets Showered With Gifts

Since our appt last week the baby has decided that he needs much more space than he previously needed. I used to still be able to bend over prior to this past week and now that is a thing of the past. He is kicking or punching me in the ribs now and it catches me off guard every time he does it. It is the most awkward semi-painful thing I have ever felt. He is also now pressing on my lungs and making me feel more and more out of shape. Bending over to pick up bags of groceries off the floor and put them in the fridge had me huffing and puffing as if I just tried to run. I find it hard to catch my breath and I am often breathing in irregular patterns.

This past weekend my boss hosted a shower for me for all of my co-workers to participate in. Only five of the 25 women were able to show up, as many of them were traveling for work but we had so much fun. The girls from work really had fun shopping for clothes for our little man, I think I walked away with about 30 new outfits in a variety of sizes. My boss had the neatest cake made and I hope to get pictures of it posted soon. We played a couple of games and then watched a short video on this woman's interpretation of pregnancy and birth and we were all in tears from laughing so hard.

I am having another shower next weekend for the ladies at church, our family that lives close and my girlfriends. I only wanted to do two showers and I had those set up already and then my boss came in and said I want to host a shower for you and I just couldn't tell her no so now there are three. The other shower will be an online shower for our family and friends who are long distance!

2 Appt's Down Several More To Go

I have seen the Dr. twice since my hospital visit. I had an appt schedule for the day I was in the hospital and they asked me to change my appt to later in the week so that my regular Dr. could follow up on the UTI. I went in on the 7th of January and they said that my urine looked much better. She also gave me five more days of antibiotics for the UTI as the hospital only gave me five days worth and she felt I needed to be treated for at least ten or the infection might come back and cause preterm labor. She said that my stretch marks looked terrible and that I needed to keep adding lotion and vitamin E to them, even though neither of them has help thus far. She measure my stomach and listened to the babies heartbeat and said that I was progressing nicely. I had come down with some severe sinus problems which lead to a cold in the days proceeding the hospital visit. My Dr. said I was just going to have to deal with it because she didn't want me taking any additional meds while I was finishing out the antibiotic. I was miserable for two weeks because I was so stuffy. I snored so loud each night it made it hard for Russell to get to sleep so he participated in my next appt in a way I thought was kinda funny.

On January 19th I went back in to the Dr. for my new every two week appts. I have gained a couple more pounds and my stomach is growing so my Dr. is pleased. It was a quick appt we were only in there for about ten minutes. The Dr. pushed around on my stomach and said that she couldn't yet determine which direction he was facing. He kicked her when she was pushing on my stomach and Russell was kinda irritated because he still hasn't felt the baby kick. At the end of the appt she asked me if I had any questions and I said I think I'm good. Russell quickly chimed in and said ask her about being so stuffy and if you can take anything. I guess he was tired of my snoring!

Early Hospital Visit

On Sunday January 4th, I was rudely awakened by some terrible contractions around 11:00. At the time I thought that I had just been sleeping in a bad position. I got out of bed drank some water and used the bathroom thinking these were all things that would help lessen the pain. I laid back down and fell asleep only to wake up again shortly after one o' clock still in pain. I took some deep breaths and drank some more water and used the bathroom again hoping this would again relieve some pain. I was able to get back to sleep until 4 in the morning when I had to race to the bathroom as I was in so much pain it made me sick. My lower back had a sharp stabbing pain and my abdomen was cramping so much it had me doubled over. I woke Russell up and had him drive me to the hospital because I knew something wasn't right. The hospital staff hooked me up to a million monitors only to see that I was having contractions. They took a urine sample from me and determined that I had a Urinary Tract Infection. I had no idea because I hadn't experience any symptoms until I woke up that morning. They flushed my system with IV fluids because I was dehydrated and then they game me an heavy dose of antibiotics through my IV. As soon as the antibiotics started to get in my system the contractions stopped. My nurses adopted my Dr's name for the baby (little turkey) because every time they would put the fetal monitor on him he would move or kick it. I ended up getting released a little after eight and I went home and slept for the rest of the day.

Sugar and Babies Don't Mix

On December 5th I went in for my glucose test appointment. They let me choose what kind of nasty sugar water I wanted to drink. I choose Fruit Punch instead of Lemon Lime or Orange. I don't really even like sodas because they are so sweet, so my glucose mixture was a lot to choke down. I then went to see my Dr. and it took her a good fifteen minutes to find the babies heart beat. She would find it it would beat about twice and then he would move. She finally told me that my baby was rambunctious. I followed that by saying you just made me drink sugar water what do you expect. After finding the heartbeat she read my chart and exclaimed that I had gained 5 pounds and that I was 2 pounds short of my pre-pregnancy weight. She also noted that she wanted to do an ultrasound on the baby a little later on to check his growth and progress since I was so small. She put me on some prescription heartburn meds and I was so relieved because I was eating tums like candy. I had my blood drawn an hour after I drank the glucose mix and thankfully I passed so I don't have to do the three hour test. The morning sickness still comes and goes and the stretch marks are slowly increasing. Even though this has not been an easy pregnancy I know the end result will be a true blessing.