2 and a half more weeks

We just got back from our 8 hour "Lamaze" Class. I was sorta hoping it was more of a general "birthing" class but instead it was more of them teaching us how to get through labor using breathing exercises and different positioning techniques. Ya right. Nothing can take the place of the blessed epidural!!!!!! I want to remember the birth of my first child has as a positive experience and not one of yelling profanities at my husband. I figured since I don't live in the dark ages and I actually have a choice in the matter, why not?

I looked up the main signs of labor on the intranet so I can check them off as they happen. Sorry if this is TMI for some of you. I don't know any men who read my blog so I don't feel as bad for posting details.

1. Nesting Instinct.... Check!

2. Braxton Hicks Contractions....Check!

3. Dropping/Lightening....Check!

4. Changes in Cervix....Maybe, we find out on Monday

5. Increased vaginal Discharge/loosing mucus plug.....Check! (as of 9/5)

6. Rupture of Membranes.....Nope

7. Labor Contractions....Nope

This Monday is a very important drs appt for us. We get to see Addy on ultrasound for the last time to see what her position is and what they think her weight is. They will check me for dilatation for the first time as well. I am excited to hear what all progress I've made (if any).

At about 35 weeks everyone asked me if I was ready. I was nervous and felt unprepared. I didn't feel ready at all. But now, the nursery is done, I've had all my showers and have been to my birthing class (not that i learned anything amazing). So.... I feel a lot more ready now that I'm almost 38 weeks. Weird how much a few extra weeks/days can make a difference in your attitude.

I'll keep you all updated!!!

37 Weeks

I am so proud of myself!!! My nails are finally growing out at the END of my pregnancy. I love the way it feels to have nice nails that are not fake! They are super hard now and not paper thin like they were before I was pregnant. WooHoo!

I keep feeling little extremities poking out and think it's maybe a fist or a foot.

I have been thinking lately about what she's gonna look like. I really want her to have dimples but thats not a trait that is passed down. We will see! I can't wait!!!

Sept 28

So today is exactly 1 month till she is SUPPOSED to make her arrival. I wouldn't mind if she felt like appearing a week early though. In one week (37 weeks) I have a very important doctors appt. During that time is my last ultrasound before she gets here. The U/S will tell a lot about her weight, position and how my placenta and fluid level is doing. I can't wait!!! We will know a lot about when she will get here after that appt. Today I stayed home from work. I hate doing that but it's the first time I've called in this entire pregnancy. Im not sleeping very well now and my lower back has been hurting along with some cramping in my abdomen that I can only assume is Braxton Hicks. It's hard to do surgery with all that going on so I decided to take a day off and rest. If I had a desk job it would probably be easier to get away with it at work but since I'm on my feet running around and constantly busy this was a better idea. Matt made me an awesome breakfast and has put together the stroller and pack n play that we got at our shower yesterday. Its weird to see them in our house. The only sign around the house of a baby coming is in the nursery and we usually have to keep the door shut cause the dogs love to play with her toys. But now, we have baby stuff out in the living room and all over! It's weird. Its just now starting to feel real.

Flipping and Sorts

Addison flipped!! She is no longer breech! I have no idea when. She has been moving a lot lately so I guessed she just slowly wiggled her way upside down! My ultrasound friend at work took an ultrasound before I went to my appt today. I expected to see Addison's head under my ribs like it was last week but nope!!! To my surprise (and to the surprise of the ultrasound tech) she did a complete 180!!! Thank you Lord!

I bought some special detergent to wash Addison's new clothes in called Dreft. I'm glad some friends told me I needed to wash her clothes in special detergent because I had already washed everything in my usual Tide. The things you learn!!! Too bad we don't have anywhere to put the clean clothes! We still need a dresser and a crib, basically all our furniture. Also, we need a stroller and car seat. Basically the most important things to have when you have a baby haha. We have a ton of clothes and bath stuff though. Enough baby shampoo to last an entire year! I am so thankful for all the stuff we have gotten so far and how generous friends and family have been! Whatever we don't get at the shower we will buy ourselves and I will be so glad to finally have our nursery done!!! We are cutting it kind of close since I'll be considered "ok for take-off" the week after next at 37 weeks.

Matt and I have been trying out a new church lately. I have been going to the same church for 23 years so it seems really weird to be going to a different church for about a month now. We just tried out our first small group bible study with a few other couples this week from the new church. It was fun. The people are more our age and are in more of our same stage of life as Matt and I. Most of our friends at my old church were friends of my parents whom I've grown up with (in their 40 and 50's). It's nice to hang out with people at church that are your age and are just starting to grow their family. I think fellowship with people your age is very important. I know my parents miss seeing me every Sunday but they understand which is great.

Breech at 35 weeks

At my 31 week appointment Dr Westerholm did an U/S and found the Addison was in the breech position. She said it was no big deal cause they usually turn on their own and right now, have enough room to do it at such an early stage in the third trimester. Well, now I'm 35 weeks and Addison is still breech. I can feel her head above my belly button but I also have a ultrasound friend at work who offered to look for me one day when we didn't have anything to do. Sure enough, Addy's head was high in my abdomen. So, my next appt is this Thursday and I obviously have a lot of questions for them about what will go on in the next could weeks.

Some people say "some babies flip at the last minute". Others say "it's unlikely she will flip cause she gains weight on a daily basis and she has less and less room to move around". So which is it people????? In two weeks we have our big 4D Ultrasound where they will guess on exactly how much she weighs and see her position. That will determine a lot concerning when she might come and when Dr. Westerholm might want actually schedule a c-section for safety reasons. I will let yall know!

Either way I just want Addy to get here safely. I'm not petrified of a c-section like some people are. There are pros and cons to both vaginal delivery's and c-sections.

Keep us in your prayers!!

Random

This is our bedding for Addy's nursery!!! I love it! It's sophisticated and cute and not too busy.

These are some way cute baby beanie's that I would love to buy for Addison's first pictures!

Matt and I really like this vinyl lettering that goes on the wall. You can get them personalized with you babies name. I would love to do this in Addison's nursery.

Work friends!

Unexpected Events

Well, this pregnancy had been pretty uneventful so far, until Thursday came around! Here's the story:

I woke up at around 5am as usual, ate a small breakfast and had some juice and left for work at about 5:30.

Lately things have been pretty crazy at work. So many nurses have left in the past 5 months but none of them have been replaced so the staff that is left is doing double the work. We have all gotten pretty used to not getting our allotted 15 min break in the mornings and have even been known to not get our legally required 30 min lunch till 1 am. Now, if you do the math, thats a long time between eating when you get up in the morning and having lunch around noon (7 hrs to be exact). For a non-pregnant person, its tough but you get through it, for a pregnant person it's not as easy to "get though" and not healthy for the baby. Thats what happened to me.

So I get to work and start getting ready for another busy day in the OR. I have back to back cases all day and of course not enough people to help a 31 week pregnant woman do things like move heavy equipment, move heavy patients, and run around the OR getting things for 3 different surgeons who are all demanding things at the same time. Im in the middle of this big liver resection and I start feeling kind of dizzy. I sit down for a minute until they start asking for things again and I have to get up and get it for them. I can feel my heart rate is probably high cause my pulse is bounding out of my neck. This has happened before but I have always just sat down and it has gone away. I've never checked to see what my pulse actually was. I wasn't able to sit down and let it pass this time. Actually it got worse, so I decided to just run next door to an empty OR suite and take my blood pressure and throw a probe on my finger to see what my oxygen saturation/pulse was.

These were my vitals at 11:00am:

BP - 150/95

P - 200 bpm

O2 - 89%

Heart Rhythm - SVT or Superventricular Tachycardia

I had no idea my pulse was so high. I knew then that I couldn't keep going with vitals like that so I walked up to the front desk where the charge nurse was. There happened to be an anesthesiologist friend of my up there too. I told them I didn't feel good and showed them my vitals. They freaked out!!! They grabbed a stretcher and put me on it and wheeled me to the recovery room next door. They hooked me up to monitors and started an IV. They called Labor and Delivery to tell them what was going on and that they would be bringing over an employee who was 31 weeks and had passed out. (I never actually passed out but I would have shortly if they had not found a stretcher) The anesthesiologist told me he called a cardiologist over to come see me right away. I kept trying to turn my head and look at the monitor. I wanted to know if my vitals were any better yet. My pulse had decreased to about 150 so that was good. The labor and delivery nurses came over to get me and take me so they could hook up a fetal monitor. Just about that time the Director of Surgery (the woman who hired me, my "bigtime" boss) came over and asked me what had happened. I told her I almost passed out because I had not been given a break for 5-6 hours to eat or drink anything. This was sorta humorous to me that she would ask me this because she's the one that determines how many staff we hire and how many surgeries we do in a day. (too little staff and too many surgeries!!!) and she's the one that determines if we get breaks or not! Im really glad she was able to see the consequences of her staff not getting breaks because she is usually in her office and doesn't see what we deal with a lot. The cardiologist was also there at this time and said that dehydration and malnutrition in pregnancy can cause abnormal heart rhythms and that staff (especially pregnant staff) should be given adequate breaks every few hours. He also showed her my EKG that they had taken and said " This EKG is not normal, I didn't expect to see this. It's not dangerous now that her pulse has decreased, but its not normal either". He ordered another one to be taken after my heart rate came down to normal. He called it a Accelerated Junctional Rhythm. My heart rate at this time was about 110. Much better.

Well, by that time Lacie, my roommate from college who I work with, had called Matt at home to tell him what had been going on. Of course he jumped in the car and drove straight to my work. When he got there he was so freaked out! He said he drove 90 mph and even parked in the physician parking lot!!! LOL! I told him my heart rate was now down to 110 and that I was feeling a lot better. They had taken me to Labor and Delivery and hooked me up to a fetal monitor. We were able to hear Addison's every move and see her heart rate which was so comforting!!! I kept wondering why they wouldn't let me eat anything but ice chips so I asked my nurse and she said "just incase we have to do an emergency c-section. " Holy Cow!!!!!! That kinda scared me but I was stable enough by then and Addison was doing fine, that would have to be a last resort kind of thing.

I had an echo and another EKG over in Labor and Delivery and both showed up as normal so at 6 pm they finally discharged me. I had not eaten in over 12 hours! Poor Addison! On the way home Matt and I stopped and got a burger, chocolate shake and french fries!! Soooo good! I felt a ton better but was tired and went to sleep right when I got home.

I didn't go to work today of course. I went right in first thing this morning to see my OB doc who had gotten many calls about me the day before while all of this was going on. She told me that with pregnancy the body is put under a lot of stress with all the extra blood volume the heart especially can go into abnormal rhythms if we don't get adequate breaks. She said nurses are some of her worst patients when it comes to taking care of themselves because they are always so short staffed and they give to everyone else and not to themselves. She wasn't too please with me but she knew that I didn't really have a lot of control over the issue. It's not like this happens when I'm at home. She said she would write a note saying that I require a break every 2 hours and that I cannot be involved in long cases where I cannot leave the room. She did an ultrasound to make sure Addison was ok and then told me to take it easy over the weekend. I have another appt in two weeks and I'll give her an update on how everything goes this next week.

Over all the cardiac arrhythmia was induced by dehydration so I don't think I have any underlining heart problem which is very good!!! Addison seems to be ok and so am I. I am more aware of my limit and what I can handle now so thats good. Hopefully work will be more understanding too. I think I kinda scared them which hopefully will start a chain of events that gets everyone a break now. We shall see. Matt has been so wonderful and caring. I am so thankful for him.

PS- On a lighter note... Addison weighs 3 lbs 8 oz as of this week!!! Yea!!! She's getting so big!!! I can't believe I only have 8 weeks to go!!! Hurry Hurry!!!