Happy Saturday all! Another week and the lil guy is still baking in there, so it's a good thing :) I went for a non-stress test on Wedneday, where they monitor the baby for a half hour and they give you this little thing-a-majig that you have to press a button each time you feel the baby move. He was quiet at first, but once he realized I wasn't moving around he started moving. He doesn't like me to stay still for long hehe.
My blood pressure was good because I took the meds only about an hour and a half before the appointment, so it was great at 120/80. Everything hinges on that. They were fine with that and sent me happily on my way. I have another appointment next Friday with the doc who was monitoring me when I was at the hospital. Hard to believe that was three weeks ago.
We went out to Ruby Tuesday's last night and I had the salad bar and soup. Broccoli and Cheese. MMMMM!!!! The only thing is that soups are REALLY salty at restaurants. So I didn't finish it. I ate about half. Gotta keep being a good girl. The salad was awesome! Friday night is our date night. It's really nice to get out and just hang out for a while.
I'm at work right now, so I'll make it short. Jeff's working on getting some rust off the Wrangler's door handle and back bumper so we can get it ready to sell. As much as I love the Wrangler, it's just waaaaay too small for kids. I need something roomy. Maybe a Grand Cherokee or something along those lines. The Jeep is paid off, too, so that's a bonus.
Okay, back to work for me. Workin' on a Saturday blows when you work all week long! But I'm working with a couple of really funny guys. So that helps :)
Later all!
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Sunday, Sunday
Wow. I can't believe another week has gone by. They just fly by so fast. I can't keep up. I've been fighting off a cold that it seems everyone at work has. It's kind of unavoidable when so many people are sick around you. Seems like a nasty one too.
The last appointment, on Tues, was kind of depressing. The doc (I have four of them at this office) says that he'll be happy if they can get me to week 37. So it looks like they may have to induce me or do a c-section (cesarean), which I really don't want. Either one would be done early, to get him out of there sooner. The blood pressure was higher than they would've liked, which I knew it would be because now I have that white coat fear whenever they approach me with the blood pressure cuff.
Today is the beginning of week 33. So now I'll be marking off the success of just getting through one more week. The peanut would be okay if born at this early stage, but his lungs wouldn't be mature enough to breathe on his own. So he'd need help and he'd need to stay in the hospital for a while. I think that after week 36, though, he'd be good to go. They'd feel more comfortable at week 37.
All of this is nerve wracking, as you could imagine. The entire pregnancy was going perfectly until I reached the third trimester, then things started going haywire. I know that pregnancy induced hypertension is pretty common in pregnancy. Now that I have it, I keep hearing of women who had it and who had to be on bed rest. Some had to be on hospital bed rest. That would suck.
Then there is the insulin resistance issue. Do you know how hard it is to find food that is sugar-free AND low in salt? It's next to impossible! Especially at restaurants. I'll be glad when he's born safe and sound and my blood pressure lowers again (which it usually does right after delivery, they say) so that I only have the sugar issue to worry about. I can handle that fine.
Yesterday we had an all day lamaze class. I wanted to do the crash course and just get 'er done in one day instead of having to go back for weeks for night classes. The hospital is a half hour away, too, so it would've been a pain in the butt. It was a very good class. I had a bit of anxiety at the beginning though, because the room was pretty small and there were so many of us packed in there. So I had to leave twice to sit out in the lobby and catch my breath. I felt pretty light headed at that point.
Jeff made a good point, as he sat beside me on the couchs outside the class room. I'd have a lot more anxiety if I didn't finish the class because I wouldn't know what to expect. Hehe. It made sense to me. When we got back into the room the instructor had opened a window for me and kept the door open. It was much easier to breathe after that and I did just fine for the duration of the class :) Jeff is an excellent coach, too. And he's very intuitive with me anyway so I know we'll be a great team when it's go-time. We're a great team now.
What is everyone reading? I'm still trudging through a book a began about a month ago. I thought I'd get the bulk of the rest of it read last night so that I could start in on a super advance review copy of Sandra's upcoming release What Burns Within, which is due out in May. I'm thrilled that she sent one to me! And cant' wait to get my hands on it.
Hopefully I'll find time to finish Greywalker today, which was sent to me by Paperback Writer after I won a "What would Paperback Writer say?" contest on her page. It was my book choice. Excellent writer. I love her style and the story is so much fun. It's just to get me to be able to keep my eyes open at night to be able to finish it!
Well, I've prattled on enough. Hope everyone has a great day!
The last appointment, on Tues, was kind of depressing. The doc (I have four of them at this office) says that he'll be happy if they can get me to week 37. So it looks like they may have to induce me or do a c-section (cesarean), which I really don't want. Either one would be done early, to get him out of there sooner. The blood pressure was higher than they would've liked, which I knew it would be because now I have that white coat fear whenever they approach me with the blood pressure cuff.
Today is the beginning of week 33. So now I'll be marking off the success of just getting through one more week. The peanut would be okay if born at this early stage, but his lungs wouldn't be mature enough to breathe on his own. So he'd need help and he'd need to stay in the hospital for a while. I think that after week 36, though, he'd be good to go. They'd feel more comfortable at week 37.
All of this is nerve wracking, as you could imagine. The entire pregnancy was going perfectly until I reached the third trimester, then things started going haywire. I know that pregnancy induced hypertension is pretty common in pregnancy. Now that I have it, I keep hearing of women who had it and who had to be on bed rest. Some had to be on hospital bed rest. That would suck.
Then there is the insulin resistance issue. Do you know how hard it is to find food that is sugar-free AND low in salt? It's next to impossible! Especially at restaurants. I'll be glad when he's born safe and sound and my blood pressure lowers again (which it usually does right after delivery, they say) so that I only have the sugar issue to worry about. I can handle that fine.
Yesterday we had an all day lamaze class. I wanted to do the crash course and just get 'er done in one day instead of having to go back for weeks for night classes. The hospital is a half hour away, too, so it would've been a pain in the butt. It was a very good class. I had a bit of anxiety at the beginning though, because the room was pretty small and there were so many of us packed in there. So I had to leave twice to sit out in the lobby and catch my breath. I felt pretty light headed at that point.
Jeff made a good point, as he sat beside me on the couchs outside the class room. I'd have a lot more anxiety if I didn't finish the class because I wouldn't know what to expect. Hehe. It made sense to me. When we got back into the room the instructor had opened a window for me and kept the door open. It was much easier to breathe after that and I did just fine for the duration of the class :) Jeff is an excellent coach, too. And he's very intuitive with me anyway so I know we'll be a great team when it's go-time. We're a great team now.
What is everyone reading? I'm still trudging through a book a began about a month ago. I thought I'd get the bulk of the rest of it read last night so that I could start in on a super advance review copy of Sandra's upcoming release What Burns Within, which is due out in May. I'm thrilled that she sent one to me! And cant' wait to get my hands on it.
Hopefully I'll find time to finish Greywalker today, which was sent to me by Paperback Writer after I won a "What would Paperback Writer say?" contest on her page. It was my book choice. Excellent writer. I love her style and the story is so much fun. It's just to get me to be able to keep my eyes open at night to be able to finish it!
Well, I've prattled on enough. Hope everyone has a great day!
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Sheesh!
Morning all. I got a little scare on Monday when I went in for a follow up appointment and the doc said that I was done working because I am pre-ecampic. I said, "What? The nurses and doc at the hospital said I was fine. All the tests were negative." She showed me the numbers and told me that they said I was mildy pre-eclampsic. But then she noticed a note typed at the bottom of the page that said that there had been an error.
So she called the lab and had them re-do the test. I waited in the waiting room for a half hour before she came out and said that the test had been negative. I'm not pre-eclampsic. Sheesh! I know they are overly cautious and that could be a good thing, but this is ridiculous. I would've had to be on bedrest the rest of the pregnancy. That means until March 13th. That would've SUCKED.
Anyway, I went back to work on Tues and told the boss that my stress level has to stay relatively low, because if the blood pressure rises while I'm on meds, they will put me on bed rest. Then HE has to do more work! Ha! So he's lightened the work load for me some. Which makes a big difference. This week has been low stress.
Thanks for all the encouraging comments :) I appreciate them!
So I'm staying in today and taking it easy. I still have some stuff around the house I want to do but I'll take it slow. Still need to get the Chrismas decorations and tree down. Laundry. Stuff like that.
But I slept in this morning until 8 a.m. That was heavenly. The bladder woke me up. The little bean is actually about 4 lbs now and he's taking up all kinds of space. I can't beleive he's going to be getting about 9 weeks bigger! Sheesh!
Have a great day all! Gonna get some coffee and open the book document.
So she called the lab and had them re-do the test. I waited in the waiting room for a half hour before she came out and said that the test had been negative. I'm not pre-eclampsic. Sheesh! I know they are overly cautious and that could be a good thing, but this is ridiculous. I would've had to be on bedrest the rest of the pregnancy. That means until March 13th. That would've SUCKED.
Anyway, I went back to work on Tues and told the boss that my stress level has to stay relatively low, because if the blood pressure rises while I'm on meds, they will put me on bed rest. Then HE has to do more work! Ha! So he's lightened the work load for me some. Which makes a big difference. This week has been low stress.
Thanks for all the encouraging comments :) I appreciate them!
So I'm staying in today and taking it easy. I still have some stuff around the house I want to do but I'll take it slow. Still need to get the Chrismas decorations and tree down. Laundry. Stuff like that.
But I slept in this morning until 8 a.m. That was heavenly. The bladder woke me up. The little bean is actually about 4 lbs now and he's taking up all kinds of space. I can't beleive he's going to be getting about 9 weeks bigger! Sheesh!
Have a great day all! Gonna get some coffee and open the book document.
Monday, January 07, 2008
Scary Stuff
I've had quite a weekend. On Friday afternoon I went in to the doc for a routine appointment, but after they checked my blood pressure, they sent me straight to the hospital. They did an ultrasound, started me on a 24 hour urine collection. The baby looks great. No problems there. He was kicking me in the ribs and opening and closing his little mouth. The blood is flowing through all parts of his body just fine.
When they brought me back up to the room, they put me on blood pressure monitor. It was set up to automatically go off every 10 minutes. Of course, at this point I'm totally stressed, panicked and my blood pressure is still high. Eventually though, it started comin down a little bit. They put a monitor on my stomach and monitored the baby's heartbeat and movements. He was doing fine. He's a tough little bugger, that's for sure. He moved around pretty much constantly during the ultrasound and the monitoring.
I really thought that I'd be getting out of there within a few hours. The doc who sent me to the hospital thought they'd monitor me for a few hours and then send me home with a jug for the pee collection. But, my blood pressure climbed up again, probably because I wanted to get out of there, and so they decided to keep me. I was very aware of the fact that staying over night was going to be expensive. With my insurance, an overnight stay is $1000.00, which I'll also be paying in March, when the little guy is born. I know it's silly to worry about that when your blood pressure is up, but I figured that if I could just get home and relax, I'd be fine.
The doc wasn't having it. He made me stay, which is a good thing because he started me on blood pressure meds. He wanted to make sure that I'd tolerate the meds okay, which is important. Also, when he sat down and spoke to us frankly about what could be going on, namely pre-eclampsia, which can shut down the kidneys and liver, and of the possiblity of high blood pressure damaging the placenta and killing the baby, I realized how serious the situation could be. I decided to stay instead of being a dumb-ass.
At this point of course, I'm totally panicking. Jeff had left work and came to get me at the doctor's office earlier in the day, and stayed with me at the hospital the entire time. He didn't want to leave me that night, especially then, when I felt so scared and frustrated that I just broke down. But I made him go home. He would've sat in that hard-ass rocking chair all night long if I hadn't insisted he go home. There wasn't even a cushion on the chair, and I could tell his back was screaming but he wasn't complaining. I booted him out.
They did blood work that night. The lab results looked fine. They took my blood pressure and put the monitor back on my belly every four hours. Blood pressure was okay overnight. In the morning it began climbing again. The meds were wearing off. So the doc ordered more blood work to make sure my condition hadn't worsened overnight. It hadn't. Jeff came back with some fresh clothes and things for me the next morning, and a hazelnut decaf, my fave.
The doc kept me for most of the day on Saturday. We were supposed to be at an all day crash lamaze course that day, in another building at that very hospital, but of course we missed it. Finally he let me go home around four o'clock in the afternoon. But I had to promise to come back on Sunday to get my blood pressure checked again. I was to get a blood pressure cuff and monitor my blood pressure every four hours that night. And I was on bed rest that night.
Went back yesterday morning. The put me back on the time blood pressure monitor. They were all fine. Thank God. They kept me for a few hours and let me go home, on bed rest of course. I was mostly good. Jeff had to shoo me away a few times. But I was pretty good and stayed in bed with a book most of the night.
So today I'm on bed rest again, except for a doc appointment at 2 o'clock. I feel okay. Just tired. If the blood pressure is still good when they check it today I'm allowed to go back to work tomorrow. Then they check me at the end of the week again.
I don't know what's with the blood pressure. Work can be pretty stressful, and it was really crazy for two weeks around Christmas. Then there were the holidays. Maybe it was just too much. But then many women have trouble with hypertension during the latter parts of their pregnancies.
I guess I just need to take it a bit easier. Needless to say, there was no writing this weekend!
They let me reschedule the all day crash lamaze course :)
Please excuse any spelling errors and typos. I typed this out pretty quick. I'm going to lie my ass down on the couch.
When they brought me back up to the room, they put me on blood pressure monitor. It was set up to automatically go off every 10 minutes. Of course, at this point I'm totally stressed, panicked and my blood pressure is still high. Eventually though, it started comin down a little bit. They put a monitor on my stomach and monitored the baby's heartbeat and movements. He was doing fine. He's a tough little bugger, that's for sure. He moved around pretty much constantly during the ultrasound and the monitoring.
I really thought that I'd be getting out of there within a few hours. The doc who sent me to the hospital thought they'd monitor me for a few hours and then send me home with a jug for the pee collection. But, my blood pressure climbed up again, probably because I wanted to get out of there, and so they decided to keep me. I was very aware of the fact that staying over night was going to be expensive. With my insurance, an overnight stay is $1000.00, which I'll also be paying in March, when the little guy is born. I know it's silly to worry about that when your blood pressure is up, but I figured that if I could just get home and relax, I'd be fine.
The doc wasn't having it. He made me stay, which is a good thing because he started me on blood pressure meds. He wanted to make sure that I'd tolerate the meds okay, which is important. Also, when he sat down and spoke to us frankly about what could be going on, namely pre-eclampsia, which can shut down the kidneys and liver, and of the possiblity of high blood pressure damaging the placenta and killing the baby, I realized how serious the situation could be. I decided to stay instead of being a dumb-ass.
At this point of course, I'm totally panicking. Jeff had left work and came to get me at the doctor's office earlier in the day, and stayed with me at the hospital the entire time. He didn't want to leave me that night, especially then, when I felt so scared and frustrated that I just broke down. But I made him go home. He would've sat in that hard-ass rocking chair all night long if I hadn't insisted he go home. There wasn't even a cushion on the chair, and I could tell his back was screaming but he wasn't complaining. I booted him out.
They did blood work that night. The lab results looked fine. They took my blood pressure and put the monitor back on my belly every four hours. Blood pressure was okay overnight. In the morning it began climbing again. The meds were wearing off. So the doc ordered more blood work to make sure my condition hadn't worsened overnight. It hadn't. Jeff came back with some fresh clothes and things for me the next morning, and a hazelnut decaf, my fave.
The doc kept me for most of the day on Saturday. We were supposed to be at an all day crash lamaze course that day, in another building at that very hospital, but of course we missed it. Finally he let me go home around four o'clock in the afternoon. But I had to promise to come back on Sunday to get my blood pressure checked again. I was to get a blood pressure cuff and monitor my blood pressure every four hours that night. And I was on bed rest that night.
Went back yesterday morning. The put me back on the time blood pressure monitor. They were all fine. Thank God. They kept me for a few hours and let me go home, on bed rest of course. I was mostly good. Jeff had to shoo me away a few times. But I was pretty good and stayed in bed with a book most of the night.
So today I'm on bed rest again, except for a doc appointment at 2 o'clock. I feel okay. Just tired. If the blood pressure is still good when they check it today I'm allowed to go back to work tomorrow. Then they check me at the end of the week again.
I don't know what's with the blood pressure. Work can be pretty stressful, and it was really crazy for two weeks around Christmas. Then there were the holidays. Maybe it was just too much. But then many women have trouble with hypertension during the latter parts of their pregnancies.
I guess I just need to take it a bit easier. Needless to say, there was no writing this weekend!
They let me reschedule the all day crash lamaze course :)
Please excuse any spelling errors and typos. I typed this out pretty quick. I'm going to lie my ass down on the couch.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Happy New Year!!
Happy New Year everyone! 2008! Yeah! Woohoo! This is going to be an excellent year. I just know it. I feel it in my bones. Partially because I've finally realized that this crotchety bitch of a book is actually trying to be a horror novel and not a mystery. I realized this a couple of weeks ago while I was at work, sitting there doing my job and thinking of nothing in particular. It was a eureka moment. You've all gotten those right?
You're doing something really mundane. Some normal, regular thing you do every day or every week or whatever. Something maybe boring and familiar. And it hits you. A crystal clear moment of clarity to some problem that's been pissing you off for a while. Usually you don't even know why the answer has even come to you. That's what happened to me.
I've been grappling with why this book has been so hard to write. It's because the book has been trying to be something other than what I've been trying to make it be. Sounds silly but it's true. For me, books do have a life of their own. I do follow a plot line that I create mostly as I'm going. I start with a basic idea and fill in all the ideas and scenes that I know (or think I know) that need to go into the book, then I fill in other ideas as they come to me and make changes as needed. But most of the time the book doesn't quite behave and ends up being pretty different than I thought it would be at the start.
This story has been fighting me the entire way. Now I know why. Hopefully this will make it easier to write from here on out.
Back to it. Happy New Year everyone!
You're doing something really mundane. Some normal, regular thing you do every day or every week or whatever. Something maybe boring and familiar. And it hits you. A crystal clear moment of clarity to some problem that's been pissing you off for a while. Usually you don't even know why the answer has even come to you. That's what happened to me.
I've been grappling with why this book has been so hard to write. It's because the book has been trying to be something other than what I've been trying to make it be. Sounds silly but it's true. For me, books do have a life of their own. I do follow a plot line that I create mostly as I'm going. I start with a basic idea and fill in all the ideas and scenes that I know (or think I know) that need to go into the book, then I fill in other ideas as they come to me and make changes as needed. But most of the time the book doesn't quite behave and ends up being pretty different than I thought it would be at the start.
This story has been fighting me the entire way. Now I know why. Hopefully this will make it easier to write from here on out.
Back to it. Happy New Year everyone!
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