Week 29

This has been quite an eventful week since we were off of work. It seemed like a great week to make lots of doctor's appointments and check out a few daycare facilities, as well as meet with a couple of pediatricians so we can decide who we want to use for Blake's doctor.

On Monday, we headed out to take advantage of all the clearance deals for Christmas decorations. Since we've been slacking on decorating for Christmas, we decided that the arrival of Blake was a good excuse to get started and who doesn't like a good deal. We ended up finding everything on our list including a tree (which went straight up into the attic) as well as some lights, ornaments, and stockings among other things. We'll be ready to go next year for Blake's first Christmas!

On Tuesday, I had my Glucose Tolerance Test and it went pretty smoothly. I got there first thing in the morning and chugged my flat orange soda. I guess they've made some improvements in the flavor because I really thought it was quite tasty. After waiting an hour, they took my blood and that was about it. To pass you have to get less than 130 and I got 122 (not sure what the measurement is) so the doctor said I had no issues and wasn't even borderline, so yay, no follow-up 3 hour glucose test for me!

This week we got quite a scare on Wednesday. I woke up to crazy back pain in the lower left side of my back. I figured it might be a muscle cramp at first, then thought it might be a contraction. When it didn't go away I decided to head to the bathroom and try and empty my bladder and that's when I realized the pain wasn't going away. It was so bad that I was shaking and vomiting and ended up not being able to keep any water down. I tried a heating pad to see if that would relax my possible pulled muscle and it didn't seem to work. Next I tried Tylenol and that came right back up. That's when we called my OB and headed in to see him. The pain was so excruciating and there was no relief so that made me think that it couldn't be related to contractions or labor pain. After going through the routine of getting weighed, blood pressure, doppler, etc. we saw the doctor and he called the hospital to let them know we were headed over.

After getting checked in (which seemed like an eternity) we got put in a room where they did all the vitals again, took some blood, and I waited anxiously for them to get the IV started so I could get some fluids in me (since I was super dehydrated and couldn't keep anything in my stomach) and almost more importantly get the anti-nausea medicine and morphine for the pain. Of course as luck would have it, the nurse couldn't get the IV into my left hand because my veins were too small (I guess from being so dehydrated), so she called in another nurse to try my right arm and after poking and prodding around she finally got the needle to "float" in. I was so thankful to get the fluids started and get the medicine in me. Actually, being on my right side seemed to help the pain in addition to the morphine. We're not sure, but maybe sometime in there I may have passed a kidney stone which could've been the cause of all the pain.

After getting the pain under control, we went down to get an ultrasound to check on the baby and to check on my other organs but mainly my left kidney and bladder (which is where the majority of the pain had been). Blake seemed to do great through everything which was a relief. Everything checked out on the ultrasound machine and his estimated size based on his measurements was 3lbs 5oz (+/- 9oz) which looked like he was a couple weeks ahead of schedule according to the printout on the ultrasound machine. The tech also checked out his general movement and breathing movement and both checked out great. She was able to tell that he was head down at that point too which is good to know that he can be comfy in that position. Let's hope he stays that way for the next couple months and doesn't decide to turn breech. Next, all my other organs were checked out and after getting the report, they all seemed to be ok.

We ended up waiting another 3 hours or so for the results in one of the labor rooms which gave me time to finish a whole bag of sugar water in my IV. After the doctor finished a delivery in another room, he came over and his best guess at a diagnosis was that I passed a kidney stone. The only other thought he had was that sometimes the weight of the baby can put pressure on the tube from the kidney to the bladder and can cause some of the fluid to move backward into the kidney and also cause inflammation of the blood vessels around the kidney. He seemed pretty confident that I shouldn't have this happen again so there isn't anything I need to do except go back to the hospital if it happens again. Chris was amazingly patient and helpful throughout the whole day and I'm so lucky to have such a great partner and support person. He's going to be such a great Daddy! I also thank all of you who called to check in and see how Blake and I were doing.

We've also made a lot of headway on the nursery and have a couple walls decorated for the most part. We've had a fun time torturing ourselves with hanging sets of multiple pieces of art and getting them all to line up just right, but we're really happy with how they turned out.

Mr. Blake has gotten even more active this week... which I didn't think was possible. He especially likes to kick my right rib and he also discovered my right hip and likes to push off of it. We're looking forward to meeting this little busy body!