This is totally unrelated to anything but…
Yeah! Just talked to my doctor and I do NOT have pre-eclampsia! Yeah! Happy Days!
Miraculously, things are still going well. The babies are growing and having a good old time kicking around in sensitive, inconvenient locations. I can already start to see little personalities developing. The little goober on the right is very laid back and delicate with her movements. The one on the left feels like she is searching for the best technique to kick her way out of me. I feel bad sometimes because leftie kicks her sister so hard that she visibly pops her up on the other side of my tummy. She might need a time-out after she is born 
Not nice! hee hee.
We have completely shocked all of the doctors with the fact that the goobers are still hanging on. We couldn’t be happier… except for the fact that I received a tidbit of extremely annoying news last week. Apparently, I have developed Gestational Diabetes. Yuck! With luck, it will go away once the babies are born but it is turning out to be a real pain (and frankly, a little scary.) When I first found out, I met with a diabetes nutritionist to develop a meal plan for managing my blood sugar. I assumed that if I follow my plan to the letter, I would be fine. Wow… was I wrong! This stuff is tricky! I am slowly figuring it out but it is a lot harder than I thought that it would be. I definitely have a new-found respect for people with diabetes.
On top of the oh-so-fun Gestational Diabetes stuff, the doctors are also a little worried about preeclampsia again. They ran a bunch more tests and I should find out the results early this week. I think that I should only be allowed to have one complication at a time! Hopefully, the preeclampsia testing is negative!
My OB appointment went well. My cervix is happy and it turns out that I didn’t have an infection afterall. The final test results from the hospital came back negative. Go figure. A week of crappy antibiotics and the resulting sickness for nothing! At least I got to see the outside world for a couple hours… and get sweet tea from Chick-fil-a. Yummy!
23 Weeks… The New Frontier. These are the voyages of the Edie Incubator. Her 40 week mission: to carry two little goober nuggets to term, to avoid vomiting on her husband, to boldly go where she has never been before.
I am now officially more pregnant than I have ever been! This being my 4th pregnancy, one would assume that I would be a “pro” at this whole thing by now… but I have never actually made it this far… ever. I am entering uncharted territory and I am so excited. (or more appropriately, I am “cautiously optimistic” that this might actually work this time!)
My doctor’s appointment went well today. My cervix is holding steady (just a small drop that the doc says is well within the “variable range”) and the babies are doing well. We even got to view them on the cool 3D ultrasound. I have to admit that I have always thought that the 3D imaging was rather disturbing… until I saw my own little goober nuggets on it. I am in love.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I called the doctor yesterday because I wasn’t feeling right in the “girlie parts” area and I was afraid that something was wrong with my cerclage (in other words, I was worried that the babies were slowing ripping through my cervix and were going to fall out) I was hoping just to go in for a quick check…. but instead I was sent immediately to the dreaded hospital. They hooked me up to the monitors and we proceeded to sit in fearful agony for TWO HOURS before the doctor finally came in to see me.
Despite my extreme paranoia, my cervix and cerclage were still intact… however, I am very glad that we went. Turns out that I am having contractions! Not good at 22 weeks! At first, they thought that maybe I was dehydrated… but seeing that I practically drown myself in water everyday, I knew that couldn’t be it. They ran some tests and found out that I have an infection which they think is probably causing my contractions. Fun. They pumped me full of IV antibiotics and sent me home last night with some more. With some luck, the contractions will calm down once the antibiotics start to clear up the infection. We are really lucky because it could have technically sent me into full-blown labor. Super Fun.
Now I am just laying here staring at the wall and praying that the contractions will stop. No pre-term labor for me!!
Geee, it must be great to lounge around all day in bed, eating bon-bons, watching TV, maybe switching it up every now and again and playing a computer game, and then flipping from your left to your right side.
So great in fact that you’re worried every time you roll over that your going to rip your cerclage out. When you eat laying down you spill the contents of your food on the bed….and you. Luckily you avoid hot liquids. It must be great to get sore from lying down all day. Oh! Then there is the worry over blood clots, loss of muscle mass, depression and a continual feeling of isolation being confined to your bed. Only getting to see the outside world when you leave for your doctors appointment. Even better for you is that, once an active participant in your family, now you watch from the sidelines and only get to participate should your family decide to grace you with their presence.
Best of all, the fear that every time you stand up, your babies are going to slip out tearing your cerclage along the way. Yay! Happy Thanksgiving to you….again and again. Oh, and I know how much you love to cry. Crying because of the overwhelming pressure on you. Crying because of the pain. Crying because less than 1% of the population can even understand what you are going through. Crying because today is Alex’s birthday and he’s not here to celebrate it with us. Crying because in just another week, it’s Chris’ birthday and she won’t be here to celebrate it either. Crying because November is the worst month in history and knowing that it might just get worse before it’s over.
Geeee, you must be having the time of your life.
Happy Birthday Xander.
We are having 2 girls! Maybe, sort of, kind of. We had another ultrasound last week and the tech said that the babies look “girl-ish.” They weren’t very cooperative during the ultrasound, though, so there is still a chance that they could be hiding little man parts. We should get a better reading during their anatomy ultrasound in a couple weeks. Yippee! Michael is in so much trouble! Outnumbered 4-1. hee hee.
My cervix is also behaving… which is always good to know!
On a completely unrelated note: Isabel has been singing the most adorable songs lately. Her favorites right now are The Barney Song, You are My Sunshine, and the ABC Song. I even get hugs and kisses during the Barney Song. She’s amazing.
WARNING: The following post may not be suitable for those who don’t have children but might want to someday, those who have children and haven’t yet begun the painful potty-training process, to those of weak constitution, weak bladders, and those who scream at the sight of spiders. If you fit this category for the love of all that is good in this world. Please, please leave now. Really, I mean it. This is not a joke. I’m warning you….Okay, your funeral.
I’ve previously alerted the masses of how wonderful a parental unit I am, and how I keep a watchful eye on my child never trusting her to be left alone to the world and the dangers that lurk in the bathroom. I hereby present to you yet another stellar example of my fine, fine parental skills and clue you all in on how I manage to protect my child from the dangers lurking in all bathrooms. Yes, a danger that affects us all, a danger that would send many people screaming from the bathroom in sheer terror and disgust…..we call this danger the Potty. (duhm, duhm, duhm)
My previous encounter taught me well never to leave a toddler unattended in the bathroom. The concept of privacy is overrated when you must defend yourself from the dangers that lurk, and the pain of cleaning up pee from the floor is enough to humiliate anyone. So, with renewed vigor and a determination to provide the best parental care possible I decided yet again that it would be fine to leave the munchkin to do their “doodie on the poddie” while I had a brief (really brief, nanoseconds we’re talking here) conversation with the in-law units.
“Splish, splish, splash, splish!”
?Huh? That doesn’t sound right.
To my horror I find Isabel stomping her feet in a puddle of “pee water.”
The toddler in that brief nanosecond managed to stop up the toilet with an entire roll of toilet paper which she gleefully unraveled and dispensed of in the proper location. Only problem was that she followed that up with repeated flushing in an attempt to hide the evidence against her. The repeated flushing then resulted in a brilliant and highly accurate recreation of Niagra Falls. Lovely “pee pee” water cascaded from the toilet and flowed conveniently straight for the wall where it did two things. One, it trickled along the wall making a beeline for the hallway, you know the one with the carpet. Two, it searched out for whatever small and insignificant cracks and holes in could find so that it could then cascade through the floor into the basement below, right next to the laundry.
Now would be the time to hire a professional potty-trainer, or at the very least apparently I should never, not even for a nanosecond, remove my eyes from the child. Next time she might blow something up.
Cerclage day (otherwise known as the day Edie thought she was going to die from fright) was a success. Michael drove me to the hospital first thing in the morning so that we could be there in plenty of time for the torturous preparations that needed to be done before the surgery. I am not the most pleasant person when I am nervous/scared but Michael was amazing in his efforts to keep me sane along the way
At the hospital, we sat around for a while and then I was dragged kicking and screaming into the pre-surgery prep area all by myself. OK… I wasn’t exactly screaming out loud but I certainly felt like letting out a good hearty scream of panic. The nurse was real nice and she settled me into my hospital bed and gave me a wonderful pair of fun, hospital booties. Another nurse came in to start my IV and finally Michael was allowed to come back into the room. Whew!
A whole slew of people came in one by one to give me a bunch of info about the surgery and anesthesia. Much to our dismay, we then found out that they were going to switch doctors on us. Instead of the wonderful head of the high-risk department, my surgery was going to be done by 2 doctors that I had never heard of. Needless to say, I was annoyed (especially because we had just met with the guy yesterday and everything was fine.) We were told he had an unexpected meeting. Annoying!
They did a quick ultrasound and then we just had to wait for a bunch more fluids to get in me before they could take me into surgery. Apparently, it helps prevent my blood pressure from dropping too much with the anesthesia. After I was all filled up, they came in to roll me away. This was definitely the scariest part of the whole thing.
The operating room was freezing! They transferred me to the table and sat me up for the spinal. The spinal itself wasn’t so bad but I was shaking from nerves (and the polar ice cap conditions) so it was probably a little harder than it should have been. They gave me a super-low dose of medicine so as soon as they gave it to me, they flipped me upside-down in the bed to allow the meds to flow to the proper area. The surgery needed to be done in the Trendelenburg position (with my body slanted down towards me head) and I kept sliding off the table. It was awful. They had to slant the bed the other way and then try to push me back down. I felt like a beached whale. At some point, they even had to call someone else in to help move me. What a way to start off the surgery. At least they only had to do that twice!
The surgery itself was easy (for me at least.) I didn’t even realize that they had started and then they were all done. The only annoying part about the surgery itself was the fact that the doctors were constantly rambling in a language that I didn’t recognize. I was really frustrated because I couldn’t figure out what they were talking about… were they having problems getting the stitch in? Were they talking about my funny looking butt? Were they talking about what they wanted to eat for dinner? I would recommend that doctors do not ramble in another language unless they want to make their patient really stressed. After it was over, they did a quick in-and-out catheter (because I wouldn’t be able to get up for about an hour and thought it would be nice if I didn’t pee the bed) and then they wheeled me into recovery.
Recovery from the anesthesia was very quick. They gave me such a low dose that I could start to move my legs before I even left the operating room. In less than an hour, the anesthesia wore off, I went pee (a prerequisite for letting me out of the hospital…good to know, huh?) and they paged Michael to come meet me in recovery so I could go home.
Everything was fine until about 1/2 way home when the pain meds started wearing off. Wow did I hurt! We were stuck in rush hour traffic and had a long way to go before we got to the pharmacy for more pain meds! That was NOT fun!
We finally got home and the official start of bedrest began. All in all, the surgery went well. I bled a lot more than everyone said I would… and was in a lot more pain… but at least the stitch is in! And hopefully, it will keep our little goober nuggets safe and sound for many months to come!
