Dehydration

We had quite a scare yesterday.  I've had "intestinal distress" since Friday night and was planning on calling the OB today if it didn't clear up.  Yesterday morning I woke up around 7 and started having contractions.  I was in bed and started counting them.  I got to 5 in 45 minutes and somehow drifted back to sleep.  When I woke up a few hours later I shook it off as me being paranoid and got out of bed.  On my way down the stairs I was struck with a particularly painful contraction and yelled out to Tom that we needed to go to the hospital.  (In the back of my mind was the info diarrhea + contractions = preterm labor.)  A quick call to the doctor confirmed this and off we went.

The whole way there I was telling Tom I thought I was over-reacting, that they were just going to tell us to go home, that everything was fine.  Meanwhile, I was still having contractions.  We got to the labor and delivery floor, spoke to a nurse, and were put in a delivery room.  They hooked me up to a fetal heart monitor and contraction monitor.  I was having contractions every 10 minutes.  These weren't gut-wrenching painful, but they were still painful.  They took a urine and blood sample and started me on an IV.  Apparently, I was dehydrated from the diarrhea and that triggered the contractions.  I didn't feel dehydrated.  However, after a few hours on the IV the contractions slowed down to every 20 minutes, then every half hour, then every hour, then gone!!  After a few hours without contractions they sent me home.  The nurse told me they get a lot of women during the summer who go into preterm labor because of dehydration.  I feel we were really lucky to get to the hospital early enough to stop the contractions.  And yes, I'm now drinking water by the gallon.

Gestational Diabetes

Every woman is checked for gestational diabetes between 24 and 28 weeks.  Gestational diabetes only occurs during pregnancy (hence the name) and can result in anything from a large baby to a stillborn.  Most often, gestational diabetes goes away once the baby is born, and both mom and baby are fine.  However, having gestational diabetes puts the mom at a 50% risk of developing diabetes later in life.  GD is managed during pregnancy with diet, exercise and possibly daily insulin injections.

Two weeks ago I had the gestational diabetes test - the glucose tolerance test.  This involves drinking 10 ounces of glucose watery stuff.  It was pretty gross and made me nauseous.  An hour later your blood is drawn.  Sadly, I failed that test.  The next step is the expanded glucose tolerance test which I had this past Tuesday.  This time I had to fast for 12 hours, show up at 8 am, have my blood drawn and drink a glucose drink that had twice the sugar concentration of the previous one.  I almost vomited while drinking it.  I guess that isn't too uncommon.  Try downing 10 ounces of corn syrup sometimes.  Or rather, don't.  At this point you are held hostage for the next 3 hours so they can draw your blood hourly.  So, I sat in the waiting room.  And got bored.  So I bothered the font desk people with a question -- "I haven't felt the baby move as often in the past two days - is that normal?"  Next thing I knew I was whisked back to an exam room, my weight and blood pressure measured, told to pee in a cup, and then had a PA come in with a doppler to check the baby.  She told me movement isn't reliable until 32 weeks - after that point if I notice a change in baby activity they do get worried.  However, since I was there (and being held hostage) they were happy to check on the baby for me.  She put the doppler goo on my tummy and went to work finding the heartbeat.  Baby Stanis was probably on the most intense sugar high of his short life and every time she put the doppler on my tummy he kicked it.  She told me I have a feisty baby.  However, we did listen to the heartbeat, kicks aside, and it sounded great.  She said he had good blood flow.  That's my boy!  :)  This diversion passed a half hour of my captivity.  Four blood draws later I was free to go.

I got the test results today.  NO GESTATIONAL DIABETES!!!!

Pediatrician

There have been several, several things about being pregnant that have surprised me.  I think I had some vague notion that two lines showed up on the pregnancy test and then 9 months later a baby popped out.  And yes, that is what is supposed to happen, but there is just so much else that has to be done in between.  Ultrasounds, peeing in cups, getting blood drawn, baby kicking, circumcise or not, breastfeed or not, choosing baby gear, interviewing pediatricians, etc, etc, etc.  That last item - interviewing pediatricians - would NEVER have occurred to me.  However, within 24 hours of the baby being born, he is checked out by the pediatrician.  Hence, a series of "prenatal" pediatrician interviews are now in our future.  We had the first one today.

I don't know exactly what I expected, but the person we interviewed did not meet my ideals of a pediatrician.  Tom called him a "baby mechanic".  To me it seemed like he was tired, burned out and not terribly interested in being a pediatrician.  I don't expect the pediatrician to think my child is the greatest gift to mankind, but this guy made it seem like caring for a child was like working an assembly line.  Not quite the warm, fuzzy feeling I was hoping for.  We have the next interview in a few weeks.  Let's hope that one is better!

Ultrasound Update

Today we had an ultrasound to check the status of the placenta previa. Baby Qbert is doing well, but the placenta is still blocking the cervix. I am no longer allowed to travel and have to avoid anything strenuous. We have to watch out for bleeding and if that happens, it is off to the hospital we go. We were able to confirm that Qbert is still, in fact, a boy. He is currently 1 pound 12 ounces and his size places him in the 70th percentile, which means he's at the larger end of the spectrum for his gestational age. I got the lovely sugar drink for the glucose tolerance test. I'll most likely try to get that done tomorrow morning.

I'm feeling a bit immobilized by the "nothing strenuous" warning. Is carrying groceries in from the car strenuous? How about packing boxes for our upcoming remodel? Perhaps I'll ponder about this while I relax on the sofa for a bit...

23.5 weeks!

It has been a while since my last update and so much has happened with baby Qbert. A few weeks ago I was reading in bed around 11pm when I felt something poke my bladder from above. I thought it an interesting feeling and then it happened again. I sprung out of bed (well, as much as one can spring when 20 weeks pregnant) and ran to tell Tom. It happened two more times that night. It took me a few days to determine that this was, in fact, Qbert saying hello and not, say, last night's dinner saying hello. Since then Qbert has exhibited his future career as an Olympic track star by running mini-marathons on my bladder. At times it actually gets really uncomfortable. However, it is so exciting to finally feel the little guy!

Last week I had my monthly prenatal checkup. She informed me my uterus is in the right place (good to know I didn't stash it behind a kidney). One of the ways they judge the progress of the pregnancy is by where your uterus is - each week it should be in a certain range. My uterus, apparently, is complying. We also listened to the baby's heartbeat.... ahhhh... so much fun to hear! It always makes me grin like an idiot. The last few times they've had to chase the baby around my tummy because he just moves so much! Next week we go in for an ultrasound to see if the placenta has raised up at all.

A few weeks ago I was having some pretty bad heart palpitations, which can be normal during pregnancy. However, I was getting dizzy afterwards, so my OB referred me to a cardiologist. They put me on a Holter monitor for 24 hours. They said they would call if there were any problems, and I haven't heard a thing, so I assume all is well with my heart. I have a follow-up with the cardiologist at the end of next week. I think stress got the better of me with the palpitations. However, I've been trying to drink more water, which seems to have helped with the dizziness.

When we found out we were pregnant, it jump-started our plans for remodeling the house. After a few months of design work, we finally submitted our plans to the city of Saratoga last Tuesday. I waddled in with the contractor, hoping to play the pregnant card and get our plans pushed through a bit faster. In the process of talking with the building inspector, we found out the previous 1100 sf addition put on our house by the previous owners was never permitted. Or, rather, the permit expired and was never finaled. So, technically, half of our house is illegal in the eyes of the city. We're now trying to get the previous owner to provide copies of the finalized permits, which they say they have. My dreams of having our remodel finished before the baby gets here are quickly vaporizing... We also decided over the weekend to rip the upper deck off the house, as we don't see ourselves really using it, and it is likely to cost about $20,000 to rebuild. It is currently unsafe and possibly causing problems with the 2nd floor cantilever.

However, the one room Tom and I are remodeling ourselves is the nursery! We've spent the past three weekends working on it. The previous owners used the room as a framing studio, so we had a lot of work to do. We ripped out a huge shelf along one wall, painted the walls, tore out the old trim, and partially installed the new trim. The room was a light purple with hideous dark purple trim. We're working on removing the linoleum and we have the hardwood to install. There are also pipes in the room, so we're going to put in a vanity with a little sink. It has been a lot of work, but it is fun seeing it all come together.

Finally, we went Friday night to set up our baby registry. After the fun we had with the wedding registry, we approached this with a mix of excitement, apprehension and dread... After getting our scanning gun, we started in the first aisle, which was bottles. We came prepared with two books and a few emails from friends. We almost went in to meltdown just on the bottles. 20 minutes later we decided it really was going to depend entirely on what the baby decides he likes, so we registered for a bottle set that seemed good... We referred to our books and emails a few times, but generally we picked things we thought would work well... All in all, we were done in 2 hours! Tom said it was more fun than the wedding registry. I wasn't so sure --- choosing nipple pads vs china patterns? Tough call. :)

Some pics from the nursery in progress:

The nursery before we started:

Tom removing the giant shelf (notice the lovely purple moulding around the wood beams):

Working on the room (notice the lovely new white moulding) The door and trim around the sliding door had been deep purple:

Yay power tools!

Part of the 150 feet of trim we painted:

The old linoleum floor:
Tom unloading 66 boxes of hardwood flooring, at 62 pounds a box:

Sad Weekend

Tom and I flew to San Diego this past weekend for a party that my parents, together with my great aunt and uncle, Don and Daryl, throw every few years.  We had a great time at the party on Friday night.  Saturday we stopped over to Don and Daryl's to return some items from the party and visited with them for a while.  After we left, Don sat down to read for a bit, fell asleep, and never woke up.  Daryl tried to wake him for dinner, but he had passed away.  We are so sad and devastated by this.  Don had had some serious medical issues, but it seemed like he was doing much better and gave no indication he wasn't feeling well.  We had a fun visit with him on Saturday and he was in good spirits.  This has come as a huge shock to the family.

I have so many memories of Don, all the way from their home in Washington DC, and being a flower girl in their daughter's wedding 25ish years ago, through to dancing with him at my own wedding this past summer.  Don had been in a wheelchair and I kept telling him I was going to dance with him at my wedding.  He would laugh at me like I was a crazy person, but as he recovered his strength and ability to walk, I became more and more insistent that we would, indeed, have that dance.  At the wedding, Don asked me to dance and we had a wonderful time of it!  It meant so much to me.

I know it will take more time for it to sink in that Don is gone.  He led a fascinating and exciting life and I am sad it was cut short all too soon.

IT'S A ...

We had our big ultrasound today and found out Qbert's gender! Watch the big reveal here: