Monday, February 23, 2009

34 week appointment

My doctor's appointment went well. The nurse practitioner came in just to check the heartbeat. She left, and then Dr came in. He said my 24 hr urine test came back fine, nothing to worry about it. Everything else looks good, still down 1 lb, but he's not worried. He doesn't think I'll have preterm labor for any reason. My next appointment is in 2 weeks and he'll go over labor questions then. I'm going to get a list ready, like can I eat/drink, how do they feel about leaving the cord attached till it stops pulsing, things like that.

He said my wrist will take longer to heal because of muscles etc stretching naturally now. He said to try the brace off today and see how it does. So far so good, still hurts, and a bit swollen, but I'm trying it. Did I mention that here? I don't think I did... I strained/sprained/pulled the muscles/tendons/ligaments on my right hand from my thumb to my wrist fighting with the barn door about 3 weeks ago. I went to urgent care 2 1/2 weeks ago and they gave me a bulky brace. It's somewhat better, but not much.

And now I think I'm getting Jon's cold. He was sick last week. I woke up yesterday with a sore throat and coughing. What fun. Dr checked my throat and didn't see any signs of strep.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Appointment,Tour and Class

1. 32 week appointment on Monday - Saw the nurse practitioner again. I do not like that woman one bit. She's very nice... but yeah. She looked at my chart, whipped out the due date wheel and got it wrong. Again. She said I was 31 weeks 2 days. Oh wait, no, 31 weeks 5 days. Still wrong, but I wasn't going to correct her. She checked for the heartbeat, and that was it. No measurements, no nothing. Then she tells me that my next appointment will be in 3 1/2 weeks when I'm 33 weeks. Now my math is bad, but not that bad... I reminded her that at my last visit they said I'd start every two weeks after this one. She said no, 3 1/2 weeks. Ok, whatever.

Right before I left, she tells me that I had protein in my urine again. The last visit I had to sit there for another hour, drinking tons of water and that retest was fine. She asked if I had been drinking enough (probably not) and ordered a 24 hour urine test. I'm going to do that on Sunday so I don't have to do it at work. What a hassle that is going to be. It's a brown gallon sized jug labelled "Biohazard". I have to collect urine for 24 hours and they want me to keep it in the fridge. Um no. A co-worker said she kept hers in a cooler in the bathroom when she had to do it. Much better idea. If this comes back fine, and my next pee-in-a-cup test comes back high, too damn bad.

When I made my next appointment, the nice woman at the desk looked at my chart and said "Ok, we'll see you in two weeks!" Yes, you will. At least one person there besides my doctor knows what they are doing...

Blood pressure, weight gain (still down 3 lbs from starting on their scale) was fine.

2. Hospital tour on Monday - It's one hallway and a tiny nursery. They encourage rooming-in, so only a few babies in there. The rooms are nice and big. Everything happens in that room unless there's an emergency. The nurses were really sweet.

3. Breastfeeding/Baby Care Class last night - We had our breastfeeding/baby care class last night. It was actually the last class of a six week Lamaze class. No one told us that. The instructor had graduates from the last class there to share their birth stories. So that was unexpected, but nice. One poor girl had a 9lb 5oz baby. She had an episiotimy, but the baby turned at the last minute and she ended up with a 4th degree tear (from front to back), took 1 1/2 hours to stitch her up. Um, ouch.

Not too much on baby care, but the breastfeeding part was nice. We took a 32 question quiz and I only got one wrong. The video was... interesting. It was nice to see what latch on actually looks like as opposed to reading about it/seeing a picture. However... all the women in the video were obese black women. Our class was all white except for one Mexican couple. It was definitely an older video too. At one point, they showed one whipping out her naked breast to feed in a park with a ton of graffiti on the building behind her. I was waiting to see a drug deal happen in the background, it was that kind of video.

Jon enjoyed the class. Of course, other husbands were there, and the instructor was asking the new dads what's changed, how it feels, their points of view. Now he's saying he wishes we had signed up for a Lamaze class. *sigh* The next one starts on the 24th and ends the last week of March. Which is fine, but it's during the week at night. He had a difficult time getting out of work on time last night. Even though they knew in advance, they still threw a fit. He won't be able to do that for 6 weeks.

There were about 8 babies that came. Only one was somewhat fussy. It was funny, every time she cried, Connor would start kicking. The class was supposed to be from 6:30-7:45.... no, it was till 9.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Signed Up

I signed up for a tour of Labor/Delivery, which also includes the nursery. It's Monday in the evening.

We are also signed up for a Breastfeeding/Baby Care class on Tuesday night. It's an hour and fifteen minutes of "education and support for women who want to breast feed and also covers basic baby care for newborns."

My next appointment is Monday morning. I'm curious to see if I've gained any weight yet. My scale at home says 1 lb, but that varies.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

:)

"Go to google and write your name and the word ‘needs’, in quotes — as in “Jennifer needs”. notice the first 10 sensical sentences that come up. here’s what i got:

1. Jennifer needs to play by 'The Rules'.
(Awww... that's no fun.)

2. Jennifer needs a smack daddy.
(Smack daddy? Is that like a sugar daddy?)

3. Jennifer needs to give birth in the next week.
(I most certainly do not.)

4. Why Jennifer needs a cane.
(Because my upper right leg keeps falling asleep if I stand too long)

5. Jennifer needs your support.
(When I fall over because my leg's asleep)

6. Jennifer needs a muzzle at The Insider.
(Sorry, I'll keep my mouth shut.)

7. Jennifer needs a shave.
(How'd you know??)

8. Jennifer needs 2 1/2 cups of sugar to make cookies for 15 people.
(Mmm... cookies...)

9. Jennifer needs to hear some good news.
(Good news is always good!)

10. Jennifer needs our prayers.
(Prayers are always good too.)

Hmm... it took me 3 Google pages just to get these. Between the other Jennifers doing the same thing and their blogs coming up and duplicates.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Correction

Ok, my mom talked to Aunt Ev (grandma's sister). Apparently, the original information on the family bassinet is wrong. My great grandpa's baptismal sponsor made it for him. So it was used in late 1892 to early 1893.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

30 weeks

Sunday I hit the 30 week mark. I can't believe he's almost here. These next 10 (to 12) weeks will fly by. I plan on working until my doctor tells me I can't. So not sure yet when I'm leaving work. I certainly don't want to go into labor at work and hope that Jon is at the shop to pick me up or have someone from work drive me 30 minutes to the hospital. But at the same time, I don't want to waste any maternity leave sitting at home doing nothing. So hopefully he comes on a weekend or in the evening when Jon's home :)

I feel like he's getting bigger nearly every day. I really don't know how much more my stomach can expand. I know it will though... So far only 2-3 small stretch marks and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it stays that way. Either way, they fade eventually and I've never been one to show off my stomach anyway.

This past weekend we went through the baby clothes that Stacey gave us and separated them by size. Hopefully they will get washed this weekend.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Pics!

First of all, let it be noted that I hate Chicago weather. I left my house at 6:40 am and did not get to work until 9 am. It normally only takes 30-35 minutes. The expressway was crawling, no faster than 5-10 mph. Semis were having issues getting up the overpasses. Cars were going too fast/not paying attention and spinning out/slamming into each other. No. Fun. The snowflakes were gigantic. We're supposed to get a ton of snow today. Jon was going to plow last night, but the tractor would not start again. We already have 3-4 inches of snow in the driveway.

Oh, and the low for tomorrow night is supposed to be -10. Yes, negative. Not to count the -30 to -40 wind chill.

Erika sent me the pics she took on Monday.

First, Madison.



So vicious...



Jon and I (and Madison trying to get our attention with her mangled tire):



(I, personally, think my face looks fat in this pic, but whatever.)