I Was Half Right

Just a quick update. Thanks for all your kind words and thoughts! I really appreciate it. So, I was half right in the fear I lived in - my doctor ordered me to full bedrest, BUT she let me come home. So I have one more week of freedom, hopefully two. I'm checking with my bosses to make sure it's still copacetic for me to work full time at home because I know I'll get cabin fever within a day otherwise. It's really in their hands, though. I might be very bored very soon. As long as the baby's ok, though, I guess that's what matters. :) And now I'll be a good little girl and lay on my side as ordered...

Preeclampsia and Modified Bedrest

All right, here's the skinny. (Warning, this may be long and boring. Continue at your own risk...) On Monday, I went in to my OB for my regularly scheduled check-up. My blood pressure had been high enough 2 weeks ago that they'd made me do a bunch of tests, so I anticipated that it would be high because I was anxious. Unfortunately, it was too high for Dr. Petersen to excuse due to nerves, and she sent me over to the hospital for further tests and monitoring. I don't know how any of you would feel in this situation, but I flipped out. Luckily, OBs are pretty used to hormonal/emotional pregnant women, so they let me wait in the check-up room (rather than out front in the waiting room) for Tyler to come get me and take me over to the hospital.
We went over to Crestwood (for you locals), and after 2 or 3 hours, Dr. Petersen decreed that I needed to stay in the hospital over night. The next day she came to see me, and so far my blood work etc was normal, so we were just waiting on the results of one more test before she let me go with a clean bill of health (or really, a diagnosis of pregnancy induced hypertension, but without any severe restrictions). When the nurse came to let me go, she told me to head straight over to Dr. Petersen's office to discuss my results with Dr. Petersen, and she said I was ordered on bedrest. So, like a good little girl, I went over to talk with Dr. Petersen. The results of the last test were NOT negative. I had a protein level of 353 (where 300 is the maximum acceptable, and I'd had a level of 6 two weeks ago). She said if it gets to 5000, she'll deliver the baby right away. She also said she wants to deliver the baby by 37 weeks, which means we have a lot less time to prepare than we anticipated. I'm 37 weeks on February 4, but I'm not sure which day that week she'll want to schedule the delivery. My birthday is the 3rd, my sister-in-law's is the 4th, and my sister's is the 6th. So the kid only has 2 days that week that wouldn't be sharing a birthday. Somehow I think he'll adapt, though. :) In the meantime, I need to go in each Monday to repeat the tests and check the new levels. I'm allowed to work 4 hours at work and the rest at home BUT I'm not allowed to drive (apparently if it progresses, preeclampsia can induce seizures). Since it becomes a whole production to get me anywhere, I was lucky enough to arrange to work from home full-time.
I confess that I live in fear that when she gets the test results back on Monday night or Tuesday morning, she'll order me to the hospital for full bedrest, or that my protein will be so high she'll want to deliver the baby right away. I'm trying to be good and stay off my feet, but the only real cure for preeclampsia is apparently the delivery of the baby. So right now I'm just trying to take care of myself and the baby for a few more weeks. We have good support from family, and Tyler's basically the best, so at this point, please just pray for us!

Tyler wanted to record the event for posterity, so this pic was taken with his LG phone.

Pretty Much a Record

Seriously, this is a record. I'm getting better at updating the blog. Yay!! AND we just took this pic tonight, and it didn't take me a month to post it!
So, this is the month 8 picture. Still in black, but I tried to stand over to the side of the fireplace a little more, so hopefully you can better see my preggo belly. Thank you all for your positive comments on all the pix, by the way. I can't tell you how it warms my heart. :)

Month 7 Pic

We haven't taken the 8-month pic yet. Even though I'm 33 weeks today. So we'll get on that...


And I know I cheated by wearing a black shirt. There's not much of a difference between that and the fireplace, but hopefully you get the idea. Black's just been my favorite color of shirt lately. I wonder why...

Not Skeletor Anymore...

I know, I still need to post a 7-month pic. And now an 8-month pic as well. Surprisingly enough, I'm just not THAT enthusiastic about it. (Though I did get a fun new camera for Christmas, so maybe I'll let Tyler take the 8-month pic soon...)
But I digress. We went and got a 4D Ultrasound this morning. The kid slept right through the whole thing. Frankly, I think Tyler has taught him to tease already. He woke up bright and chipper at 4:30 this morning when I woke up to go to the bathroom, and then stayed awake playing RIGHT up until we went in for the ultrasound. We tried playing music and dancing and everything. But we still got some great shots of his cute little face and his foot. ALSO further evidence that he's still a boy, but I figure I won't show any more of those pics. :)
So, here's our bundle of joy:



We can't wait to meet him next month!!

Preggo pics, Random thoughts, and a query.

I really appreciate everyone's requests for me to post preggo pics. I've put it off for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that I've grown less and less fond of pictures of myself as the months have passed. C'est la vie. So, from the beginning to last month's, are my pregnancy progression pics...


I think the difference from month 5 to month 6 is the most drastic. But just wait a few days for the month 7 pic...

I know I still need to post pics of the baby's room, but that's still a work in progress, and a messy one at that.

On a completely unrelated note, is anyone else a blog-stalker? I like to refer to it as "blog walking," actually, because somehow that seems a little less invasive. But at the same time, I feel that if people DON'T want just any random person reading their blogs, they should make them private. Someone who posts funny Twilight commentaries on a public blog is just begging to be followed. That's just a random thought for you. It's late, and I can't sleep.

And speaking of blog walking, I'm a little bit obsessed with crafty tutorial/how-to blogs. I've been inspired to try a few projects of my own. Some car trash bags, some pyramid door stops, a quilt (or two) for the baby, a harvest pumpkin, a pin-cushion, some bags for myself (hmm, I've been more productive in the last few months than I realized. yay, me! But I digress...). I'm thinking about trying to do a quilt block exchange. I'm not sure how they usually work, but what I'm picturing is something like this:

I get 12 (or maybe just 9) girls (or guys, I guess) to participate. Each month, whoever is "it" gets to pick a quilt block that they want the other participants to make. They email the pattern to everyone, and everyone has a month to make the block and send it on (using material they choose themselves (within given guidelines), unless the one who is it wants to send material to everyone?). By the end of the 9 (or 12?) months, each person would then have enough quilt blocks to make a nice little throw. I'm thinking quilt blocks that are a beginner's level (my level. if they have pre-beginner, that might even be better). Is anyone at all interested in this?

Skeletor

Well, it's been FAR TOO LONG since my last post. And a lot has happened, actually, which is frankly unusual. Generally if I haven't written in my journal for a while (which, incidentally, I haven't), it's because nothing of note has happened. In this case, though, I've neither blogged nor written in my journal because so MUCH has been happening that I've just gotten overwhelmed by the idea of playing catchup. And I still am, so rather than updating on everything, I'll just share the MAJOR news: I'm pregnant!! 21 weeks already, so I've REALLY put this entry off. We went in last week and found out it's a little boy! We're thrilled, of course, and stressed out trying to get everything in order. Mostly just giddy, though, I think.
Here are some pics from the ultrasound:




And for now, Tyler's dubbed the baby Skeletor. Why, you ask? Well, that's a reasonable question. It's because so far the baby's face hasn't fleshed out, so in the ultrasound his face looks, well, skeletal:


And I think I'll end this there. Next time maybe I'll share the monthly pics of my growing belly. And hopefully some pictures of the baby's room. :)