Weeks 32 and 34!

It has been a crazy two weeks! Baby showers, maternity pictures, New Years, back to work, drill team competition, nesting, practice and games, and a mini hospital scare. Before I get into anything else I will start with the mini scare (I am not rereading any of this so my apologies for misspellings and/or non sense making)....

It all started with heartburn that turned into this stabbing pain in my chest and upper back that was making me sick. After day 3 or not being able to eat even soup without my chest hurting I called the on-call doctor. He was not very friendly, in fact, I pretty much felt that I was bothering him. This uncaring doctor told me take tums and if I have continued chest pains I needed to go to the ER. So Matt bought me tums and they helped with the acidic burning I had, but not the stabbing pains. I decided since the doctor didn't care much I must be ok. I waited another 24 hours and when I couldn't even swallow my macaroni and cheese told Matt we need to go the ER. At 8pm (on December 30) we made it to the Pres ER where I was immediately taken to a triage room on the pregnancy floor. We were greeted by a poor girl walking the hallways hunched over and by some other girl screaming...it was quite an eye opening.

Once in the room we were set up to monitors and my blood pressure was taken and then the nurse left and we didn't see anyone for quite sometime. And then comes in Nurse Bob. Nurse Bob appeared to be in his sixties and maybe should go back to school. Within in the first minute he told me I was borderline hypertension but the doctor was doing a c-section due to people trying to get their kids out for the tax credit and she should be in within 45 minutes. So Matt and I sat in this dark interrogation type room with no TV, just the sound of Carter's heartbeat. Finally the doctor came in, told me I was not borderline hypertension and asked what was up. I told her and she said I bet it is just severe acid reflux. So she would have Nurse Bob bring me Maalox to try, I would wait 20 minutes to see if it helped and if so I could go. If in 20 minutes no change she would do blood work. About 40 minutes later Nurse Bob finally brings me the Maalox and ten minutes later this huge, and I mean huge, guy walks in and says he is there to take my blood. About a minute later the doctor walks in and says to be on the safe side she decided to take blood just in case. So Mr. huge blood guy was horrible at taking blood and bruised me (I didn't even bruise when I broke my nose).

About forty minutes later and after playing eye spy with Matt Nurse Bob comes in and tells me that I can go and I sign the discharge papers. Right as he is about to leave the room I asked if my blood work was OK and he informed me that he didn't know they took my blood...back to waiting. Another thirty minutes go by and Matt went to find out what was going on and Nurse Bob informed Matt that not all of my tests were back. About ten minutes later Nurse Bob flies through the door and says I am probably staying because my LDH levels are high. Matt asks what we can do about that and Nurse Bob very calmly says ohhh we will induce you tonight. After a very loud WHAT from me Nurse Bob says that he isn't sure though because they changed the level readings and the doctor is doing another c-section. Once he left I went into full freak out mode. I was telling Matt we need to sneak out and leave now and then I was going through everything that was not done.

About thirty minutes of freaking out the doctor walks in and tells me I can go now. Very irritatedly I told her what Nurse Bob said and she told me that my levels were average. Are you joking me??? Nurse Bob should be fired. So after five hours of non sense Matt and left the ER knowing I had severe acid reflux and that Maalox is amazing. I took the Maalox for about a week and now all is back to normal! If only that darn on-call doctor would have told me to try Maalox.

*New Year's Eve was pretty low-key. We were pretty tired from our ER adventure the night before but thank goodness for Maalox and we were able to enjoy our four course meal courtesy of our good friends Ann and Jay. We had quite the feast and on our way home I literally fell asleep in the car. Luckily I made it to midnight and was able to watch the ball drop!

* On January 2nd we took maternity pictures by my good friend Laura Meeks! Click here for a sneak peek! Last night we picked our favorites and i will share them when I get them! She will be back to take Carter's newborn pictures sometime soon!

*I have had two baby showers and will have another one on Wednesday! I am so lucky to have such wonderful people in my life! I will post pictures of the shower and explain later!

* I am working on my sub plans for my maternity leave. I don't like writing plans for a one day absence so this 8 week sub plan writing is very difficult and tedious. I am half way through writing my sub plans and then I need to explain what to do during each subject and I will be done! I started my sub plans beginning the first week of February (just in case)!

* Today was our first day of baby school. We are in an accelerated course that takes place on two Sundays from 1-5. I almost feel asleep about ten times, and Matt and I couldn't be serious during the breathing exercises but all in all we heard some good pointers and even though we had to watch a video of a live birth (OMG) I believe the class was beneficial.

* Now on to Carter and week 34! On the 19th we go in for another ultrasound! Fingers crossed that all is well and we are on track for a mid to end February delivery! Apparently Carter is responding as a newborn with his eyes open while awake and closed while sleeping. He is developing immunities to fight mild infection and his sharp little fingernails are at the ends of the fingertips already. Carter can also recognize and react to simple songs. In fact, he will apparently recognize frequently sung tunes after birth and probably find them soothing. Less cute news: He now urinates about one pint per day...lovely. As for me, I'm just getting bigger and bigger and have started feeling Braxton Hicks contractions...nothing painful, just a tightening of the stomach for a few seconds.

~ Hopefully I will be on top of things next week and will actually post pictures in a timely manner...but who knows! Enjoy my weeks 32 and 34 pictures below!

Week 32





Week 34 and very tired!





Here are some pictures of Carter's bathroom!!