quote


"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you

meet is fighting some kind of battle."





Monday, January 31, 2011

Florida Baby Shower 11/29/2010

When posting the pictures in the previous post I realized I never posted pics from my first baby shower in FL. As you can see, I was much smaller here. :)
The mommy and daddy to be. 
My mom, me, and Mema

The food spread...YUM!

Decor

More decor...

Diaper Wreath

A cute present

Ashlee, me and Mendi...two of the hostesses and life long friends. 

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Pictures Post

I haven't posted any pics in a while, so here are some updated pics of the bathroom renovation, Louisville shower pics, and belly pics. I just realized I never posted any pics from my shower in FL. I will post some soon!
New toilet and tub

Other end of the tub (where the cave shower was) and some framing and insulation

This is the diaper cake from my Louisville Shower this past weekend. 

Pregnant picture at the shower..Erica @ 27 weeks, me @ 33 weeks, and Katie @ 26 weeks.

My latest belly pic @ 34 weeks. 

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

33 weeks and 5 days

Today I had my 7th NST and 4th BPP, but who's counting? :) This is my 4th week having doctor's visits twice a week. As much as I complain about having to constantly be at the OB office, I have to say it is nice they are monitoring me so closely. It's nice to know that everything is OK and to keep getting good reports every few days. I just wish they would give me some kind of preferred parking and a pass to the front of the line (like at a theme park) since I am there so often. I think I at least deserve that since I have been such a steller patient. :)

Today baby boy was very active for the NST. He was all over the place and I even had a pretty powerful Braxton Hicks contraction while on the monitor. The doctor said my NST looked great. By the time I had my BPP, baby boy had gone to sleep. The tech nudged him gently and he happily performed with a few kicks. When she woke him up, he got the hiccups, but he was back to sleep within a few mintues. He wouldn't show his face at all today so I didn't receive any pictures for the first time in over a month. They measure him every month so today I got to find out how big he is. He is 5 lbs, 3 oz and is in the 56th percentile. Last time he was in the 72nd percentile, so it was nice to find out he is not getting GIGANTOR.

I've gained 24 lbs total and I am pretty pleased with that. It's weird seeing that number continue to climb but it really doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would. My blood pressure has stayed low throughout the pregnancy so no signs so far that I may develop preeclampsia.  They continue to monitor to my urine for sugars and it is always negative.

As for the bathroom remodel update, we now have a toilet installed! Woo hoo! Cary got it installed before we went to bed last night. It was awesome to not have to go downstairs to use the restroom in the middle of the night. :) He is making good progress and I will post some pictures soon.

Our nursery is stil not finished but at least our furniture is put together. Our WONDERFUL friends from our small group came over and helped Cary assemble it all. The nursery is right next to the bathroom that is being remodeled so the overflow mess is all over the baby's room. Still hoping we can get everything finished before baby arrives. Fingers crossed he keeps baking until my due date and the remodel continues to go smoothly! :)

Friday, January 21, 2011

Update about my update

I had an NST and doctor's appointment yesterday. Everything is fine. I have decreased my basal rates to .60 at night and .65 during the day, how crazy is that?! I also decreased my Insulin to Carb ratios to 1:8 in the mornings and 1:9 the rest of the day. I also had to decrease my correction factor.

It still makes me nervous that my insulin needs decreased so dramatically this week. Everything I read talks about how not to freak out when your insulin needs continue to increase and can even triple. I was prepared for that! My insulin needs are less than they have been for the past 4 months! This freaks me out but they are monitoring me very closely and the baby's movements haven't decreased so I guess everything is fine. Just makes me nervous.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Update

In reference to my previous post...I called my OB office and talked to the OB nurse. She said to monitor the baby's movements and as long as they are normal and no less than 4 an hour, I should be fine. She wants me to call the doctor oncall if anything changes. She wanted to schedule me for an NST tomorrow, but as luck would have it, I already have an NST and doctor appointment scheduled tomorrow. So as of right now, all is well. I'll let you know how my appointment goes tomorrow. :)

What a week....

And it’s only Wednesday! It all started Saturday, (I know Saturday is not really the start of the week, but bear with me here.) my husband volunteered at Habitat for Humanity and stepped on a framing nail that almost went all the way through his foot. We spent the better part of Saturday night at the immediate care center. His foot is very swollen and he is in a lot of pain, he actually chipped a bone in his foot.



On Sunday, I went to church (without the hubby) and taught our precious 3 and 4 year old class. I then went to our Sunday school class and then to BabysRUs. When I got out of the car at BabysRUs, I threw away an armful of trash from the car. I didn’t happen to notice that I was also carrying my cell phone in my hands when I threw away the trash. I went into BabysRUs, came out and started to drive out of the parking lot while looking for my cell. I couldn’t find it and immediately thought “I threw it in the trash.” I tried to put this thought out of my head and went through my purse, the car and all the pockets I had, but no luck. I turned around to go back to BabysRUs. As I pulled up, the girl was removing the trash bag. I got out of the car and started to look through it. She looked at me. I said, “I think I threw away my cell phone, I’m going crazy.” She said, “Is it pink?” I said, “Yes!” She said, “Yep, I just saw it.” She then helped me look through the bag of trash and found it. It was disgusting, dripping with who knows what. I luckily had a sanitizing wipe in the car from Chick-fil-a (just another reason to love that place!). I disinfected it and was on my way. I can’t believe I did that. :)


I had my Endocrinologist appointment on Monday. I hate going to the Endo, I actually haven’t been in 5 months. (I know that’s terrible, especially since I am pregnant.) I just find it completely pointless. I know what my blood sugars are, I know what to do, I know everything he’s going to tell me. The only reason I go is to get my A1C, blood work and refills on my prescriptions. It always takes forever. My appointment was at 2:45pm and I didn’t get out of there until almost 5pm (and that was actually pretty quick for them)! I don’t know the results of my blood work yet but my A1C was 5.3%! YAY ME!


Tuesday, I had my first OB appointment of the week. My OB office is usually pretty “on time” and if I have to wait, it’s usually not long. Today was an exception. I had an NST and BPP. My appointment was at 11:30am. I waited until 12:30pm then went up to the desk and they said they were running way behind. I finally got called for the NST at 12:45pm. The baby cooperated at least and I was out of there in 30 minutes. I went across the hall for my BPP and I usually don’t have to wait. I sat and waited for another 30 minutes! In the meantime of all this waiting and appointments, I was fighting some really bad lows. I had orange juice with me and I drank it before my NST as I felt the low coming on. I came up to about 75 and then started to drop again. I went through the stash of candy in my purse and waited about 20 mintues. I was at 49! And I still felt like I was dropping! I then suspended my pump and waited another 5 minutes. I still felt like I was dropping. I went to the receptionist and asked for some juice or candy or if there was anywhere I could buy some. She offered me some Hershey kisses and I sat and scarfed down about 7 or 8 of them. I kept my pump suspended for 30 minutes and I finally started coming back up before I left the office. It was awful!


I don’t know what’s going on with my sugars. I started having lows yesterday afternoon and I bumped my basal rate down from .80 to .75. I was up twice Tuesday night with numbers in the 50s. After today’s incident, I bumped it down again to .70. I have now bumped my I:C ratios down as well. Hopefully all this will help. I am a little worried, as it is common for your insulin needs to increase in the 3rd trimester, not decrease. The decrease can be a sign of placenta disentigration, which as you might imagine, is a very bad thing. It doesn’t mean that’s what’s happening, but it could be. I should have mentioned it at the appointment but I just wanted to get out of there. Besides, my NST and BPP (where they look the placenta and measure fluids) were perfect and the baby has been just as active today as usual. So I’m not worried, but well, I guess I am a little.


I had my nursing course this morning and it was exhausting. My blood sugars started dropping again during class. I ate an entire snack bag of cookies from the vending machine (50 carbs!) without insulin. I topped out on my CGM at 147, hovered between 110-120 and then came back down to 74 after about 2 hours. How crazy is that?! I have since lowered my I:C ratios again.


I guess I should call my doctor. I have another appointment to see him tomorrow, so I really don’t want to. I’m scared he might freak out on me and send me to Labor and Delivery. But then again, I guess that is all the more reason to call. Ok, ok, I’ll call him. I’ll let you know how it goes. It’s been quite a week and I am so tired!


Monday, January 17, 2011

The Bathroom Remodel

My husband is in the middle of renovating our bathroom. The bathroom was so horrible....take a look for yourself...
This is immediately to your left when you come in the bathroom.  You cannot sit straight on that toilet because the shower is too close. You have to sit sideways. AWFUL! 

This is the lovely cave shower.

Bottom of the cave shower with some different tile. 

Inside of the cave shower. 

So now, Cary has completely demolished the bathroom down to the studs. Quite a few of the wood beams had to be replaced. This is where we are now...
This is where the sink and toilet were. 

This is where the shower was. 

The toilet, vanity and tub have been ordered. I can't wait for the toilet to go in. I am 8 months pregnant and this is the bathroom next to our bedroom upstairs. I have to make the trip downstairs to go to the bathroom about 4 times a night now. It's exhausting! We have a ways to go, but I can't wait for it to be done!


Thursday, January 13, 2011

32 Weeks

Today I am 32 weeks pregnant. WOW?! Only 8 weeks to go, so crazy! This is the second week of biweekly OB trips. I am already sick of it. I have an NST and a BPP every Tuesday and then on Fridays I have an NST and see the doctor. I’ve had 3 NSTs and 2 BPPs and I go to the doctor again tomorrow. I can at least say the NSTs haven’t been as bad as the first one. I’ve had a different girl perform the test every time and I have concluded that the first girl didn’t really know what she was doing. The other two girls have been much better (more friendly and comforting).



The tests have been the same each time, once I get hooked up to the machine, the baby goes to sleep. (Maybe hearing that loud heartbeat sound puts him to sleep? Who knows?) They always leave me for the first time, come back to check on me and he hasn’t moved at all. He then gets “buzzed” by this loud buzzer to wake him up. I think next time I will just ask them to buzz him before they leave me the first time, just to save some time. :)

 I think I have discovered when he really likes to move, it’s when my bladder is completely full. I guess it encroaches on his space and he starts kicking it to try to get more room. I had to go to the bathroom so bad for those last few minutes of the NST but he was moving so well, there was no way I was going to interrupt. I was thrilled to have him move when he was supposed to. He was also active for the BPP afterwards and I even got to see his eye completely open. It was kind of creepy looking but also very cool. Oh, and I don’t think I mentioned it before but on an ultrasound a few weeks ago, they showed us his boy parts again and while they were focused there, he peed! It may seem kind of weird, but Cary and I thought it was very cool. It was so crazy. You could see the little stream.

 I am getting bigger and bigger and my weight gain is right about 20 pounds. Everything seems to be harder to do with all this extra weight and I am getting much more tired again. When I get really tired, I find I am starting to get that pregnant woman’s waddle. I feel like a penguin.


My diabetes has been pretty good. (It seems like every time I say this, it starts acting up, but oh well.) My insulin needs have slowly been increasing and I am currently taking a little over 50 units of Humalog a day. My highest basal rate is .85, which I use for most of the day but then I am still dropping it to .75 at night and still getting some lows on some nights. My insulin to carb ratios are 1:6 in the mornings and 1:7 the rest of the day. I am changing my pump site every two days and that has definitely helped with my numbers. I was having to correct way too much on the third day if I tried to wait 3 days between pump changes. It is a pain because it seems I am always changing it, but also nice not to see those higher numbers.

 I am very excited about this little boy but I hope he stays put for the full 40 weeks because our house is nowhere near ready for him. The bathroom is still a work in progress (more on that later). We did finally order the baby furniture (a crib, mattress, and dresser) but it is still in boxes in the dining room. I have been having those Braxton Hicks contractions like crazy which make me pretty nervous when I get a particularly powerful one, but hopefully then don’t turn into real contractions or early labor! 8 months pregnant today and hopefully 2 more to go! :)

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

NST (stands for Nasty Stupid Test)

So I started seeing the doctor this week for my twice a week appointments. I have NSTs (Nonstress Test) twice a week and BPPs (Biophysical Profile) once a week. This is standard practice for high risk pregnancies. Well, I kind of knew what was going to happen in the tests from what I had heard from others and researching online. An NST is basically where they hook you up to a machine and monitor the baby’s movements. The heart rate should increase when the baby moves. The BPP measures the health of your baby and is done by ultrasound.



I started with my NST at 9am. They put a strap around the top of my belly with a round monitor attached to it to monitor movement and another strap down lower with another round monitor to monitor heart rate. I was given a “clicker” to click when I felt movement. I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal, I figured “this kid moves all the time, this will be a breeze.” Boy was I wrong. They hooked my up and the heart rate monitor was so crappy that I had to actually push it into my belly and hold it to get a good reading….for 20 minutes…my hand was cramping. It was awful. She came back to check on me and looked at the results. She said “oh, looks like baby is sleeping.” “We’ll have to do another 5 mintues,” then proceeded to “buzz” my baby to wake him up. She left the room for another 20 minutes. She came back, looked at the test results and left the room. When she returned, she said “you’ll have to see Dr. Koontz after your BPP.” For some reason, I didn’t even ask any questions, I just sat there in stunned, scared silence. She said “we’ll have to monitor you another 10 minutes.” So we continued the fun. She returned and released me to go to my BPP.


The BPP was OK, it was basically just an ultrasound. She did try to poke at the baby to get him to move and he reluctantly kicked, but she said he was asleep. (Obviously he’s not a morning person, just like his mother). I commented that he’s really active from about 11:30pm -1am and tried to laugh it off, all the while feeling like something was wrong. She told me that everything looked fine, but I was scared she was hiding something from me and didn’t want me to freak out. I was seeing the doctor next and she would let him discuss the results with me.


I went to the waiting room to see the doctor, by this point, it was about 10:30am. I checked in and sat down. The nurse called me immediately and then said that Dr. Koontz doesn’t get in until 11am, so I would have to wait. They called me back a little after 11am and there was one appointment ahead of me. I waited in the room, trying not to freak out. He came in and said “everything is fine, they worried you for nothing.” (I love how “chill” my doctor is, it is quite comforting.) He said the BPP was perfect and the NST was fine. “No need to worry.” And that was that.


I checked out and got to the car to call Cary. When I started telling him what happened, I lost it. I started bawling. He was very supportive and said he would never miss an appointment again. I told him that was completely unrealistic as I have to go to the doctor twice a week for at least 2 hours at a time, but I did appreciate the support. :)


I have another NST on Friday, hopefully it will go better, but I doubt it. I read that the baby already has natural sleeping and waking patterns and I think those morning times are his sleep time, so this may be a problem. We’ll see. All I know is that “nonstress test” was one of the most stressFUL tests I have had…Nasty Stupid Test!