Heading down the home stretch

Well, no baby news to report yet from us, but a couple pictures and an update so here we go.

First picture is from Dana Paul's baby shower. Dana (left) is married to Nate's best friend Ryan. Her due date was two weeks before mine but as you see in the next picture they beat us by quite a bit! The other preggo there is the wife of Nate's other good friend, Terra. She is due in early September.

Dana and Ryan's little boy came a little early on May 20. Hank Brian was 6 pounds, 8 ounces so pretty good size for more than three weeks early.

He's the world's cutest newborn, at least until mine gets here. ;)

I'm doing pretty well, taking my blood pressure meds and trying to eat a little better with the gall bladder thing. Pretty much I'm either nauseous or having heartburn most of the time, but at least the abdominal pains haven't bothered me much. I'm hoping this just goes away after the baby is born. Annoying, yes, but I don't feel like I'm miserable enough to need the thing taken out. My blood pressure had a little episode a few weeks back and went up over the 140/90 mark. I spent a few hours at the OB wing at the hospital. Some rest and TV and it went back down on its own. I think it had a lot to do with not sleeping well the night before (once again, nausea and heartburn did that in...) I've been trying to put more emphasis on getting enough rest since and my BPs have been lower, 120s and 130s over 60s and 70s.

I got checked the first time last week and was pretty surprised to find out I'm starting to dilate. The baby is still very, very high, I haven't been having much for contractions and nothing else is happening in that department so I don't think it will happen anytime in the next week or so. I got checked again today and there was no change, so I got clearance to head to Cumberland this weekend for a wedding, about 2 hours away. Only thing she said was "Don't over do it." It'll be a nice little getaway.

Other than that, not much new to report. Jacob spent a long Memorial Day weekend visiting Grandma Debbie and the gang down south. We finished all the planting on Memorial Day so that's a great feeling. Nate's been cutting hay this week and the chopper is ready to go so that should start tomorrow. The cows are milking pretty well right now, but like always, the better the cows milk the worse the milk price is. That's not going to stop me from doing a little car shopping tomorrow while Nate's truck is getting its oil changed at the dealership. We've completely outgrown the Grand Am and, well, after six years and 167,000 miles, I think it's paid its dues. Plus, we might have a buyer for it but I'm not getting rid of it before I have something else lined up, so better not wait too long.

I'll try to post some more frequent updates since we're into the last month. Most days I'm OK with being pregnant, but on some I just want this thing to be over with!

A look back

Cindy and I were chatting about a woman in the Twin Cities who is going to document her entire pregnancy online AND (and this is the kicker) allow a live web cast of the birth. Don't think I'll be doing that. No video and no cameras pointed in my direction in my delivery room.

But, I will do this again. Here's the most pregnant I was with Jacob, taken a little over 12 hours before his birth. 40 weeks and 5 days. Yes, I was eating baby carrots because I was hungry, they were in the fridge, I knew it might be a while before I got to eat again (it was almost 24 hours) and I figured they wouldn't be all that bad to throw up later if I needed to (I didn't). That's a 8 pound 15.2 ounce baby in there and I don't think I'm anywhere near that big now, so either I'm going to have a smaller baby or I'm really going to explode in the next six weeks.

Monthly post

Since it's the last day of April, I guess it's time for the April summary. Hope I can remember back that far...

Sometime at the end of March I found out one of my best friends, Jen, and her husband Chris are expecting their first in November! I had a feeling that before I was done being pregnant, she would be.

We spent Easter with Nate's family in Eau Claire. Jacob got royally spoiled by the Easter Bunny once again. Thank God he'll have a little brother or sister to split the booty with next year. We still have candy in the house.

I had a wonderful bout with a cold/allergies in mid-April. Missed a little work and felt pretty much like crap for about a week and a half. Nate ended up with it too and Jacob had some sniffles. I'm glad to be past it.

I had three doctor's visits this month, two scheduled and one not. At my early April one I gained too much weight in my opinion (doctor didn't say anything) and my blood pressure creeped up more to 136/81. At the second visit, I did the glucose tolerance test to check for gestational diabetes, and as predicted, I digest sugar like a pro. I also lost two pounds between visits (again, no comment from the doc) and my blood pressure actually fell, a lot. It was 98/62. I asked the nurse if that was right.

Then comes the fun stuff. This past Sunday I started having low back pain and in the afternoon it became a sharp pain in my side. I thought here we go again, since with Jacob I had to spend the night in the hospital for a kidney infection. I wasn't running a temp at all, so I waited to call the doc until Monday morning and they had me come in right away. First I did a screening for a UTI, which came back all normal so no kidney infection. After feeling around my right side and checking my blood pressure which was even higher again at 140/81, my doc said it was probably one of two things. The first was HELLP syndrome, a serious liver condition which would require immediate delivery of the baby. (&*$!@#^&*). It made it more possible because high BP makes pregnant women more likely to get it. All the needed to confirm it was a little blood. The second was a gall bladder disorder which could be diagnosed with an ultrasound and how to treat it would depend on how bad it was, but basically surgery is the only cure for that.

So I did the blood test and worried about having an infant 10 weeks premature in a NICU. About half an hour later, the tests came back that it didn't seem to be HELLP so I was not having a baby that day. I went in for the gall bladder ultrasound Tuesday and got the results this morning. Meanwhile, the pain is now nearly gone and I'm feeling lots better. It turns out I don't have any gall stones, but the test showed the walls were thickened meaning I do have an irritated and inflamed gall bladder. Basically, that means pain control when I need it with hopefully just tylenol and try to cut as much fatty food out of my diet as possible. If it gets worse or I get a stone, then I might have surgery. If it doesn't go away after the baby is born, we'll talk about having it removed.

So that's pretty much all the excitement for the month. In May I'm hoping to do a little traveling and visit some friends before I can't go too far for a while. Plus I'd like to recruit some help to get some plants in the ground and my flower beds looking nice before I get too huge to move. Two months to go!