i spoke too soon...

Apparently the "bestmester" might not exist after all.  No.  I refuse to believe that.  This will be the bestmester, I just had a little setback.  It could happen to anyone.  On Wednesday after work I started having severe cramping that wrapped around my back and I got a little worried.  I drank a glass of water, rested in my bed and after about an hour I called my doctor.  She thought I needed to be seen and, bless her, said she would wait for me after hours at the clinic so I didn't have to go to the hospital.  (Again.)  (Of course this may have been a result of the fact that she is usually so far behind in seeing patients that she doesn't leave the clinic for two hours after her last scheduled appointment.  But it was still kind of her). 

Dr. Fogleman checked my urine (positive for ketones indicating dehydration) and ran a fetal fibronectin (negative, meaning I should not have a baby within the next two weeks).  She checked my cervix for dilation (none, long and closed) and actually could feel the baby's head, which was pretty cool.  She thought that the cramping/contractions were caused by the dehydration and it should subside if I could get some water.  Yay!

So.  Back home I fixed a big glass of ice water and took a warm bath to help with the pain.  I didn't think I drank too fast, but the next thing I knew I was throwing up.  This was uncool because how would I ever get rehydrated if I kept throwing up?  Well, I couldn't and the vomiting didn't stop.  So can you guess what happened next?  Yep.  Back to Women's at midnight for some fluids and this time I was severely dehydrated so they admitted me again and I got two bags of fluid, some lovely Phenergan that made me sleepy and continued throwing up for 24 hours.  I consider Phenergan something in the Valium category because it never helps with the nausea I feel, but makes me very sleepy.  I was there until about 1pm on Thursday and didn't feel much better when they discharged me.  I did not want to leave but the doctor who saw me said that I wouldn't feel perfect and I should go home and sip fluids and try to eat small amounts of food. 

Back home again and I still felt horrible.  I took many baths because they are somehow soothing and comforting and I kept getting back in when I started to feel bad.  I took Reglan about 6:30, took another bath and magically at 7 I started feeling better.  I drank a Boost (the only "food" I'd had since 12:30 the day before) and felt so much better.

Today I'm weak and sore and very tired, but not nauseous.  Thank the Lord.  Sorry for the long, boring post, but you could have stopped reading at any time!

30 weeks

I'm officially 30 weeks pregnant (at least I was on Saturday).  I thought I would never make it this far!  This trimester has been the best so far (granted, I'm only a couple weeks into it).  I've gotten the nausea under control (finally), with the help of Reglan and Zantac (which I keep mispronouncing Xanax, garnering a fair share of odd looks - one from my doctor.  She was nearly positive she hadn't prescribed it!)  I've come to realize that I've been fairly "complainy" during this whole pregnancy thing.  I'm sure my coworkers want to shoot me on a daily basis.  I do apologize for my complaininess.  I couldn't wait to be pregnant and part of me feels like I should welcome every ache and discomfort simply because I wanted it so badly.  Well.  I honestly didn't know it would suck so much.  I am grateful that I have been able to experience it and look forward to the weeks to come (sort of.  Part of me wishes I could skip right ahead to the birth and the other part wants to skip that part too!)

I can't wait, however, to hold my baby.  It used to be that when I thought of babies, I thought of a cute seven month old "Gerber baby" with chubby cheeks and a delightful giggle.  I used to want to skip all the hard beginning stuff, straight to the Gerber stage.  Now when I picture holding Teddy I picture a tiny, scrunched up newborn, knees folded into his chest and cheek resting on my shoulder.  I can't wait to experience all the stages of his growth. 

I was able to go to my parents' house this past weekend for a visit.  I love going home and never seem to get to any more.  I realized while I was there that it was likely that the next time I visited I would have an almost four month old baby (this would be for Thanksgiving).  That's insane.  I can't wait!

Williamsburg

This is a little delayed since our Williamsburg "babymoon" (what a lame term), was two weeks ago, but better late than never.  I worked 10 out of 11 days following the trip, so... not my fault.  This will mostly be a photo dump.  We had a great time, though.  We stayed at a fairly cheap motel with free continental breakfast everyday.  We spent Saturday at Colonial Williamsburg and toured the governor's palace, ate at a colonial tavern called Josiah Chowning's (complete with strange colonial men playing old fashioned guitars and serenading us with Yankee Doodle), shopped in colonial shops and toured the blacksmith, magazine, courthouse and other sites that interested us.  On Sunday we attended Bruton Parish Church (established in 1674 with the current church being built in 1715).  I had a minor panic at the thought of attending because we witnessed the 9 am service leaving at 10:50 am.  I wasn't sure I could sit there for two hours on uncomfortable pews at seven months pregnant.  Luckily, our service was a scant hour and ten minutes and the 9 am service was actually a special service for the children (this seems counter-intuitive to me as I feel most children have shorter attention spans than me).  After church we headed to the Jamestown Settlement and learned about Pocahontas and John Smith, toured the boats and the recreated settlement.  Monday we went to Historic Jamestown where the actual settlement is being excavated by archaeologists and learned from one of them a little more about John Smith, Pocahontas and their crew.  Here are a few pics:

Governor's Palace

Ed and I in the garden at Governor's Palace

Colonial marching band?

Colonial tavern

Colonial hostess 

Self explanatory 

See the juxtaposition of the modern and the colonial?

Bruton Parish Church

Powhatan Village

Jamestown Settlement

Boats!

Pocahontas

Glass Blowers

contradictions

I'm in a really weird place right now, ever since seeing my baby's face on the 3D ultrasound.  On one hand I am so, so happy.  Of course, this could just be a hormonal pregnancy mood swing that is serendipitously on the upswing right now.  But I think it's more that now that I've seen Teddy's face I am so excited to actually meet him and hold his little feet and kiss his hands and cheeks.  I told him the other day after my ultrasound that now that I've seen him he absolutely has to come home with us.  There is no other option.  He can kick my ribs and punch my bladder as often as he wants to, but he has to come home.  On the other hand, however, I feel the realization that it isn't going to be as idyllic as I might like to imagine.  He will be a newborn baby, thrust into a world that he doesn't understand, having very little method of communication other than a wail.  As he is getting to know me, I'll be getting to know him, learning how to care for him, figuring out what he needs and wants, and hopefully be able to provide the things he needs and wants in a timely manner.  It's going to be hard.  I understand this and it makes me very nervous.  I know I'm not alone.  I have Ed and my mom and his mom and sister.  I have friends that have babies and both parties (the mothers and the babies) survived the first year.  It's a lot to think about and my brain is slightly overloaded.

Speaking to a friend today, she told me that yes.  It's hard.  It's really hard.  There will be moments when you think to yourself, "Man.  I don't think I was made for being a mother."  But apparently those thoughts cross a lot of new moms' minds from time to time and evidently it passes.  She also was quick to reassure that there is also plenty of good mixed in there that helps to outweigh the hard stuff.

It also helps to know that he's freaking cute.  My goodness. I might be biased, but that is a cute baby!  (And I don't normally think newborns are very cute - and I think a fetus tends to be even less cute than a newborn, though I have no proof of this).  Of course, he'll still come out all red faced and squinchy, so time will tell.

So baby!

You can see his widow's peak like Eddie!

What?  That's a real baby!  I couldn't believe the quality of the pictures (especially the top one).  He's so baby.  So baby.  Everything went really well at the doctor today.  Ted's right on track size-wise and there is the right amount of fluid and whatnot in there.  Apparently if his belly was really big and his head small, that would be a sign of poorly managed diabetes, but his measurements are totally great.  The doctor was really happy with my progress (another five pounds down), and Ted's progress.  She says that aside from the stupid things I've been facing (hiatal hernia, gestational beetus, shingles) I've had a really healthy pregnancy.

I'll be heading to the doctor every two weeks from here on out since I am in the third trimester.  I told my doctor that I'm hoping the third trimester will be the best-mester.  Full term is only nine weeks away and knowing that it will be scorching hot in mid-late July, let us all hope that I go early!  Otherwise, you won't see me outside.

I still can't get over those pictures!  I might frame the top one.  Although it does look like there is an adult-sized ghost hand under his chin in the top picture... weird.

28 weeks and why I never leave the bathroom

These days I feel like I spend more time in the bathroom than I do with my husband.  I've considered asking my supervisors at work if I could just build a lab bench in the handicapped stall in the bathroom at work.  We could set up a computer and a phone line and I could just read cultures from the comfort of the bathroom.  It would save a lot of time.  What I don't understand is that I will drink a big glass of water, finishing with it by 8:30 pm or so.  I will pee about four times between 9 and 11 and then go to sleep.  It never fails, however, that I will wake up at least three more times in the middle of the night and if I didn't know any better, I'd swear I was sleep-chugging water all night long.  Hopefully it's just water.

I try to sleep on my left side like the books tell you (something about blood flow to the baby).  I always start there but lately the baby has started flipper kicking my side like a tiny dolphin and something is telling me that he is uncomfortable when I lay like this.  It never fails that the assault starts as I am trying to go to sleep and then I end up rolling to my right to stop the tiny war inside me.  He's very sure of what he wants already. For instance, he likes me to have good posture.  If I slouch he will deliver a swift kick to my ribs to get me to sit up straight.  I may have a stubborn child on my hands.

I did yoga the other night and for an hour afterward he was practicing uterine baby yoga.  I think he liked it.