28 Week Bumpdate

Where to start with this one? I suppose I should start by saying that my judgment seems to be failing me lately. But before I explain that statement I must say that our Bella girl is 100% healthy, thriving and growing quite well in my belly despite some bumps (no pun intended) in the road. My idea of taking it easy was not quite working. I've been burning the candle at both ends and have been warned by numerous family and friends to please slow down my pace. I'd honestly tried to make some recent changes with my work schedule, the amount of strenuous type of work activities I was doing and keeping my feet up more at night. Problem was that keeping my feet up more at night usually meant collapsing on the couch around 10:00 and mentally prepping for the next day for about fifteen minutes before passing out in bed. That was if and when Hallie decided that she was going to cooperate with her bedtime routine. Throw in a four day phase of awful three-year-old behavior that had me wanting to pull my hair out and you get a very worn out, stressed out and maxed out momma. I've been having some Braxton Hicks contractions off and on in the evenings for a couple of weeks but they only seemed to last a very short time and went away immediately upon me going to bed. I chalked it up to overdoing it with putting the nursery together and cleaning out the garage. I've been on a crazy mission to get ten boxes of baby clothes washed, sorted and put up. Mission accomplished. I went in for my OB checkup on Tuesday this past week and Riley went along with me to tattle on me for "overdoing it"....everything was fine that morning....until evening rolled around. I did my usual work routine and evening routine, went to a meeting and returned home to put Hallie to bed. As I was walking back to lay down myself I noticed things weren't quite right. Suddenly I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. Stumbling tired and my eyes were bloodshot and my face looked white as a ghost. Off to bed I went hoping I'd wake up feeling like a new person for a busy work day on Wednesday. Instead I woke up at 1:30 with contractions (not painful, just obviously not going away) that kept me up and worried until 4:00. I woke up feeling terrible but showered and put my scrubs on anyway...but soon I knew I needed to go get checked out. I managed to get Hallie ready for school and dropped her off before calling Riley to tell him I'd gone and really overdone it this time. I met him at the ER and was immediately wheeled up to an OB room and hooked up to monitors. Riley and I sat there watching the screen for signs of contractions. I started to get a little panicky when I looked up to see a strip of strong contractions less than one minute apart at the bottom of the screen. Strange thing was that I wasn't feeling anything. Luckily my doc was rounding at the time and came in with a stern look on his face. The nurse must've seen the concern in my eyes and quickly told me that the screen I was seeing was for the woman next door to me who was in labor. Ah ha! That made much more sense. Whew (wipes brow)! I am so grateful for doc's concern and care that he's provided thus far. He ordered some IV fluids and antibiotics after receiving the results from my urine sample. Dehydration and a UTI. The plan was to rehydrate me to stop the contractions. In came the IV....one of my biggest fears...not bad at all. Next came the stingy shot in my arm to stop the contractions. Super stingy! Ouch! Then came the waiting. I stayed for a couple of hours while the IVs ran their course and then walked out to the car contraction free and feeling more at ease. I was sent home to the couch to rest and did just that....for 45 minutes....until the contractions started back up again....this time stronger. Not painful, just tighter and closer together. Riley came to pick me up and back to the ER we went. I found myself in the same OB room hooked up to the monitors again with an IV in the same spot and another shot in the other arm. This time in a gown because I was going to be spending the night. Of course due to the nature of the contractions they had to check to make sure I wasn't dilating at all. Fun times. :( But good news. Bella wanted to be there about as much as I did.....she was moving around so much that the nurse had to come in numerous times to reposition the monitors. The rest of the day was spent trying to stay calm. This is where some wonderful people stepped in to help with that. Lauren popped in with a hospital survival bag complete with a gossip mag, ear plugs, a Sonic drink and some lip balm. The nurse in her came out and she was trying to help make me more comfy in bed. Sarah brought some beautiful flowers by and stayed to chat for a bit. Nanny surprised me with a chocolate milkshake and made sure I had everything I needed.  Jai dropped dinner off with Riley and he brought up the deliciousness for the three of us to enjoy some time together. My thoughtful fella packed my hospital bag all on his own and brought everything and more that I needed....we cracked up when he pulled out my favorite tee...in two sizes...just to make sure I had options. Hal did not like the cords and IV hooked up to me. She was none too pleased that I had to stay and wear that ugly gown. Her words were "take dat stuff off momma." She eventually warmed up to the hospital scene and hopped up on my bed for some snuggles and books. Aunt Deedee kept me company for awhile and we laughed and laughed telling stories while Riley was gone for a bit. Kristen stopped in when she finished working up on the third floor and entertained Hal with some stories from her trip to Disney World. Then it was time for some sleep. Wellllllll...sort of. Poor Hal was all out of whack with her momma gone and made me cry when I said goodnight to her on the phone. The jitters had finally worn off from the shots they'd given me earlier and my heart rate had finally slowed to a normal pace. Just in time for a monumental headache to kick in from the Procardia pill I'd taken. Oh my! I was awake tossing and turning with small contractions, a throbbing head and found no way to get comfortable in the bed. And let's talk about how much fun it is when you already get up an average of four times a night to pee and then put three bags of fluid on top of that and tie yourself up to a few machines.....yeah.....that alone will keep me away from the hospital until it's time for baby to come. ;) I'm estimating a restless three hours of sleep occurred and I awoke when I heard the doctor and nurse walk in to check things out. I was released to go home to my own bed with instructions to not go back to work (which I'd planned on doing the next day). See what I mean about my judgment. It's failing.

Here I am on Saturday morning after a couple of days at home spent solely on the couch or bed. It's funny how my daydreams usually involve sitting on the couch doing nothing or taking endless naps at any time I please......not all it's cracked up to be....all I want to do is break loose and go go go. Contractions seem to want to come at night....but nothing regular by any means and the only thing that keeps me awake is worry. I've been taking a Procardia pill at home and haven't needed one since yesterday morning. PTL because did I mention the headaches they cause?!?!?! Oh yeah. Friends and family have been to my rescue since I've been out of my normal routine.....Steven saved the day and delivered my meds to the house along with a box of Cake Lady cookies, Jai offered to do some grocery shopping for me and kept me company for a bit, Lauren helped me out with dance day carpool, Nanny picked up Hal two evenings in a row and brought over a feast, my coworkers have stepped in and helped pick up some of my caseload to lighten my schedule, Paula watched Hallie on Friday while I rested, Lindsay and Andrew came over with a delicious dinner and provided me with laughs as usual, Katie offered to keep Hallie for a bit while Riley went to the gym and today Nanny is taking Hallie with her to Enid to spend some time with Gman, Meg and Aunt B while she and Papa are at the Corvette show. God has placed some amazing, giving and big hearted people in our lives since moving to Woodward and it's been an ongoing blessing.

Hallie girl has been doing pretty well with stepping it up and relying less on me. She's independent only when she wants to be....so it's been an adjustment but with the help of Riley who has stepped in and taken my place quite nicely things are going as smoothly as we could expect. This morning she was so excited for her trip to Enid that we didn't even realize she was awake until she strolled into the living room fully dressed with her toys ready and her coat on. Ha! My sweet girl has been asking a lot more questions about her lil sis but doesn't completely grasp why Bella has to stay in my tummy a lot longer...."but I can't wait to play with her" she said. "Is she going to cry?" "Mommy, babies can't talk for a long time and then they just say goo goo and gaga." Her words about baby are just food to my soul. So is all of the snuggle/movie time we've squeezed in over the past couple days.

So where to go from here? I received a message from the nurse (who by the way was amazing) telling me that doc would contact me this weekend to let me know when and if I'm cleared to return to work. School therapy is half of my workload and the year has almost come to an end which will cut work in half mid-May. My student sessions will have to be a LOT less active and strenuous.....no more lugging around my big bag of toys and the heavy pedal bike will have to be retired for now. "No" will have to be a new word in my vocab. Working on that one. ;)

In more exciting news, my beautiful friends are hosting a shower for Bella and I next weekend. I can't believe it's already here and I can't wait to see what all they've done. The nursery is coming along and we've got just a few things left to do. I really, really, really want to post pictures but I'm trying to wait until it's completely finished. It shant be long! Maternity pictures with dear Mandy are in a month and I'm so excited to see what creative ideas she has for our shoot. It'll just be a girl thing....Hal, Bella bump and I. Oh and Aunt B has agreed to tag along to help chase Hallie.

No belly bump picture this month....but I can tell you that it's big.

Wish me luck on this whole taking it easy thing....and a prayer or two wouldn't hurt.