I had another appointment with my midwife today. I also had my 1-hour glucose tolerance test, and hopefully I passed it. Last appointment (not this one) I was spilling a little bit of sugar in my urine. Which is usually a sign of gestational diabetes. However, I had only eaten a (rather large) bowl of...Fruit Loops...for breakfast that day, right before the appointment. Oops. ;) They didn't say I was spilling sugar in my pee today though, so I'm guessing it was the Fruit Loops fault last time.
I got my Flu shot today. And my midwife said if I don't start to feel better soon, to call her so she can get me something to take to make me get better faster. I'm guessing an antibiotic, but not sure. I do feel like I'm getting better though every day. I am exhausted right now, though because I slept for maybe 5 hours thus far. I'm going to go lay down for a bit after I'm done with this post.
My midwife said that I'm measuring small for what she would expect at this stage, so she wants to get another ultrasound in 3 weeks just to make sure he's growing okay. She thinks it is probably related to his positioning, but doesn't want to take a chance. It's funny, because I feel huge. ;)
Today, my mom went with me to the appointment because Jamaal couldn't get the day off of work. I asked her today to be in the room during the birth. She agreed to, but said if she gets queasy she will leave. I told her that she probably won't because it is so much different than just seeing a bloody mess, plus she doesn't have to look if she doesn't want to.
After the appointment we went to Target to finish up my registry. I registered at Baby's R Us already, which has so much more than Target does, but Target is a bit cheaper for some things, so I doubled up to give people options. It was a much quicker trip than the one we took to BRU...which ended up being over 2.5 hours.
Last night at work I was seeing if I could hear his heart beating with my stethoscope. I was pressing kind of hard on my belly, and he would punch or kick the spot that I was pressing on, as if to say "Leave me alone!" He is already feisty and hasn't even been born yet. He must take after his father... ;)
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
More Dreams
I had a couple memorable dreams last night. First of all, my middle nephew who is now 10(!) was driving a minivan full of people. I was nearest to the front of the van, and panicking. Everyone else was telling me to relax. The issue I had was he had really stubby legs (in my dream) that didn't reach past the seat. (In reality he is nearly as tall as I am). I was freaking out that he needed to have his feet near the pedals just in case we needed to stop suddenly....or at all. For those of you who have lived nearby, he was driving us onto North I-5 from 320th, taking the really big curve of an on-ramp. We nearly hit one of the pillars as we came out of the turn. I don't know if that is when I woke up or if the dream just stopped there...or maybe I don't remember what happened next. But oh my goodness was it scary. Especially imagining him in that sort of capacity...
The other dream I had started out as the State had no teachers to teach in our schools. So, they did a raffle and my name got picked. Since I was also a State worker, I had to do as I was asked. I wasn't going to lose my salary, and since I was pregnant in my dream as well, I decided I could do a semester of teaching. I would stop at winter break and stay home until expected to go back to the hospital. I was okay with it at first, and then I began thinking about what I would teach, and how I had no idea what I was doing. Then I was really stressed out. I found out that I was to teach Kindergarten. I got a few classes during the first week of school to learn how to teach, and then was expected to do it on my own. I planned to call up Jess to see if she would lend me anything she had from her Kindergarten experience last year...I never got that far. I hope that she would help me out. Could you imagine teaching with absolutely no training at all?? Haha...it was then that I looked through a brochure of schools and decided that my children would go to private schools since the State was using anyone they could get their hands on. ;)
I still have a sore throat, but at the moment my nose is pretty clear. I usually get worse as the day goes on, but I think I'll try and do water aerobics tonight. Then I'll go to work. I'll still be wearing a mask at work, but I don't feel too horrible right now. Hopefully I'm on the mend. :D
The other dream I had started out as the State had no teachers to teach in our schools. So, they did a raffle and my name got picked. Since I was also a State worker, I had to do as I was asked. I wasn't going to lose my salary, and since I was pregnant in my dream as well, I decided I could do a semester of teaching. I would stop at winter break and stay home until expected to go back to the hospital. I was okay with it at first, and then I began thinking about what I would teach, and how I had no idea what I was doing. Then I was really stressed out. I found out that I was to teach Kindergarten. I got a few classes during the first week of school to learn how to teach, and then was expected to do it on my own. I planned to call up Jess to see if she would lend me anything she had from her Kindergarten experience last year...I never got that far. I hope that she would help me out. Could you imagine teaching with absolutely no training at all?? Haha...it was then that I looked through a brochure of schools and decided that my children would go to private schools since the State was using anyone they could get their hands on. ;)
* * * * *
I still have a sore throat, but at the moment my nose is pretty clear. I usually get worse as the day goes on, but I think I'll try and do water aerobics tonight. Then I'll go to work. I'll still be wearing a mask at work, but I don't feel too horrible right now. Hopefully I'm on the mend. :D
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
A Rambling Mess
This belly shot was taken at 23 weeks and 3 days.
This was taken at 27 weeks.
This was also taken at 27 weeks.
Last Thursday I went to water aerobics, and near the end of the workout I started having chest pain. It was right at my sternum and went under my rib cage, mostly to the left. It hurt more if I pressed just under my rib cage medially. I figured it was related to heartburn. But it wasn't going away. I started to worry, so I called out sick for the night. It hurt really bad if I moved my arms across my chest. So I figured I should take it easy. Around 0500, I woke up to hives on my forearms that were really itchy, so I got up to take a half of a benedryl. When I woke up in the morning my chest still hurt so I decided to call the doctor. But by the time I went to my appointment, the pain was gone, and most of my hives were gone. I was sure that the hives were caused by my heartburn medicine. Basically my doctor gave me a list of foods to avoid, and a warning that it was just going to get worse. I was coming down with a cough by this point, which I figured was just because of the heartburn. My doctor agreed with me.
I went to work that night. I wore a mask for most of the night, especially when in patient's rooms, because my voice sounded hoarse and that makes people uncomfortable. The longer I was at work, the more I felt sick, as opposed to someone suffering from severe heartburn. My sneezes had more substance to them. And at one point I coughed up a loogie. I went to bed right when I got home, and I think my mom called to talk to me. I sounded like crap. I knew then that I was sick, not having heartburn complications. Stupid flu. Our thermometer is still packed somewhere, and so when I talked with my mom (who was planning on coming over to drop off something for me to try) I asked her to also bring her thermometer for me to use. My temperature got as high as 100.5, so not too bad. I've been taking sudafed, benedryl, and Tylenol here and there. I'm beginning to feel better now. I'm undecided as to whether I'm ready to go back to work tonight or not. Fortunately I only have three 8-hour shifts this week. I'll see how I'm feeling later on tonight. I am technically still "contagious" but with a mask on an good hand washing I should be okay for work. I am just still very tired and feel a bit cloudy in the head. I have never coughed up so much gunk in my life. (Which is actually good, because I'd rather have it out of my lungs. But usually I don't start coughing stuff up until I start to feel a little bit better.)
The little mister has been beating me up with just as much oomph as before I got sick. Sometimes I even exclaim "Oh my!" after an extra strong kick. It is going to be strange to have my belly back to myself. I'm going to feel very empty I think.
Jamaal scared me on Saturday night. He went out with his friends to a bar not too far from our house. He had planned on getting a ride home with his friend's sister (who works as a bartender there, and would therefore be the sober one). But I get a message from him, "can you come get me." Just after midnight. I ask him where he is, and when he wants me to come: at the bar, now.
I jump in the car in my pajamas. They aren't even cute pajamas. It is a pink dress type that goes to my knees. But remember I'm sick, and don't care. I get there in a few minutes, and text him that I've arrived. No response. So, I text him again. Nothing. I try his friend: "I'm here."
He responds "Oh good, Jamaal needs a ride." Yes. I know that, that's why I am here. I should have known at this point that he was going to be little help to me. Can you please send my husband out here. "I don't know where he is." At this point I'm a little worried. It has been 30 minutes of me waiting outside in the car. I decide to face the public. I don't know these people anyway. I throw my coat on over my beautiful pajamas and go inside. They tell me no one is allowed in anymore.
ing car. In the story he tells, he hears some people he has to walk by laugh at him, and he wants to punch them. With how slow he was responding to me, I can't believe he even considered it.
I have been looking everywhere for you. Why didn't you answer your phone? It died. (I figured it probably had.) Where were you? In the bathroom. I had a security guard go in there and look for you.
And then I lose it. I cry it out for a minute, collect myself so I can get us home, and pull out of the parking lot. He apologizes a couple times, but once I start driving he hangs his head down, in the most uncomfortable looking position ever, and stays like that for most of the drive.
When we get home, we find that a dog has puked on the kitchen floor. Jamaal, obviously feeling guilty, pushes me away so that he can clean it up. I let him, because it is difficult these days for me to reach the floor comfortably. I tell him he's not allowed to go out without his phone fully charged, and cry a little more in his arms. He makes his way back to the bathroom, and I give him a couple blankets and a pillow and he spends several hours asleep on the bathroom floor. I already intended on sleeping in the living room, since I didn't want to get him sick, and because I was having a hard time sleeping for longer than 2 hours.
The two of us spent Sunday laying around watching TV and napping. We didn't wake up until almost 1300 (1pm).
Friday, October 1, 2010
"I have no graham crackers."
Two posts in one day? Guess I need to make up for lost time.
As a nurse, I find myself surprised by people on a daily basis. It is not always a patient of mine, but hearing stories from other nurses around me, there is something going on during every shift. There are no uneventful days at work.
Sometimes it is the patient, sometimes the patient's family, and of course there is always the mixture of both. The crazy in people really shows up during times of stress, and every person admitted to our unit is stressed.
On one particular night, I was blessed with a patient who has had the unfortunate history of becoming a perpetual patient. I mean that she is almost always sick in some way that ends her up in the hospital or clinic. I do not mean to downplay her illness, per say, but she has become her illness. I think she has been ill for so long that she has no identity of herself without being sick.
I'm actually not entirely sure why she was admitted to the hospital. I didn't do anything she couldn't have done herself at home. She liked to be sedated with pain medications, antiemetics, benzos and benedryl. And since, as I've said before, she is a perpetual patient, she knows a lot about what she should say when she wants something. She said all the right things that would imply that she was getting a kidney infection: it was very hard for her to pee, and she was getting flank/back pain right where her kidneys were. I didn't feel that she was exactly telling the truth, but it is not my call. So I phoned the MD who was on call. He came to see her and felt the same way as I did. He pressed on her abdomen and she screamed out in agony. He listened with his stethoscope and pressed in as hard as he had with his hands and she had no response; no grimace, no whine, nothing. Just a little background on this lady.
At one point she stated that we were not adequately controlling her blood sugars. She demanded I check to see what her blood sugar was. I forget the number exactly, but it was in the normal range in the 110's. I wanted to laugh in her face. She then proceeded to request the fruit plate with cottage cheese she had saved from earlier, and later 2 vanilla puddings.
I can't really put into words how much she drove me crazy. Except to say that near the end of the night, as I was finishing up giving her some medications she said to me: "I have no graham crackers." I stared at her for a second, then replied: "What does that mean?"
I knew exactly what it meant. She had no graham crackers, and wanted some. I wasn't going to take that as a request for graham crackers. I already felt that she was milking the system.
She went on to say that she likes to have graham crackers nearby at all times. This was news to me, it never came up before, and I had her for a 12-hour shift. I think it was about 0500 by this time, so our time together was nearly finished. I was already irritated with her, so I reacted with a little attitude. But I felt it was warranted.
She never did request the crackers. I said "Would you like some graham crackers?" Yes. She would. And also a couple egg custards. (Remember those vanilla puddings she requested earlier? She asked for egg custards then too, only for us to tell her we don't carry them on the floor.) I sent the assistant working with me to deliver a stack of graham crackers and two more vanilla puddings. That was the last time I saw her, except to do the change of shift "bedside" report. (I quoted bedside, only because the pt was up walking around the unit, so we did the check in the hallway.) Later that day, the patient was discharged to home. I talked with the nurse who had her during the day, and she had roughly the same experience that I had. The pt spouted off some other symptoms, the MDs obliged and did tests on her to check on her "symptoms" only to find nothing wrong. It was a difficult discharge. But she will be back.
As a nurse, I find myself surprised by people on a daily basis. It is not always a patient of mine, but hearing stories from other nurses around me, there is something going on during every shift. There are no uneventful days at work.
Sometimes it is the patient, sometimes the patient's family, and of course there is always the mixture of both. The crazy in people really shows up during times of stress, and every person admitted to our unit is stressed.
On one particular night, I was blessed with a patient who has had the unfortunate history of becoming a perpetual patient. I mean that she is almost always sick in some way that ends her up in the hospital or clinic. I do not mean to downplay her illness, per say, but she has become her illness. I think she has been ill for so long that she has no identity of herself without being sick.
I'm actually not entirely sure why she was admitted to the hospital. I didn't do anything she couldn't have done herself at home. She liked to be sedated with pain medications, antiemetics, benzos and benedryl. And since, as I've said before, she is a perpetual patient, she knows a lot about what she should say when she wants something. She said all the right things that would imply that she was getting a kidney infection: it was very hard for her to pee, and she was getting flank/back pain right where her kidneys were. I didn't feel that she was exactly telling the truth, but it is not my call. So I phoned the MD who was on call. He came to see her and felt the same way as I did. He pressed on her abdomen and she screamed out in agony. He listened with his stethoscope and pressed in as hard as he had with his hands and she had no response; no grimace, no whine, nothing. Just a little background on this lady.
At one point she stated that we were not adequately controlling her blood sugars. She demanded I check to see what her blood sugar was. I forget the number exactly, but it was in the normal range in the 110's. I wanted to laugh in her face. She then proceeded to request the fruit plate with cottage cheese she had saved from earlier, and later 2 vanilla puddings.
I can't really put into words how much she drove me crazy. Except to say that near the end of the night, as I was finishing up giving her some medications she said to me: "I have no graham crackers." I stared at her for a second, then replied: "What does that mean?"
I knew exactly what it meant. She had no graham crackers, and wanted some. I wasn't going to take that as a request for graham crackers. I already felt that she was milking the system.
She went on to say that she likes to have graham crackers nearby at all times. This was news to me, it never came up before, and I had her for a 12-hour shift. I think it was about 0500 by this time, so our time together was nearly finished. I was already irritated with her, so I reacted with a little attitude. But I felt it was warranted.
She never did request the crackers. I said "Would you like some graham crackers?" Yes. She would. And also a couple egg custards. (Remember those vanilla puddings she requested earlier? She asked for egg custards then too, only for us to tell her we don't carry them on the floor.) I sent the assistant working with me to deliver a stack of graham crackers and two more vanilla puddings. That was the last time I saw her, except to do the change of shift "bedside" report. (I quoted bedside, only because the pt was up walking around the unit, so we did the check in the hallway.) Later that day, the patient was discharged to home. I talked with the nurse who had her during the day, and she had roughly the same experience that I had. The pt spouted off some other symptoms, the MDs obliged and did tests on her to check on her "symptoms" only to find nothing wrong. It was a difficult discharge. But she will be back.
I'm still here, I swear.
Okay. Okay. I owe some people a belly photo. I keep forgetting to have my husband snap one of me. Tonight, when he gets home from work I'll try to remember. Although this might be tricky because I have signed up for some extra shifts at work. I was given 8 nights off of work (with a day class on Monday) in a row, something I didn't ask for. So I decided to fill it in a bit with some extra shifts. I only signed up for 4-hour shifts. However, they did not put me on the schedule, so I don't know yet if I'll be going in or not. I'll call them after 1400 to check in.
I can't believe it's been over 2 weeks since I last posted. I guess I just have not been inspired. Maybe? I'm not sure.
Yesterday we had our follow up ultrasound. He is weighing in at about 2lbs 4 ounces right now. I have a feeling he is going to be a big boy. His heart rate was nice and strong at 146 beats per minute. And, the placenta is no longer low lying. :D That makes for a very happy mom and dad. I really was worried about it being low lying for other reasons too. I do not want to have a c-section. I've seen it happen, and it is not for me. Of course if I have to, I will, but as of right now, I do not have to have a c-section. As of right now, his head is down, but he still has a lot of room to flip around.
Last night we met with Jamaal's cousin, and dad to see The Karate Kid at the discount theater by our house. Only $2 per ticket is such a great deal. I imagine that when our little one is old enough to go to movies, we will choose this theater over full price since children can be very unpredictable about how they are going to behave. :D Also, people don't get as angry if you talk or make noise in this theater since it is so cheap.
I really liked the movie. Little Jayden Smith looks sooooo much like his daddy it is ridiculous. He is a good actor too. This was the first Karate Kid movie that I have ever seen. Jamaal was slightly disappointed in me. So, as we were going to bed, he picked the original The Karate Kid to stream instantly from Netflix. I fell asleep before the end, so I'll have to watch it again, but I liked the new version better (from what I've seen so far.)
I have a couple projects that I need to really get started working on, which means I need to make a trip to JoAnn's for a couple things. Maybe I'll post pictures of my progress. We'll see.
I can't believe it's been over 2 weeks since I last posted. I guess I just have not been inspired. Maybe? I'm not sure.
Yesterday we had our follow up ultrasound. He is weighing in at about 2lbs 4 ounces right now. I have a feeling he is going to be a big boy. His heart rate was nice and strong at 146 beats per minute. And, the placenta is no longer low lying. :D That makes for a very happy mom and dad. I really was worried about it being low lying for other reasons too. I do not want to have a c-section. I've seen it happen, and it is not for me. Of course if I have to, I will, but as of right now, I do not have to have a c-section. As of right now, his head is down, but he still has a lot of room to flip around.
Last night we met with Jamaal's cousin, and dad to see The Karate Kid at the discount theater by our house. Only $2 per ticket is such a great deal. I imagine that when our little one is old enough to go to movies, we will choose this theater over full price since children can be very unpredictable about how they are going to behave. :D Also, people don't get as angry if you talk or make noise in this theater since it is so cheap.
I really liked the movie. Little Jayden Smith looks sooooo much like his daddy it is ridiculous. He is a good actor too. This was the first Karate Kid movie that I have ever seen. Jamaal was slightly disappointed in me. So, as we were going to bed, he picked the original The Karate Kid to stream instantly from Netflix. I fell asleep before the end, so I'll have to watch it again, but I liked the new version better (from what I've seen so far.)
I have a couple projects that I need to really get started working on, which means I need to make a trip to JoAnn's for a couple things. Maybe I'll post pictures of my progress. We'll see.
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