A Crazy Time...

Things have been really crazy around here since the beginning of my pregnancy, it seems. Sorry, you'll probably get a lot of details you don't want to hear, but you're welcome to skip over what ever you would like. A couple months into my pregnancy Gabe had left to work in the lab one night and right after I started having some cramping and bleeding. I of course was very scared, but went right to bed hoping it would get better. It did go away after about 10 or 15 minutes so it wasn't a big deal, but I was having a hard time and was afraid to do anything after that. Eactly two weeks later the same thing happened, and then it happened again two weeks later (on Halloween of all days). We had an ultrasound to see if there was anything wrong and luckily we found out that the baby was healthy and it was just a pocket of leftover blood there... or something I don't really understand. I still was trying to be careful, so I did my best to take it easy. Finally in December I started feeling better and felt like I could finally be myself again!

Meanwhile we found out we were going to Utah a few days before Thanksgiving and were really excited to go, so that was a week away from home where we were a little out of the loop. When we got home Preston started going to the eye doctor and got his glasses. Then we got ready for Christmas, had our own at home, and then left again to Utah for another 2 weeks. It was a lot of fun as always, but I was ready to get back home and start the new year. Our month was filled with doctor's appts, especially for Preston's eye, they changed his prescription and made us come in for weekly tests. The worst part is that his eye doctor is 45 minutes away, so it's kind of a pain to go there for a 10 minute appointment. Luckily they have toys in their waiting area, so I let him play for a while before leaving for home. They finally let us know that Preston needs surgery to help align his lazy eye, that was actually supposed to be scheduled for today, but he has a stuffy nose and he has to be in perfect health in order to have it. We rescheduled for next week. Our week will be filled with doctor's appts. then too.

At the end of January I started getting a twinge of pain in a weird spot in my back, not on the spine, next to it, under my ribs. After a couple of weeks the pain just kept getting worse and worse. Gabe even tried to rub my back for me and it was so tender he couldn't do more than gently brush it. I looked up the symptoms online to see what it could be and was afraid I might have had a kidney infection and I read that they could cause pre-term labor if not treated so I went to the walk-in clinic to get a urinalysis done. The doctor, who I've had before and wasn't impressed with, basicly made me feel stupid and told me it was a sore muscle. He proceeded to give me yoga stretches I should do to fix it. I tried but of course it didn't help and the pain kept getting worse so I decided to call my O.B.. I tried for 3 days to get an appointment or talk to a nurse and wasn't called by until I was literally on the phone crying because I was in pain and didn't know what do to.

By this time it was the Thursday before Valentine's day. I know because that was the day Gabe told me he had a suprise date planned. She told me to either go in and give a urine sample or go to the triage for pregnant women. First of all, I didn't realize you could go to triage unless you were in labor until she told me it's like an ER for pregnant women. I knew that I wouldn't have time for that if I wanted to make my date, so I told her I could go leave a sample. After dropping the boys off we went to the lab so I could leave the sample, which was luckily really close to the restaurant we were going to anyway. The next day I called the nurse trying to find out the results, she told me I could call whenever I wanted. At that point she told me I didn't have a kidney infection, which I already knew, and that I should go in to triage. I dropped Preston off at a friends' house and Gabe met me there from work. They did all kinds of tests, including for pre-term labor, which I knew obviously wasn't the problem, and eventually told me they were pretty sure I had kidney stones but weren't positive. The doctor gave me vicadin and sent me home telling me to come back in two days if it wasn't helping. I wasn't planning on going back because I never even take Tylenol for anything, but I tried one and it didn't help, so I tried two, and it barely helped.

Two days later, on Sunday, I went to church to play my flute with the choir. After Sacrament Meeting Gabe took me home and went back for the rest of the meetings. Preston fell asleep on the way home from church so we waited until he woke up, then Gabe dropped me off at triage. I ended up getting sent to the regular E.R. for an ultrasound to check for kidney stones. It was kind of weird being wheeled in a wheelchair when I was capable to walk. It was nice though, because they got me in fast, and they have cable in the E.R. rooms. They weren't able to find anything in the ultrasound but they said the stones could just be too small to see. I did get some cool 3-D ultrasound pictures of the baby though. Gabe found sitters for Preston and Bentley and came to join me by that time. I was admitted to the area of the hospital for pregnant women and got to my room by 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. They ended up having to move my IV because the ER didn't do a good job putting it in so I had to get poked twice, but it ended up being a good thing. They had me on morphine for the pain, so I was really out of it, I seriously couldn't keep my eyes open and kept falling asleep in the middle of conversations, it was weird. The really sad thing is that the morphine didn't make the pain go away either, but it was much more manageable. I did enjoy having my meals brought to me and the fact that I could sleep as much as I wanted and watch cable which we don't have at home. I did miss Preston a lot though, even though Gabe brought him over as much as he could. We even left his booster seat in my room so he could eat his meals with me. Gabe had to take time off work too, so he could stay home and take care of Preston. Luckily some of our good friends took the dog the entire time so Gabe didn't have to worry about taking care of him.

After a few days they switched me over to a strong oral medication to see how I handled it because I was getting plenty of fluids in me so I didn't have a need for an IV anymore. The pain was worse with the oral medicines, but I knew if I could handle it I would be able to go home, which I was ready to do. While I was in the hospital we were also lucky enough to have Gabe's mom fly out to help so that he could go back to work. It worked out well for her too, because Gabe's dad was going on a business trip to Asia for a week, so she was able to stay with us during that time and not be home alone. His dad was also able to come visit for a few days going to and from because he used Seattle as a layover, it was fun to have him here, even though I guess it would have been more fun if I wasn't hurting. After about a week and a half I finally passed some stones, they were small, almost like sand, which is why they couldn't see them in the ultrasound. After a few days the inflamation was going down and I was starting to feel better.

Then the next problem struck. I started feeling a lot of pressure in my abdomen and my lower back started hurting. I was afraid that now I maybe did have a urinary tract infection. I was told to go back to triage if I had any more problems, so that's where I went. This time they told me my uterus was being irritable and I had a contraction every hour or so. They checked my cervix and it was almost at a one. They did a test to make sure I wasn't going to go into labor any time in the next two weeks and it was luckily negative (that two weeks is almost up though). They gave me a shot while I was there and gave me a prescription for a muscle relaxer (which ended up costing WAY too much). I was told to continue to drink plenty of fluids because dehydration can cause pre-term labor. They also told me to go back if things got any worse.

Of course they did. Five days later I went to our Relief Society Stake Enrichment and ended up having to leave early because I was so uncomfortable. I went home and was having contractions 3-5 minutes apart and they were starting to hurt. I was also having more discharge so I was afraid my water broke since that can make contractions worse. Gabe's dad had just gotten in to town, but his parents were nice enough to stay home and babysit while Gabe took me in once again. This time my contractions were showing up a lot more, and were very frequent, but not regular, and this was even with the muscle relaxer in me. They checked my cervix and it was now a definate one, not a lot of progress, but still some which isn't good. They gave me another shot and told me this time that I could go home but if it got any worse than that to come in again, they made sure I had an appointment with my doctor for the next week too.

I had an upset stomach all week, still do. On Tuesday I started getting contractions like that again but I couldn't tell if they were worse or not so I decided to tough it out until my appointment on Thursday. I almost made Gabe take me in a couple of times though. I'm glad I didn't because it would have been a waste of time. On Thursday morning, they had slowed down and became much more manageable. When I went to see my doctor he told me that I need to be on bed rest (with light activity) and that I'm not supposed to leave the house for anything other than doctor's appts. He was concerned about my upset stomach, and the fact that I had several contractions while sitting in his office so he told me to come in every week from now on (yay, more doctor's appts!) and that he was sending me down to triage right then. I thought it was kind of ridiculous since I was doing MUCH better than the couple of days before that, but he said it's better to go 100 times and make sure the baby is safe, than to not go at all. Of course I only had a few contractions in the 40 min. or so I was there, so they let me go and sent me over to get my glucose test done and an ultrasound. The ultrasound was to check on the baby, don't worry he's going to be a big one and is completely healthy. He also wanted to check my cervical length, but I still don't know what the outcome of that was, I have an appointment in a few days so I'm sure he'll let me know then.

The goal for now is to make it to at least 32 weeks, but preferably 36 weeks. At that time I get to go off of my ridiculously expensive medication that I have to take every six hours on the dot, even at night, and move around like normal again. After all this I think I'll be really mad if I'm pretty much in labor this entire time and the baby still doesn't decide to come out until it's due date. I guess that's better than having him too early though.

On top of all of this Gabe is working a lot of overtime and trying to keep up with two classes for his master's program. I also have to finish my religion class by the end of this week (a lesson and a half to go) and my statistics class by the end of April. Maybe it's a good thing I'm not supposed to do anything. Luckily my mother-in-law has been here this entire time and isn't leaving until this Wednesday. It's been amazing to have her here cooking us meals, cleaning my house, and changing Preston's diapers, even though I do feel a little lazy. She has even cooked a ton of meals and put them in the freezer for us so we have one less thing to worry about.

Anyway, sorry if I haven't seen much of anyone lately, and sorry for the extremely long post, just thought you might like to know what's been going on with us. If you're ever bored we'd love to have visitors. It's pretty bad when your 19 month old gets excited to go to the doctor to see the Nemo fish even though he had never even seen the movie, he just heard a little girl call him that. Luckily a friend did let us borrow that, so now he has seen it, and loves it. Oh, and here are a few pictures to liven up my depressing post.

Gabe and Preston taught Grandma how to use the Wii. She's become a pro at the Wii Fit and Preston loves watching it. He'll probably go through withdrawals after she leaves. ;)

Preston wearing his eye patch for the first time, he actually likes it and asks to wear his patch. It covers his good eye which is supposed to make his bad eye work, he doesn't use it most of the time. can you see my hot pad on the couch in the background?

I'm lucky to have such a happy little boy! He sure needs a haircut though.

We actually were out taking Preston to the pediatrican for his surgery pre-op appointment when the snow hit last week, this is what it looked like when we finally got back an hour and a half later.

Bentley had his first experience with real snow, it was as tall as him!

It did make it tricky for him to go to the bathroom though.

Well, sorry again for the long post. I hope the few pictures I've taken the past month or so helped it seem a little happier. :)