I don't really have anything new to report, but since some of you knew I had an OB appointment, I thought I should update.
This was by far the shortest appointment I have ever been to in my life: my OB was actually on time (and I was late! Shock!).
The biggest news is I have gained an astronomical amount of weight since last week on Thursday. I am not happy about this, but after looking at my fingers and ankles, the doctor pronounced this as water retention and normal for pregnancy*. I would like to know exactly what my body think it is going to need this water for. I am sure someone else at the hospital will be boiling the water for me during the delivery and we've had plenty of rain lately. If I am inspired later I will take some pictures of my puffy toes, feet and ankles. I am sure you can't wait.
I find it very funny that my doctor suggests drinking more water to flush out my system and assure my body that more fluid will be available in the future. She also recommends resting with my feet up and getting some mild cardio exercise. Contradictory? Yes.
Please stop reading if you do not want to hear information about my cervix.
___________________________________________________________________
I warned you - so no being mad. It would seem things are progressing, although slowly. My cervix is now about 60% thinned out and I am dialated to about 1 cm. All of this is good news because it indicates I may be able to breathe deeply or roll over on my own in bed someday sooner rather than later. However, it does not give any indication about when this might happen. So, we continue to wait. Patiently.
*Please note that a large weight gain can be a sign of trouble during pregnancy. However my blood pressure was very normal at 110/60ish and there wasn't anything else to cause concern.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Fluffy mail
We have been working working working. A few people have been admiring my insane nesting urges but I would like to clarify their precise origins as I feel that not all of my insane-ness is hormonal:
1) Our house has been "under construction" for close to two and a half years. Now hat the project is finally DONE, it is time to put things away and do a good job cleaning up the dust.
2) The flowers (crocuses?) are blooming in my backyard and it feels like it might be time to participate for the first time ever in the traditional "spring cleaning".
3) I am hormonal. Don't ask for more explanations than that. Just do it.
Two minor projects have been underway this last week. We are putting finishing touches on the nursery:
Stars & letters we painted for the nursery walls. I was dreaming about doing this before William was born, but I didn't have time because I was working full time.
John then drilled holes in each of the 56786168 stars and nailed them up on the walls to create a border. For the record, he did not complain once, try to talk me out of this or even roll his eyes at me during this whole process. He is a wonderful husband. We also hung curtains, curtain boxy things and the letters on the wall. I just didn't take pictures of those things.
Fluffy mail! We got a whole new set of cloth diapers! After wearing his set for almost two years, William's are worn out! I'm excited we've ordered some new kinds of diapers as well as more diapers overall. These stacks of diapers should last us until potty training!
Our new double stroller! Notice Ernie is going for a ride. At first, William was very interested in climbing through the sun shades to get to the front seat and then climbing back again. This would not fly with a new baby. So, we put Ernie into the seat to help discourage him. It worked a little...
William and Ernie riding around. William is not happy here because Daddy had to stop pushing the stroller for me to take the picture!
1) Our house has been "under construction" for close to two and a half years. Now hat the project is finally DONE, it is time to put things away and do a good job cleaning up the dust.
2) The flowers (crocuses?) are blooming in my backyard and it feels like it might be time to participate for the first time ever in the traditional "spring cleaning".
3) I am hormonal. Don't ask for more explanations than that. Just do it.
Two minor projects have been underway this last week. We are putting finishing touches on the nursery:
Stars & letters we painted for the nursery walls. I was dreaming about doing this before William was born, but I didn't have time because I was working full time.
John then drilled holes in each of the 56786168 stars and nailed them up on the walls to create a border. For the record, he did not complain once, try to talk me out of this or even roll his eyes at me during this whole process. He is a wonderful husband. We also hung curtains, curtain boxy things and the letters on the wall. I just didn't take pictures of those things.The second project we've been working on is finding/acquiring baby gear to help us out with having two. Which, has resulted in a lot of shopping on my part. My life is so hard.
Fluffy mail! We got a whole new set of cloth diapers! After wearing his set for almost two years, William's are worn out! I'm excited we've ordered some new kinds of diapers as well as more diapers overall. These stacks of diapers should last us until potty training!
Our new double stroller! Notice Ernie is going for a ride. At first, William was very interested in climbing through the sun shades to get to the front seat and then climbing back again. This would not fly with a new baby. So, we put Ernie into the seat to help discourage him. It worked a little...
William and Ernie riding around. William is not happy here because Daddy had to stop pushing the stroller for me to take the picture!
Friday, February 27, 2009
36 Weeks=Baby No Name
Today we are 36 weeks pregnant and all of a sudden I'm starting to stress over names. I was really worried about this with William's pregnancy also and we ended up just pulling names out of a hat at the hospital. I was hoping we'd go in a little more prepared this time (and with double the names since this one is a surprise!). So, if you're waiting for me to tell you this name of this baby, you're just going to have to wait. We still don't know the name of this baby....
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Happy Birthday to ME!
Well, it has happened. I turned 30 today and survived. It wasn't maybe the thirtieth birthday I was planning on having ten years ago, but it was still a very very nice day.
William slept in this morning a little bit - which is a great gift! I considered trying to teach him the "Happy Birthday" song again, but thought that might be weird. You know, to be singing Happy Birthday all by myself to myself. So, I didn't.
I had an OB appointment this morning (I party hard, you know?) in which I had my strep B culture taken, my first internal exam and then an ultrasound. The good news is that the baby is continuing to move further down and my belly size is getting a tiny bit smaller. Also good news is the baby is head down. Other than that, there is nothing exciting to report.
John came home early today and we spent a few minutes together until William woke up from his nap this afternoon and then we left William with the neighbor while we went out on a date. Together. Alone.
John took me to The Melting Pot for dinner. I've always wanted to try this restaurant, we just never had. It was wonderful and amazing - although it took a little longer than we had anticipated. We had wonderful food and it was great to hang out and chat with each other. However, there is strong evidence that we are getting Old as we spent most of the time discussing what projects we are going to try and tackle at home this weekend. Old and Boring here we come.
The only bad news out of today is that when we got home, I was too full to eat any birthday cake. Which was chocolate cake with chocolate chips, chocolate frosting and strawberry filling. It smells wonderful! But, it will have to wait until tomorrow!
Mama and William
All of us (or the top half of us)
This is the face of a trouble maker
The cheese course with John's Yin &Yang drink.
Our entree course cooking up. Surprising? The broccoli was okay. I ate more than one piece - go me!
The dessert course - chocolate, chocolate. chocolate!
Look! We went out for dinner! Without one of our two kids (for the record, I considered leaving the youngest at home, but decided against it).
William slept in this morning a little bit - which is a great gift! I considered trying to teach him the "Happy Birthday" song again, but thought that might be weird. You know, to be singing Happy Birthday all by myself to myself. So, I didn't.
I had an OB appointment this morning (I party hard, you know?) in which I had my strep B culture taken, my first internal exam and then an ultrasound. The good news is that the baby is continuing to move further down and my belly size is getting a tiny bit smaller. Also good news is the baby is head down. Other than that, there is nothing exciting to report.
John came home early today and we spent a few minutes together until William woke up from his nap this afternoon and then we left William with the neighbor while we went out on a date. Together. Alone.
John took me to The Melting Pot for dinner. I've always wanted to try this restaurant, we just never had. It was wonderful and amazing - although it took a little longer than we had anticipated. We had wonderful food and it was great to hang out and chat with each other. However, there is strong evidence that we are getting Old as we spent most of the time discussing what projects we are going to try and tackle at home this weekend. Old and Boring here we come.
The only bad news out of today is that when we got home, I was too full to eat any birthday cake. Which was chocolate cake with chocolate chips, chocolate frosting and strawberry filling. It smells wonderful! But, it will have to wait until tomorrow!
Mama and William
All of us (or the top half of us)
This is the face of a trouble maker
The cheese course with John's Yin &Yang drink.
Our entree course cooking up. Surprising? The broccoli was okay. I ate more than one piece - go me!
The dessert course - chocolate, chocolate. chocolate!
Look! We went out for dinner! Without one of our two kids (for the record, I considered leaving the youngest at home, but decided against it).Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Only....
a few more minutes in my 20's....and I can't even think of anything wild and crazy to do. Must be a sign I'm getting old and ready to be 30?
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
John's Doctor Appointment
Time for another guest poster!
I had my follow-up doctor's appointment today. I went in and he had me make a fist, and he was very surprised. I guess people usually don't regain the range of motion in their injured finger as quickly as I have.
While there I asked him about the fingernail on my left ring finger as it has fallen off and now is kind of....odd appearing. He said that he wasn't surprised that it fell off, and that only time will tell how things will come back. He said he wouldn't be surprised if it came back. I asked him whether the bump on the nail bed would pose a problem (deformed fingernail), he said we'll have to wait (by waiting he means the 6 months it'll take for the fingernail to regrow. )
What is there right now? It's not a bare nail bed (thankfully!). It's stiffer than skin but softer than a normal nail. The doctor said that although the shiny part of the fingernail grows from back near the joint, the nail bed reinforces and adds to the nail. That's the stuff I have for a fingernail right now.
I also asked him about a bump I've had on the inside of my finger, at the joint near the pinky finger. It's hard and I think it can move, but he couldn't get it to move at the appointment. He figures it's either part of the bone, the bone callus (thing that forms to repair the bone) or perhaps a tendon sheath fluid bubble (although he was most skeptical of that possibility.) If it turns out to be bone and it's annoying, I may be back to get it taken care of. Again more waiting required.
He was exceptionally pleased with my healing and said that I'm free from any restrictions in use of the finger. Furthermore, no more checkups!
After that was a physical therapy appointment. The first thing the therapist did was check my range of motion. Like before I basically made a fist and she measured the angles my joints made. At my last appointment three weeks ago, the sum of all the angles my joints made was 205 degrees. After heat was applied for about 10 minutes, that sum was increased to about 218 degrees. Today, without any heat I was able to get to 255 degrees. Normal range is 260-265 degrees. So, that was good.
The next step, is to work on strengthening. I can really tell my grip is not what it used to be. The therapist measured my right hand grip strength to be about 125 lbs. My left hand came in around 50 lbs. So, she sent me home with some exercises and some stuff that reminds me of Silly Putty. Basically, I'll use the putty in different ways to improve the strength of my hand. More good news is I don't need to come back! She said I'm doing better than 99% of the people she's seen with this type of injury.
Overall, my left ring finger is much better. When I wake up it's pretty stiff and I need to work it a bit to get it to loosen up. It also gets pretty stiff in the cold, and it doesn't take much, a cold room will stiffen it up. The doctor and therapist said this should go away over time.
The fist. I think the middle joint of my ring finger is sort of over bending to compensate for the few degrees that my end joint is missing. Maybe with the strengthening those last couple degrees will free up.
Side view. Compare this with the day after pin removal and a week after pin removal.
Click here
Shot of the top of my fingers. You can see the scar on the middle finger. The ring finger is missing the nail - but the big scar on the middle finger really takes people's attention away. At trivia night, people were thinking my middle finger was the one that was partially severed one.
Another shot of the top of my hand. The bump on the ring finger I was talking about earlier is on the pinky finger side of the joint outermost joint. This is also where the scar is on this finger. The scar runs along the joint and then forward (toward the end of the finger) and runs into where the nail should be.
____________________________________________________________________
Can I tell you how proud I am of my husband? I couldn't be more happy with his results from today's appointment! No more therapy and no more doctor appointments (for the hand anyway!). All of his hard work and dedication have really paid off - which is just in time for all of our hands to be on deck (pun intended!) for our new baby to arrive!
I had my follow-up doctor's appointment today. I went in and he had me make a fist, and he was very surprised. I guess people usually don't regain the range of motion in their injured finger as quickly as I have.
While there I asked him about the fingernail on my left ring finger as it has fallen off and now is kind of....odd appearing. He said that he wasn't surprised that it fell off, and that only time will tell how things will come back. He said he wouldn't be surprised if it came back. I asked him whether the bump on the nail bed would pose a problem (deformed fingernail), he said we'll have to wait (by waiting he means the 6 months it'll take for the fingernail to regrow. )
What is there right now? It's not a bare nail bed (thankfully!). It's stiffer than skin but softer than a normal nail. The doctor said that although the shiny part of the fingernail grows from back near the joint, the nail bed reinforces and adds to the nail. That's the stuff I have for a fingernail right now.
I also asked him about a bump I've had on the inside of my finger, at the joint near the pinky finger. It's hard and I think it can move, but he couldn't get it to move at the appointment. He figures it's either part of the bone, the bone callus (thing that forms to repair the bone) or perhaps a tendon sheath fluid bubble (although he was most skeptical of that possibility.) If it turns out to be bone and it's annoying, I may be back to get it taken care of. Again more waiting required.
He was exceptionally pleased with my healing and said that I'm free from any restrictions in use of the finger. Furthermore, no more checkups!
After that was a physical therapy appointment. The first thing the therapist did was check my range of motion. Like before I basically made a fist and she measured the angles my joints made. At my last appointment three weeks ago, the sum of all the angles my joints made was 205 degrees. After heat was applied for about 10 minutes, that sum was increased to about 218 degrees. Today, without any heat I was able to get to 255 degrees. Normal range is 260-265 degrees. So, that was good.
The next step, is to work on strengthening. I can really tell my grip is not what it used to be. The therapist measured my right hand grip strength to be about 125 lbs. My left hand came in around 50 lbs. So, she sent me home with some exercises and some stuff that reminds me of Silly Putty. Basically, I'll use the putty in different ways to improve the strength of my hand. More good news is I don't need to come back! She said I'm doing better than 99% of the people she's seen with this type of injury.
Overall, my left ring finger is much better. When I wake up it's pretty stiff and I need to work it a bit to get it to loosen up. It also gets pretty stiff in the cold, and it doesn't take much, a cold room will stiffen it up. The doctor and therapist said this should go away over time.
The fist. I think the middle joint of my ring finger is sort of over bending to compensate for the few degrees that my end joint is missing. Maybe with the strengthening those last couple degrees will free up.
Side view. Compare this with the day after pin removal and a week after pin removal.Click here
Shot of the top of my fingers. You can see the scar on the middle finger. The ring finger is missing the nail - but the big scar on the middle finger really takes people's attention away. At trivia night, people were thinking my middle finger was the one that was partially severed one.
Another shot of the top of my hand. The bump on the ring finger I was talking about earlier is on the pinky finger side of the joint outermost joint. This is also where the scar is on this finger. The scar runs along the joint and then forward (toward the end of the finger) and runs into where the nail should be.
____________________________________________________________________
Can I tell you how proud I am of my husband? I couldn't be more happy with his results from today's appointment! No more therapy and no more doctor appointments (for the hand anyway!). All of his hard work and dedication have really paid off - which is just in time for all of our hands to be on deck (pun intended!) for our new baby to arrive!
Monday, February 23, 2009
Trivia & OB
We had a busy weekend. Our (okay, my) to do list of Very Important Things is growing by the minute. I won't bore you with the details, but it is safe to assume that our house is cleaner now than it was before this weekend. However, it still isn't Clean Enough. More work needs to be done. Again, I won't bore you with the details - but it is safe to say that I/we have a lot of work to do. The general updates are these:
1. The OB visit on Friday was uneventful. I am proud to announce that I managed to not gain any weight in the last two weeks. The only other piece of interested news is that my belly measurement was smaller this week. My OB believes this is probably due to baby moving lower down into my pelvis. Based on the feeling of a large weight sitting on my hip bones and tailbones, I would have to agree. The doctor is confident in predicting that this baby is not going to wait for its due date. I say wait and see - I'm not buying it this time around (she said the same thing last time, but I went almost to the due date). Everything else was normal and unexciting. I go back on Thursday for my 36 week appointment which is also my birthday. In celebration of my 30th birthday, I will have an ultrasound to determine if the baby's head is facing down, an internal exam, and a strep B culture taken. Woo hoo!
2. We played on trivia teams twice this weekend with some friends. It was a lot of fun - although expensive once we paid the sitter, the table fees and bought ourselves some raffle tickets. But, it was a great way to spend one of our last weekends without a newborn in the house!
3. John sees the hand doctor again tomorrow. He promises an exciting update complete with pictures.
1. The OB visit on Friday was uneventful. I am proud to announce that I managed to not gain any weight in the last two weeks. The only other piece of interested news is that my belly measurement was smaller this week. My OB believes this is probably due to baby moving lower down into my pelvis. Based on the feeling of a large weight sitting on my hip bones and tailbones, I would have to agree. The doctor is confident in predicting that this baby is not going to wait for its due date. I say wait and see - I'm not buying it this time around (she said the same thing last time, but I went almost to the due date). Everything else was normal and unexciting. I go back on Thursday for my 36 week appointment which is also my birthday. In celebration of my 30th birthday, I will have an ultrasound to determine if the baby's head is facing down, an internal exam, and a strep B culture taken. Woo hoo!
2. We played on trivia teams twice this weekend with some friends. It was a lot of fun - although expensive once we paid the sitter, the table fees and bought ourselves some raffle tickets. But, it was a great way to spend one of our last weekends without a newborn in the house!
3. John sees the hand doctor again tomorrow. He promises an exciting update complete with pictures.
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