Pregnancy Update

I realized the other day I have not blogged about this baby in quite a while and I thought I would give you all an update. We are about to hit 38 weeks! The baby will be here in about 2 1/2 weeks. Our C-section is scheduled for February 8th and I am really excited to meet this little bundle that has been kicking me like crazy!

Health wise this past month has been a little challenging. I have been hospitalized two times. The first was on December 10th. The whole family came down with a nasty tummy bug and I got the brunt of it. The girls got over it within 24 hours and I thought I was not going to get it until a few days later when it hit... BIG TIME! I was throwing up and having "bathroom" issues let's say. I got so dehydrated that I could not even tear. Jacob took me into the hospital and they gave me an IV with lots of fluids and some anti-nausea medication. It took over 2000 cc's of fluid, or liquid ringers, before I could pee! Luckily the baby ws doing just fine so I as able to be sent home. It took another few days to feel better. My loving visiting teacher brought us dinner that night so I would not have to worry about it. It was a good thing too because a little bit after we got home the bug hit Jacob. He was bed ridden for 2 days! Which was very sad for him since he was in the middle of his run with "The Forgotten Carols" He played the innkeeper and had to bow out of the final performance since he couldn't stand let alone act and sing.

But a full weekend in bed soon set him to right and we are off with our Christmas merriment! Fast forward to the 28th of December... I woke up in the middle of the night (around 2:30-3:00) with the worst pain in my side. My right kidney to be exact. I tried to keep sleeping but the pain just got worse. At about 4:00 the contractions started. at first they were every 5 to 8 mins then by 4:25 or so they were slamming every 35 seconds! At this point I was in so much pain I woke Jacob up with my rapid breathing and thrashing in bed. He called the neighbor lady to sleep on the couch to be with the girls and loaded me into the car for the drive to the hospital. I was so scared I had no idea what was going on but I tried to focus on my breathing and getting through the contractions which were really painful. I was nervous that the Dr's would not get the contractions to stop and I did not want the baby to come since at the time I was only 34 weeks and the baby was not done growing.
we got to the hospital at about 5:00 in the morning. We didn't think the main doors would be open so we parked in the ER parking lot. I slowly walked, with Jacob's help, into the doors of the hospital and who do we see standing by the desk but our good friend, Steve Ellis! Steve is one of the nurses at the hospital and it was so comforting to see a friendly face. His family goes to our Church and we love them all very much.  He got us a wheel chair and escorted us through the back way to the family birth center. Which cut our trip about in half. Thank so much to him. he was able to talk with us on the trip and really helped us feel at ease. We are so blessed to have such amazing friends.
We had called the hospital so they knew we were coming. They had my paperwork and my bracelet all ready for us. We got back into the room and they did a pee sample and found a lot of blood in my urine. that coupled with  the pain got the diagnosis of a bleeding bladder infection and a kidney stone. all of which had thrown my body into pre-term labor. I was given an IV and lots of medications. They admitted me so they could continue monitoring the baby and control my pain and get the contractions to stop. The pain meds were doing there job and I was starting to feel much better. we called our good friend Spencer Beard and he came right over to the hospital to help Jacob give me a blessing. I knew something was going on and that Spencer was there but I was on some pretty powerful pain meds so I really don't remember the experience too well. Spencer later told me that I was really loopy and kept saying "thank you for coming... I love you Spencer!" By the afternoon I was taken off the major IV pain meds and was taking oral vicodin which helped my head to get out of the fog. The contractions didn't stop till that evening. I had a hard time sleeping in the hospital bed. Jacob was amazing, he helped me go potty, which I did a lot since they were trying  to flush my system. I had 6 IV bags in one day! He stayed with my all night. .. what a trooper. Jacob's cousin Cari, took the girls overnight for us. What an angel!

By the morning the pain was gone, the contractions finally stopped and I had gotten about 3 hours of pain free sleep. I was so glad when they said I could go home right before lunch. I was super glad to get home. I missed my girls.

I am still having a bit of pain every once and a while with contractions but they are not progressing and I have been getting checked every week by the Dr. and I am not dilating so the contractions are not putting me into labor so I just get to deal with it for now. I still have blood in my urine so the DR thinks the kidney stone is still there. There is not much you can do about kidney stones while you are pregnant so I have to wait until the baby is born to deal with that.

We are having a baby shower this next week and I am really looking forward to it. The crib is all up and we are just bout done setting up the nursery. These next few weeks are going to take forever but I am just going to enjoy my girls and try to relax.