35 Weeks

Down to one hand's worth of counting the weeks... eeeeeeeek!  Maybe less, if she decides she doesn't want to wait that long!  Of the 36 mamas in my due-in-July Facebook group, 9 have popped already so we have 10 babies!  It's been crazy and though I don't have any of the symptoms/issues that the others have had, it still freaks me out that it could realistically happen any time now!


I'm trying to bump up my productivity now that I'm feeling better.  It took all last week for the ear infection to clear up, and the whole time I was taking the antibiotics I felt pretty crappy even though I was avoiding dairy and taking them with food and all that.  I'm sure they also caused the raging yeast infection I'm dealing with now.  I was uncomfortable enough from that and leftover ear pain that I had a lot of trouble sleeping last week.  Now that I'm off the antibiotics and on yeast infection cream I'm feeling tons better.  It must have been causing more discomfort than I expected because I slept like a rock the first night for the first time in weeks!


On Monday I saw Sue and everything looked okay, except my blood pressure was creeping up, so with that and the incessant foot swelling she decided to test me for pre-eclampsia.  The prospect of that scared me to death, since that's the reason several of my July girls were induced this early, but luckily the labs looked okay and Amelia's non stress test was perfect.  Still waiting to hear back on the 24-hour urine test since they wanted me to start it Tuesday morning, so it got dropped off this morning.  I see Sue again tomorrow to follow up, probably to check blood pressure again and do another non stress test.  I'm suspecting my blood pressure was more from the lack of sleep and the general feeling of unwell-ness over the last couple of weeks than from anything else, so we'll see how it looks after a few good nights of sleep.  Then next Tuesday I go back and see Dr. B, and she'll check for dilation and stuff and we'll figure out a plan for appointments so I can still save some gas and see Sue a few more times before the main event.  I'm far more comfortable with Sue than I am with Dr. B.


My feet are ridiculous.  I'm afraid to take a picture but I probably should at some point.  I've been avoiding salt (which is hard enough, but to do that while also avoiding dairy made for some interesting half-meals the last couple of weeks), drinking a crap ton of water (evidenced in my 24-hour urine test, which I had to sacrifice a Tupperware for because I filled up the jug they gave me even though I attempted to drink less... TMI, I know, sorry!), keeping them up when I can (noticed that the computer chair is the worst possible chair for me to sit in for my feet, but my back loves it), and trying both ice baths and warm baths.  I think I've narrowed it down to a circulation issue since the ice baths did nothing, avoiding salt did nothing, and drowning myself in jugs upon jugs of water didn't seem to help much either.  Sue thinks that possibly Amelia is compressing some veins so that the extra fluid can't really get pumped back up my legs.  Possibly compounded by my heart murmur, which everyone keeps telling me not to worry about.  A warm bath before bed does help the swelling go down a bit more in the night, so I'll stick to doing that since that's the only thing that helps.  


I've gotten some decent cleaning done today plus swimming with Mom and didn't feel the overwhelming need to nap, but it's creeping up on me now so I should probably give in for a little while. ;)  I've been typing up a template contract for composing music for a web series, which is taking a lot longer than I anticipated but once it's done I won't have to do it all again.  Then, maybe I can start working on some episodes soon!  I should have something else coming up too, helping a friend's dad write his second book (typing, research, probably some editing), so we'll see how that goes once we get started.  At least he'll pay me a little bit for it and it's definitely something I can do from home on the couch :)


Work is still going well for B. His ankle is bothering him some, but mostly he's doing fine. :) He should get his first full paycheck tomorrow or Friday, which is good because bills are due and I'm all kinds of antsy about that!  We should be able to take care of the end-of-the-month bills and the beginning-of-the-month bills, then we'll be on a regular schedule for stuff, but this extra week waiting for a paycheck has about driven me insane.  I need to work in some other bills that have been taken care of by our parents, but I can't really do that until I see what a typical paycheck is like.  Then we'll work on a new mattress and getting him a little pickup.  Naptime, even though Amelia's going crazy at the moment!

34 weeks

I had all kinds of energy that first day B went to work!  I got a lot done that day.  My productivity dwindled quite a bit after that and my naps got longer and longer... once it hit me that I'm at home now, it really felt like the week after finals or something and I just needed tons of sleep.  I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing, I wish I had gotten more done last week but oh well.  My ear didn't get any better with the drops.  Actually, it got worse, so I ended up going in last Friday to get antibiotics.  It still bothers me a little but it doesn't hurt like it did.  Unfortunately, the side effects of being on antibiotics are worse with pregnancy than they are normally, which contributed greatly to my need for naps... ugh.  Good thing I'm seeing Sue again next week.  My feet are still swelling quite a bit daily and they don't go down much overnight unless I make a conscious effort to prop them way up for several hours, an angle which causes a weird...stretching? in my cervix, so that makes me a tad nervous.  I'm starting to feel that when I stand up too, so we'll see if Sue thinks that's anything to worry about.

Mom recently found out that the Motel 6 in town will let people swim in their pool for $2 per visit!  She's been going 2-3 times a week with a friend to do exercises and relieve the gravity pressure from her back and hips.  I went with her on Wednesday and it felt AMAZING.  Until it was time to get out that is, then gravity hit full-force and I could barely walk. :/  I borrowed an old suit of hers that doesn't fit very well since I didn't see the point in buying one this late in the game.  Then yesterday she found a maternity tankini on sale that fits perfectly!  Next time I go I'll wear it and since I intend to labor in Mom's hot tub (with the temp turned way down, of course) it will definitely come in handy.  Until then, I'll probably wear the top a lot anyway because it's comfy!

B's incision abscesses healed up perfectly and the little scabs are almost gone.  Yesterday he had his final appointment with Dr. G, who proudly pronounced him healed!  We pretty much knew it was done, but it helped to hear it from the surgeon.  We expected them to at least run some blood work or something to make sure, but it ended up being a couple questions and a couple pokes.  He didn't bat an eye at the sugar treatment we did for the incision so it must not be unheard of... okay whatever, it worked!  It's hard to believe that almost 5 months later we're finally done with all that.  He still has some aches and he has to build up more strength, but he's doing really well at work.  He was very sore for a few days last week but we worked through it.

Last Saturday was my birth class at the hospital.  Most of the information was the same as I've heard/read, but at least now I know what the hospital policies are and that they'll support me in my efforts to have a med-free birth and to get breastfeeding right away.  Mom and B went with me and there were probably 25 other couples there.  The chairs were horrible!  Sitting there from 9-4 made my feet puff up like sausages and I had to get down on the floor for a while in the afternoon.  I can't believe I was the only one in the room with that problem, but I was the only one that got out of the chair for a while except for the tour of maternity.  The breastfeeding class was scheduled for last night but after B's appointment, I decided not to go.  I've read plenty and watched videos so I'm perfectly comfortable with what to do until she gets here, and it'll be a whole new ball game then.  There will be a lactation consultant at the hospital and I'll get lots of help from the WIC office and Sue, so I couldn't justify going out to dinner and wasting all kinds of time in Rapid waiting for a class that would've gotten us home late.  I didn't sign up for that one anyway, I was going to wait until after she was born but because it came free with the birth class they just signed me up for it anyway.  It just seemed pointless, so home we came to relax.

I finally caught back up with Robin for exercising and we've done something almost every day this week.  She has some sort of nerve/muscle issue going on that they haven't diagnosed yet, so we're running at about the same speed, which works out well for both of us.  I'm meeting her for yoga this morning.  I'm hoping that stepping up my exercising I'll get more energy to get the house ready and curb my weight gain a little.  I'm still steadily gaining, but I'm sure some of it now is due to retaining water in my legs that I just can't seem to really clear up.  Next on my list of stuff to do at home is go through my old toys for stuff to sell so I can move some other stuff into the shed to make room for baby stuff.  It's not a gigantic project, but bigger than I've wanted to do since my ear has been bothering me.  Hopefully I'll get somewhere with that today after yoga.  Tomorrow my friend Krystal is coming to town to take maternity photos at Kidney Springs, so that should be fun!

I have less than 2 weeks left on my indiegogo fundraiser, so one more share would be appreciated! :)  B's paychecks are much better than mine were but we still have some catching up to do.  His bills are still in limbo so we'll be dealing with that for a while.  TGIF!

32 and 33 weeks

33 weeks, in one of Mom's old dresses.
I have 2 of these and fully expect to live in them all summer.

Last week was a little on the crazy side so a post didn't happen, sorry!  My last day at work was Thursday so now I'm officially a stay-at-home-mom.  Or, work-at-home-mom, if you figure in music writing and little side jobs here and there.  Whatever.  I didn't fully announce this before, but my boss moved the office to a smaller place, basically a desk inside another office, and decided he didn't have room for me there.  So, I've been laid off.  I thought I should be more upset about it, and I do sort of wish that it could've waited another paycheck or two, but honestly, this is okay.  My job ended just as B's job started (he started this morning and will be staying the night at the job site) and I'm pretty sure he'll make something like twice what I did, so we'll be fine one way or another.  Mom and I decided to expand her online book consignment business a little bit to include a local bookstore, so that will bump that up and help both houses.  We might let it become a big thing, we might not, it just depends on how manageable we can keep it.  So, now my job is to get the house ready for Amelia, keep us fed with fresh homecooked food (with Mom's help of course, we share food a lot), and work on scheduling my exercise and writing into my day so that it all gets done.  I'll do really well once I've established a routine.

We had a little scare with B last weekend.  His incision, which had been healed up nicely for 2 weeks, was red, hard, and looked like a giant blister.  We debated going to the ER, going to the local clinic when it opened next (of course, this was over Memorial Day weekend), or waiting until we could get an appointment with the surgeon to look at it.  We ended up having to drain a bunch of stuff out of it on Sunday because it looked like it was going to break open on its own, which made me nervous but it helped a lot, and since he wasn't feverish or anything we waited until Tuesday to get into the clinic.  It turned out to be the right thing to do, since the doctor that was there that day has dealt with a lot of infected wounds and knew exactly what to do.  Dr. G has been trying to get B to go to his own doctor anyway so we figured this was as good a time as any.  It turns out that the scar tissue from the incision trapped a few pockets of infection where the antibiotics couldn't get to them, and once he was off the antibiotics those little pockets went nuts with staph.  Treatment is strange, but simple and extremely effective... he cleaned out each little abscess, opened each of them up with a q-tip, and shoved a clump of brown cane sugar into each one.  The infection and dead tissue gets drawn out immediately into the gauze dressing, so we just need to rinse it in the shower then repack the sugar daily until the holes close up.  This has been by far the simplest recovery of anything we've had to do, and the weirdest treatment, but it works!  It should all be healed up sometime in the next few days.  Oh, how I wish we could've done this for his liver abscess... I suspect it would've worked SOOOOOO much better than what they did... but oh well.  His next (and hopefully final) appointment with Dr. G is next Thursday, then hopefully none of us will have to see him again.

I had my 33 week appointment with Sue today and that went well.  Everything looks fine, except my ear has been bugging me since I got sick 2 weeks ago, so she got me some ear drops to take care of that.  I got two grocery runs done today, the first one when I dropped B off at his carpool rendezvous point and the second after my appointment (because I forgot my WIC checks at home this morning... oops).  I'm taking a break now from attempting to get the kitchen under control after groceries and neglect.  I'm making a conscious effort to sit down and put my feet up several times a day since they get swollen so easily, especially when it's 95 outside and 80 inside.  I'm attempting to keep it cool in here but I'm not having much luck lately.  Normally I can open up the windows at night and the cool night air will cool down the house considerably, but last night there was no breeze whatsoever and the night before we had a storm but it didn't cool down much, so i haven't been able to cool the house off at night so during the day this aluminum box of a house just cooks.  I hate running the air conditioners more than a couple hours per day but lately if I don't turn them on the minute it starts to warm up outside the house gets almost as hot as outside.  Especially doesn't help if I'm trying to cook or run laundry or clean or something.

Speaking of which... the kitchen still needs help and it's about dinner time.  If you have a moment, please look at my sister Sara's indiegogo fundraiser to help with her ovarian cancer surgery.  Her insurance company made her and her doctors jump through all kinds of hoops in order for them to approve the procedure, which wasted a lot of time and nearly resulted in the cancer spreading to her stomach and spine, then after the surgery was done denied the claim.  She's fighting them about that now, but she's on oral chemotherapy and has lots of follow-up appointments to go to so any help you could spread her direction will be deeply appreciated.  I still have a few weeks left on my fundraisers, but I imagine you're all sick of looking at links to them. ;) Have a good week, and I'll attempt to be a good little SAHM :)