Keric and Mommy updates for 4/30-5/3

So much for my "daily" updates! I thought I would be more literally on "bed rest", but I only stayed home for one entire day this week. The rest of the days were spent in the hospital, or in my Dr.'s office. So I'll try to back track from where I left off and tell you all what has been going on the last few days.

The good news is that I seem to have made it through the weekend, and despite a couple of scares, I am still pregnant. So now we start another week of keeping our fingers crossed that I can keep this little monkey baking for another week.

Wednesday April 30, 2008

Chris was able to get permission to stay home and work until the baby is born since I really am only allowed to get up to go to the bathroom and take a shower. He has been such a sweetheart in getting me anything and everything I need. He has kept the house SO CLEAN, and has all the laundry done, and even has the kids doing things like taking out garbages, making their beds, and cleaning their rooms. (I need to be taking notes here! :) ) He was even nice enough to set up a little "working buddy" station for us down in the family room so he could work on his work laptop and I could grade papers and work on our home lap top. That way I wasn't totally stuck upstairs all alone in a bed! I can now come and work on the couch. It's been kind of fun. I probably drive him crazy, because all I want to do is talk, and he has to work, but he's at least a good sport about it.

My school baby shower was today, and I was able to go for ONE hour, but then I had to get back home and in bed. It was so nice to get out of the house and see all my co-workers for a little while. Cameron, Reagan and Chris got to come also. My school has always been more then generous to me, and they gave us lots of really great things! Reagan had a GREAT time opening all the presents and showing them off to everyone. :) I have been feeling really good, and it felt SO good to get out and have some fresh air for awhile, and especially to get out and NOT have to go into a Dr.'s office or Hospital!

Thursday May 1, 2008

Today I woke up just really not feeling very well. I had a headache when I got up and was feeling a little nauseated. I took some Tylenol and tried to go back to sleep for a little while hoping it would go away, but by about 2:00 p.m. it was still there, and I was really feeling sick. Unfortunately constant headaches that do not go away with Tylenol are a sign of high blood pressure and can be dangerous when you have Pre-eclampsia. I called my Dr. to see if this was something I needed to be worrying about. The next thing I knew, Chris and I were in the car headed to Labor and Delivery at LDS Hospital to get me checked out. We got there and they checked me in and hooked me up to the monitors. The baby was doing well, but my headache was getting worse. Oddly enough, my blood pressure was lower then it has ever been, including even BEFORE I was pregnant. They kept taking it every 15 mins, and every time it was really low. The highest it ever got was 122/77, which is lots better then it was a week or so ago. They gave me some Coke to drink, and when that didn't kick it, they gave me some percocet and then eventually just sent me home. The ride home seemed to take forever. The percocet made me even more nauseated, and poor Chris had to keep pulling over so I could throw up. I thought I was never going to get home! We finally did get home around 9:00 p.m. I took some more Tylenol, and tried some ice on my head and then just finally went to bed.

Friday May 2, 2008

This morning I woke up to my friend, Mr. headache. I have always been one to get headaches, even when I was a little girl, and I even get the occasional Migraine. I have had at least 2 since I have been pregnant, but never have I had one that has lasted nearly 24 hours and that just didn't respond to ANYTHING. It was really getting bad, and I was feeling like I couldn't take it much more. I had my second non-stress test scheduled for today, along with some more lab work and my regular Dr.'s appointment. I figured I could hold off until I saw my Dr., and maybe she could give me something else besides Percocet for my headache. At about 10:30 that morning, my Dr. called to see how my head was doing. I told her that I was feeling just horrible, and that the headache had not gone away at all. She told me that this was not a good sign, and we were probably now looking at delivering the baby TODAY! I about died! I was so upset! All this for a stupid headache!?! She told me to pack a hospital bag, and head on up to the hospital for my non-stress test and ultra sound. So here we were again! We were frantically trying to get things packed, get the doggies taken care of, find a sub to coach Reagan's soccer game tonight and tomorrow, looking for things to bring a baby home in, and most of all trying to stay somewhat calm! I had so many great things from my shower on Wednesday, but I really didn't have any "basic" things, and I certainly didn't have anything that was going to fit a preemie sized baby! I suddenly realized just how many things I DIDN'T have. We didn't even have a car seat to put him in, not that he would have been allowed to go home with us anyway, but besides that, his nursery is not done, he had no onesies, no socks, and no diapers that would fit his little bum! After we let things sink in for awhile, we decided that we had better call a couple people to let them know what was going on. So we called both our parents. Chris' parents, bless their hearts came over and got the doggies, along with the soccer things to take to Reagan's game that night, and well, my poor parents were kind of just helplessly stuck in Wyoming waiting to hear what the end result was going to be.

My first appointment was my non-stress appointment. I was hooked up to the monitors again, which by the way Keric HATES. He kicks at those things the entire time they are on my belly. I'm surprised they get any kind of readings from them at all. I was also given plenty of things to put near me just in case I wasn't able to hold my breakfast down. (By this time I think I was looking pretty 'green'.) The non-stress test takes about an hour, and it was pretty much the longest hour I had had in awhile, minus of course the hour it took us to get home the night before! My blood pressure was low again, which shocked both Chris and I, and the baby was active as always, and doing really well. My amniotic fluid looked good, so the pre-eclampisa had not affected my fluids any, and his heartbeat was steady and strong. It was just me who was feeling like I had been hit by a bus.

After the non-stress test, they sent us down the hall to do the growth ultra-sound on Keric. He is actually a little bigger then he should be right now, which moved my due date up a little, and therefor making me 34 weeks instead of 33 1/2. Not a huge difference I realize, but when your trying to rack up as many weeks as you can, it made my whole day to hear that I had an extra 3 days on my side! He was tipping the scales at 5.2 lbs and his due date is now predicted to be around June 13. This is the third time his due date has changed due to his size! He was cracking the ultra sound technician up with his stubbornness and his little attitude. She commentedafew times on what a strong little attitude he seemed to have. He certainly let her know when he didn't like where she was pushing, and if she needed him to turn, well...that was just her tough luck, because he wasn't about to move for anything. There were a couple times he turned and looked right at us, almost like he was saying, HEY, KNOCK IT OFF! From what an ultra sound picture looks like, I have to say he is a cute baby! He's got little pouty lips, and a chubby little face and she even showed us that he has some hair!

After our ultra sound was done, another Dr. came in to talk to us about all my lab results, ultra sound results, and non-stress test results. He told us that the baby looked great, that my labs looked good, and that my blood pressure was re-assuring. He didn't seem to think based on all of that, that the baby would need to come out today, but of course that would have to be my own Dr.'s call. He actually made us feel a lot better. He said the baby was strong, and that he was a good size. If he did come out that day, he would most likely have a few breathing issues because of the fluid in his lungs still, and he may have to spend a week or two in the NICU, but as far as long term effects, they would be pretty much slight to none if he did come today. He said only about 10% of babies born at his size and at this stage of pregnancy, get to go home with their mom's after a couple of days, most stay in the hospital for awhile after, which made me kind of sad. I wasn't sure I wanted to have to deal with the possibility of having to leave him there while I went home! The Dr. wrote up a report for us to take to Dr. Holmes, and encouraged us to go ahead with the steroid shots that Dr. Holmes had mentioned to me last week. He said as far as helping with lung development, I was a little too far along to do much with that, but the steroids would help Keric to get rid of the excess fluid in his lungs faster, should he come early.

I think we were both a little reassured by his positive thinking! We went on to Dr. Holmes' office and gave her the previous Dr.'s report. She was also happy with my results from the previous labs and tests we had done that morning and said she also agreed with having the steriod shots done that day. She explained to us that had my blood pressure been high like before, and with the on-going headache they most likely would have taken the baby that day, because high blood pressure and headaches that don't go away with women who have pre-eclampsia are a sign of swelling in the mothers brain, and obviously they don't want to mess with that. Thankfully somehow I had managed to keep my blood pressure down all day! She went ahead and just treated my headache with some strong migraine medicine, which in my opinion is a MIRACLE drug, and then told me to continue to stay on bed-rest. I am now able to do a little more then just go to the bathroom and take a shower, but still no heavy stuff like housework and vacuming. Poor Chris! Then she told me to try and hang on for another week.

Unfortunately, pre-eclampisa is only "cured' by delivering the baby. I have not cured myself of it, but the bed-rest has certainly helped with my blood pressure issues and the swelling in my hands and feet. We are hopeful that we can keep this going for another one or two weeks. I got my first round of Steroid shots in the Dr.'s office and then we asked her if it would be OK if I went to Target to get some essentials like a car seat. She said that would be fine, but I was still to stay pretty much down.

So off we went, happy as clams, and relieved that we still had hopefully another week on our side. We headed out to Target, and as we headed onto the freeway entrance of I-15, we got rear-ended. Yes, we got into an accident. We both had ridden such a roller coaster of emotions all day that we both just burst out laughing. Thankfully neither of us were hurt at all. What happened was that we were headed onto the freeway right in the middle of rush hour traffic. Of course as is always common with rush hour, the lanes get backed up, and it's always kind of stop and go for awhile. We had come up to one of those stop and go parts, and we stopped behind the car in front of us. The car behind us, also stopped, but the SUV behind that car, was on her cell phone and couldn't stop in time. We both kind of saw it coming, because we heard her breaks squeel and then WHAM! She rammed into the guy in back of us, pushing him into our car. We were far enough behind the car in front of us, that we weren't pushed into them, but it did jolt us a little. We were lucky and got the least damage and the least impact thankfully. I think our car was the only one that was able to actually drive away from the scene. After the Highway Patrol came and took statements and all that fun stuff, we continued our drive to Target for our much needed car seat. We ended up getting some basic essentials and then headed home after a really LONG and what I would call STRANGE day!

Saturday May 3, 2008


So here we sit, in a pile of Target shopping bags, Baby shower gift bags, and boxes of baby items packed into the upstairs office, and the downstairs family room. Chris is frantically trying to get the trim work for the office painted and hung, and I have now finished my last round of steriod shots and am slowly trying to go through all this baby stuff. I at least feel confident in a few things...Keric now has something to come home in, he has a car seat to ride home in, he has diapers that will fit his little bum, and if worst comes to worst, he can sleep in his cushy car seat or an empty drawer until his daddy gets 5 mins. to himself to put his crib together!

This little boy isn't even born yet, and he's already giving his parents a run for our money!! :) I can't wait to meet this little person, and see his little personality. I have some "ideas" of what he will be like, but I'm anxious to see how far off I am, or maybe even how RIGHT I am. :)

Thank you for all your prayers and thoughts in our behalf! We really have noticed them, especially this week! :) We love you all, and are thankful for your concern and love for our family. Keep your fingers crossed.

Until next time.....