Keric update for Tuesday April 29

I went into LDS Hospital this morning for my first perinatal exam. A perinatal exam takes about an hour and it basically consists of being hooked up to the monitors for an hour to check for contractions and also the babies heartbeat. They monitor their movements and look to see if there are any irregularities in the heartbeat. I also had a mini ultra sound to check the level of amniotic fluid, and also check my placenta to make sure it was also OK.

Keric looked great. He was quick to show off his little "man-hood" to his mommy, so she could stop having dreams about taking a baby girl home in boys clothes. :) His amniotic fluid was good, along with his heartbeat. His head is in the down position, which is good, and I wasn't having any contractions. The Dr. and Nurse were VERY happy with his results.

The down side of the appointment, was his Mommy's lab results. I believe the Dr.'s exact phrase was, "The baby looks great, but his mommy's labs are going down the tubes fast!" She sort of caught me off guard! I didn't know if she was joking or really being serious. So I asked what exactly that meant.

Basically it means, I'm the one with the problem, and not Keric. My kidney's are not functioning the way they would like them to be. They are spilling out a lot of protein, which is not something they like to see, and my blood pressure is still not all that good. I will be going in on Friday for new blood tests, another stress test, a growth ultra sound for Keric, and then a regular Dr.'s visit for me.

The Perinatal Dr. said I most likely am not going to make it to 37 weeks. :( Right now they will be taking it a week at a time. So now we are all crossing our fingers that I can make it to 34 weeks. Once I make it to 34 weeks, we'll try for 35 and so on.

I FEEL fine, which is what is so annoying, but I got a semi-lecture about taking this bed rest thing VERY seriously. It's one thing to be down in bed when you feel like crap, but quite another thing to be lying down when you feel just fine! I thought I was doing pretty good, but I guess I need to do a little better.

We'll keep ya posted!

Keric update...April 28, 2008

I went in this morning to do some lab work and get my blood pressure taken again. After a weekend of lying down, my blood pressure had come down a little. This time is was 132/84 which was lots better then Friday's readings. The downside to my visit was that my Dr. called this afternoon with my lab results, and I do have preclampsia. My protein count was 392, and anything over 300 is not good.

What that basically means is I will be on bed rest until Keric's arrival. My blood pressure was good enough that I didn't need to start steroids today, which was a relief to me. I will not only be going into the hospital twice a week for stress tests, but I will also be visiting my Dr. weekly.

The plan right now is to hold him off until 37 weeks, which will be around May 26, that is if I can keep my blood pressure down. At 37 weeks she will go ahead and induce me. If my blood pressure can't keep in check, she may have to induce me earlier, which is why they are keeping a close eye on me.

I go in tomorrow for my first non-stress test, so I'm hoping I can keep my blood pressure down for tomorrow too.

Ready or Not.....Here he comes

I have been anxiously counting down the days to both the end of school, and also the end of my 40 weeks. It's kind of become a joke with the people I work with. At least twice a day someone will ask me...."How many days left?" which has forced me to kind of know at any given moment the answer to BOTH countdowns. Some days it's depressing, and other days, it's exciting.

Hearing the answers to this question I think has made Chris a little nervous. He has been frantically working on the office in the basement trying to get it done so we can move the office downstairs, move Cameron's room into the office and THEN get started on the Nursery.

I haven't been too stressed out about not having a Nursery done yet. I thought 50 days seemed like a long time, plus I also took into account that NO ONE has their baby on it's due date, most people go over with their first baby and so it would probably end up to be more like 60 days left and not 50! I also haven't had time to do a lot of Nursery shopping either. The end of the school year is always hectic with testing and all the other things that go along with sending a class onto another grade. Not to mention, most if not all our "extra" money has gone into the office and truth be known, I have thought that it would probably make me even MORE anxious to walk by the baby's room every night and see an empty crib. So for these reasons, I have not really been pushing the "Let's get this thing done already" card until Friday afternoon.

Friday, the 25th, I went in for my regular Dr.'s apt. which is now every two weeks. Chris came with me, but actually got hung up on a phone call in the waiting room, so he didn't get to come into the exam room with me. I went back like normal, and had all my "usual" tests done. I was a little saddened by the three and a half pound weight gain when I stepped on the scale, but told myself it was probably "all baby" anyway, (which I'm sure isn't exactly true either) and I tried not to stress out about it. Then I went over to get my blood pressure taken.

After they take my blood pressure, it is usually the point where the nurse says, "Ok, come on back with me.", but this time that wasn't what she said. She looked at my chart, and then said "Have you had a history of high blood pressure during your pregnancy?" I said, "No, I don't think so. They mentioned last time that it was a little high, but no one has ever said anything to me about before then." She said "Hmmmm, well, it's 150/82 today?" Seeing as how I know NOTHING about blood pressures, I said, "So is that bad?" She said, "well....usually hypertension is measured at 149/90, and that's not where you are exactly, but the Dr. will talk to you about all that." I suddenly got very nervous and scared. I had read about hypertension/preclampsia in my pregnancy books, but I figured since I was long past the 20 week mark, that was something I didn't need to really worry about.

I walked back to the exam room and probably only waited a whole 30 seconds for Dr. Holmes to come in, but it seemed like I was there for an hour! She came in and asked how I was feeling, and I told her I thought I was fine, but the nurse didn't seem to like my blood pressure. She said, "Yeah, we need to talk about that." She looked at my ankles and my hands, asked me if I was still working, and then told me that it was looking like I was borderline preclampsia and she was going to be putting me on bed-rest. Just what every mom to be with 7 weeks of pregnancy left wants to hear!!!

Well...I immediately started to cry after she said that. I asked her what I had done wrong, or what I could have done differently, be she said I had done nothing wrong and there was probably nothing I could have done differently. She said this just happens sometimes to women, and it happens a lot to women during their first pregnancy, no one really knows why it happens to some and not to others. I guess I was the 4th woman that week that she had put on bed-rest. Then, we talked about what would happen now.

I have to go in on Monday (tomorrow) to do some lab work, to see how borderline I actually am. The top part of my blood pressure, the 150 is bad, but the bottom number, 82 is still with in "acceptable range".

If my labs come back as having preclampsia, then I will have to start taking steroids tomorrow so that Keric's lungs can develop faster. The only "cure" for preclampsia is delivering the baby.

If I am still with in the borderline range, I will have to stay down for 2 to 3 weeks, and then be evaluated again. There is a possibility she would start me at around 36 or 37 weeks depending on how well I do. I will be going into the hospital twice a week for non-stress testing and a growth ultra-sound on Friday to make sure Keric is still growing normally.

Bottom line is I won't make it to 40 weeks, the good part to that statement is that I wont go OVER either! :) We are all hoping I can make it to 36 week which is three weeks from tomorrow. By 36 weeks, babies are considered pretty much "full term". If they have to take him earlier then 36 weeks, he will still be OK, but will probably be a little small, and may have some breathing issues in the beginning.

It wasn't my favorite Dr.'s visit by any means, and the fact that I was in there alone made things a little more scary, but I think things will be OK. I have been reading a lot on pre-clampsia, and it's really not an uncommon thing. I read that 7 out of 100 women get it, and the risk is much higher when it is your first baby. Just because I may have it now, doesn't mean I will have it the next time I have a baby, and the fact that I have made it to 33 weeks, is also a very good thing. They say 90% of babies born after 32 weeks are born healthy and have little to no problems.

So...what can I say, he is his mommy's boy! Poor boy has no patience what so ever! Guess June wasn't fast enough for him.

So the "good" part of the bed rest is that a) He wont have to share his birthday with our anniversary. b)My last day of school was Friday and c) Chris' mom is going to teach me how to crochet, so I am not so flippin BORED out of my mind lying on the couch.

The bad parts are obvious, but thankfully I have a wonderful husband and kids who are great helpers and who have been taking very good care of me!!! Cameron kept asking me all day yesterday if there was anything he could do to help me, and Mae Mae cleaned her room, and took all her toys upstairs for me, but then afterwards she wanted to know how much longer I was going to "have to take a rest". ha ha. She's trying very hard to understand this whole thing. :)

Unfortunately this also means I just put a whole lot of EXTRA stress on Chris that he really doesn't need right now. He was frantically working down in the basement most of the day yesterday, and his Dad and brother have offered to come help do the Nursery and Cameron's room in order to get things all ready to go. Chris has told me more then once that he works "better under pressure", so I guess this will be the true test to see if that really is true. :)

Maybe this is a hard lesson in NOT counting down the days till the "end" of something?? Hmmm....another hard lesson for Nati to learn? Couldn't be!!! :)

I imagine I'll be doing LOTS and LOTS of blogging in the very near future, so if you get bored, check our little page for updates. You very well might find yourself getting DAILY updates. :) Until then.....

A note to "KARMA"

According to Wikipedia, Karma is defined as: "... the effects of all deeds actively create past, present, and future experiences, thus making one responsible for one's own life, and the pain and joy it brings to him/her and others."

This pretty much sums up what has happened to me over the last few weeks, thus making me swallow my pride, and admit to some of my many mistakes.

You all know about my extreme love of shoes! I think I've had this love of shoes since about birth! I have more pairs then I admit to, a new pair can always makes me "happy", and I truly do believe that shoes make the outfit! You can wear a fairly ordinary, everyday looking outfit, but put the right shoes with it, and it changes your whole outlook on what you're wearing and how you look. At least it does for me.

Being pregnant has not been kind to my favorite fashion accessory. Up until probably a month ago, I was able to continue wearing my cute heels, and really had no problems. My Dr. would ask me occasionally how my feet were doing, and I would smile and say, "Oh, I have worn heels for a long time. My feet feel just fine." (This is the part of the story where "Karma" comes in.)

A few weeks ago, I came home from work, and slipped my heels off. I started up the stairs to get the doggies out of their crates when all of the sudden I felt this "rushing" feeling down my legs. It felt like my legs had been asleep for a really long time, and all of the sudden were getting blood rushed back into them. I looked down at my feet and literally watched my ankles swell! I had no idea what to do! I just stood there for a second, hoping that it would either go away, or that I was just seeing things. After about 5 mins of starring down at my feet I decided that neither option was right. So, I did the first thing that came to my mind. I called Chris. When he answered the phone I blurted out "I HAVE NO ANKLES!" He sat there for a minute probably wondering who the crazy woman on the other end of the line was, and then said "I think this now qualifies as the weirdest conversation I have ever had." I explained to him my dilemma and he assured me that it was just a "normal" part of being in my last trimester of pregnancy and that the swelling would eventually go down or go away.

Well...the swelling did go down for awhile, but never enough for me to be able to wear my "cute" shoes to work again. I did however insist on pulling a Cinderella's ugly step sister move each Sunday and I would squeeze into my heels long enough to go to church, which really wasn't fun and probably looked as ridiculous as Cinderella's step sisters looked, but as of last week, that is also no longer a possibility. (Believe me, I TRIED!!!)

Not only has Karma taken away my cute shoes, she has been even more cruel to me as of this morning. Along with my love of shoes, I also have a very strong opinion of what shoes are "acceptable" to wear and which shoes should not even be put on a clearance rack at the dollar store. One style in particular that I detest are "Crocs". I have hated the look of these shoes since the moment I laid eyes on them. I have never understood the attraction to these ugly shoes, especially the attraction to the little buttons and pins that you can now put on them!!! I have always thought parents were almost cruel to put them on their little kids, and that adults who actually wear them, had to have been suffering from some form of blindness.( You have probably guessed where I am going with this story.)

It saddens me deeply to admit that it is hard to now wear flip-flops to work all day, and the only other choice I had, other then slippers, were Crocs! (The day I wear slippers to school, will be the day I prescribe myself to bed rest!)

So today I went to school with my new "Crocs" on. I could hardly look people in the eye. I kept hoping they weren't starring at my feet. I always made sure my feet were under my desk, and if I was sitting in a chair, I tried to hide my feet underneath the chair so as not to draw attention to my horrible shoes.

All day long I couldn't help but think of how ironic it all was. I always wondered where the dumb phrase "barefoot and pregnant" came from, Well I guess I know the answer now, they didn't have any other shoes that fit and they didn't want to wear CROCS!!!!!

Anyway,this is my plea to Karma....I give! You have proven your point! I'm sorry for being so critical and judgemental. Can I PLEASE have my feet back?!?!?!

*Disclaimer* My opinion is not necessarily that of the rest of my family. In fact both Cameron and Reagan have a pair of Crocs that they wear proudly. ( I didn't buy them, their Mom did) So, I apologize to any of you reading this who wear Crocs and enjoy them!

GO TEAM!

Chris and I aren't real big sports fans. We watch the Jazz occasionally, but ask either of us any real sports questions, and we probably wouldn't know the answer. As a prime example, and I can only speak for myself, but I had no idea who was playing in the Super Bowl this last year. However when it comes to little league soccer....ASK AWAY! :)

Ever since Chris and I started dating, soccer has been a big part of our Spring and Fall months. This will be Cameron's 4th year playing and Reagan's 1st. A couple weekends ago the Spring season of soccer started, which now means our weekends consist of soccer, soccer, and probably something else to do with soccer with a little basement working on the side.

This season Chris is coaching Reagan's soccer team because I don't do too well running up and down the fields right now, not that I was any good to begin with, I mean who wants to see a soccer coach running with her double jointed elbows and wrists pointing out to her sides, but the basketball inside my stomach doesn't help matters much either. I do still help with some things, like treat and game schedules and my favorite part...calling parents about things once in awhile, but for the most part, he gets to do all the running each weekend. :)

Reagan's team started out the season with 4 little girls, we eventually got three more players, so that helps! We are still the Purple Penguins, and it is still pretty much a girl dominated team. We have two boys, but one has yet to show up and the other one...well let's just say Chris is extremely patient and kind to him! I don't know that I would have the patience to deal with him. :) We didn't do so great in the Fall, but I've been really proud of how much more all of them are playing this season, and the girls are even starting to become lots more aggressive with running after the ball and blocking it from the other team.

Last season if the ball was ever within 10 feet of Mae mae, she was sure to get out of its way! She also did lots of her running down the field and lining up on the line, holding my hand, (ha ha) but this year she has been kicking the ball and getting in the game a lot more. I haven't seen her hold Chris' hand down the field once! :) She's made some really good plays too. It's been much more exciting to watch!

Cameron's team is a lot more advanced obviously. His team has team captain's, goalie's and even ref's. His team has lots of really good players on it and is actually pretty good for their age group in my opinion. Cameron scored a goal his first game, which was really exciting, and had it not been for the 50mph wind we had yesterday, I'm pretty sure he would have gotten two more. :)

The last couple of weekends have been fun, busy but sadly also mostly COLD! Hopefully the weather will decide to cooperate so we can concentrate on PLAYING instead of on how COLD we are. :) We wish you could all come and watch a game with us! If you're ever in our neighborhood, we would love to have you join us on the sidelines. However as a warning, some of us, (OK just me really), get a little into it. :)


Cameron chasing after the ball



Cameron very happy with his performance! :)



GET THAT BALL REAG!!!!!



The "original" Penguins. (L-R) Brooklyn, Liz, Acelyn (Mae Mae's BFF), Elizabeth, and Reagan.

Wal-Mart, the store that has EVERYTHING!

Once in awhile I have these random thoughts, and I think to myself, "I need to write that down someplace or else I will forget it!" Since I don't keep a journal, I guess this is the place to "write it down", so I apologize to those of you who end up reading my random thoughts.

I had a Dr.'s appointment this morning in SLC. Chris usually goes with me to all my appointments, but today he had early morning meetings, and he also had to do some interviews for a position they are trying to fill at work, so I drove in by myself. It's about a 45 minute drive from our house to my Dr.'s office, so when you're driving alone you have lots of time to let your mind wander. :) As I was driving back home my mind was wandering to some of the things I needed to get done today. One of the things on my list was grocery shopping. Since Tooele doesn't have many options for grocery stores, we usually end up going to Wal-mart so that we can kind of do ALL our shopping at once. I mean ya can't beat getting your oil changed while you're also doing your grocery shopping! :) Talk about killing two birds with one stone! ha ha Anyway, I was mentally going through the things that we needed in my head and I suddenly remembered a conversation I had with Reagan a couple weeks ago during sacrament meeting. It was one of those conversations where I thought to myself, "I need to write this down" and then obviously I forgot about it until now, so I better hurry up and write it down before I forget about it for good!

Reagan has one of those Book of Mormon story picture books that she likes to bring to church as her scriptures. They encourage the kids in primary to bring their scriptures, and so she likes to bring her big picture book with her every week. As we were sitting in sacrament meeting she was looking at all the pictures and asking me questions about them. She likes to ask me who is in the picture and what they are doing, and then her favorite picture that she likes to find is the picture of baby Jesus with Mary and Joseph. Once she finds that, we usually talk about it for a few minutes, sometimes she asks me if thats what Keric will look like when he is born, then she looks at it a little while longer, and finally closes the book. :) Anyway, that week she had found the story of Lehi's dream and the picture of the tree of life. In her book it has a full page picture of the dream and this "sparkly" (as Mae mae called it) tree off in the distance. She was of course drawn in by the sparkly tree and was asking me what it was. I told her it was the tree of life and I was showing her the fruit on it and all the people who were coming to eat the fruit. I tried to explain in the most generic terms possible, what the picture was, but nothing about Lehi's dream is very simple or generic! She sat and looked at it for a minute and then turned to me and said "Nati, can we go buy some of that fruit?" I kind of smiled and said, "Well honey, I don't think they have that fruit anywhere. Remember, it was a dream?" She thought about it some more and then said, "Nati, I'm SURE Wal-mart has some of that fruit. Can we look for it next time we go?" It was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud! It was such an innocent and sweet little question to ask, and in a way, it was a rather logical solution to the problem! I guess when you're 5, Wal-mart truly DOES sell EVERYTHING! :)I told her sure, we could look for it next time we went to Wal-mart.

As a follow up to my story, we did happen to go to Wal-mart not very long after our little discussion. We walked up and down the fruit aisles looking for the sparkly fruit. Unfortunately we didn't find it, but Reagie settled for some Strawberries instead. :) So next time you find yourself in Wal-mart, check the fruit aisle....you never know what you might find! ha ha

Happy Birthday Reagie!!!

Our little "Mae Mae" turned 5 on Friday! I can't believe how big she is getting! When Chris and I started dating, she was only 2. She had just stopped drinking out of her sippy cup, was just starting to discover her love of Princesses and letting go of Elmo, and she was still wearing her Tweety Bird Pull Up's to bed which we all lovingly referred to as her "Birdie's in Front". Now all of the sudden she is our tall, skinny, Hannah Montanah singing, make-up wearing, shoe loving, Kindergarten bound girl!

Reagie was with her Mom this weekend, so we celebrated her birthday with Chris' family yesterday. We had a little Hannah Montanah party for her. Chris made her a Hannah Montanah guitar cake, complete with sparkles and all. It was VERY cute, and very yummy!

After cake, it was time for the opening of presents. She had been wanting a purple fish for awhile now, so Chris went out and found her a purple Beta along with a little purple tank. We also got her a little CD player and a Hannah Montanah CD, which she LOVES. We also got her some stylin sunglasses and a little MP3 player to listen to. She's always borrowing mine or Cameron's, so we got her, her own. Her Grandparents of course were also very good to her. Mama Anne made her a really pretty quilt. It's all pink with silver sparkles on it, and it has patches with fairies, kitties, doggies, and princesses. I tried to take it for myself, but she didn't think that was such a good idea. ha ha

Grandpa Criag gave her a Hannah Montanah Barbie Doll, Grandma Lynn and Grandpa Dan sent her a very nice savings bond along with a pretty white jacket, which I'm sure wont be white for long, but is still very cute. Her cousins Jack and Anna gave her a Ken doll complete with two new outfits. I think it was mostly for Jack, because he loves to play Barbie's with Mae Mae, but he gets a little self conscience about always having to be a girl Barbie. :)

All in all, I think she had a fun day. This morning when Chris found her, she was "dancing" with her purple Beta to "Girls Night Out" blasting from her CD player. :) She's growing up, way too fast!

We Love you Mae Mae! Happy 5th Birthday!


This is how I remember Reagan. Back in September of '05, our Ward had an activity that Chris and I both ended up going to. We obviously didn't go together, but I remember that being one of the first times I really noticed him and his cute little kids. I found this picture of Cameron and Reagan at that very party.



Reagan's Hannah Montanah Guitar cake.


Hannah Montanah Party.


Mae Mae's new purple fish and fish tank.


MP3 Player complete with Purple back light. :)


Ken doll to go with Barbie.


Happy Birthday Mae Mae!