April 2014 – Over The Deep End

32 Weeks

April 30, 2014 2 Comments

Well folks, we are at thirty two weeks this week. I don’t have an ultrasound until next week, but my pregnancy app tells me that this little peanut weighs up to 3.75 lbs!

I can definitely tell she’s getting heavier as I get tired more quickly lugging her around all day.

My belly button has officially become a permanent “outie.” You can see it through all my shirts. I’ve still managed to avoid stretch marks. I’m still using my coconut oil, but not as obsessively as before.

I’ve noticed my back, arms, and face have begun to ‘plump’ up. I can’t tell if it’s mainly because I’ve lost a lot of muscle tone over the past 8 months, or if it’s just from packing on weight. Either way, I’m a little more “soft and squishy,” according to Kyle.
Thanks, husband, thanks.

Over the weekend we had gorgeous weather. On Saturday we woke up early to hit a community yard sale.

We picked up some great bargains for the little miss. We ended up with a babygate for the top of the stairs ($5), a practically new baby play mat (including toys -$5), some super cute baby clothes, also in pristine condition…

I mean, I picked up a cashmere sweater for this little nugget. I don’t even own a cashmere sweater! Granted, I’ve never found a cashmere sweater in my size for a quarter, so I guess that’s fair. We also managed to get a bunch of books to start building her library. You can’t beat finding books for 10cents! We also picked up a nice wooden puzzle for a dollar. We brought the mat home and set it up complete with dangling toys so Oliver had a chance to explore it before there’s a baby on it.

As soon as it was on the floor he army crawled right under it and tried to eat the dangling toys. Once we corrected him and said it was for the baby, and not for him, he laid down.

What do you mean this isn’t for me?!

Oliver then decided if he couldn’t play with the toys that came with the mat, he’d bring his own toys to the mat. He brought over a blue gummy bear (you can see it in the background in the picture) and his bone to chew on. But he certainly loves to lay on it and crawl under it.

I can picture him laying with his silly head on the mat while little ninja swats at her toys. We think once the baby is here, Oliver won’t want to leave her side. As it is, the nursery is already his favorite room.

Speaking of the nursery, let’s chat about it! I managed to finish up some projects this past week. The curtains were hemmed and hung up. I also finished reupholstering a cheapo ottoman we still had from the apartment. I added some extra batting for cushion for an extra comfortable foot rest.

A black side table got a coat of purple paint to pick up the fuchsia color from the curtains.

Picture wall has gone up over the dresser. Some pictures still need to be placed in their frames, but for now it’s progress. I have a letter that will be where the question mark is. I had to take it down as to not ruin the surprise! The letter is her first name initial. The frames look a little crooked in this picture, but not in life – I blame the wonky tripod I have, that and the house having crooked walls.

I have 3 out of 4 bumpers sewn. While the APA has recently declared bumpers unsafe, we will use them with caution and remove them if we feel that is the case. Until then, I will keep them up. I also sewed a fitted sheet for her crib using the cutest gold hexagon patterned fabric. I serged all the seams and used a much thicker elastic than most fitted crib sheets, so this thing is in it for the long haul.

While I choose to add bumpers to her crib, she will not be sleeping with any blankets or animals since I do see how those can contribute to a higher risk of SIDS. Sorry bunnies!

I’ve also done some of tiniest laundry! It’s hard to imagine a small person will soon be wearing these things.

I’ve been enjoying how the room is coming together. It’s quickly becoming one of my favorite rooms in the house. I can’t wait to share it with the little one.

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Wait, it’s Tuesday?

April 29, 2014 No Comments

Hi Friends!

Normally my weekly post goes up on Tuesday afternoons, but instead I got to take an unexpected trip to my dentist… nice. Hopefully tomorrow my face will no longer be aching and I will have the weekly pregnancy update for everyone; until then, here’s my tooth saga:

I dreamt I had a toothache on Monday only to wake up at 3am with a throbbing face. I figured I had just spent the past few hours grinding my teeth so after getting up, eating leftovers, loading the dishwasher and a quick puppy snuggle, I went back to bed figuring I could just sleep it off.

If only it was that easy. I spent the next 2 hour tossing and turning while my lower jaw throbbed. I slept for about 20 minutes before the pain woke me up again. I ended up taking some tylenol around 6:30 and fell back asleep around 7:30. Waking up around 10:30 my face was no longer throbbing but it was still pretty achey. I spent the rest of the day hoping the pain would just go away, but to no avail. While the pain was no longer as intense as it was at 3 am, I was still pretty miserable.

If you don’t know, I hate the dentist. I loathe any and all dental work. I used to cry every.single.time. I was at the dentist until about the age of 22. I wish I was kidding. I take really good care of my teeth, in fact I floss twice a day, use a flouride rinse, and brush regularly, but alas, the meds that keep my lungs healthy also destroy my poor teeth.

I called my OB’s office to get their opinion on getting fillings while pregnant. I had a feeling one of my many fillings may have cracked. The last thing I wanted to happen was have my fillings fall out so that eating hurt– I have enough trouble eating as it is, never mind adding in some mouth pain!

OB said to get it fixed and said if I needed something stronger than tylenol for pain I could call them back and they could call something in. The high risk OB’s are so relaxed, sometimes annoyingly so! Next call was to the dentist where we scheduled an appointment for today.

I saw the dentist today and it turns out I was most likely grinding my teeth/clenching my jaw during sleeping, but it looks like it had irritated an air pocket that had formed when a slight piece of composite chipped out of a filling. She was able to drill the surrounding composite and refilled it with some ketac – which doesn’t expand and contract like composite does (it also happens to be extremely bright white!).

The dentist also filed down the tooth next to the fixed composite tooth since it looked like that was where my teeth hit the hardest when biting down. Basically, she made my bite a little more even. She also checked all surrounding teeth for any signs of decay which I had none- there’s a first time for everything I suppose!

The goal should be to not have any pain in a few days and then after the baby is born I can return and she’ll file away some of the ketac and place tooth-colored composite over it. And if the pain lingers? I’ll try a mouth guard at night and if that doesn’t help… well, looks like I’ll just have to make another date to my favorite place in the world.

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31 Weeks

April 22, 2014 1 Comment

31 weeks down, only 9 to go. Over the weekend Kyle and I logged quite a few hours in the car. While traffic coming up was pretty miserable, the love and joy of the weekend was totally worth all the traffic in the world.

It’s so humbling and overwhelming to know that this little girl, who’s content to squirm around in my belly, is already so loved by all her family. We can’t thank everyone enough who attended the baby shower over the weekend. Everyone spoiled little ninja, she’s already one lucky lady. Her room, however, is a complete disaster now since everything was just popped in there and the door was shut. Hence, why the picture venue has changed for this week. I need to go into organization overdrive to get everything situated and sorted.

We had our first baby class yesterday! (Finally!) I had been nervous since the class was originally supposed to end at my 38 week mark, but since moving it back a week we were looking at 39 weeks. There’s another couple who is due the day before me, so I know I won’t be the only one who may have to miss a class. 😉

It seems like a good group of people, and I don’t think we’re the youngest ones there. I do know we look like one of the youngest couples, but I’m pretty sure there is at least one couple- if not two, who are younger than us.

So far it seems like we’ll learn a lot each week. You go home with homework each week. The more you put into the class, the more you get out of it. The teacher and her husband were very nice. There was one part where we had to check off ways we’ve dealt with pain in the past, and I checked off quite a few things. Growing up with CF (specifically CF related pains) you find you have set ways to ‘cope.’ We all went around the circle and said which ones were the ones that really jumped out at us. Everyone chose the standards like massage, heat/cold compress, dark rooms, etc. I straight up said “I like to cry… a lot. ” To which Kyle pipes in “It’s true. She cries all the time.” We got some laughs. I then elaborated on why I like crying. I think the fact that I recognize that I cry when I’m upset, and I know it helps me is huge. I think holding onto all those pent up emotions when you’re not feeling well just amplifies the problem; a good cry and you’re able to let all those frustrations out and focus on what you can do to actually feel better. If the pain is out of my personal control, well, crying is a great way for me to acknowledge and accept it. I’d say 90% of the time, after crying, I feel better.

Yesterday I had my 2 week OB appointment. I met another doctor. I’d say at this point I’ve met close to 10 of the 17 high risk OB’s. This particular doctor has a way he likes to do things — including going over every single medicine in detail. While slightly annoying, I recognized it as an opportunity for him to better be acquainted with my regiment and file so if he’s on while I deliver he’ll know who I am. He also said he recognized me from seeing me in passing – so I guess I have one of those faces? He tried to figure out where little ninja was hanging out in my belly but she was too wiggly. Pure ninja style of course.

I asked his opinion (since it’s always good to hear new doctors thoughts on the matter) about the general plan for me to go into labor, would there be any reason to induce vs. letting go into labor on my own? His response was nope! The plan at the moment is to let me do my thang, and when I go into labor I go into labor. He told me about two other CF women who just recently gave birth. One went into labor at 39 weeks and the other at 37 weeks. The one who went into labor at 37 weeks was on TPN due to pancreatic failure, but she and baby ended up being perfectly fine & healthy after having a smooth labor. It was encouraging to hear that both recent CFers, while we all have our little complications here and there, tend to do just fine. And in his words I’m “doing fantastically so far.”

As my belly gets bigger, and little miss Ninja runs out of room, I feel her every wiggle. It’s one of my favorite things about being pregnant. It’s something I know that I’m going to miss dearly when she’s in my arms and not swimming in my tummy. One of my favorite things that’s been happening lately is when she gets the hiccups! I find that whatever I’m doing, I immediately stop so I can just hold my belly and feel each little hiccup. I’d say it’s when she has the hiccups that I get the overwhelming sense of impatiences because I just want to squeeze her and kiss her chubby cheeks already! But I know she has a lot more cookin’ to do.

You stay put little nugget, you hear me??

And now, just so everyone knows what I really look like every day as Kyle goes diligently to work. I present the REAL 31 weeks:

Days usually consist of a late start after Kyle leaves for work. Breakfast is eaten, morning meds are done. If dishes need to be done I usually do it around that time. Dependent on how I’m feeling dictates my day. Sometimes errands are run late morning/ early afternoon. If I’m not feeling that great I usually stay in PJ’s and take it easy.

Oliver tends to enjoy my ‘take it easy days’ as he’s perfected the art of sleeping in, and snuggling. Lately I’ve been on a crafting spree. I finally have all my fabrics in for the nursery curtains, bumpers, some sheets, and supplies to make a mobile. I have an ottoman to reupholster for a foot rest, and I finally found a small round table to live next to the glider. I’ve had a few sewing days this past week to get everything started. Hopefully I can continue to make progress on those things this week and have an update soon.

Until next week!

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30 Weeks

April 15, 2014 1 Comment

It’s been a long week this week. So long that I forgot it was Tuesday and didn’t even realize until my father asked where my weekly update was. Hence, no picture today. I’ll take some pictures tomorrow.

This is going to be a loooooong post!

Here goes:

I had my OB appointment last Tuesday where I was given a TDAP shot. When I was getting it done, I was surprised at how high the nurse jabbed my arm. I wouldn’t even have called it my arm at that point, it was more like my shoulder.

Now, I know tetanus shots have a reputation for being pretty harsh when it comes to making your arm muscle kill for the next few days, so I expected nothing less. What I didn’t expect was the fact that my muscle felt fine after a couple of days but my shoulder joint continues to kill me. I’m having trouble sleeping, getting dressed and anything that involves the rotation of my shoulder where she jabbed me.

I thought it was getting better, but today it was hurting so much that I ended up taking some Tylenol to try to alleviate some of the pain. I’m not even sure it helped. I would have much rather had some ibuprofen since I’m sure I have some inflammation of the joint, but ibuprofen isn’t allowed during pregnancy.

Then I had someone come by to take a look at the bathroom for a renovation quote. He was so large he almost didn’t fit in the tiny bathroom. And then he almost broke the toilet by leaning against the tank with so much weight that it started leaking. Needless to say, regardless of the good reviews his company has we’ll be going with someone else. He also questioned my design choices, out-loud – which struck me as very unprofessional.

In other “it’s been a long week” news, Kyle took me shoe shopping on Sunday since my feet are getting squashed and uncomfortable in my old shoes so I needed some new ‘sneaks. While shopping he points out this lump on my leg. It was about the size of quarter and close to my ankle, and above it on my calf another pea sized lump.

We went home, and while Kyle made and packed some snacks, I called the labor and delivery department to see explain the mysterious lump and get confirmation that I should come in. (No surprise there, they said yes.) While I was skeptical that it wasn’t a clot (no tenderness, redness, etc.) we still wanted to be sure.

We get there and they strap me up to the monitors and take some vitals. I’m hooked up to a fetal doppler to monitor Ninja’s heart rate and a contraction monitor, all as protocol dictates when you’re admitted into L&D triage. We ended up waiting for about 30-40 minutes when finally a doctor comes in to ask if I’ve been feeling any contractions.

Nope, feeling fine. Ninja was trying her best to escape having a big ‘ole hockey puck sized monitor squashed on her head, but besides her squirming all around I didn’t feel a thing. I let them know that the monitor was most likely just recording my coughing fits as contractions since when coughing I tighten up all my ab muscles. So I demonstrated a few coughs while she watched the machine.

Yes, the machine does pick up my cough but it looks like a cough, and not like the contractions the monitor had apparently been picking up. Nurse and doctor quietly talk over the long trail of monitor paper pointing out peaks and talking about numbers and whatnot.

They decide they’d like to check my cervix and make sure that I just have an irritable uterus and that I’m not actually going into preterm labor.

“You know I came in because I have a lump on my leg, right? Not because I was contracting or anything?”

“Yup, but you’re contracting.”

I’m checked and my cervix is fine: no thinning, dilating or showing any signs of going into early labor. They want to keep me hooked up for 2 more hours, then recheck to make sure my cervix hasn’t changed. Fine by me, but would you look at my leg?

“Looks like a varicose vein, we’ll give you some compression socks.”

About 20 minutes after they leave (and telling me to ‘try and keep still’) I turn to Kyle and say, “Um, I think I may be having a contraction? My belly feels a little bit tight, it’s weird.”

Sure enough we turn to the monitor and I’ve got a huge peak going on. We’re no doctors but we both decided that yup, that’s what’s happening. And now we’re both worried.

They continue for about 20 or so more minutes on and off and the nurse comes back in. “Are you still not feeling these?” To which I let her know that I have started to feel a few, (I think) since my belly feels like it tightens up a little bit. I also let her know that I’m feeling lightheaded and hungry since we’ve now been there for a few hours and I haven’t been allowed to eat or drink (stupidest rules ever). I check my blood sugar levels while she’s there and I’m just under 70 – which is considered low. I let her know that if I can’t eat or drink anything, I’ll most likely be in the 50’s/40’s in about 15 minutes.

I get apple juice and I feel better. Still contracting every once in a while, but feeling better. Doctor comes back in and checks me again – still no signs of labor, but she reassures me that I’m not just having ‘braxton hicks’ like I questioned and that they were actual contractions. My response is “but I’m hardly even feeling them?” Doctor says it could just be sign that I have a high pain threshold. Well, I’ll take that.

They decide to give me a bolus of IV fluids – since I let them know I threw up twice that day and was walking around a lot, and didn’t have enough fluid intake, and now was made to fast for 4 hours…

Took the nurse two tries to get my IV in (and that was using a 20, and for labor they use an 18 gauge needle- I really missed the IV team at that point) but half a huge bag of saline later the contractions are gone and I still feel fine. They keep me a little while longer, but decide that I was just most likely dehydrated. They give me some compression socks (for my vein) and send me home.

Weirdest day ever. Long week.

I have no restrictions, and I was told to just “take it easy for 24 hours and make sure I’m getting enough fluids.” It’s not uncommon for dehydration to cause contractions so I’ll just have to be extra diligent about my fluids – especially now that it’s warming up.

Then to top off the week, our baby classes were supposed to start last night (Monday’s at 7) and we show up only to find that it’s been pushed back a week and no one let me know. I emailed the instructor and STILL haven’t heard back from her. This is the second time she’s left a bad taste in my mouth and I’m already disappointed and I haven’t even started the class yet! We might try to find some last minute class we can join instead of taking this one and ask for our money back. It was one of those things that just soured my mood for the whole night.

On the bright side? The weather has been absolutely WONDERFUL this week. We hit the mid-high 70’s 3-4 days in a row.

In summary:
* My shoulder joint really aches & affects my sleep
* Varicose vein in my leg so I need to wear compression socks
* Baby is doing just fine and doesn’t have any plans to make her appearance anytime soon (she was quite high up in my uterus)
* I need to be more aware of my fluid intake
* Contractions are weird, but now I know what they feel like for future reference.
* Baby class was rescheduled so I’m looking into finding a new one

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29 Weeks

April 8, 2014 1 Comment

Today marks the start of the 29th week of being pregnant. I had my OB appointment today as well as my ultrasound so it was a long morning. My weight checked in at 130, so in the last 4 weeks I’ve managed to put on 6 pounds. Hooray! Everyone was happy with that and things are looking good.

My blood sugars are still on track but I will continue to monitor them, and they will continue to monitor little miss Overdeep’s growth to keep an eye on her weight gain too. Having diabetes involvement you run the risk of having a big baby. So far she’s right on the average track. Her arm bones, head and kidneys are all measuring a few days behind and her belly is measuring exactly 29 weeks. Measurements like that have a week on either side buffer that is considered ‘normal’ – anything outside that buffer is cause for concern, or reevaluation of your due date.

The little ninja was head up today, which explains the karate kick to the bladder I’ve been feeling lately, and she weighed in at 2 pounds 11 oz. (estimated of course)

I haven’t had too many pregnancy symptoms although I have started to notice my feet are getting pretty cramped in most of my shoes! Getting a new pair of flats and sneakers are on my list of things to do this week since wearing shoes has become somewhat uncomfortable.

I’ve officially reached the “I can now use my belly as a shelf to hold my ice cream bowl” stage. It’s fantastic.

I’ve been overall feeling much better this week. I started a new inhaled antibiotic and it seems to be really helping. I’ll continue on it for 3 more weeks to really give my lungs a good boost.

I still can’t believe the end is nearing! Only 11 more weeks to go, and that’s if they let me go to 40 weeks. If little miss ninja has other plans, or they feel they need to induce me at the diabetes planned 38 weeks- it could be even less than that! How is it going by so quickly??

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28 Weeks

April 1, 2014 1 Comment

Today marks the start of the 28th week of pregnancy for me! It’s been a hit or miss week for me. I’ve been fluctuating between good days and bad days on an alternating cycle. If I have a bad day (short of breath, coughing up a storm, usually throwing up, no energy, etc.) the following day I usually feel great: energy, not short of breath, hardly coughing, etc. I have a clinic appointment today so we’ll see what my doctors have to say about these bizarre happenings.

I’d like to say that I’ve gained weight, but honestly I have no idea. I weighed myself yesterday morning as was back at 126.2 lbs. I weighed myself again at the end of the day before bed (after giving a decent chunk of time to digest dinner)… and I was up to 129.4. I know I did not eat 3 pounds of food, but I can’t for the life of me decide what my actual weight is. The scale this morning says 128.6 so maybe we’ll go with that? If that’s the case, I haven’t gained the full pound this week but it’s better than being 126.2 like I thought I was yesterday morning. Weight gain is still causing me a lot of anxiety so we’ll have to see what my nutritionist thinks this afternoon.

I had a massage yesterday which was heaven! I am definitely going to go back once more while I’m pregnant since it helped turn my ‘bad day’ into a relatively good day. The massage therapist really worked on my shoulders, neck and ribs – the places where I tend to get really tight from coughing so frequently.

After she was done working on my ribs I managed to clear out some pretty gross lung junk and felt amazingly clear. I also felt like I could stand up decently straight with feeling like I was straining. Also a great feat as I tend to slouch for easier breathability.

On Sunday, a good day, we got a decent amount done around the house. We found a new rug for the living room to replace the dirt and dust catching shaggy carpet. We bought some new fancy schmancy grown-up window blinds for the baby’s room and Kyle installed them. While I think Kyle was initially had sticker shock over the PPB (price per blind) after looking at a cheaper version, we decided to go with the higher quality but a tad more expensive ones. I couldn’t be happier with our choice! I believe when “we” were done hanging them, Kyle exclaimed, “Wow, they really class up the joint…”

They’re just faux wood privacy blinds so they close pretty tightly to block out a decent amount of light. They also came with some crown moulding type trim to encase the lever mechanisms to give it a very finished look. We almost had a snafu, since our windows are super old and have an inside piece of molding that juts out from the frame. I measured the outer frame and not that inside molding piece so after hanging the brackets (on the inside molding frame), we realized the mistake!

We really wanted to keep them as an inside mounted blind, but we were afraid we were going to have to go back to the store and size down the blinds in order to achieve that. Clever Kyle came up with a solution where we hung them as a hybrid version of an outside mount, meets inside mount and we just placed the bracket after that inner molding frame. The results look fantastic. We had to trim the side molding pieces to fit the sides, but the results were well worth it.

That’s about it here at Casa de Overdeep.