Picture update

Here's Emmy's pic from Monday. She's 29 weeks, 2 days. She's going to be the most photographed baby before she's born at the rate we're going. Kelly, the US tech, gives me pics everytime she scans me. I'm having weekly ultrasounds so we'll see how many pics I end up with by the time Emmy arrives.

So its been forever since I posted a belly pic....here it is. I'm 29 weeks, 5 days. We took it after my daily luxury, a 15 minute shower. Its the most time I spend vertical a day.

Tomorrow is the big appointment. Hopefully we'll be able to do the fetal fibrinectin test to see if I might deliver in 2 weeks. No ultrasound tomorrow, just NST. So I think we'll start finishing Emmy's room next week. Mom picked up some of the final touches for it today. And I guess I'll be directing the decorating while everyone else is actually working. I'm over this bedrest thing. I survived a week of it so far.

I had a pretty good day today. Hope it continues tomorrow!

~JRC and EPC~

Bartlett's back!!!

Jason Bartlett is back!!! He's my boyfriend on the Rays and has been on the DL and subsequently negatively affecting my fantasy team. But its nice to finally have him back in the lineup.

Is it possible for your muscles to go into complete shock after only 4 days??? All of my joints and muscles hurt already. I'm a little more crampy today but I really think just sitting down all day long has something to do with it.

And isn't it sad that the highlight of my day is when I can take a shower?!? 15 minutes of standing. Its amazing all of the things that I took for granted before this happened.

~JRC and EPC~

The Plan is:

I'm on bedrest until the baby is born. They couldn't find the abruption again on the US but I'm definately having one. I'm still spotting (bummed out by that last night since it meant I couldn't have my fetal fibronectin test today) and I'm definately having "uterine activity" aka contractions but I'm not dilating. After being at the dr's office for 4 hours, this is what we've come up with.....

Its official bedrest, meaning I can go from the bed to the couch, I walk to the bathroom then come back, I can take a short shower every day and sometimes make a sandwich. Let me tell you how excited I am about that. However, she did say if I'm not bleeding, not contracting, and doing ok, I can go to church. She said there was a chance I could go back to work if the FFP (fetal fibronectin protein) was negative and I made it to 31 weeks. Then she remembered I was a nurse and said no way. She knows how well we nurses take care of ourselves during our 12 hour shifts. I used to wish to get called off of work and now I'm totally bummed I can't go. But at least I'm at home right now and not in the hospital.

The baby looks great on ultrasound (or biophysical profile, aka BPP). She's moving like crazy (possibly because of the contractions) but moving nonetheless. They caught 30 seconds of breathing which was nice to see. I do have a little extra amniotic fluid so I'm going to do some research to see if polyhydramnios could have any connection to abruption. Although on the NST (non stress test: the monitoring they do), she's not really reacting too great. They like to see a drop in heart rate then an immediate increase after movement and she's kinda hanging steady. But since she's so little still, its not a concern.

So here's what's in store for me. This abruption is a serious deal. Right now its a small partial separtation or chronic abruption. But there is a chance that it can continue to separate and cause serious problems....aka severe hemorrhage. So it has me freaked out a little but I'm trying not to focus on it. She also mentioned possibly doing an oral tocolytic (med to stop contractions) even though the OB community is trying to move away from using them (supposedly they don't work too well) and they are even throwing around the idea of starting steroids to start prepping the baby for the world. I'm not excited about that because it makes it seem like they think I'm probably going into labor soon. So its pretty nerve wracking. I'm on Vistaril to try to stop some of the cramping (and I'm a big wuss...I couldn't tolerate 50mg and had to ask for 25mg. I don't know how our kiddos take a full dose without falling asleep for 12 hours). I have to go back on Friday for NST and a visit and hopefully I'll have no bleeding in the meantime so I can have the FFP. Then its weekly NST, BPP, and visits. Its going to be a very long 11 weeks (if I can keep her in that long). I'm just an interesting case and they really don't know what to do with me. So its weekly visits, bed rest, and fingers/toes crossed.

~JRC and EPC~

So much to tell....

So let me catch everyone up really quickly. We finally bought our house. We closed on it May 22nd (John's birthday) after holding the title company/real estate office hostage (thats for another day). We did a complete renovation in like 1.5 weeks and it looks amazing. I can't thank my dad and Tim for everything they did. We moved in, started to unpack, we're getting used to the idea that this is our home. We've kinda hit a plateau in unpacking and decorating though.

Baby news. Its a girl! Her name is Emily Paige...Emmy for short. Or if you're Noah, her name is Bob. I'm 29 weeks and up until last week, things were going smoothly. Ok that should catch everyone up to 4 days ago.

On Thursday (June 11) I woke up at 5:40 am and started getting ready for work. I noticed I had some bleeding and abdominal cramping but nothing too bad so I decided to go to work and wait until the OB's office opened at 8:30. When I got to work, I was cramping pretty bad and was still spotting. They sent me home (I tried to stay until I could talk to the OB but that was shot down big time). I should actually thank Jean and all of the night shift girlies for being so forceful. I called the on-call doc and she said to make an appointment. I got one for 10:20. Mom took me and I was definately having some bleeding but I had not dilated....good sign. Dr Dadisman put me on the monitors for a while to see if she could catch any contractions. Well I had about 3 and there was something else on the strip that caused her to contact the on-call doc to figure out a game plan. I was sent to Morton Plant Hospital to continue being monitored. Well I was planning on it being a quick visit. At 3pm, the nurse comes in and wanted to draw my blood for a test to check if there were any fetal blood cells mixed with mine. I was also contracting every 2-3 minutes (nothing big, I didn't even feel most of them). Then she said the doctor wanted to come and see me when she was done at the office (5pm). So I was stuck there. Mind you....I haven't been able to eat since breakfast that day and the 2 packs of graham crackers they gave me to try to wake the baby up. So Dr Ritter came, checked me out...I was still not dilated. Because I wasn't dilating and wasn't feeling too many of the contractions, if the test came back negative I could go home on strict bedrest until Monday when she wanted me back in clinic. If it was positive then I would be admitted overnight to run more tests. And of course, it was positive. The blood bank called when they had found 3 fetal cells and they were still counting. So I got to spend the night in a L&D room, had an ultrasound, was on the monitor every 8 hours, and finally got to eat. The next morning, Dr Fosnot came in and said I could go home. I had a probable abruption (placental separation from the uterine wall) although we couldn't see it on the ultrasound. So I was sent home on strict bedrest (I could take a shower, walk to the bathroom, and I could stand for no more than 15 minutes) and I have to go back to the doctor tomorrow for more monitoring, ultrasounds and appointment.

So I've been going insane just sitting around. I can't play with Noah and I don't think he understands why Mommy can't get off the chair. Its breaking my heart. Not to mention that I'm bored out of my mind and my butt hurts so much from sitting. I hadn't had any spotting since Thursday night but at 5pm today, I was blessed with spotting. So now I don't know what the plan will be. I'm just praying I'm not admitted for the rest of my pregnancy. Keep your fingers crossed.

I'll be posting more frequently because I'm bored so this is my way of venting.

~JRC and EPC~

Update time

I'm sixteen weeks on Saturday. I had my appointment today and everything looks good! The baby cooperated very well and let us find the heartbeat right away. The midwife said its got to be a girl since it cooperated so well. We have our 20 week ultrasound scheduled for April 9th! I can't wait to see what's growing in my belly.

House stuff is moving well. The survey was done yesterday so we're running to the house later today to check out the official property lines. Hopefully we're all set and ready for closing day on the 31st.

Other than that, there's nothing too exciting to report.

~JRC and baby~

And the verdict is.....

YES!!!! The offer we placed last night was accepted! Now its inspections, appraisals, surveys, and closings!!! If all goes well, we'll close on March 31st and become residents of the City of Seminole!!!

A much needed update

I survived my first trimester without much problem. I had the occasional dry heaves and nausea but thats it. I thank God every day that I'm not having the same pregnancy I did with Noah. I actually enjoy eating and almost enjoy being pregnant this time around. We'll find out if its a girl or boy in April, so not much longer to wait.

We placed an offer on an amazing home last night. Our realtor, Vivian, is doing an amazing job with us. They have to get back to us by 5pm tonight to let us know what they think. Vivian told their realtor that we didn't want to counter, this was a great offer, and that she needed to make her client come down in price since she got us to increase our offer (well I decided to offer more). So if all goes well, we'll close on March 31st.

I need everyone to keep a family in their prayers. A girl I work with has spent the past 3 weeks admitted to St Joes Womens Hospital having difficulties with her pregnancy. On Monday, they had to deliver the baby at 24 weeks. He's in the NICU and has a very long road ahead of him. Please keep the baby, she and her husband in your prayers please.

~JRC and baby~