36 weeks!

As of today I am 36 weeks 1 day pregnant! I am 8 weeks further along then when I delivered Ryan. That in itself is exciting but what's even more exciting is the fact that next Monday I will be considered Full Term! Of course I want to go THREE more weeks..until 39 weeks when they are planning on delivering by a repeat c-section.

3 weeks ago I started out having what I thought was just allergy symptoms of a sore throat and then a cough. Ryan got pneumonia during this time and my symptoms quickly got worse, to the point that one day I could hardly get out of bed and thought I had the flu. I was put on a 5 day z-pac but that did not help and ended up with bronchitis. My OB was concerned about my symptoms and sent me for a chest x-ray for pneumonia and luckily that was negative so I started on an inhaler. The next evening, I ended up in the ER because I felt like I had a cracked rib because I couldn’t breathe deeply and it was an intense sharp pain. After 8 hours and many tests, it was determined I had Pleurisy which is an inflammation of the lining of the lungs. Unfortunately, because I’m pregnant there is nothing I can take for it other than Tylenol. It’s been almost a week now and I am slowly getting better. My coughing has decreased to the point where I’m only using the inhaler once a day and my pain has lessened as well but I’m still short of breath when I walk only a few blocks. My OB group is still concerned that I could have what’s called Peripartum Cardiomyapathy, a heart condition that shows up in the late stages of pregnancy, therefore I’m having an EKG done next week. I don’t feel like it will show anything but I’m glad they are being proactive. My blood pressure has been elevated the past couple weeks so now they are monitoring me for Pre-Eclampsia which can be life threatening. Again, I only have elevated blood pressure and none of the other symptoms (swelling in the face & hands, protein in my urine) but I'm glad they are being proactive. I really have a good rapport with the Physician's Assistant whom I see every time I go plus the doctors. I have one main doctor but have seen several others in the practice.

As far as Baby Girl Perry is concerned, she is looking great. Today’s ultrasound she was being stubborn and laying on her tummy so they could only get a few measurements. But she was breathing really well and the heart looked good. At my last ultrasound 3 weeks ago, she was growing right on target. Today’s estimated weight was around 6 lbs. but again, that’s just an estimate since they could not get all the measurements. I will have another ultrasound in 2 weeks for growth and probably to get a final position of the baby. If all goes well and Baby Girl stays put, her Birth Day is scheduled for Monday, April 18th!

The office staff at work threw me a delightful baby shower last week and I (well, the baby) got lots of adorable outfits, blankets & basic necessities. The nursery is coming along and Ryan is talking so much about his "baby sister". He was so proud to help Dean out this past weekend, getting the crib put together and furniture moved around.

Hopefully, I can get some pictures posted on here some time soon. I just haven't had the energy or will to take any since being sick. I did take a video of Ryan but I'll update on him in another post later this week..after his speech therapy (I believe he might be released).

The sickies got us!

Has it really been 3 weeks since my last blog post? Grrr..Well, I do have an excuse for the last almost 2 weeks..either Ryan or I have been sick. Ryan started getting sick again almost 2 weeks ago and woke up that Friday and vomited. That evening he developed a rash that went away as quickly as it came. The whole weekend, the rash would come and go. Then on Sunday, he developed goopy eyes and his cough and congestion got worse. My mom kept him on Monday and when I picked him up, he was just laying on the couch and I could tell he was miserable. I called the pedi after hours line and after over an hour, the nurse finally called me back and told me to bring him in since the rash could be strep. Took him in and the pedi, whom I did not care for, passed it off as a virus and gave him an antibiotic for his pink eye. I was pretty mad because this is the same pedi we saw about 3 weeks ago when he the snotty nose and was coughing pretty constantly and she passed it off as a virus that would go away...well it didn't! So, fast forward to Wednesday..2 days later and I'm taking him in the pedi office again! Ryan had been coughing for the past 2 days. Wednesday he woke up without a fever so I thought that was pretty good. But, throughout the morning his coughing would not stop. He just layed in the recliner, while I layed on the couch (at this point, I was starting to get sick). I checked his temp. around lunchtime and it was 103 degrees. I called the pedi and they told me to bring him in and I made sure I got an appt. with another pedi. In fact, it was a nurse practitioner. I told her what had been going on and she saw his records that we had been in 2 days before but to her, something else seemed to wrong, other than a "virus". So, she ordered chest x-rays and blood work. She thought that maybe his bronchitis was coming back even though his lungs sounded okay. That evening, they called and said something I wasn't really expecting, that he had the start of pneumonia! What?? I was pretty livid. Especially since we had been in there twice within 17 days, the most recent, just 2 nights before! Now that he's been on the inhaler and strong antibiotic, he's much better. We've of course kept him out of daycare and not taken him to any of his therapy appointments, which has definitely been hard. Only because I've been sick and my mom has been sick. I could hardly make it out of bed on Friday and swore I had the flu so I had my dad take me to the doctor. Since I had no fever, they passed it off as a flu-like virus that apparently is around (I know at least 6 people who have it or recently had it). It takes 7-10 days to run it's course and boy has it been a longgggg 7-10 days. It's day 7 and I'm just starting to feel better. The coughing is the worst. My stomach feels like it's been punched numerous times by a boxing professional, not to mention I pulled a muscle from coughing so hard & often. I did get to go to my fetal non-stress test this week, so Sweet Pea is doing just fine. I know she's tired from me coughing all the time too...it's messing up her sleep pattern.

Hopefully, this weekend we will be feeling better and I can get some pictures taken. We started cleaning & organizing the future nursery, our bedroom and Ryan's room a couple weekends ago so we need to finish that up so we (Dean) can put the crib together. Can't believe I'll be 35 weeks on Monday!