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!

Update on Ryan

Like I said in the previous post, not too much has been going on lately. Ryan finally got over the flu & bronchitis, only for him to start having another snotty nose and start coughing again last week. Before it got out of hand, I took him in the pedi but they just said it had to run it's course. I was kind of peeved and told the pedi (not his regular pedi), that I really thought he needed an antibiotic to nip it in the bud before the whole house caught it, esp. me since my doc ended up putting me on one last time. All she did was offer alternatives...over the counter crap stuff. So off to Target we went to get some saline and Musinex. Ryan is the type that gets the opposite reaction in medication than most. Benedryl makes him hyper and so does Musinex (i've only given it to him one other time but I thought I would try it again). I could only stand to give him the a couple doses of the Musinex due to his hyperness but it's now Tuesday and so far...his cough has subsided and the saline is working pretty well in getting the gunk out of his nose.

My parents took Ryan and I to a train show this past weekend. Ryan had such a wonderful time and so did my dad. They had aisles and aisles of model trains and accessories and they had several large scale train displays set up. Ryan got to push lots of buttons and his Papa showed him all the train displays. They halso ad a couple Thomas the Train booths so we let him pick out a new train.

I think Ryan has already "Sprung ahead" for daylight savings time. He is waking up at 5:30 am again. In 3 weeks, this should mean that it will really be 6:30 am. Let's see if that actually plays out. Although, he really needs to be up at 6 am on the days he goes to daycare so we might be struggling on those days.

We never did buy the Goodnights underwear. He just had that one week or so of not waking up every night and going pee in his bed but ever since then, he either sleeps through without going or he will wake up and ask to go potty. (I should probably knock on wood)

The next couple weeks, we'll probably be trying to get his room reorganized. Right now, the future nursery is a playroom. We'll have to put some of the things in Ryan's room. He likes to watch dvd's on the tv in the playroom so I'm still debating if I want that in his room. The Leapfrog computer also hooks up to the tv but those are the only 2 things he can use the tv for...as it's not hooked up to cable (and it's an old non-digital tv). I just don't want him turning it on when he's expected to go to sleep. Although, I guess that's where discipline comes into play.

31 weeks

Yikes..it's been a while since I posted last! Luckily for me (since I use this blog as sort of a record of Ryan's life), not much has been going on but regular day to day life.

I'm now 31 weeks along and SweetPea is making her presence known even moreso now. Being this far along is new territory for me although some of the symptoms I have are not new. Two weeks ago my legs started swelling and when I went to my doctor appointment the scale showed I had gained 5 lbs in 2 weeks! Needless to say I was upset. I pretty much knew the weight gain was because of the swelling but it still didn't make me feel good to see that number on the scale. I saw the Physician's Assistant, whom I really really like and both her and the doctor said not to worry myself with the number on the scale. At this point, I just need to keep drinking my water, put up my feet as much as I can (haha, that's a hard one with a 3 1/2 yr old) and watch my sodium intake. When I was pregnant with Ryan, my legs started swellling at 22 weeks and never went back to normal until I delivered, but it was because I got dehydrated at an outdoor fair. At least this time, I know it's just another sign of my progress and that I'm 31 weeks. Another symptom that I have now is sciatic nerve pain. I also had this with Ryan which started at 24 weeks. It got so bad that I would have to hobble to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Right now, it's not that bad. But, it does stop me in my tracks all the sudden. All in all, I'll take whatever symptoms this pregnancy wants to give, because it means I'm still pregnant!

I'm getting fetal non-stress tests twice a week now. This started last Thursday because my ultrasound showed SweetPea was growing a little small, by 2 weeks. A fetal non-stress test is where the baby is hooked up to a monitor and the heart rate is monitored to make sure there are no destats or high accelerations. It also would show if I was having any contractions, which I might not feel. The 2 times I have gone, she has been perfect. The nurses say that she is "beautiful". She likes for me to sit back in the recliner and just relax because she starts kicking and moving like a jitter bug. My gut feeling is that she's just on the smaller side so I'm actually not too worried (about the only thing I'm not worried about). I have an appointment next week so hopefully we will schedule a c-section date.