Scene 2 (Pregnancy Edition)

I have become quite the novelty at work. We don't have many babies amongst our staff any more. Either the people there are too old, have already had the children they want and are not expanding their families any more, or they are just starting out and not in a place financially or professionally to begin family building. So, I am the pregnancy at the moment.

I guess part of me can understand this. The last time I was pregnant, I worked the first day of the school year (as a 19 weeks, 6 days pregnant person) and then disappeared. I think that I was approximately the same size I am now when I delivered the boys, but no one from work every really saw me until long after the boys were born. Now, as my girth continues to expand, I hear constant comments from my coworkers.

I am also hearing more and more comments and questions from my students, especially the boys. Last week, out of the blue, one of the boys in a 7th grade class asked me if I was worried about delivering the baby in class. I assured him I wasn't, that no matter what happened, I would have plenty of time to make it to the hospital in time to deliver the baby. That prompted a short class discussion about what could happen during class, especially if my water broke. (I didn't participate much, just let them talk it out and reassure themselves that it would be okay.) After a few minutes, everyone seemed satisfied that all would be okay and we went about our business of learning about persuasive writing. :-)

Fast forward to yesterday in the same class. I was standing in front of the room leading a discussion on one of the literature selections we had just finished when there was a noticeable "pop." At that same moment, there was a strange movement across my midsection.

All eyes were on me, of course, so all the kids saw and heard what had just happened.

I thought the poor boy sitting directly in front of me was going to crap his pants. There is no way I could adequately describe the look of shock-horror-fear-curiosity that washed across his face as he tried to decide what had just happened.

I almost died of laughter when he jumped up from his seat while staring at the ground to see if he was going to get hit by something!

It had taken me just a second to realize that the elastic band on my maternity jeans had suddenly snapped.

I told the kids what had happened, we had a few chuckles and relieved exhales, and then I went to sit down so I could finish the lesson.

I thought all was going to be okay, that my pants would make it through the rest of the day. At first, the elastic band was still snug around most of my body, so my pants were staying up pretty much on their own. But, as I moved more, the elastic band pulled further and further apart. That, of course, made my already baggy jeans looser and looser.

The class period ended, so I ran to my next door neighbor to see if she had anything could help me fix my jeans. She found a small gold safety pin and tried to pin the band around my jeans together. That poor safety pin was no match for my bulging middle. We tried staples with no luck. They wouldn't staple through the material. We tried rubber bands. Nope. Before I was ready, our three minutes between classes was over and I had to get back to work.

The jeans were not behaving. If I got up to walk around the room, I literally had to hold them up! I did my best to sit as much as possible through that next period, too.

Finally, I made it to my prep period. I went to the office in search of something-anything!-else that I could use to keep my pants from falling down around my knees. After confessing my embarrassment to far too many people, and hearing far too many people laugh at me(including the male principal), I found a small sewing kit.

I headed back to my classroom to see if I could do something to fix the elastic band around my jeans. I had to cover the peak through window on my door and pray that then wouldn't be the exact moment someone came into my class for some stupid reason. (With my luck, I'd have someone from the district office come in to do some kind of safety check walk into my room just as I stood there in my underwear holding my pants. I would hate to have to explain that!)

Thankfully, I managed to sew the elastic back together and get my pants on before I was discovered. Lol.

I am so glad that today marks 34 weeks and I am nearing the end of pregnancy FUN. I don't think I can take much more of this!

The Scene

So.

My husband finally made his way into my bathroom and saw my jury-rigging of the shower faucet. (Sorry Kristin, no pictures.) Good grief you would have thought I had committed a mortal sin with the way that he carried on over it. I assured him I would take care of things (which, truth be told, I AM the one who usually does the home improvement things around the house while he somehow manages to always have to head to the hardware store while I work).

He insisted that HE would do it.

Fine. Whatever. It wasn't that big a deal. Like I said, all he'd have to do is change the stems on the shower heads. It shouldn't have taken very long. It would take him two hours he claimed.

Sigh. That is when I knew that it wasn't going to go well...

He headed to the plumbing supply store to get the parts he needed to replace. He fiddled around, turned off the water, and got to work. After a surprisingly short amount of time, the stem was changed! Whoa. I couldn't believe it!

He turned the water back on, but alas, the shower continued to drip; this time, however, the leak was on the other side. The decision was made to go back to the store and get the parts to change the other stem, too.

He turned the water back on, and told me to do whatever I needed to do while he was gone.

I decided to take a quick shower in the other bathroom. I wanted to get ready for our date day, and this was the perfect opportunity.

It should have been no problem at all.

Now, as an aside, Is.aac and I already have a long standing...issue about him turning on water while I am in the shower. My shower is literally the last of the pipe system, so if someone turns on water anywhere in the house, it takes all of the water temperature (either hot or cold depending on what's used) from my shower. Every. Single. Time. I am in the shower, he turns water on somewhere in the house.

Every. Single. Time. I am either left in scalding hot or ice cold water while he "remembers" that oops, I am taking a shower.

Seriously. Every single time. (I've even gone so far as to leave notes at the sinks! He just ends up flushing a toilet or something.) Sigh.

I'm setting the scene here, because he did it again. Only this time, I was in the middle of full body soaping when all of the water just completely shuts off. Picture me all lathered up, just about ready to begin rinsing when the water just disappears! He had turned the water off before he even bothered to come into the house to see what was going on.

I had to laugh. It was either laugh or kill him.

He finally made it back into the house to find a very annoyed, soapy, and cold wife hollering at him. He made the wise decision to turn the water back on so I could finish my shower.

Unfortunately I didn't realize that my husband had not left things as okay as I thought in my bathroom.

And that little drip?

Well, it had become a shooting spray while I took my shower.

And what else was amiss? He left the shower door open.

That was not a good thing.

By the time I got out of the shower and made my way into my bathroom to get my brush, I was greeted by a cold spray of water and a bathroom that was dripping with water. The floors, the ceiling, the walls...everything was covered in water.

Apparently while he was playing with and trying to decide whether to change the second stem, he had cracked it.

Which created a leak.

Which was intensified when the pressure increased in the pipes (shortly after he turned the water back on).

Which was probably timed pretty closely to when I got into the other shower.

Which meant that I didn't hear the sudden spray of water shooting out of the shower stem.

Which meant the mess in my bathroom became MY FAULT.

Hmph.

So, the morning of our date day was spent with me cleaning up the mess of water. But the absolute BEST part was when he pulled me into the shower and gave me an impromptu lesson on how to "properly shut off the shower" so I didn't strip the shower stems again.

It was all I could do not to stab him with the screwdriver I had in my shower.

He finally finished "fixing" the leak about 4.5 hours after he originally started.

(There was no movie because we had no extra time for that. We didn't leave the house or get to eat until 1:00!)

Next time I am just going to get my butt up and do it myself. Getting help makes too much work!

Friday Night Leftovers - Snarky Saturday Edition

(The snarky Saturday edition)

• I have a baby shower to go to in a bit for the cousin. At her last scan, her cervix was down to .63 and she continues to have contractions regularly. If I am honest, I don't expect her to make it much longer before she delivers. I feel bad for her. She is a wreck.
• I am having mixed feelings about going to the baby shower. I mean, dang, it should be okay for me to go at this point. I am pregnant, too, for goodness sake. That doesn't mean that my natural inclination isn't to run from it. I remember all too well how much it hurt while we were trying...
• Need to go to BRU to get her a gift before I go. I haven't been there AT ALL while pregnant with Baby Lo. I am nervous about that, too.
• Started cleaning out the boys' play room to make it the new baby's room. That is something, right?
• All this iron I am taking is kicking my rear end. I am either plugged, the other extreme, or puking. I can't seem to find a middle ground. There is no way I can do the 3-4 pills the OB wants me to take. I am lucky if I can get in 2 and keep them there. Ugh. I hope that is enough.
• Sh.awn has become incredibly clingy. It is driving me crazy. Part of it is that he hasn't felt well. It feels like there is more to it than that, though. I don't know what is up with him.
• All he wants to do is watch Yo Gabba Gabba while he lies on me. All I want to do is stab out my eyes. The creators of that show are totally on PCP or something. Shudder.
• Ja.son has a black spot on his abdomen. The more I looked at it, the more I could swear that it looked like a stitch trying to break through the skin. I asked his pedi about it in December, and at first she dismissed that idea. Because, you know, he hasn't had surgery in that spot since he was 4 weeks old! Oh, and the stitches were dissolvable. But once she really looked at it, she agreed that it had to be an old stitch. It is finally trying to break through the skin...I can't wait to pull it out. Ugh. It is like a little dagger reminding me of that time when I see it.
• 4 day weekend! Wooooowhoooo! My mom is going to take the boys on Monday. Plus, Is.aac is taking Monday off and we are having a date day! Finally! The possibilities are endless. :-) That means we'll likely go out to eat and watch a movie. We are wild like that.
• My shower is leaking. I have jimmied up some interesting contraptions to stop it from driving me bat shit crazy all night long while it drips. Of course, now that means I have to get all Macgyver-ish when take a shower--we're talking with the use of screw drivers and washcloths to block the hot water shooting out at me (don't ask). You'd think that I'd get off my butt and just change the faucet stem and fix it. I can't get motivated to do that yet. Sigh. (That is the epitome of lazy right? When you are willing to do all kinds of funky junk to avoid going to the store and buying the right tools for the job?)

Head on over to Sippy Cups and see what everyone else is sharing for their Leftovers...

It Finally Hit Me (I Am a Bit Slow Sometimes)

Thank you for the kind words on my last post. I am sorry if I scared anyone with the title. :-(

I am smart enough to know that the things that they are finding in my ultrasounds are not the end of the world. And let's face it, in the scheme of my world, these types of things are merely a blip on our medical radar.

I realize that if things do not change, the worst that will likely happen is that Baby Lo will need monitoring by various specialists until the two conditions in question resolve themselves. TO some degree, it does reassure me that Doom feels that both of these conditions are not really worthy of anything more than monitoring. (Well, it reassures me as much as anything someone I don't really trust but who should know what he is talking about says to me.)

Still.

It would be nice to really not have to think about things being "wrong" at all. It would be nice to not have to wonder about whether or not my little guy is going to be okay. It would be nice to not have to go to doctors and/or therapy or anything else and be able to just. plain. enjoy. my. kid. as. an. infant. It would be nice if I could fool myself into that allusion that the world is all sunshine and roses.

It would be nice if I could really feel that zen I am trying to show the world.

I guess that isn't the way it is supposed to be for me and my family. I am supposed to know. I am supposed to wonder.

I am supposed to fight.

Sometimes that just plain sucks. I hate that I know too much about the ugly side of things to ever really be able to go back to the ignorant and blissful me of the past.

---

I wonder if that knowledge has hardened me?

I know it's made me into something so far from what I was that it is sometimes hard to recognize myself.

I hope the person I am now is a better person...

although I couldn't have been that bad before all of this stuff happened to us. Could I?

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You might laugh at this, but it has finally occurred to me that I may actually have a baby in 5ish weeks. A baby who will not live in the hospital for months, so he'll need, you know, actual stuff when he is delivered.

Holy shit.

Um, I haven't done a thing to get ready for this new little guy.

So last night I told Is.aac to pick up some newborn diapers from Cos.tco last night. He didn't know why I'd want him to do that. It seems that he hasn't wrapped his mind around this little guy coming in the very near future either.

There's no name. There's no where for him to sleep. There's no baby clothes laundered and folded. There's no registry even!

He has nothing but a big box of newborn diapers, which may or may not even fit him when he gets here.

I think it might be time to get ourselves into gear.

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33 weeks tomorrow. Still standing. Still working (although man I can't wait to stop). Still amazed.

He Shall Always Be Dr. Doom...

Sigh.

The good:

Gestation - 32 weeks, 3 days

Cervix had no change. It was still 3.0 cm. No funneling. Cerclage is doing its thing. The baby's head was right there, so every time she pushed on my stomach, his head would thump my cervix. Odd sensation to say the least.

BPP either wasn't done? or I just missed the results.

Fluid was somewhere between 7-8 cm, which is down from last appointment but still in the normal range. It makes sense. I spent last night throwing up (either from extra iron or maybe some sort of food poisoning?), so I know I am on the dehydrated side.

Weight was estimated at 5 pounds 1 ounce.

The bad:

Mild pyelectasis was still noted in the right kidney. The size of his kidneys were unchanged. It sure would be nice if this would just resolve itself already.

I started having contractions this week. The most I've had was 4 in an hour. It isn't changing my cervix, so I am just to monitor them and call if I get more than 4 in a single hour. My mind is all freaked out, though, because I worry that I am having some that I don't feel.

The ugly:

They spotted premature atrial contractions (PACs) on today's u/s.

The most common cause of an irregular heart rhythm is when the top part of the heart beats too early (premature atrial contraction, or PAC). Sometimes this premature beat is transmitted to the bottom part of the heart; other times the communication between the top and bottom part of the heart is blocked after a premature beat.

An early beat that is transmitted or blocked will cause an irregularity in the heart's rhythm. These premature atrial contractions are very common in the second half of pregnancy and usually don't cause any problems. They may persist after the baby is born, but usually go away by one month of life. Medication is typically not necessary.

His heart rate was still around 144 beats per minute. The irregularity was only about every 10ish beats or so--just one wonky beat every so often.

Doom said that it would likely be fine. Don't worry he said.

The information I've found online has said it will likely be fine.

I guess this isn't as ugly as it could have been, but damn if it would be nice to not have to think about it AT ALL.

It makes me feel like they look so hard for problems, they aren't satisfied until they find something. Anything.

And cause worry.

And make me mildly freak out.

I go back in two weeks for more monitoring.

Friday Night Leftovers

More random Friday night thoughts...

• Had an OB appointment today. I've gained 2 pounds since the last appointment. Baby sounded fine. Uterine growth is good and two and a half weeks ahead (is that not odd to say?). The OB seemed surprised at how big I am measuring. I guess I don't look like I am that big?
• I had my iron retested. The supplements I was on did not bring up my iron at all. In fact it dropped. That explains the fatigue! Sigh. I am now upping my daily iron pills to 4 a day. Bring on the constipation.
• Speaking of constipation...my old pals Hem and Roid should go take a hike. Seriously. Get lost.
• Ahem.
• There was talk that I'll go out on disability after the next appointment in two weeks. I think I am ready. I'm tired. How do people work until the very day they deliver? I must be some sort of wimp.
• It would be perfect timing, really. The second trimester ends soon, so the sub would be able to start fresh with her own grade book and units. Plus, if I go a bit earlier, it would guarantee that my former student teacher would be able to take over for me. Score.
• At least that is the plan if all goes well at the Doom appointment on Tues.
• Is.aac's cousin was at the OB today when I got there. She'd been contracting all night and morning long. Her meds weren't stopping them, so she went in. Thankfully, her cervix is holding steady (at 0.9! Yikes) and they were able to stop the contractions with a shot of terb.
• It is surreal to watch her struggle with this pregnancy. Every complication and all of the stress she is under is taking their toll on her. This must be how people felt about me when I was pregnant with the boys.
• The germ fest continues around these parts. I am feeling better, but I am still coughing up gunk. Ja.son is coughing and running and just plain miserable. Sh.awn is somewhere between the two of us. He clearly doesn't feel good, but he isn't as dramatic as his brother about his misery. It is just plain sad when your kids beg for Ty.len.ol...
• It is even sadder when you are counting down the minutes until you can give it to them, but you still have 2 hours to go...
• I chaperoned at a school dance today after school. First, it is official that I am old. The music was too loud. I had to walk around with my fingers in my ears! (shakes head) The younger me would be so ashamed. The baby did not like it. He was super aggressive with his movement until I left. The second I walked out the door of the dance, he quieted down. Poor guy. Can't say I blame him. The music left something to be desired. (another clue that I am just plain old now)

Stop by here and see what others are sharing...

31 Weeks

Ok. Before you look, remember it was late and I am not wearing makeup. Well, I never wear makeup, but I probably should start after looking at these pictures. Yikes. You know, I must really like you to subject myself to this type of public embarrassment!

From the back:

What? You're pregnant? Really?

Ka-Chow!

Hell yes, I am pregnant!

Here I am in all my 31 week glory...

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Still sick. Ja.son now is too. 2 down...won't be long before the others follow. Sigh.