Friday, August 29, 2008

6 months pregnant


This week my belly really grew. My skin is a little sore from stretching, but no stretch marks! Baby Carter is constantly kicking, poking, and now what feels like dancing in my belly. He is already a wild child!

Thursday, August 28, 2008

A little scare. . .

Well I haven’t been around to update because I just spent the last 5 nights in the hospital. It was quite the traumatic experience but will start off by saying Baby Carter is fine and mama is in the process of recovering.

On Saturday morning I woke up with what I thought was a bladder infection however only having one in my life I wasn’t sure. I called the doctor and he gave me an antibiotic. I continued throughout the day with the most horrible back pain and abdominal pain. By 3 o’clock I called Eric at work, he said to call the doctor and he was on his way home. This pain was so bad, I couldn’t even walk, half the time I would crawl to the bathroom. Eric got home and tried to comfort me but nothing was working. The doctor had told us before vicadin was okay during pregnancy for extreme cases. I took one, mind you I haven’t even taken Tylenol during my pregnancy. It worked for about 2 or 3 hours and the pain started back up in full force. By 10 o’clock Eric called the hospital and they told me to come in, there was no way I would have made it through the night feeling that pain.

We arrived in the birthing center where they hooked baby and me up to the monitor to make sure he was okay and of course little one was playing soccer in my belly as usual. Every nurse that came in that night said, “My I can’t believe how active he is!” I was pricked and probed and finely admitted to the hospital at about midnight on Saturday. They put me on morphine for the pain and kept me up all night monitoring the baby and I which was fine because I would have rather known he was okay.

The next couple days were absolutely horrible. Don’t ever go into a hospital on a weekend, answers will never come before a weekday. And the birthing center never has a full time doctor there, just an on call doctor. You have about a twenty minute window and when you can be seen. So Monday they started testing me for the pain which they had figured was coming from my left kidney. An ultra sound had shown no activity from the left side but the right side was working fine. The first doctor thought that I had kidney stones, little did I know it would take the entire hospital stay for them to figure that out. They continued with test after test (all safe for baby), but on a hospital schedule, excuse me I mean no schedule, you are lucky if they pick you up with a 5 hour window of when they said they would be there.

A run down of my stay . . . a million tests, constant pain, IVs in both arms, daily blood drawn, constipation (for 5 long days and every remedy tried with no success until the 5th day and Diane’s lovely apricots) puking my brains out, internal hemroids, horrible food, a poor frustated husband that somehow kept his sanity, supportive but worried parents and friends, and now the wanting to have my child at home because I never want to go back to a hospital again!

Wednesday morning I had two more tests, an X-ray and a cat scan which confirmed what they had thought all along, kidney stones. Two little stones at the bottom of my left kidney, they are the size of a grain of rice. How can something so little cause so much pain. We left the hospital yesterday at 2 o’clock with pain medicine and a pee strainer. Every time I pee I have to inspect my pee for small pieces of sand like rice. I was also told that labor and kidney stones are on the same level so labor should be a breeze, fabulous! If the stones don’t pass within a week then the next step in to have them removed which would mean surgery and the doctor does not want that during my pregnancy.

I will keep you updated on the progress of my little stones and post pictures of my huge belly soon. It grew twice the size after laying in a hospital bed for 5 days!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Steven & Erin's engagement party





We went to an absolutely beautiful engagement party for our family friends last Friday. It was down on Pier 59 at the Seattle Aquarium. Steven and Erin are getting married in Maui next February and we cannot wait to go. It will be baby Carter's first vaction. What a lucky boy!

Saturday, August 9, 2008

An exciting month. . .

This month has been the most exciting so far. I am feeling little Carter move around constantly and let me tell you he is an active boy! He tends to be most active in the morning and at night, during the day he must sleep. A friend of mine said their sleeping patterns in the womb are sometimes alike after they are born. Hopefully not because that would mean a morning baby who was up all night and liked to sleep only during the day. I have also started playing music for him. He seems to enjoy George Winston, a piano player. I take my IPOD headphones and put one earpiece in my belly button and the other one resting on my stomach. He is extremely active when I play music. Eric and I will just sit and watch my belly move. We have been talking to Carter as much as we can. I even talk to him in the car and people must think I am crazy when they see no headset or cell phone but oh well.

Physically this month I think it is officially okay to say you can now tell I am pregnant. It sure took a long time. My doctor said that my placenta is closest to my back so I wouldn’t show as fast but I would be able to feel him move better. I am carrying down pretty low. My girlfriend Amber and I went and got our nails done yesterday and the lady said “You are having a boy, right?” so it may be true what they say about boys being lower. I think because baby Carter is lower, I have been getting some extreme back pain. It is right by my tail bone, it feels the nerve is being stabbed and it makes my legs go numb. It is not comfortable at all. But that is my only complaint, well besides my large and in charge chest.

Food . . . is good! I haven’t craved anything crazy yet. I am still in love with blueberries, strawberries, oranges, Special K cereal, eggs, turkey bacon, and yogurt and of course the occasional ice cream. I must recommend Dairy Queen’s Girl Scout blizzard, it is fabulous!

Until next time!

Monday, August 4, 2008

Our baby boy's nursery






We are just about finished with the nursery. All of the tough jobs are done! Now I just need to decorate. Eric did an amazing job, I am so proud of him. Let me show you our work (mostly Eric's, I am just there to supervise).
I will post pictures of the finished project when we are done!

More of the nursery. . .



Uncle Eric & Auntie Ali with Piper


My lovely sister in law came over this weekend to make a wedding cake for one of my girlfriends. Piper had her first sleep over at Auntie and Uncle's house. She was an angel.