Well, my pregnancy with Pecan has taken a turn for the complicated. A few weeks ago my blood pressure spiked, but then came back down into a moderate range. Still high for me, but fine. It stayed there since then, in that fine but high for me range (of course, I'm like super low-blood pressure girl, so I probably needed a bit more to prove that I am, in fact, alive).
Anyway, it has started to creep up again. So the doctor has had me checking it several times daily (I go to the grocery store or gym at work to do it, I didn't want to invest in my own monitor). Last Thursday, during one of my checks, one of the numbers went above where it was supposed to be. The other number was close to the threshold, but not quite there. I called my OB, and the on-call doctor sent me to the ER for monitoring. After about an hour of watching my BP (which was super healthy while I was lying on my left side, watching Food Network) and testing my blood and urine for any toxins, they sent me home with a clean bill of health. So that was good, except for the hospital bill that I will get. But better safe than sorry, you know?
Then Friday it spiked pretty high during my regular appointment, after being fine at the hospital and at the gym in the morning. Not over the limit high, but high enough to raise some eyebrows. Plus there was some protein in my urine, which is also a bad sign. So my OB sent me back to the hospital for some lab work (since they could have results WAY faster than the private lab next door to the doctor's office). I had to have blood drawn, and then do a 24-hour urine collection so they could see my protein over the course of a full day. It was an average value (I had one collection jug) rather than samples over time (of which there would have been many, since pregnant women urinate very frequently). It was awful to pee into a collection vessel and then pour it into a jug. We dedicated the powder bathroom to my special needs, because it only functions as a bathroom (no shower / bath / etc.) and is also right off of the kitchen (so it was convenient to get my jug to and from the refrigerator - yes, I had to keep my pee in the fridge. Yes, I am totally grossed out by that).
The great news is that all of this lab work came back normal. But my doctor is still worried about pre-eclampsia, and I am opening my mind to induction. We are hoping I go into labor naturally (sooner rather than later, because of all of this), because inductions have a higher c-section rate than natural labors, and neither of us wants to go there. But I am all about doing what is safest for Pecan, obviously.
My doctor does want me to not go to work this week. She did not use the phrase 'bed rest' or anything, but the words were 'take this week off of work.' So, besides, not going to work, I don't know what that means. Do I need to stay off my feet? Can I work from home and finish transitioning things over to my back-fill? Should I get some light exercise (as in, walking, or rather waddling, around the neighborhood)? I didn't think of these questions until after I got off the phone with the nurse today. So my plan is to go into the office tomorrow, clean up my desk a bit, gather up some things, and then work from the comfort of my reclined couch. And by work, I mean stay on top of e-mails and finish entering some data that has been hanging over my head for a few months (I hate entering data). Oh, I do need to use some software from work tomorrow to finish up one last analysis, and then pull all of the graphs into a PowerPoint that I can share with my manager. I already discussed the results, and we already took actions based on preliminary results, but I still want to wrap it all up and put a bow on it :-).
Pecan is doing really well, though. He moves around really well - he moves around all the time. As hard as this pregnancy has become from a health standpoint, I am going to miss the movements, that's for sure! At my 36 week ultrasound he measured in at 8 lbs. 6 oz. So they are predicting a 10 lb baby if he makes it to his due date. OUCH! Now, the OB did say that this particular ultrasound tech does tend to overestimate, but she still wants me to do what I can to get things moving along (walking and sex... although, I need to re-ask about those now that my condition has become complicated).
I have gained 60 lbs with this pregnancy, which is WAY too much. And way more than I gained with Jocelyn. Hopefully I stop gaining soon. You're supposed to level out at the end, even though the baby still gains. But I don't buy the last 10 lbs, because my antibiotics from my most recent bout of strep made me super bloated, and my ankles swelled up like a couple of ham hocks before my last appointment. So I think it's mostly water / bloating. I haven't gained anything since Friday, and I am hoping to lose a bit before Wednesday's appointment so my theories prove themselves out.
I feel pretty awful at this point. Lots of discomfort, difficulty getting around, etc. I'm as big as a house. I have trouble chasing Jocelyn around, which is sad, because I like to chase her around. It's also really hard to pick her up from / put her down in her crib because my giant belly gets in the way. Also, I don't feel very comfortable being alone with her, because I feel like I can't move fast enough to keep her safe in case she gets into something dangerous. So it's emotionally an physically draining. And doing general chores is harder - it's hard to wash dishes when you're that much further from the sink, for example. And my maternity clothes are getting to where they are not fitting as well anymore, which is just stupid. But I'm less than 2 weeks from my due date, and I would guess that my doctor won't let me go past it (although, it is a Sunday, so I wouldn't be surprised if she scheduled an induction for that Monday).
Okay, I'm rambling. That's what happens when I wait and write two long blog posts back to back. But it has kept my butt in the couch, and prevented me from doing any more silly kitchen cleaning (which I just don't need to do right now).
Monday, January 16, 2012
Master negotiator, and 18 month update
So Jocelyn is what I would call a particular eater. She is not picky, per se, because she likes a lot of things. But she wants what she wants when she wants it. For example, one day she will love pieces of grilled chicken that she can dip into barbecue sauce. The next day it might as well be poison. One week it's all grapes, all the time, the next she'd rather have pears.
But she has demonstrated that she is open to negotiation. It's tricky to get the terms of the negotiation correct, but she will eventually clue you in to what she is willing to eat an undesirable food for.
Today, for example, she was willing to eat pieces of her leftover hamburger and bits of pork (all dipped in ketchup, of course) for sips of Gatorade. At lunch today, it was peanut butter and apricot sandwich wedges for more applesauce (and when we did reward her with more applesauce, she said "applesauce," which was awesome). Milk is also a common drink for her to desire and she is usually willing to eat things for more of it. The funny part is that it's mostly a win-win - she is usually negotiating for things we are perfectly happy for her to eat / drink. It's funny.
Jocelyn is a big dipper. There are some things that she won't eat without something to dip it in (any sort of meat, for example, and pancakes at home [probably because I make them whole wheat and sweeten with fruit instead of sugar]). She will point to the compartment of her dish where the dip goes and yell "more" until she gets the ketchup / barbecue sauce / pancake syrup / etc. she is looking for. Recently, though, she figured out that if she likes the dip so much better than the food she is dipping, why waste the precious tummy space on the food? I caught her eating her barbecue sauce with her spork! And, of course, I had the absolute wrong reaction - I cracked up laughing! So that probably made the message of 'hey - don't do that' a bit confusing. But I couldn't help it, it was really funny. I tried to get around it by not giving her a spork next time (even though she needs practice with spoons and sporks, and will eventually graduate to forks). But she then used the dipper as a spoon - took some bread and dipped it into ketchup and then licked the ketchup off of it, and dipped it again! Silly baby!
In addition to saying 'applesauce', Jocelyn has a few more new words. She's gotten really good at bye, and even says buh-bye sometimes. Recently she has taken to saying NO, but mosty to her "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" book (which is appropriate). She can also say yes. She has been saying more for a while now, but thanks to day care, she also signs it. Which is awesome. I need to figure out which other signs she has learned (I know it's please, thank you and something else, but I don't know how the signs go) so I can practice them with her at home. I know she has others, but I can't think of them right now. Some are old and just coming back - ball, bath, baby (which all sound the same right now).
She had her 18 month appointment, and is developing great! She's a few months ahead of schedule in just about everything! Usually if the physical moves fast (walking, running, climbing, fine motor skills, etc.), then the talking / intellectual comes more slowly, and vice versa. But not my girl! She's advanced in both areas :-). That's really good for a first child, since she has no role models. I can only imagine that Pecan will move even faster. But if he doesn't, that's fine.
I am concerned about one thing, that I will have to ask the doctor about next time. Because Jocelyn is so, well, active, I didn't get to look at her growth sheet the nurse gave me while waiting for the doctor to come in. Or else I would have asked about it then. Jocelyn is still 90% for head circumference, and 75% for height (a bit lower than in the past, but only a bit), but now she is only 6% for weight! She used to be upwards of 90%! She basically hasn't gained any weight since her first birthday. She gained a few lbs, but then lost them while she was sick. And 4 weeks of being sick meant about 2-3 lbs lost, which is significant for somebody her size! We did ask about the weight loss, and the doctor didn't seem concerned. We talked about her eating, and that she does eat really well, and that we basically let her eat as much as she wants of healthy foods. She's still on full fat milk and mostly on full fat yogurt (YoBaby is full fat, YoToddler is low fat, and I gave up on mixing home-made fruit purees with plain yogurt at home, because I wound up throwing away half a tub of yogurt every 2 weeks).
She's also slightly low in iron. She was probably half a point lower than the cut-off, so we need to start giving her iron. The instructions from the doctor do not line up with the instructions on the box, so I need to call tomorrow to clarify. It took a few days for the iron to come in on a special order, and I finally got it this evening, so it was too late to do much with it. I figure that the doctor probably gave the right dosage, but there were some 3 versions of the medicine that the doctor could have ordered, so I just want to make sure. Too much iron is poisonous. In the mean time, we are trying to increase her iron-rich foods - more cereals, meats, peanut butter and apricots. Although, other than meats (which she just isn't too crazy about most of the time), she does eat a fair amount of the other foods. So I don't know.
She's a cutie-patootie. I can write about her all night. I won't. Pecan needs a blog post, too :-P.
But she has demonstrated that she is open to negotiation. It's tricky to get the terms of the negotiation correct, but she will eventually clue you in to what she is willing to eat an undesirable food for.
Today, for example, she was willing to eat pieces of her leftover hamburger and bits of pork (all dipped in ketchup, of course) for sips of Gatorade. At lunch today, it was peanut butter and apricot sandwich wedges for more applesauce (and when we did reward her with more applesauce, she said "applesauce," which was awesome). Milk is also a common drink for her to desire and she is usually willing to eat things for more of it. The funny part is that it's mostly a win-win - she is usually negotiating for things we are perfectly happy for her to eat / drink. It's funny.
Jocelyn is a big dipper. There are some things that she won't eat without something to dip it in (any sort of meat, for example, and pancakes at home [probably because I make them whole wheat and sweeten with fruit instead of sugar]). She will point to the compartment of her dish where the dip goes and yell "more" until she gets the ketchup / barbecue sauce / pancake syrup / etc. she is looking for. Recently, though, she figured out that if she likes the dip so much better than the food she is dipping, why waste the precious tummy space on the food? I caught her eating her barbecue sauce with her spork! And, of course, I had the absolute wrong reaction - I cracked up laughing! So that probably made the message of 'hey - don't do that' a bit confusing. But I couldn't help it, it was really funny. I tried to get around it by not giving her a spork next time (even though she needs practice with spoons and sporks, and will eventually graduate to forks). But she then used the dipper as a spoon - took some bread and dipped it into ketchup and then licked the ketchup off of it, and dipped it again! Silly baby!
In addition to saying 'applesauce', Jocelyn has a few more new words. She's gotten really good at bye, and even says buh-bye sometimes. Recently she has taken to saying NO, but mosty to her "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" book (which is appropriate). She can also say yes. She has been saying more for a while now, but thanks to day care, she also signs it. Which is awesome. I need to figure out which other signs she has learned (I know it's please, thank you and something else, but I don't know how the signs go) so I can practice them with her at home. I know she has others, but I can't think of them right now. Some are old and just coming back - ball, bath, baby (which all sound the same right now).
She had her 18 month appointment, and is developing great! She's a few months ahead of schedule in just about everything! Usually if the physical moves fast (walking, running, climbing, fine motor skills, etc.), then the talking / intellectual comes more slowly, and vice versa. But not my girl! She's advanced in both areas :-). That's really good for a first child, since she has no role models. I can only imagine that Pecan will move even faster. But if he doesn't, that's fine.
I am concerned about one thing, that I will have to ask the doctor about next time. Because Jocelyn is so, well, active, I didn't get to look at her growth sheet the nurse gave me while waiting for the doctor to come in. Or else I would have asked about it then. Jocelyn is still 90% for head circumference, and 75% for height (a bit lower than in the past, but only a bit), but now she is only 6% for weight! She used to be upwards of 90%! She basically hasn't gained any weight since her first birthday. She gained a few lbs, but then lost them while she was sick. And 4 weeks of being sick meant about 2-3 lbs lost, which is significant for somebody her size! We did ask about the weight loss, and the doctor didn't seem concerned. We talked about her eating, and that she does eat really well, and that we basically let her eat as much as she wants of healthy foods. She's still on full fat milk and mostly on full fat yogurt (YoBaby is full fat, YoToddler is low fat, and I gave up on mixing home-made fruit purees with plain yogurt at home, because I wound up throwing away half a tub of yogurt every 2 weeks).
She's also slightly low in iron. She was probably half a point lower than the cut-off, so we need to start giving her iron. The instructions from the doctor do not line up with the instructions on the box, so I need to call tomorrow to clarify. It took a few days for the iron to come in on a special order, and I finally got it this evening, so it was too late to do much with it. I figure that the doctor probably gave the right dosage, but there were some 3 versions of the medicine that the doctor could have ordered, so I just want to make sure. Too much iron is poisonous. In the mean time, we are trying to increase her iron-rich foods - more cereals, meats, peanut butter and apricots. Although, other than meats (which she just isn't too crazy about most of the time), she does eat a fair amount of the other foods. So I don't know.
She's a cutie-patootie. I can write about her all night. I won't. Pecan needs a blog post, too :-P.
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