Long Week

I can't believe it was only last Thursday that I posted last...it's been a long six days! I've got lots to post and lots of pictures. All taken with my point and shoot camera - so glad I have that to capture the everyday stuff! Let's see, where to begin.

Last Thursday we had the final walk-through on our house. Everything looked great, but Will was super fussy the entire time. Not to mention the fact that he screamed bloody murder the entire 15 minute drive over to the house. SCREAMED. I've never heard him like that before - it was awful! When we got there, my mom took him and he still wouldn't really calm down. He didn't want a bottle, he didn't want his paci. We went to dinner and this continued. When we got home (lots of screaming and fussing on the way) I took his temperature because it was so unlike him to cry like that. It was 99.9. Since he'd been crying so hard, I decided to give him a bath and see if he'd calm down some. He did, so after he was all dried off, I took it again. It'd gone up to 100.4...our pediatrician had said we needed to call for anything above 100.4 and this was right at it, so I called. Since he was so little, they wanted us to be seen right away, but of course, it was 8:30 by that time...so we had to go to the ER.

We arrived at S&W and were taken back to an exam room. They took his temp (it had gone down some...I think it was around 99?), checked his heartrate and oxygen levels. His oxygen and heartrate were a little off. We waited around and finally some nurses came in and did a catheter to take urine. We waited around some more, they came back in and did a chest x-ray. They never once listened to his chest and I never mentioned coughing or wheezing, but apparently a chest x-ray was necessary.(I got kicked out of the room, but Greg got to stay). We did some more waiting before FINALLY seeing the on-call doctor. This was around 12am. She wanted to draw blood and do a spinal tap. I declined the spinal tap and she went to get a second opinion on everything. She came back around 1 and said that as long as we followed up with our pediatrician in the morning we didn't have to do the spinal, but they did need to draw blood. Fine, whatever. (Can you tell I was kind of ticked off at the hospital at this point?) The blood draw was probably one of the most traumatic things I've experienced in awhile - same for Will. They blew out his vein and he screamed :( I hated not being able to comfort him! Finally around 2am we were sent home with strict instructions to follow up with the pediatrician in the morning. All three of us were beyond exhausted.

The next morning we followed up at the pediatricians. His fever had gone back up to 100.4. We talked a lot and Dr. Travis said that he figured it was probably viral. We decided to watch him closely for the weekend and wait for the cultures on the blood and urine to come back from Scott & White.

I came home after the pediatrician's, Will ate, and then took a long nap on our bed. Poor thing was so tired from all the poking and prodding :( My mom came over around 12:30 to watch him because I had to go close on our house! In all the craziness of the night before, closing had kind of lost the exciting-ness that it had held before the ER visit. But it was great to sign all those papers and realize that the house was finally ours!

The weekend held lots of running around shopping for appliances, paint, and furniture. Everyone was having GREAT deals because it was Memorial Day weekend so we got a fridge and a microwave for an awesome price and got all our paint for $5 off a gallon! We decided to wait on furniture, even though we found a bedroom set and a dining set at Ashley that we absolutely loved...we'll save up and get it soon :)

Sunday night we had dinner at my parent's house. Yummy grilled chicken and shrimp (thanks Matt!) and then Monday my Aunt Gena flew in from Albuquerque so she could watch Will this week...Today was my first day back at work and it was hard. I was alright as long as I was busy - recess, lunch, planning, and all those little in between moments where I didn't have a lot going on were really tough for me. I missed him like crazy and my heart ached to be home cuddling with him, nursing him instead of pumping, and watching his cute little smiles. The only thing that got me through the day was repeating to myself "seven more days." I'll be honest, though...seven days seems like a LONG time to me right now. :( Will has been nursing non-stop since I got home, which in a weird way makes me feel good. I feel bad for Greg though - he doesn't want to leave his Mama at all!

I'll try to post another update later this week, but it's going to be hard with teaching and all...Seven more days :)

35 & 35

Wow...Today I'm 35 weeks pregnant and there are 35 days left until Will's due date. How crazy is that?! Very exciting too :) Will's lungs are almost completely developed and if he were to be born this week, he'd have a 99% chance of surviving with no disabilities or setbacks. He'd probably have to stay in the NICU to help his lungs finish developing, but ultimately he'd be alright! He likely weighs more than 5 1/2 pounds - probably pushing about 6 pounds this week. He should be in his birthing position by now...we'll see next week when I go in for my appointment! Hopefully he is head down - my doctor doesn't attempt to deliver breech babies naturally. She says it's too risky and will opt to do a c-section. I'd much rather him cooperate and be a good baby!

I'm feeling much better today, although I'm still coughing and have almost no voice. I went back to school and got (mostly) good reports from my sub, so I'm glad about that too! Hopefully I can keep myself rested and healthy until I go on my maternity leave...I'm running out of sick days quickly!

My baby shower is this weekend and I'm getting soo excited! :) It will be so much fun to get to hang out with good friends and family. Then, the week after that I'll have my baby shower at school. I totally wasn't expecting this since I just started working there, but I'm excited nonetheless! Greg and I are also going to look at some cars this weekend. We've listed the truck for sale and we're hoping to get that sold and an SUV bought before Will gets here. Time is ticking by quickly!

No belly picture this week...I still look sick and am definitely not in the mood to get my picture taken ;)

So Sick :(

I started coughing on Tuesday and barely managed to make it through the day on Wednesday. I kept telling myself I just had to make it through the day because I had already taken Wednesday off for a doctor's appointment. I woke up in the middle of the night on Wednesday shaking uncontrollably and had a fever of 101.8. I took some Tylenol and managed to go back to sleep for a little bit. Thankfully the doctor's appointment was already scheduled and the doctor I saw was able to treat me.

After listening to my lungs and my horrible cough, she said she thought I had bronchitis. She also said that this was a pretty good explanation for my racing heart on Tuesday. I probably am still slightly anemic, but not bad enough to cause the really fast heart beat. She gave me a prescription for Amoxicillin, a cough syrup with codeine, and an inhaler. Will is still doing well though, thank goodness! His heart rate was in the 130s, which she said was awesome for me having a fever. After the appointment I stopped by Wal-Mart and filled the prescriptions before coming home and planting myself on the couch for the rest of the day.

I had to call in sick on Friday and the jury is still out on whether or not I'm going to be able to go in on Monday or not. I haven't really had a fever today, but it was bad yesterday. I am so sore from coughing though! My chest feels so achy and my ribs/abs hurt so bad every time I cough. I've had no appetite at all and have had to force myself to eat so I can take the antibiotics. They seem to be working, though, because I am feeling slightly better today than I did yesterday.

I was telling Greg that I don't think I've been this sick since I was in high school...It's not fun! Especially when you're pregnant. Thank goodness the little boy is being nice and moving around a lot, which is reassuring when you're running a fairly high fever. Hopefully I'll get feeling better soon!

34 Weeks

Yesterday marked 34 weeks in my pregnancy...6 left to go before my due date and only 3 until he's considered full term...a little bit scary!!

I "celebrated" being 34 weeks along by heading into Labor and Delivery because baby Will decided that he wanted to scare his mommy by not being very active all day. I have to do these things called "Kick Counts" each day to make sure he's doing okay in there. Basically I pick anytime and count the movements I feel. I should be able to feel 10 in an hour. If I don't, I'm supposed to drink some caffeine, eat some sugar, and then try again for another hour. If I still haven't felt 10 by then, I'm supposed to call the nurse's line to see what to do. Well, I woke up at 3:30am (after being to the bathroom a grand total of FOUR times during the night!) and realized that I really hadn't felt him move at all during the night (which is pretty unusual). So of course I started paying attention to it (and worrying a little bit!) and was up until my alarm went off poking my belly and trying to get him to move. He did move a bit...but not as much as normal!

So I decided not to panic and got ready for school. He continued his not-really-moving thing all day, so at 2:00 on my planning period I called the nurse's line. They wanted me to come in to Labor and Delivery immediately, so I got someone to cover my class for the last 10 minutes of the day and drove over to Scott and White. They hooked me up to the monitors and Will's heart rate looked great...mine on the other hand was not so great! It was in the 140s and my blood pressure was a little bit high. They waited and took it again - same story. They kept me on the monitors for 30 minutes and my heart rate never really went down...at points, MY heart rate was faster than his! The on-call doctor came in and said that they were going to draw some blood to test me for anemia. Apparently anemia can cause your heart rate to go up because you have less hemoglobin in your blood. Hemoglobin attaches to your the oxygen, so your heart has to work twice as hard to get your blood oxygenated - hence the high heart rate. The tests came back showing that I am anemic so it's something we're going to have to watch.

I picked up some bug at the hospital though (or possibly at school - who knows!) and I feel totally yucky. I think there should be a law that you shouldn't have to be pregnant and sick at the same time because it's not fun!! I have a horrible cough and have felt feverish all day (although I haven't actually registered a fever). I'm going to the doctor tomorrow though, and I'm going to talk with her about it and see if there's anything I can do for the awful cough. I'm looking forward to resting at home tomorrow since I took the whole day off, though!

Will weighs around 5 1/2 pounds this week and is continuing to grow and develop. His lungs are maturing and will continue to do so over the next few weeks. His hiccuping is a result of learning to breathe by taking in amniotic fluid. I'd say he's getting in lots of practicing since he's doing lots and lots of hiccuping! :)

Here's my 34 week belly picture. I was wearing the same outfit as my 28 week picture, so I decided to do a little comparison. In the words of my mom, I'm huge ;) Will has done quite a bit of growing in the past 6 weeks!