Almost Full Term!

Well, I barely made it in to my OB appointment this past Friday.  Thursday night around 2am I woke up feeling terrible and end up vomiting off and on for the rest of the night.  I had caught the lovely virus that Gemma had earlier in the week.  I was so nauseous and shaky that I couldn't get up and wasn't sure if I could make it in to the doctor.  However I was starting to worry that I might need an IV with some fluids because I literally couldn't even get anything down at all, even water.  Then I remembered I still had some of my magical Zofran left from the first trimester.  I choked one down and about an hour later I was still feeling terrible but was feeling well enough to start sipping some fluids and throw on some clothes and head to the doctor.  I had called ahead to tell the office what was going on and they said for me to come on in and if needed, they could do an IV in the office itself rather than the hospital.

As it turns out, I had good news all around at the OB on Friday despite how awful I was feeling.  Since the Zofran had helped significantly, the doctor said to keeping taking it for a bit to fend off the nausea and then slowly rehydrate with some gatorade rather than straight water (yay - no IV!).  My blood work had come back and was showing that my iron was back up to 11 (still borderline, but it means that I can just continue to treat the anemia with the supplement and diet rather than having to have an infusion - yay!).  When she did my internal, I was 1 cm. dilated and 50% effaced (not that that means I'll go into labor anytime soon, but at least something is happening!) and the baby was head down.  (I think all of this is due in part to the fact that I have practically walked my legs off since the last appointment in hopes of encouraging baby & body to better prepare themselves for labor!) I still have an ultrasound this Friday to make sure that he's staying head down since he's still quite mobile despite the lack of room.

And tomorrow he'll officially be full-term.  It won't hurt my feelings if he wants to come on out anytime now.  I'm ready.  Let's do this!

Under four weeks to go...

We (the baby and I) are officially at 36 weeks, 1 day today which means we (hopefully) have less than 4 weeks to go!

I went to the OB this past Friday for a checkup and it ended up being an epic all-day long adventure.  The nurse had almost finished putting all my vitals into the computer when Cy showed up and asked if she had checked my hemoglobin.  (I had totally forgotten to bring it up on my own for some reason.)  The nurse was kind of reluctant and didn't seem to think it was necessary but Cy insisted on it so she did.  It had dropped from 10.2 to 9.0 since my last appointment, which was especially disheartening since I have now been taking an iron supplement for over two weeks and eating tons of red meat (which I don't even like) plus other iron-rich foods.  The doctor spoke with us for a while about this.  She said that a finger stick is often not completely accurate so she ordered some more extensive blood work for me.  I had that done yesterday so hopefully we will find out some results this Friday at my next appointment.  She said that if my hemoglobin is in fact that low I will probably need to see a hematologist and have an iron infusion via IV.  I am not excited about this at all of course but I guess I would way rather have an infusion than have to have a transfusion.  I have really been trying to eat even more iron-rich foods since my appointment.  I am really hoping I can boost it enough to avoid any sort of "fusions" but nothing I do seems to be working.  So we will see about that.

I had my first internal exam and no dilation yet but she said it is "very soft" whatever that even means.  While she was doing the exam, she couldn't seem to figure out the position of the baby so she ordered an ultrasound.  We sat for a while and waited for that, then did the ultrasound to discover that the baby is transverse (sideways).  This was totally unexpected as Gemma was head down by at least 33 or 34 weeks if not earlier.  Bummer.  So then we had to go back and talk to the doctor some more about that.

The doctor walked us through all the options.  She said that the baby still has room and time to turn on his own so one option is to just see how things go.  Another option would be to go ahead and have a version (I'm assuming she meant an ECV and not ICV but she did mention I would need an epidural for it which totally freaked me out).  She said that ideally, versions are performed around 36 or 37 weeks when there is still some room to turn the baby.  However, there are risks to the baby (with the cord, placenta, etc.) and there is no guarantee the baby won't just immediately flip back.  Cy and I both thought it was a no-brainer to pass on this.  The doctor agreed and ordered another ultrasound for Fri. Mar. 23 (between 37-38 weeks).  If he is still transverse by 39 weeks, the doctor suggested coming in for a version then and if the version is successful, they will immediately induce labor and if it is not successful they will be prepped for a C-section (which they would want to do at 39 weeks anyway).  This would cut down the risk factor for the baby since he would be coming out immediately after the version one way or another.  Also should mention at this point that the placenta is anterior (directly in front) which will make it harder to turn the baby.  Of course the decision is ultimately up to us and we aren't sure what to do but for now we are just waiting to see if the little guy will flip on his own.

We eventually made it out of the OB's office and now everything is pretty much just a waiting game (which is how pregnancy always is anyway).  :)

In other news, poor sweet little Gemma is sick yet again with another nasty tummy bug.  She has been throwing up off and on for the past couple of days.  I really hope she will be well soon and that she can stay well for a while now.  She needs to get better so that she is healthy and ready to meet her brother!

Leap Day Fun at the SC Aquarium

Yesterday Nana came down for the morning and we headed to the aquarium.  This is only the second time Gemma has been (well, plus a trip to Ripley's in Myrtle Beach) and it has been quite a while so I knew she would enjoy it much more this time now that she is so much more aware of everything.  Also, she is pretty much obsessed with the movie Finding Nemo right now, so I knew she would love getting to see some real fish.  As soon as we walked into the main level, she immediately ran to one of the big tanks and started yelling: "Water! Water!"  She was SO excited!  (She even tried to kiss some of the fish through the glass a couple of times.)

 

We saw tons of really cool fish and birds and LOTS of water (which was apparently very exciting) and Gemma even got to pet a tiny baby alligator!  (I didn't get a great picture of this because she pulled away pretty quickly - she obviously wasn't too sure about the whole alligator-petting-thing.)

I tried to get some cute pictures of Gemma while we were there.  Unfortunately there was this really obnoxious lady who kept cutting in front of people in line and elbowing her way to the front of the exhibits so no one else could see, so wouldn't you just know that the second I have Gemma posed for a super cute picture on the sea turtle, Obnoxious Lady would show up and just plop her kid down right in the picture, totally not caring that she was ruining it?

When we were finished looking at all the water inside the aquarium, we enjoyed looking at a bunch more water in the harbor.  Gemma and I posed for a picture together on a bench next to a large, strange frog.  (I'm trying to love this picture for how cute and sweet Gemma is all cuddled up with me while ignoring how large and gross I look.  I am really not sure I can survive 5+ more weeks of being pregnant - I have already been going nuts for about the past month.)

 

Gemma had so much fun at the aquarium.  I am hoping to get a family membership for us sometime soon although I figured I might as well wait a bit as I really don't see myself hauling Gemma and the newborn around downtown for a while.  But we will see.  Anyway, it was a fun outing for us yesterday, especially since we haven't left the house much lately since we've all been sick off and on for about the past month.

Hypoglycemia, Anemia, and a few other things too

I haven't posted in a while because things have been a bit rough at our house.  Gemma recovered fully from her freak rash within a week but then immediately started a cold and cough which the rest of us then caught as well.  Gemma spent 3 straight weeks being sick, moving from one illness to another (GI bug, rash, respiratory bug).  Here's hoping she gets at least a solid week of being healthy now.

I was feeling really bad last week too.  I wasn't sure if it was just the lingering affects of the respiratory bug or some weird pregnancy thing or what, but I could hardly get up without feeling like I was about to pass out.  I went to the OB on Thursday and I am still having a very hard time stabilizing my blood sugar - it's still dropping too low.  My doctor suggested eating more in general, including more protein and more complex carbs (Cy interpreted this to mean that I needed to eat a supersize fry at every meal).  I talked with her about checking my blood sugar at the 1 hr. mark instead of the 2 hr. mark so that I could snack sooner if needed.  She predicted that I might find that my blood sugar is spiking too high at the 1 hr. but then my body is producing too much insulin, causing it to bottom out by the 2 hr. mark.  I've started checking my blood sugar 1 hour after eating and surprisingly, this does not seem to be the case.  For the most part, it's surprisingly low even at the 1 hr. mark.  I have had 2 mornings in a row though that it has spiked too high at the 1 hr. after breakfast, even eating fairly low-carb.  So it seems like maybe it just spikes when I eat after fasting overnight and then stabilizes for the rest of the day.  Which explains why I can never pass a glucola test.  But checking after 1 hr. has allowed me to kind of just graze all day and while I'm not happy about this from the aspect of potential weight gain, it has stabilized my blood sugar and kept me feeling a bit better.

While I was at the OB, I also asked them to check my iron again.  About a month ago when I had my diabetes test, they said my iron was a little low but then they never checked it again.  I have been trying to eat some of the iron-rich foods they recommended regularly, but when they checked it again, it had dropped from 11.1 to 10.2 so they decided to start me on an iron supplement.  Hopefully between the iron boost and the constant eating :( I can get stabilized and start feeling better.

In other news, my 2010 NaNoWriMo novel, Lunatics and Lycanthropy, made it through to the second round of this year's Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.  I was surprised and pleased by this since I wasn't going to enter this year due to having no time to prepare but decided it would be silly not to enter.  I threw everything together the afternoon before entries were due.  I'm not expecting to win but it will still be a good experience just like last year.  I am hard at work rewriting my 2011 Nano novel which I would like to enter in next year's contest, or possibly submit to an agent/publisher.  I will be running out of free time to do anything very soon but maybe I can pick it back up in a few months when I start getting some sleep again...

The baby's room is basically done now and I think we've finally settled on a name (which is still a secret).

Gemma has finished learning her colors and is OBSESSED with them.  She points out every color she sees and is so excited about dropping her new knowledge on everyone around her.  She still struggles with orange and brown (she has trouble saying these, and somehow brown comes out sounding oddly like "moo") but is solid on everything else.

And now she is having a random tantrum about something and so I'm wrapping up this post.  Ah, life with a two year old and a newborn is going to be such an adventure...

Colors

Gemma has been working hard learning her colors lately.  Green is her strongest - she picked it up first, followed by red and yellow.  Green is definitely her favorite color, and it's her go-to when she's not sure of a color.  She leaves the final letter off a lot of her words right now and it's so cute because when you ask her to identify something green, she gets very excited and yells: "GREE!"  Red is "rehhh" and yellow is "yeddow."  We have been working with her a lot on identifying colors and she is doing great.  She has a puzzle with 10 different colored fish on it (she has been able to match the fish correctly by color since Christmas but is just now learning the names of the colors) and yesterday she identified 7 of the 10 colors correctly on the first try.  She knew green, red, yellow, white, black, pink, and purple but had a harder time with blue, brown, and orange.  I am so proud of her for learning this already.  It is so much fun when we are out somewhere and she sees a color she recognizes (usually "GREE!") and points it out excitedly to us.  Next we need to start working hard on identifying shapes!

Gemma's Latest Weird Illness

Around Thursday of last week, Gemma suddenly got hit with some sort of stomach bug.  I went to get her Thursday morning only to discover that she had thrown up all over her crib.  She did not vomit anymore but had awful diarrhea constantly for several days afterward.  She finally seemed to be feeling much better when suddenly on Tuesday afternoon, Cy noticed that she had a rash on her neck and under her arms.  Since she has broken out in hives from food allergies several times before, we assumed that this was more of the same, but we could not figure out anything different she might have eaten.  The rash got worse throughout the evening, but we bathed her, put some hydrocortisone cream on the worst spots, gave her some ibuprofen for the discomfort and put her to bed thinking she would be looking much better in the morning.

When she woke up, though, she looked much worse.  The rash was all over her stomach and back (it looked like one big blotch) and had spread to her face a bit - one of her eyes was almost swollen shut.  We decided to take her in to the pediatrician.  I had an OB appointment schedule for 9, and Nana was on her way to watch Gemma.  I wanted to make sure Gemma was okay, so I called and canceled my appointment and then Nana ended up sort of caravaning with us as we went to the pediatrician and then afterward, in search of various medicines.

We were glad that we went ahead and took her in.  Apparently this outbreak was not food-related, and was something different.  The doctor said that she has erythema multiforme minor.  It's basically a freak skin reaction that can be caused by an allergic reaction to a drug, or as a reaction to a virus.  He thought it was caused by whatever GI thing she'd had the week before.  There is a "major" form of this rash too that can be very serious, but he was sure that Gemma just has the minor version.  He said there was not much we could do other than treat the itchiness/swelling of the rash with benadryl and hydrocortisone cream, and use Tylenol/ibuprofen to keep her fever under control, and wait for it to run its course.  And then he told us that it could potentially take WEEKS to completely go away! Yikes!  Poor little Gemma is miserable and we are miserable watching her swollen and itchy from head to toe - I really hope it does not take weeks to clear up.

We felt better after going to the doctor and starting her on some Benadryl and ibuprofen.  However, the next morning when she got up (day 3), she looked even worse.  Her face looked like this:

And her feet were so swollen that they had turned purple and she could barely walk without holding onto something.  Throughout the day, the rash around her mouth kept getting worse and it was looking very streaky so I was starting to worry about infection.  And her feet just kept swelling.  So we decided to take her back in to the pediatrician just to be safe.  They were able to squeeze us in at the very end of the day to see her regular doctor.  He was not worried about her condition and did not want to put her on steroids because he wasn't convinced they would help.  He did give us a bit more information though which was very helpful and reassuring.  He said that bruising is very common with this and that she would probably have quite a bit of bruising because she was so swollen in places.  Also, apparently the pattern of this rash is to start out as dots but then gradually grow more loopy.  So what I thought was streaking was actually just the rash getting "loopy."  And apparently it sort of migrates.  So, she might have it on her chest and then a few hours later, that might be cleared up but it will show up on her face.  Fun times.

Today is day 4, and Cy and I both felt like she was finally looking slightly better this morning:

Her face is still very red and blotchy but seems less swollen.  Her feet and ankles are still purple but they too seem less swollen.  Her hands are slightly less swollen.  She still has splotches all over the rest of her body, but at this point, we are happy for whatever progress she is making toward getting better.  And it's looking like another day of watching movies most of the day for us because all she wants to do is sit around and cry (and I don't blame her).  Here's hoping that in a few more days she'll be feeling a bit more like herself.

Also, after just dealing with something fairly minor like this for even a few days, I feel so much sympathy for parents of chronically ill children (and of course, I feel for the kids too).  I have a couple of friends with children who have very severe problems that require ongoing treatment and some really tough decisions to be made by the parents.  We have been hurting for Gemma so much just watching her suffer through what is a relatively mild and (thankfully) temporary thing.  I can't imagine going through what some other families are going through, and yet they are some of the strongest people I've met.  This has made me thankful yet again that aside from allergies and being underweight, Gemma is overall very healthy.  I am praying and hoping that her little brother will be born strong and healthy too.

Nautical Hobo Bag

I saw this really cute nautical hobo bag on Forever 21's website. 

I

Unfortunately I have made the mistake of ordering a bag from their site before and having it be just insanely HUGE.  I like big bags (and I cannot lie) as much as the next person, but I'm talking I could have fit like three of Gemma in said bag.  Also I love Forever 21's stuff but honestly it is extremely cheap (meaning the quality) so I decided not to pay $23 for a low quality bag when I could make it myself (and make it whatever size I wanted) for less than $10.

I hate using patterns so I found this great hobo bag tutorial online.  I used the pattern and tutorial for the basic outline and instructions, then branched out on my own for the straps so that I could copy the idea of the Forever 21 bag.  Here is what I ended up with:

I really like the size and style of the bag.  I think overall it turned out pretty great especially since I was basically just piecing it together based on a picture I'd seen on the internet.  The only thing I would change (and I may still redo it if I feel like it, but I am feeling pretty lazy these days, so I doubt it) is that I might make the red strap a bit longer and a bit narrower.  And the best part?  I think I paid about $6 total for the supplies and it took me maybe 2 hours to make.

I might get really crazy and try to make myself a matching pair of flat using this tutorial I came across on pinterest.  Who knows?  Could be awesome.