A Little Bit at a Time

Now that we have our orders to move we are going through the check lists and getting as much done as possible.

Many things are different with this move from our last military move almost six years ago.

• We now don't deal with hard copy of orders but just a number for the order and have to print out copies from there for the place that won't just take an order number.
• The post movers JPPSO (or something with that kind of acronym) are now just emailing and not present in person.  We again have to hurry up and wait and be at their beck and call.
• This military move is our entire household goods together.  Last move was done partially from Korea and partially from NY as Korea was an unaccompanied tour of duty.
• We have a pet this time around which means health certificate, kennel in car, litter box, toys and less room for J's stuff.  No room for all his ammunition this trip he has to give it away.
• I'm pregnant which is entire kettle of fish of its own to deal with.

So for the past few days I've been inventorying out stuff.  I have the movies, music cds and some seriel numbers written down along with the book inventory started.  I'll need to update the photos of possessions and inventory my jewelry which won't be going into the main goods shipping but will be part of the DITY move.

Today J and I brought Bugsy in to the vet clinic to get his teeth cleaned, nails clipped and to schedule a health check up to get a certificate for the next duty station.  Next appointment is scheduled for Bugsy for the 26th of March.  Bad news though, the vet called me.  Bugsy's teeth cleaning went well but he has a hole in a tooth with a root lesion.  Though it is small now it will get bigger and painful.  We opted to have it pulled today while he was still under anesthetic.  At least I know with the next appointment they can check his teeth to make sure it is healing well.  I just feel so bad for the kitty.  

Now I'm just sitting here waiting for two phone calls.  One to pick Bugsy up and the other for a quote on the cleaning team I'd like to hire to clean my house for inspection.  I would clean it myself but with the chemicals needed to give it thorough cleaning I just can't while pregnant.  Bleach aggravates my asthma.

Well that bites, cleaning company just called and they don't have a house cleaner on staff any longer.  Ugh.  On to the next name on the list.

Reaching 1000

Hard to believe for me at least that this is post number one thousand, but it is indeed that many already in the few years I have been blogging.

This will be a post about the weekend and nothing really of importance happened over the weekend.

• Stopped at the mall and got my rings inspected.  Was fed up with my wedding rings being too tight, and they can't be sized, so I purchased a new wedding ring that can be sized up as my hands swell more.  My hands have been swelling really bad even though I have been losing weight.  New ring will be ready on the 18th.  Took only 15 minutes to get the band and the inspections done.
• Went to Babies R Us so that J could monkey with all the baby gear and add things to the registry.  Spent 3.5 hours wandering around the store.  J has decided he prefers the 4Moms line of baby gear and all of it has been added to our two registries.  Where ever less expensive the gear went on the registry.  
• Went to Olive Garden for an impromptu date night dinner.  Haven't had a date night in months.  Waited 45 minutes before being seated.  Still can't eat much as my stomach has been that weakened from the Noro Virus.

Sunday:

• Bugsy woke me up earlier than I wanted to be up.  I like to sleep in on Sunday mornings.
• Went to church and received communion.  
• Promptly got sick when I got home.  

Wondering when I'll be recovered from this super bug?  Have any of you had it yet?  If so how long did it take for you to fully recover?

Next weekend J and I are headed to Nordstoms where they have the 4Moms Origami Stroller in store.  It seems to be the only place in town where we could try it out before we buy it.  Watch the video and you'll understand why we want this stroller.  With all my medical conditions it would be so much easier to not have to bend and fold and unfold something like this.  We'll also be purchasing the bassinet that can be attached to the stroller too.  I know it is expensive but my husband just loves their gear and with all that we paid out in infertility expenses out-of-pocket the stroller and other gear purchase is just really nothing!

OB Follow Up after ER Visit

Today was the follow up appointment from the ER visit.  J and I are recovered for the most part from the Noro virus.

The only difficulty today was in getting to be seen at the OB by the proper folks.  I had an appt. time set for 1115 hrs with the COB doctors.  The receptionist insisted I didn't have an appt. and sent me through triage.  I was then seen by a medical student that went into great detail on my exam and questioning.  He then wanted to know, because he saw in the computer that I had an appt. for that day with COB, why I was being seen in triage.

Face to palm and big UGH!

At 1300 hrs the doctor I was supposed to see at 1115 hrs arrives in my room and asks me why I was being seen in triage and not in the other corridor where her office is.  I explained again like I did to med student and to the receptionist and I blamed the receptionist who dared to argue with me.

As if I really like spending two hours of my day in an exam room having to lower, raise, lower and raise my drawers for nurse, med student, and doctor.

All is well with the baby.

fetal heart rate: 147

My weight:  down 2.2 pounds since last week Friday at the last OB appt.

Blood pressure: 136/62

On Monday at the ER baby was measuring two days ahead.  Today it took three tries by two different nurses to get the fetal heart rate.

Try # 1 battery died

Try # 2 baby refused to hold still

Try # 3 with different nurse almost instantaneously the heart beat was heard.

They are considering me already in my 19 week of pregnancy.  Oh goody, now just when am I going to gain a baby bump to match all the rest of those in the OB waiting room that are the same week?

Still wearing my size 16 jeans since I seem to have plenty of room in them.  I want to put on the maternity clothing but I don't want to embarrass myself in public by having them fall off me.  Hopefully by the baby shower, two weeks away, I'll be fitting into them without having to think about accessorizing with a belt or suspenders.

Orange

My pee since last night has been coming out orange.  I know exactly why too.  It was the four potassium tablets that they gave me in the Emergency Department last night.  Why was I there?  I'll fill you in.

Saturday J and I went to a birthday party for a one year old at 1400 hrs.  1900 hrs we attended a baby shower for a friend.  Within 24 hours of those outings, hey I try to stay away from public as I DON'T WANT TO GET SICK, we were both vomiting and had diarrhea.

Even the zofran wouldn't keep it down.  J was able to eat and drink a bit yesterday.  I couldn't eat or drink.  I ended up dehydrated and in the emergency department with an IV in my arm.  I was tachycardic  with edema in my legs.  I've had the edema in the legs for years but my PCM chooses to ignore rather than address the issue any time I've brought it up in the past or so I told the cardiac doc attending to me.  The cardiac doctor asked me if I might have congestive heart failure.  Warning bells went off in my head.  He asked me if I had been to the cath lab yet.  Yikes!  My father has congestive heart failure.

The doctors attending to me asked a plethora of questions that neither J nor I could answer fully as we were both exhausted.  Before I reached the ED yes I was running a fever of 100.8.  Yes I had been vomiting and yes it had changed from the normal vomit color to red to brown because we know I have stomach ulcer issues.

My reason for going to the ED was because I was worried about the sickness affecting the baby.  The fever alone was reason enough to go in my book.  They couldn't find their fetal tones monitor so they opted to do an ultrasound.  J missed the last two ultrasounds so he was literally agape and gasped when he saw how much the baby had changed.  He was totally amused with the nice spine curve that he got to see.  Yes the tech could tell the sex but wouldn't tell us when she saw the rump because she isn't allowed to tell.  But she did hover it there long enough that if we knew what we were looking at, the screen was at a really bad angle for me we could have had our guess.

After three blood draws the doctor came back with potassium tablets.  That jogged my memory when they mentioned it.  I have hypokalemia I told him and I often forget I have it because I take potassium supplements daily with my vitamins.  He said that yes the potassium was extremely low.

Sighs...I'm going to be okay.  I'm eating today.  Just half a bagel with some watered down juice to see if I can keep it down.

I have a follow up appointment at OB on Friday.

I told J  he can tell them at work that I won't be making cookies for them this week.  Not as punishment for getting me sick, if it was someone at work that he picked it up from, but because I was told 3-4 days before I'll be feeling up to doing anything like that.  I agree.  I feel like a wet rag rung out to dry.

Oh and this wasn't the flu.  There is a bad, can you believe this, COLD that is going around that cause nausea and vomiting.  I had my flu shot in September and this years seems to have been the strain they needed to cover the flu bug.  But seriously a cold that causes flu like symptoms?  This is just crazy!!!

17 weeks 5 days OB Appointment

All went well.

BP 129/59  Woot!
Fundal height: 18 cm
weight: -1.2 lbs from last appt.
Fetal heart rate: varied between 150-151 baby kept moving around.  Yes it is ALIVE!

Was asked if I had a maternity pillow.  Not yet.
Was told I should go buy one.  LOL  will do that soon.

Asked if I could get a maternity belt prescribed.
Was given script and sent over to the brace room.  Scheduled appointment for the 7th to have one fitted.

Addressed the left ovary pain issue and it was noted on chart.  Will be watched.

Will do thyroid blood draw on Monday as that will be closest to the two week mark from last draw.

Next follow up is scheduled for the 12th of March with OB.

All genetic blood testing came back perfectly fine with little to no risk of trisomy and Down's syndrome.

Anatomy scan is scheduled for the 14th to make sure the rest of everything with baby is good.  Might find out gender that day but if we don't I'm still okay with team green.

Called my mom and told her how the appointment went.  She said, "you know you are allowed to gain weight!".  Last week she was saying I shouldn't gain weight.  Make up my mind Mom!  Explained to my mom that the doctor was okay with my weight loss as I am eating a good diet and I'm only allowed to gain 11-15 pounds anyways.

I'm guessing I'll start gaining weight when I have to eat fast food during the PCS to the East Coast.  I won't be able to drink as much water as I'd like to in order to flush out the salts since bathrooms aren't that plentiful on the trip.

Sad note:
The jeans I'm wearing now have another hole in them.  I fixed the last hole in the leg by taking them in as they are lose enough to take off without undoing the zipper or button; a size 16.  But alas I can't fix every hole.  I'll be down to 2 pair of non maternity jeans at the end of the day.  No big deal.  I'm actually looking forward to showing off my small bump soon with maternity clothes.  I can proudly say that my belly isn't fat but just baby with the amount of weight I've lost in this pregnancy.  I'm not being smug but I am a fat girl and it is so nice to see my hourglass figure in the mirror again; at least for a few more weeks that is.

February ICLW

Welcome to all those from ICLW!

Tomorrow is my OB check up where they will be doing a thyroid blood draw and fetal heart monitoring.  I am currently 17 weeks and 4 days.

Hoping that baby is still alive tomorrow.  Yes I'm just that paranoid.

Yesterday I noticed that I'm having troubles walking and talking.  I end up breathless.  Most likely it is because of the increased mucus and my asthma.

It is also getting to be increasingly hard to bend over without the round ligament letting me know that is it there and quite cranky.  I'll be asking my OB tomorrow about getting a maternity belt since I went into this pregnancy with back issues.

Lying down on my sides to sleep isn't easy.  The spinal stenosis makes for a very uncomfortable sleep.  I'm getting used to the chronic neck pain and arm pain.  As if having carpal tunnel in both hands wasn't enough to deal with before pregnancy.  But yes I was forewarned that with all of my medical conditions pregnancy would be rough on my body.

The puking up has stopped for the most part.  The last two nights I had a brief bout of it when I went to lie down for the evening.  I still have some nausea.

I guess I'm lucky with the weight gain but I don't feel lucky.  I feel worried.  That 0.6 lbs I had gained is gone again.  I'll be weighing in tomorrow with less weight.  I never knew gaining weight would be so hard because I swear before I got pregnant all I had to do was look at something full of fat and calories and I would gain weight.

I'm still wearing the same size 16 jeans I was last year and the year before.  I am starting to have a bump but not a pronounced "oh shit look out she is going to blow" type bump.  My bump is more of a subtle roundness to my abdomen that makes it look like I'm just fat.  However, I can tell you it isn't jiggly fat any longer.  My lower abdomen is hard.

Weird movements.  Not really feeling the baby kick much this week.  I do feel and sometimes watch it move to the other side of my uterus.  Most likely it is just gravity pulling it along as I switch positions for sleeping.  Wishing baby would just kick a bit to let me know that it indeed is alive.  Yes, again I am that afraid that I'm carrying a dead baby.  If you have gone through what I've gone through I'm sure you felt or will be feeling just as paranoid.  Repeat loss messes you up for a happy pregnancy.

So that is where I sit for today.  Hope none of you fell asleep reading this bit of a blog post.

Weekend Blurr

J actually had a four day weekend this weekend.  Well okay it started out that way but we had a bit of work in-between of which since I'm really tired I didn't mind him having to go for a bit to work.

Friday, wow I really can't remember what happened Friday.  Is that a problem?  No I think not.

Saturday we managed to get in a little shopping at the PX and Commissary.  J got his Taylor ham pork roll from the commissary which was nice because this way I didn't have to order it for him on line for Valentine's Day.  Usually that is where I have to get it.  If you've been to Jersey you might just have had Taylor ham and you'll know why he loves it so much.

Saturday afternoon he received a phone call from one of his soldiers.  She is med boarding because she had fibromyalgia.  I can understand how she feels with the pain and fatigue.  Somehow she ended up on the staff duty list.  There is no way with fibromyalgia a soldier can pull a 24 hour shift and stay awake too.  J and one of his other soldiers split the remaining 12 hours of her shift so she could go back to her barracks for rest.  J took the first 7 hours leaving his other soldier the last 5 hours as that is what they had agreed upon.

Sunday I went shopping for a few party favors and decorations for my baby shower.  I swear throwing my own shower is getting expensive and I'm trying to go as cheap as possible.  I know I'll have racked up at least a $500 bill with food, drinks, favors and decorations by the time that day is over.  Will the guest appreciate it?  I hope so because I'm dog tired today.

Monday I went shopping for the flowers for the tables for the baby shower.  After shopping J took me out to a local chowder house to celebrate Valentine's day a bit late.  I was fine with that since the place and idea were mine to begin with.

After lunch we headed home so I could start making the centerpieces.

These are just a few of the centerpieces that I made yesterday.  I tried to stick with neutral colors but yet spring time as by the time the shower rolls around the gender may or may not be known.  I'm still on the fence about finding out.

On the bump front:  still can't be seen from a standing position.  Baby Hiccup decided to move to the left side yesterday and has so far stayed there.  My nipples are on fire and hurt so bad that I hold them and make keening noises.  Wishing there was an anesthetic I could apply topically to them.