What a week!

Last Friday Daniel and I had a 'date night' - meaning we ordered pizza and watched a movie together (Philadelphia story - I love old movies!) while Eric did whatever he wanted (as we kept an eye on him...) Saturday I did my normal volunteering (I do it every other week) at Bountiful Baskets. Then Daniel went to scouts and I went to our Steak Relief Society presentation. Which I thoroughly enjoyed (although wished it had not been in the gym the whole time - my body hated me sitting on that metal chair!) Then I came home, made my menu plan, grocery list and was about to go shopping when I started feeling contractions... every 10 minutes. 10 minutes became 7 and we called the OB dept to see what I should do. Try a warm bath was the advice (and if they don't go away to come in and get checked.) Luckily they went away (after a total of 4-5 hours had gone by.) However, since then I have been having contractions all day (about 1-3 per hour.)

Sunday came and went without any major events. Monday Eric decided to get sick. We went to Urgent care that night, but nothing visibly wrong. Tuesday he was doing better, but not completely well. However I needed to run stuff by my mom's house and then went and picked up a cell phone (we haven't had one in YEARS) for emergencies (top on my list was being able to get ahold of Daniel in case of labor...) On the way home I started feeling a little... unsettled (basically any time I started eating something my body would say... keep that up and it will come back up!) Luckily I didn't get sick like Eric. Then Daniel had scouts that evening. 

Wednesday came and with it my OB appointment... in which I found out that the reason I'm having cramp-type feelings is because baby's head is so low in my pelvis. In fact baby's head is so low that the OB was surprised that I wasn't at all dilated... just mostly effaced. Eric seemed to be doing better and I was trying to work out the car situation (should I take Daniel to work or make him bring the car back to me so I could sleep in a bit more...) so I could attend my Great-Uncle's Funeral. Wednesday evening I started having contractions a bit more frequently, but this time I was pretty sure it was false labor as they started at 5 minutes apart... that's how my false labors tend to start! Luckily they died down and we went to sleep. Somewhere around 2:30 I noticed Eric was HOT (he came to our bed around midnight with a cough that didn't sound so great)... So I went in to get the ibprofen and the thermometer when both Eric and Daniel met me in the kitchen. Took Eric's temp and it was 103.5... *Sigh* I had thought he was starting to get better! We called the nurse's hotline and followed the instructions. We all slept in (after Daniel called into work saying he'd either be late or not in at all...) I decided to not go to the funeral and expose all of the attendees to whatever bug Eric has!

Eric's fever hasn't came back (*fingers crossed). He's still acting a bit sick but is getting into stuff again... so he's not that sick! We decided to watch and see how he's acting. If he still isn't remarkably better by tomorrow we'll take him in again.

Hopefully this next week is a little less eventful... although if you ask Daniel or my mom they will tell you that they think baby may make his appearance within a week - which would DEFINITELY NOT make it less eventful! I'm still hopeful that we'll make it to July 7th (when I'm 37 weeks)... I can't say I'm hopeful much beyond that though (see paragraph 3...) but we'll see. I should at least pack my hospital bag - just in case!

34 weeks

I'm currently 34 weeks pregnant and am simply glad to still be pregnant. Wait, What? I never thought I'd be saying that because about a week ago I just wanted to be done (but knew it would still be about 7 weeks!) So what changed? The reality that I could have had to deliver a baby 6 weeks early...

Last Thursday I went to get a 3D Ultrasound (our clinic does them for free if you have your 20 week ultrasound done there...) We got a clear view of baby's back - but I don't have one of those cool pictures to show you what baby looks like... we didn't get one (well we could have gotten one of baby's back...) The ultrasound technician was actually in my ward growing up. She was a few years younger than me but we knew each other. As she was doing the ultrasound she was asking questions (which I naturally assumed was just to make conversation since we sort-of knew each other.) She asked, so what's your due date, followed by - who's your doctor, and then, When do you see him next? Um... right then I KNEW she wasn't just being friendly and conversational... So what's wrong?

It turns out that my amniotic fluid was a bit low. So she called my OB and after we waited for a while (he was with a patient) the doctor said I should  go home, take it easy, drink lots of fluids and then go to the hospital in the morning for a non-stress test and an AFI (Amniotic Fluid Index).

I would personally like to say that I don't handle situations where there are unknowns very well! I always tend to go with the worst case scenarios... So of course when I got home, part of my taking it easy was to look up what happens when one has low fluid levels. (Side note: when Daniel told his boss that we were going in for tests due to the amniotic fluid being low, he said it almost sounded like he was taking me in for a tune-up... and it kind of does!) So I learned that some people have bed rest, others have to deliver early and others have to go in for the AFI and non-stress tests 1-2 times per week... So I naturally imagine that I'm either going to deliver this baby during the next few days or I'll be on bed rest for the remainder of my pregnancy with having to travel to the hospital 2 times per week to get tests done (not too bad but the hospital is a 30-45 minute drive away!)... and the waiting was excruciating. I honestly wish we could have went in that afternoon as I don't handle waiting very well!

This picture was taken Thursday night - just in case! Me at almost 34 weeks

The next morning came and we headed off to the hospital. I learned that morning that I wasn't the only one with a worst case scenario outlook - Daniel kept thinking that we'd have to have a C-Section... When we got there the nurse hooked me up and I was so thirsty (as I am pretty much every morning...) and I asked if I could have some water. She said she'd have to check in case they had to take the baby they might not want me to have anything to drink. Okay that did NOTHING to ease my fears... however she did say that she wasn't saying they would have to... but still didn't help! After a while she hadn't come back so I asked Daniel to go ask if I could have anything because I was really thirsty by this point. He came back and said my OB would get some for me. (Apparently he was the only one at the nurse's desk when Daniel went to ask.) A different nurse than had taken us to our room and got everything set up came in with the water. About a minute after she left the first nurse came in and said it was time for us to go to get the AFI done and "they" said that it would be best if I didn't have anything to drink... (who is 'they' I wonder - obviously not the doctor who was ready to bring it in himself!)

It had been about a half an hour at this point. The nurse unhooked me and we went to get the AFI done. Luckily it turned out that I had a normal amount of fluid (albeit it is on the lower end of the normal range.) The doctor came in to the room shortly after we'd came back. He said the levels were normal but 'they' wanted to monitor me for a bit longer. He also said that I should do kick counts if I wasn't feeling baby move like normal (and explained how to do them). So who is this mysterious 'they'? I'd like to know ;). The nurse came in and hooked me back up to the monitoring thingy and after about 20-30 more minutes came in and said we could leave. Everything looked fine.

Me at 34 weeks with Eric... for comparison.

I would have to say that this experience really opened my eyes to what some women have to go through while pregnant. While I didn't have to go through all the worse case scenarios that went floating through my head, the reality that I could have had to was very real. I can also say that I'm grateful to still be pregnant and am trying to be more upbeat about all the normal but annoying symptoms that occur during the last few months of pregnancy. Although I'm sure I'll probably be complaining in a few more days as that's just the way human nature works!

This experience has also made me rethink my approach to unknown problems/situations. It really NEVER occurred to me that everything would be fine and I'd be continuing life as normal! It made me realize that I need to shift my thinking to be more positive and not ONLY think about the negative. While thinking about all the possibilities can help me to be prepared in case one of them happens, I should also focus on the fact that everything CAN be alright (while still formulating plans for if it is not alright so I'm not caught completely off guard.)