In The Home Stretch (Marks)

Next week officially starts new baby's third trimester. 12 weeks to go...

So far so good: my blood pressure isn't bad (especially un-medicated!), all of the recent tests I've had have come back normal (whew!), and baby is moving around ALL the time. When I was pregnant with Rachael I was put on bedrest at 32 weeks for hypertension, so I think I'll feel better once I cross that 32 week mark. The thought of bedrest again, well, makes my blood pressure rise. Ahh, irony--thou art a fickle wench.

Anyhoo, here are a few things that are different between this pregnancy and the last:

1) Being preggo in the winter is much more tolerable than being preggo in the summer
2) I enjoy not being swollen from summertime humidity
3) I am glad to not be sweating constantly because I cannot get the A/C to actually make my house feel like it's 60 degrees (Dave wore long sleeves inside in August)
4) It stinks a little bit not being able to go for walks outside.... but...
5) At least I'm not hot and I'm not swollen
6) Something that has nothing to do with weather: this baby is MUCH more active than Rachael ever was. 3am? Baby's wiggling. 3pm? Baby's wiggling. I wonder if this means she won't sleep when she's OUT of the womb, too....

In any case, I'm hopeful that I can make it all the way to 40 weeks this time without complications. I'm counting a lot of Enya and aromatherapy to keep me calm and in the neighborhood of 120/80.

Another fun stress reliever, of course, is this pretty girl! We took this before going to our friend Alex's first birthday party. How sweet is this?!

Wishing you all a pleasant, antihypertensive evening,
Kristine :-)

Amoxicillin 875mg BID x 10 days, Please

Ordinarily, I'm not a wimp about being sick. However--I'm NOT good at being sick when pregnant. I get that some women are just naturally perky and optimistic when pregnant regardless of what's going on, and that's just freaking fantastic for them. I, however, appreciate symptom-management agents when I'm sick, and most of those agents are strictly forbidden when with child. Here's my woe-ridden story:

Last Tuesday, I left work not feeling great. By the time I got to daycare, I was feeling worse. By the time Rachael and I got home, all I could think about was curling up into a ball (or as close to a ball as my preggo belly would let me) and being unconscious. Luckily, my attentive husband answered his phone at work on the second ring (yay David!) and agreed to high-tail it home.

I'm sure he was really excited to hurry home to a puking wife. What a guy...

Since last Tuesday, I've waded through a stomach virus, infections in both ears, and infections in both eyes. Note: I do not live in a shelter, and I do clean my house regularly. I blame this current rash of illness on my job...easy target, right? But really, I was working at the hospital the last two weeks (instead of my regularly-Lysoled corporate office space...) and spent some quality time on the pediatric unit. My immune system has no chance against the onslaught it encounters every time I walk onto a peds floor. I should have seen it coming...NO MORE PEDS FLOORS UNLESS I'M IN A FULL HAZMAT SUIT.

Anyway...

After realizing that I'm not going to get better without drugs, I phoned my OB/GYN's office on Thursday and pathetically ran down my litney of symptoms. As soon as the nurse heard "pinkeye," she paused, put me on hold, then came back and told me to call my family doctor. Sigh. Family doctor is not going to be thrilled to see a sickly pregnant woman; I've been down this road before. Irritated, I hang up on the nurse and called my family doctor's office...cleverly omitting any mention of being pregnant. Figure I'll cross that bridge after they agree to see me. By this point, I've infected Rachael with a few of my illnesses--she has pinkeye and the lovely hacking cough that's kept me up for the last few days. So I pack up the two of us, and we cough our way to the doctor's office, gooey eyes and all.

Family doctor's partner (a lovely woman who was recently pregnant herself!) walked into the room, looked at my red, crusty eyes and my ample belly and said "your OB/GYN didn't want you anywhere near her waiting room, did she? Well, no prob!" I was so relieved. She checked Rach and I over. Augmentin suspension and eye drops for Rachael. Amoxicillin, eye drops, and ear drops for me. All e-prescribed to our neighborhood CVS. Love it.

Off to CVS we go. This should be the end of my woe-ridden story...

Pharmacy tech comes to the drive-up window (thank you, God, for drive-through pharmacies!) and says "um, can you come back in 20 minutes?" I grumble and say sure... Drive off and figure I'll get Rachael and me a quick snack. One Panera scone later, Rachael and I are back at CVS for our drugs. Pharmacist comes to the window. "Mrs. Baker, we have all of Rachael's medicines prepared, but we can only fill two days of your amoxicillin prescription. We're short." At this point, she could have told me that they were going to have to inject the amoxicillin into my stomach every 6 hours and I wouldn't have cared. I just wanted to be lying down. So I take my two days of drugs and all of Rachael's remedies and home we went.

Two days later, I was able to get the rest of of my amoxicillin and am on the road to recovery. Unreal that they ran out of such a common drug--they really had to hunt for it, too. Seems like *everyone* is sick right now! At least the world will have one less sick, miserable, grumbling pregnant woman now that I'm on the mend. ;-)

Here's hoping that I can make it to May without more plague!

Play-Doh

Play-Doh is one of those activities that I admit had me a bit gun-shy... I was wondering when it would be cool to bring out the Play-Doh and not see Rachael (1) attempt to consume it, (2) grind it into my carpet, or (3) feed it to the cats. I don't mind playtime clutter--I do, however, mind combing purple Play-Doh pies out of my sad, abused living room carpet. Anyway, two weekends ago the weather was extra-horrible (bitter cold AND several inches of falling snow...) so, housebound, we had Play-Doh time.

I'd forgotten how completely awesome Play-Doh is! And it's much softer than I remembered...the Play-Doh I remember was crumbly. This is more like sugar-cookie dough. Soft, squishy, but holds together well. Rachael loved all the neat tools that came with the Play-Doh set that Jim and Jen got her for Christmas--noodle makers, Play-Doh scissors, cut-out shapes. All easy-to-use and fun. And while there was some Play-Doh that escaped the kitchen, it cleaned up easily--no combing it out of carpet (and no Play-Doh laced cat barf anywhere, either). Love it!

Here are some pics from our Play-Doh afternoon: