Thanks so much for sharing our journey with us. Now that Bubba is born, you can check out life outside the womb at:
http://lilbaileyanne.blogspot.com
With love,
Cheryl and Mark
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
She's Gonna Be So Pissed At Me...
Sixteen years from now, when she finds out I posted this photo on my blog. But I rarely see Bailey alert, and need to remember when she was like this.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Bailey Anne
Our daughter, Bailey Anne (formerly known as Bubba J) was born on Wednesday 17 September 2008 at 1:00 PM Central Time; weighing 6 pounds, 3 ounces at 18 inches long.
This a photo of her with her dad :)
We thank everyone for all of their love and support. Yahoo! She is here!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Ouch!
Strange sensations in my belly. Lots of tightening going on. Belly feels like a rock now. Plus ouchy pains in my lower abdomen. I am not supposed to call the dr. unless I'm in so much pain that I can hardly speak. (Ironic, huh?)
The good thing is that I have a check-up tomorrow. So we'll just wait and see what happens.
The even better thing is that if no progress is made, we're still gonna evict baby girl on the 22nd anyway.
The good thing is that I have a check-up tomorrow. So we'll just wait and see what happens.
The even better thing is that if no progress is made, we're still gonna evict baby girl on the 22nd anyway.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Bubba's Doing Great
She got another 8/8 yesterday. My blood pressure has gone down, thank goodness. Bed rest is definitely helping. Dr. MacKay said I don't have to wear TED hose anymore. Hurrah.
I'm learning to sleep longer through the night--it's called Tylenol and Benadryl. It definitely helps. Mark blocks the ringing in my ears by keeping a fan on in our room, so I am much perkier in the morning.
As for getting used to bed rest, I'm getting lots of sleep. It's a gift. We're resigned to the fact that we will induce labor on the 22nd (week 39). So now I can relax.
We caught Little Miss sucking her thumb on the ultrasound this week. She also has very full, luscious lips. Lucky girl. She won't have the urge for restalyne when she gets older.
I'm learning to sleep longer through the night--it's called Tylenol and Benadryl. It definitely helps. Mark blocks the ringing in my ears by keeping a fan on in our room, so I am much perkier in the morning.
As for getting used to bed rest, I'm getting lots of sleep. It's a gift. We're resigned to the fact that we will induce labor on the 22nd (week 39). So now I can relax.
We caught Little Miss sucking her thumb on the ultrasound this week. She also has very full, luscious lips. Lucky girl. She won't have the urge for restalyne when she gets older.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Adventures in Preeclampsia
Over the past few weeks, my blood pressure has been rising. The numbers aren't outrageous. But still, on the higher side of normal. Since Tuesday morning, I have been on bedrest again. But this time, it's serious. When I am upright, I do notice that my heartbeat is ever so slightly higher than before.
To insult the vain side of myself, Dr. MacKay's office put me in TED Hose, or very thick white compression hosiery which prevents embolisms. They are pretty darn ugly. (TED is a brand, like Kleenex is to facial tissue, by the way). I have to wear these stockings all the darn time. It kind of gets uncomfortable by hour 20, and I subconsciously take them off in my sleep.
The pregnancy hormones have wreaked havoc on my body in ways I had no idea were possible. Many of my joints are looser than before--even my left temporomandibular joint (TMJ), this is where your bottom jaw connects to our skull. Well, mine used to be locked up pretty tight, but now it's loose, and I have no bite whatsoever. I am forced to eat softer foods as a result.
The newest health issue is that I have a constant chirping noise in my ears. Again, this is because the pregnancy hormones loosed up certain canals in my ears, so as my blood pulses throughout my body, it's as if I can hear it. ALL NIGHT LONG. It drives me nuts. Thank goodness for bed rest, because I can catch up on ZZZZs during the day.
And then there is the fact that these are hormones we are talking about. I have cried a ridiculous number of times for various reasons. Sometimes I feel like a fat cow (as I type this, I am in Mark's track pants and socks, as they accomodate the TED hose much easier than my other clothes). Mark suggested we take a photo of me in my new stylish (not) get-up. I flatly refuse to have any evidence that I look this deranged. But he wants proof to our baby girl of how much we are willing to go through to have her. I think we can just show her this blog and be done with it.
I now have to see Dr. MacKay twice a week to monitor my blood pressure and other preeclampsia indicators. Sometimes I get so totally bored during the day, but oh well. I keep reminding myself that Bubba is fine, and she will be here in 2.5 weeks or less.
* Bubba is doing just fine. She earned another 8/8 last Wednesday. :)
To insult the vain side of myself, Dr. MacKay's office put me in TED Hose, or very thick white compression hosiery which prevents embolisms. They are pretty darn ugly. (TED is a brand, like Kleenex is to facial tissue, by the way). I have to wear these stockings all the darn time. It kind of gets uncomfortable by hour 20, and I subconsciously take them off in my sleep.
The pregnancy hormones have wreaked havoc on my body in ways I had no idea were possible. Many of my joints are looser than before--even my left temporomandibular joint (TMJ), this is where your bottom jaw connects to our skull. Well, mine used to be locked up pretty tight, but now it's loose, and I have no bite whatsoever. I am forced to eat softer foods as a result.
The newest health issue is that I have a constant chirping noise in my ears. Again, this is because the pregnancy hormones loosed up certain canals in my ears, so as my blood pulses throughout my body, it's as if I can hear it. ALL NIGHT LONG. It drives me nuts. Thank goodness for bed rest, because I can catch up on ZZZZs during the day.
And then there is the fact that these are hormones we are talking about. I have cried a ridiculous number of times for various reasons. Sometimes I feel like a fat cow (as I type this, I am in Mark's track pants and socks, as they accomodate the TED hose much easier than my other clothes). Mark suggested we take a photo of me in my new stylish (not) get-up. I flatly refuse to have any evidence that I look this deranged. But he wants proof to our baby girl of how much we are willing to go through to have her. I think we can just show her this blog and be done with it.
I now have to see Dr. MacKay twice a week to monitor my blood pressure and other preeclampsia indicators. Sometimes I get so totally bored during the day, but oh well. I keep reminding myself that Bubba is fine, and she will be here in 2.5 weeks or less.
* Bubba is doing just fine. She earned another 8/8 last Wednesday. :)
Heparin Comedy of Errors
Dr. MacKay prescribed me a different form of Heparin a week ago. I need to start injecting every 12 hours instead of every 24, just in case I go into labor, I will still be able to get an epidural, or have a C-Section without risk to my health.
After my appointment I went straight to Walgreen's to get it filled, knowing that injections take at least 24 hours to process. I was told to call on Friday morning.
Well, 3 days later (last Saturday) I called Walgreen's to find out if the Heparin was ready. It was not. In fact, the pharmacist tech has NO IDEA when it would come in. Not cool.
So... I called Dr. MacKay's office to figure out what to do. They suggested that I have the Rx transferred to our local hospital pharmacy, because they believed it shouldn't be that difficult to get in general.
I called--and they had it. And I was told that generally retail pharmacies will have a difficult time getting this form of Heparin because of a recent recall--just so that I'm aware. If only my OB/GYN's office knew that as well. Then I wouldn't have been without an anti-coagulant for a few days.
I called at 4:05 PM, so Mark only had a few minutes to go and get the Heparin for me before this pharmacy closed at 5:00 PM for the long weekend. Thankfully he did.
But get this: the Heparin was pre-filled, BUT THERE WERE NO NEEDLES. It was completely useless. There was no way to inject myself. To make things worse, the pharmacy only gave Mark a five days' supply and told him he needed to come back for the other 50 injections on Tuesday--the next day that they were open.
So... I managed to get 4 needles to start using the Heparin that I have (long story, worthy of a completely different post). That was fine. But Mark and I decided to pick up the rest of the Heparin we needed and ask for needles after Bubba's appointment today.
What a joke. At first the pharmacy had NO CLUE what I was talking about, when I asked them for the remaining Heparin. They suggested that we go to a completely different location to ask for the drug. When we arrived there, the pharmacists managed to figure out what we were talking about. They handed me a bag of 50 injections and thought I should go on my merry way. When I told them that I still needed needles, the woman thought I was completely insane.
"There are needles in there."
"No, actually, there are not." I say.
"I've been giving this to people all the time and never had a problem."
"There still aren't any needles in the injections. You can open one up if you like." I told her. And so she did. Sure enough, no needle to be found. She picked up the phone to call the hospital nurse to figure this out. The nurses told her that there are needles loaded in the injections, but now she knew better. She spoke to a colleague as well, who said he's dealt with this before. That guy came over to convince me that the injections had needles. I told him, that he was mistaken and invited him to take a look at the one we opened just now. He was dumbstruck. The pharmacy was at a complete loss as to what to do.
"Do you have a line?" He asked me.
"A what?" I replied.
"An IV line." He said. I wasn't attached to anything so the obvious answer to his question was a big fat no.
"My original script says the Heparin is administered sub-q." I reply. In layman's terms, this means the drug needs to be injected into the skin, hence I need needles.
At this point, my exasperated husband said, "Could you just give her some needles? That's all that we're missing."
"Oh yes! We have needles. We can give you needles." The guy said. Are you f-ing kidding me? What have I been saying for the past 10 minutes?
So now, I have the joy of injecting myself twice daily (instead of once) of this burning, searingly painful stuff. When I tell my daughter I love her, I don't think she will ever have any idea what I mean by that.
* As an aside, I mentioned to Mark that it was probably easier to get dope than Heparin in our new hometown. I'm serious. His reply, "Those people don't run the pharmacy like a business. I mean, if I was a drug dealer, and I was selling heroin, I'd make sure my customer had a needle."
After my appointment I went straight to Walgreen's to get it filled, knowing that injections take at least 24 hours to process. I was told to call on Friday morning.
Well, 3 days later (last Saturday) I called Walgreen's to find out if the Heparin was ready. It was not. In fact, the pharmacist tech has NO IDEA when it would come in. Not cool.
So... I called Dr. MacKay's office to figure out what to do. They suggested that I have the Rx transferred to our local hospital pharmacy, because they believed it shouldn't be that difficult to get in general.
I called--and they had it. And I was told that generally retail pharmacies will have a difficult time getting this form of Heparin because of a recent recall--just so that I'm aware. If only my OB/GYN's office knew that as well. Then I wouldn't have been without an anti-coagulant for a few days.
I called at 4:05 PM, so Mark only had a few minutes to go and get the Heparin for me before this pharmacy closed at 5:00 PM for the long weekend. Thankfully he did.
But get this: the Heparin was pre-filled, BUT THERE WERE NO NEEDLES. It was completely useless. There was no way to inject myself. To make things worse, the pharmacy only gave Mark a five days' supply and told him he needed to come back for the other 50 injections on Tuesday--the next day that they were open.
So... I managed to get 4 needles to start using the Heparin that I have (long story, worthy of a completely different post). That was fine. But Mark and I decided to pick up the rest of the Heparin we needed and ask for needles after Bubba's appointment today.
What a joke. At first the pharmacy had NO CLUE what I was talking about, when I asked them for the remaining Heparin. They suggested that we go to a completely different location to ask for the drug. When we arrived there, the pharmacists managed to figure out what we were talking about. They handed me a bag of 50 injections and thought I should go on my merry way. When I told them that I still needed needles, the woman thought I was completely insane.
"There are needles in there."
"No, actually, there are not." I say.
"I've been giving this to people all the time and never had a problem."
"There still aren't any needles in the injections. You can open one up if you like." I told her. And so she did. Sure enough, no needle to be found. She picked up the phone to call the hospital nurse to figure this out. The nurses told her that there are needles loaded in the injections, but now she knew better. She spoke to a colleague as well, who said he's dealt with this before. That guy came over to convince me that the injections had needles. I told him, that he was mistaken and invited him to take a look at the one we opened just now. He was dumbstruck. The pharmacy was at a complete loss as to what to do.
"Do you have a line?" He asked me.
"A what?" I replied.
"An IV line." He said. I wasn't attached to anything so the obvious answer to his question was a big fat no.
"My original script says the Heparin is administered sub-q." I reply. In layman's terms, this means the drug needs to be injected into the skin, hence I need needles.
At this point, my exasperated husband said, "Could you just give her some needles? That's all that we're missing."
"Oh yes! We have needles. We can give you needles." The guy said. Are you f-ing kidding me? What have I been saying for the past 10 minutes?
So now, I have the joy of injecting myself twice daily (instead of once) of this burning, searingly painful stuff. When I tell my daughter I love her, I don't think she will ever have any idea what I mean by that.
* As an aside, I mentioned to Mark that it was probably easier to get dope than Heparin in our new hometown. I'm serious. His reply, "Those people don't run the pharmacy like a business. I mean, if I was a drug dealer, and I was selling heroin, I'd make sure my customer had a needle."
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