Not Homeless!!

We are in our home in Oregon!!!!!! This is exciting news, as I was quite done with hotels and am so much more comfortable in the house. We finally got internet yesterday, and I'm not sure what I ever did without it, because I felt lost without my emails. Anyway, we got the keys to the house friday and the movers came on Sunday. (in between that time, Mom and Mike painted the baby nursery- twice! The first color was a "bit much", so they toned it down a few notches for crazy pregnant lady. It looks really nice now.) Thankfully, my mom was here until Tuesday and she was the biggest blessing to have. She did a lot of unpacking and organizing since I can't really do much. She tackled the worst project first (THE KITCHEN!!), and it is awesome now. Mike has been in high gear getting everything else done, and we are close to having a home with no boxes. I will put up pictures when I have some.

Today was an appointment at the specialists office. It went ok. I had just gone to the lab this morning, so he didn't have any tests to look at. The biophysical showed baby still doing very well, but the amniotic fluid is down lower. I was basically told, once again, that rest and a gallon of water a day are the way to go right now. And to pay attention for any symptoms (headaches, blurred vision, spots in front of my eyes). I will go back Monday and Friday next week to check the levels again and get a report on my lab work. He did mention to me that at this point we should "be ready" for the possibility of labor at any time, but nothing too much to worry about. I hit the 34 week mark yesterday, and I feel good about getting this far. I know I (and baby) have a few more weeks in me! (although, just in case, I will be getting a hospital bag ready this weekend). He did have to add a diabetes medication (yup- not so much borderline anymore) for me to take twice a day to lower my blood sugars. The dietician this week also added more to my bedtime snack since I've been having ketones in my morning urine. The diet is a little annoying, since I feel like I'm always eating! 3 small meals and 3 snacks a day is a lot of eating...Apparently a lot of eating, just not quite enough calories. A few more were needed to get baby and me through the night, and 2 days into it, it seems to be doing the trick.

The OB assured me after the non-stress test this week that baby looks excellent (and I quote "you don't get an NST result like this and have there be problems with the baby"). According to him it's just my body that is having a hard time with things (yeah, great. This kid's not even out yet and he's already testing my limits! :-))

Well, off to do more resting. I'm completely useless at this point- not a bad thing since Mike is an excellent organizer.
Have a good weekend and think happy thoughts for the Keenan family!

Love him

I'm going to skip the medical/pregnancy debbie downer updates today to tell you how in love with my awesome husband I am. I can't begin to describe how lucky I am to have him in my life. Monday will be 1 year of marriage for us- and what a year it's been! Wedding, move from TX to CA, new jobs and new house, get pregnant, his promotion, move from CA to OR....and there we have it. But with all that's gone on, he is the most positive, glass 1/2 full person. He is always seeing the good in things and refuses to worry about petty things. He always has me in mind and does what he thinks is best for us. With all this moving and bedrest- he is getting so much done by himself while I sit here in bed. And still, he makes me laugh and is always there to support me. And, while he's never actually changed a diaper before in his life, I know he's going to be an amazing dad. I love him so much!!

Another day

I went back to the specialist today. Apparently bedrest is good for me, because I had a good blood pressure (phew!). He has continued me on bedrest (which I'm afraid will last the duration of this pregnancy). The labs from Friday showed that my abnormal level had gotten higher, but he hadn't gotten today's results back yet, so we will have to wait and see how they're looking. The concern with this being elevated (uric acid), is that although it's not the "be all end all", it is likely a sign of preeclampsia. The good news though is that all my other levels (liver, platelets) remain normal. His recomendation is to continue doing the labs twice a week, because if anything else is going to go haywire, it could happen fast. He is still overly cautious about everything, and likes to remind me that he is not my OB and doesn't want to take over my care, he is merely a consultant. He thinks my OB should see me twice a week. I go to the OB tomorrow and hopefully he agrees to this. The two doctors are not necessarily in agreement over level of care needed, but I think he'll listen to the specialists advice at least. The specialist still feels it likely that I will be hospitalized and may need to stay there until delivery- and if that's the case delivery would probably be early. This is just his hypothesis at the moment though. I go back on Friday for another ultrasound that will look at growth again as well as all baby's organs. The biophysical profile today showed baby doing very well. He was "breathing" the whole test (it's expained that this is practice breathing) and he moved as much as they needed him to. My amniotic fluid level was a smidge higher, so that's good at least.

All in all, I feel pretty good. No new headaches or odd symptoms. I'm thankful that the 24 hour urine test is over because that is not fun when you're also drinking a gallon of water a day!

My mom got here saturday and has been a blessing! She walks the dog for me and keeps me company. I'm pretty sure bedrest would suck a lot worse if she weren't here.
Please keep us in you thoughts and prayers!!

Bedrest :-(

My morning did not turn out to be fabulous. I went to the specialist today for an appointment for a Biophysical Profile. Some of the things they look for are amniotic fluid levels, they have to see baby open and close his hands, he has to show breathing for 30 seconds, and some other things I don't remember. My child, who has been moving non-stop the past few days, was finally taking a rest, so it took lots of poking and belly jiggling to get him to wake up. Once he did, he passed with flying colors. So, what's the problem? Well, where do I begin? The amniotic fluid level was below normal, I had one of my labs from tuesday come back a bit abnormal, I had an episode of the absolute worst headache pain yesterday ( I mean, excrutiating...I was very close to having Mike take me to the hospital when I finally fell asleep), the day before that I started seeing some bright spots in front of my eyes....yada yada yada. So, although the blood pressure seems to look ok, the other symptoms leave the doctor worried. As well as the low fluid. After reviewing all that, he had me do a second ultrasound to measure the baby's growth. He's huge...so no scare there. My blood sugars have been high since I've started testing, so they say that's probably why he's measuring big. Pretty much, I was told drink a gallon of water a day and be on bedrest. And while he may be a lot more cautious than my regular OB, I will be as careful as I can.

He scared me with a lot of worst case scenerios once again, but basically, worst care scenerio...if I have more symptoms (headaches, eyes) then he thinks I will ultimately need to be admitted to the hospital to be closely observed until I deliver, which would likely be early. He reassured us that even if that were the case, the baby is probably far enough along that he would be ok (would probably need support for a while, but would have good outcome potential). But that's WORST case, and we are not near that yet. We're just in the "let's be way more cautious stage" right now. I had more labs drawn today, will do another 24 hour urine sunday, and get more labs drawn on Monday. My arms look like a pincushion, the bruising is not fun. (especially when it takes them 3 sticks to get blood).

So, because this was quite possibly the worst timing for this to happen (mike flies out tomorrow to go back to CA to meet the movers and finish up that house and will be gone until Thursday evening), my mom is flying in to be with me. I am the luckiest person in the world to have a mom who is so supportive and loving that she would drop anything to be here with me. The fact that I have a dog who needs to go for walks, and the potential (although slim) that I could be admitted and have the dog and all our stuff here, just freaked me out a little too much. Although she'll just be sitting around with me watching me "rest", it's a huge relief to know that I won't be here by myself. (Mom, I love you so much!)

So for now, I'm fine, baby is great. We could just use plenty of your thoughts and prayers for my health and for me to be pregnant as long as possible.

And so it goes

Nothing could possibly be simple for me. Not even pregnancy. Bring it on, let's just make this as high maintenance as possible.

I want to begin by saying I do NOT technically have gestational diabetes. That said, I had one abnormal result and 2 borderline results, which got me a ticket to the diabetes educator! And I am now the proud owner of a little blood sugar tester thingy- whatever they're called. My appointment with the educator isn't for 2 weeks, so until then, I just watch what I eat, eat 3 balanced meals plus 3 snacks a day, and poke my finger 4 times a day. I started yesterday, and it's not so bad, except that so far my numbers haven't been what they're supposed to be, so we'll see what the doctor says about that.

And...my blood pressure has been high for 5 days and counting. The specialist is going to re-evaluate on friday and possibly up my medication. And he drew more blood. Speaking of specialist, oh my! He is SO much better than the one I was seeing in CA! (and I use the term "seeing" loosely since I only met him one time for about 5 minutes). He is on top of things, but concerned with the high blood pressure combined with the huge feet. He wants the baby to be monitored twice a week- so the current plan is I see the OB on tuesdays for NST's and see the specialist on Fridays for biophysical profiling (basically indepth ultrasounds with added NST if anything is off on the ultrasounds). I'd say it's a pretty good thing I'm not working right now, with all these appointments!

The good news...the baby's heartbeat sounded great yesterday and he was the busiest little guy ever all day and night yesterday! I kept wondering if he was ever going to rest. My whole belly was moving in waves like he was just flipping around in there. Definitely the strongest movements I've felt yet.

Tonight I am taking a breastfeeding class at the hospital, which I am definitely looking forward to. Tomorrow we have to move hotels, since this one is booked for tomorrow night. We will stay at the new place until next friday. Mike leaves this saturday for CA to meet the packers/movers and will drive his car back next tues/wed. Everything is still on schedule for closing on our new home on May 23, and hopefully we'll be in it the following monday or tuesday (depending on when the movers get there).

Happy hump day everyone.

Hello

I'm still here. There just hasn't been a lot to report when most of my time is spent sitting around a hotel room! I started seeing a chiropractor who specializes in pre and post natal women. I went friday for an evaluation and am going to see her twice a week for now. Turns out sciatica really isn't the problem, it's more to do with how my pelvic bones are misaligning as my uterus grows. So she does some adjusting in my pelvis and lower back. So far my back feels pretty good after she does her thing, but I still have a LOT of pain in my left pelvis/butt/leg. Hard to describe the exact spot. I've started sleeping in a more sitting up position because it feels better. You do what you gotta do :-)

After my appointment today, I went shopping for a bit. Got some major comfy shoes with better support and wider for my huge feet. I think they are actually going to help with some of the pain actually, because just wearing them around the hotel room this afternoon feel good. Tomorrow I meet the new fetal and maternal medicine specialist that I'll be seeing up here, and go back to the OB. Hopefully I find out that the 3 hour glucose test was fine.

We are still set to close on the house May 23. I am SO excited to finally get to set up the baby nursery and do some more baby shopping!! I feel a little lost without being able to "nest" at all, but I'll be busy getting ready once we're in the house. I also found out today that my mom will be visiting for over a month, starting at the end of June!! I am so happy, glad, excited, everything that she will be there with us! Sometimes it's harder than other times to be so far away from family, so I'm happy to know she'll be here for the birth and get to spend time with him for a little while. I'm sure I will welcome the company and help too!

Living the life of leisure

Top photo- Boss enjoying our hotel in San Francisco. The hotel was nautical themed, hence the stars on the carpet.
Bottom photo- :-) Boss and I enjoying the laziness this weekend at the hotel.

Well, so far so good. I'm not going to lie- it gets a little bit boring here at the hotel, but I'm trying to keep myself busy. Boss and I found an awesome park nearby that is along the Columbia River and we enjoy taking a walk out there. Boss also enjoys going in the water. There is a 24 mile paved walking trail along the river- yeah, we did about 1/2 mile or so. :-)

I met my new OB yesterday. He was a little on the goofy side, but I think just fine and better than my other doctor. He is not overly concerned about my BP, which was relieving. He does want me to see a fetal maternal medicine specialist out here as well, but that was pretty much to be expected. He's not sure that they'll even choose to follow me as closely as the last one, but wants the specialist to make that decision. My OB will see me once a week for now to keep a close watch on things. Bad news is that I failed my 1 hour glucose test last week, so I will do the 3 hour tolerance test this friday. Hopefully that one turns out just fine. My feet were swollen up like crazy again yesterday when I woke up, so I'm told to just watch my sodium intake (admittedly, not something that's easy when you're living in a hotel and eating out all the time- but I am making a much better effort to avoid it best I can). They (the feet) seem better today. Still a bit swollen, but not as bad. Wonder why this happens over night?

I am making today a lazy day- probably going to take Boss to the park for a while, then I'll come back and do laundry, but don't really plan to go anywhere else. Wonder how long it'll take for us to officially go stir crazy???

I think Boss is gonna like it here

MUCH better than the desert. She's still confused about being in the hotel and what's going on, but I'd say the great outdoors is her friend.

Well, it made US laugh...

At our hotel on Day 2 of driving, we were given Room 306 for the night.

This is the sign we saw when we got off the elevator.

Hmmm.....

Home Sweet...Hotel.

So, the rest of our drive was easy and uneventful. We actually only had about 5 hours or so to do yesterday, and made it to our hotel in WA in the late afternoon. The hotel room seems like it'll be pretty good for a while (a month?!?), as it does have a fridge and microwave, as well as seating area with couch and chair. Makes it a little more spacious.

As I discovered today, it's in a pretty good area for having a dog with us. There are fields and walking trails all around. Boss and I went for about an hour walk today. Really it wasn't too far, but the way I walk (or should I say waddle?), we went nice and slow, it took longer than normal. I was pretty wiped out when we got back to the room, but looking at the dog, I think she's even more worn out!

All in all, I can definitely see the potential for this to get boring, but luckily I will have my car on most days. Mike had to take mine to work today since he doesn't pick up his rental until tomorrow. This leaves me stuck with nowhere to go. Although even when the car is here, I have to take Boss everywhere I go because we don't want her barking or misbehaving here alone, so it kind of limits where I can go anyway. I pretty much think I'll figure out a routine though. Not a bad day to be without transportation, as I am catching up on some resting and trying to drink enough water to make my feet look normal again (they're getting there.)!

And on that note- I'm off to relax and read my book!