A Week
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 | Oh, Baby! | No Comments
It’s pretty crazy to me that this morning marks a week from the time I came in to triage to get checked and ended up admitted.
Things actually haven’t changed much since I’ve been here, and that’s the point. But i do have moments where I think there was some mistake and I’m here for nothing. My temperature is consistent, blood pressure is normal, and the monitoring they do on the bee for an hour every 4 hours looks great. So I sit here and wait — 10 more days.
Memorial Day
Monday, May 31st, 2010 | Oh, Baby! | 3 Comments
I didn’t get an update posted last night for all the excitement. Mom flew in around 5p and Kelvin went to get her and grab dinner at 5 Guys. While he was gone they decided to close CW3 where I have been since they admitted me because I was going to be the only patient there and they can’t staff a private nurse for me. So my nurse packed up all my stuff and got me ready to move. After we ate they took me and my entourage to the regular maternity ward. I’m in a huge room that has a table & chairs, love seat, glider and stool. Not nearly as cozy as my other room, but this has definite party potential!
Things are good this morning. Still a little irritability, but no real organized contractions. I’m on the monitor now for my hour and bee’s heartrate looks like normal; just buzzing along.
I did make the mistake of telling the resident that it felt like i pulled my hamstring so she’s going to make me wear compression hose and use those inflatable boots some while i’m in bed. bleh.
Breakfast is served here. I better work on that so I’ll be hungry again when Kelvin goes to get our free Spicy Chicken Sandwiches from Chick-fil-a at lunch.
Sunday and still buzzing
Sunday, May 30th, 2010 | Oh, Baby! | 2 Comments
Have I really just spent five nights in the hospital? I guess it’s good time is going by relatively quickly. We had another good night last night and today has almost felt typical if I pretend this bed is my couch and that the short walk to the kitchen was my weekend run.
I had blood drawn at 3:30am this morning for them to check more closely for infection. I haven’t had any of the clinical signs showing up (fever, tender belly), so it was just a precaution. I was on the monitor for my hour at 11 when Dr B came by. We walked down the hall to the ultrasound room so he could take a look and check fluid levels. Things look about the same as on Tuesday when they admitted me so that’s a good thing. The bee has been very busy buzzing around today and even stuck a tongue out while we were watching on the ultrasound. I can imagine bee was also singing “nah-na-na boo-boo”.
In other exciting news, while I was gone I got clean sheets. It’s the little things really. Kelvin’s busy taking a nap in the daddy chair, and I’m partially paying attention to Star Wars while I lay here. Pretty typical Sunday afternoon.
Saturday afternoon antics
Saturday, May 29th, 2010 | Oh, Baby! | 1 Comment
It’s been a pretty quiet day around here, but pretty great too.
Dr. B, the perinatologist I met on Tuesday came by this morning to check in on me. He did reassure me that there really is a reason for me to be here; I was beginning to think this was a not so funny episode of Punk’ed. So if things stay quiet with us today they plan to do a blood panel tomorrow morning to check on things; particularly my white blood count to make sure we don’t have an infection setting in. He also said we would go around the corner and do an ultrasound to measure the fluid around the baby.
The latest hour on the monitor did show some contractions, and I am feeling them now. They’re not very strong or organized so we’ll hang tight and see what happens. Hopefully they’ll stop again for another day or two.
Kelvin brought duck pad thai from Thai Thai II for lunch and now we’re watching “Lockup” trying to decide if we should film our own version while I’m here. And while I know the baby news is the most important, Dr B also said Braut could come for a visit! Luckily Kelvin took him to the spa this morning for a bath and pedicure so he’s set to come see me today or tomorrow (if I’m not busy letting bee out of the hive).
Another night down
Saturday, May 29th, 2010 | Oh, Baby! | 4 Comments
Jodie came to see last night and brought along a basket of the most amazing strawberries. She and Karen are my community garden plot neighbors, and they have a strawberry patch there. SO yummy. Can't wait to much the onese she left me for breakfast.
The good news is we made it another night. The even better news (for me) is that I slept pretty well. As has become our custom already in this short stay, Kelvin tucked me in around 10 when the nurse came to hook me up to the monitors. I was awake until she came to free me at 11 and I went almost immediately to sleep. I was able to stay pretty much asleep when she put me back on at 3am and I was sleep when the resident came by around 5:15.
I did ask him about false positives, but he assured me they did three different types of tests and they were all positive. He was really nice about it; I’m sure I am not the first to lay here and wonder if there was a mistake. I just want to be assured that delivering the bee early is really necessary. The thought of wires coming out of my bee’s head and being hooked up to everything is more than I can really wrap my head around right now so I’m trying not to think about that until it’s a reality.
So we will see what Saturday brings; hopefully just a few visitors and some duck pad thai that Kelvin will bring for lunch. They have mentioned bloodwork and another ultrasound for this weekend, but I’m not sure when those will happen.
32 weeks
Friday, May 28th, 2010 | Oh, Baby! | 2 Comments
Did a happy dance (really more a happy wiggle in bed) around midnight as I was hooked up to the monitor listening to the bee buzz and we realized we made it to the 32 week mark. That was our second goal; first was to make it 48 hours from the time i was admitted to give the drugs the time they needed to work.
They’ve switched me to oral antibiotics and hopefully will take this line out of my hand at some point today. We will still monitor heart and contractions for an hour every four hours.
We did have a few contractions this morning but they have been mild and disorganized. And the bee seems to be sticking to our usual week day schedule: playing around 6:30 or 7am (that was one of the contraction times), attending morning “staff meeting” around 9 when some combination of Ken, John and Jason usually come by the office and we talk about the day’s tasks, and now around noon when mommy is getting hungry and there is no lunch being consumed.
So I sit here, continuing to try and get things tied up neatly for work while watching Paula Deen cover the top of a pie with a stick of butter. It was nice to see Jason and Tami last night (everyone has been talking about the beautiful roses they brought me), and it will be nice to see those of you wh0 said you would do the drop in this weekend.
Looks like grandma will be flying in Sunday afternoon whether the bee is or not. It’ll be good to have her here regardless of if she has to sit and stare at me for a couple of days or begin taking care of me as soon as she gets here.
No More MAG
Thursday, May 27th, 2010 | Oh, Baby! | 4 Comments
Dr K came in around 1 and put in the order that the nurse could stop the Magnesium Sulfate. So I’m unfettered from the IV for now. They’re keeping the line in to use for antibiotics a few more rounds but that will be 30 minutes at a time every 4 or 8 hours (I don’t remember how often they’ve been doing that). AND without me expecting it he wrote to keep me on the monitor for an hour ever 4 hours. So i will be unhooked totally for 3 hours starting around 2pm this afternoon. shower here i come! It’s the little things really.
Dr K’s guess is a girl, and she’ll be born over the weekend. His reasoning on girl is selfish, because they generally do better in the NICU and the weekend based on if my membranes ruptured on Thursday (and I’m not positive if it was then or Sunday or some other day, but me explaining here would be TMI for this general audience).
He did say from the monitor I’ve been having zero to five contractions an hour; news to me really. Maybe it’s better things are happening this way with me here. This is when this high pain threshold isn’t always a good thing — I could see me dropping the bee on the elliptical machine or something.
Remembering I’ll be 32 weeks tomorrow, and they won’t let me go past 34 weeks, I’ll officially open things up for guesses — gender. day. time. weight. length. vaginal vs c-section. how late kelvin is. and whatever other wagers you wish to make public here.
Keeping the bee in the hive
Thursday, May 27th, 2010 | Oh, Baby! | No Comments
Well, it has been an exciting few days around here.
I called my OB from work early Tuesday morning before my 8:30 meeting just being a little nervous about some leaking that i thought was my bladder. They nurse said to go in to triage to get checked. They confirmed my membrane has a slow leak so they admitted me immediately Tuesday (I’ll be 32 weeks Friday). They told me in triage that I would be here until “the bee” is born.
On Tues their estimate is that the bee weighs about 3 lb 14 oz. They’ve had me in bed pumping me with antibiotic, magnesium sulfate and fluid and they gave me two shots of steroids to get the bee’s lungs toughened up. They’ll take me off things this afternoon and then I will continue to stay in bed fettered to the fetal heart rate and contraction monitor and see how long we can keep the bee in the hive. Ideally we would get to 34 weeks, but I have my mom on standby to purchase her ticket at any moment.
Funday Friday
Friday, March 19th, 2010 | Australia | No Comments
Wishing all Friday’s were like today. The sun was out all day without rain. I got the last bit of laundry done and hung before Deb and I took a walk around the neighborhood. I rushed in after to take a quick shower and get online for a noontime Elluminate session Steve and Kelvin were leading. We finished getting ready and went into Lismore to meet up with them.
Before we headed out of town for a drive to Minyon Falls we stopped at the Lismore Pie Cart for lunch. I had the steak, tomato and onion; it was flaky and perfect for lunch.
The drive through the countryside was amazing, and the falls were beautiful. We also had the opportunity to find a carpet python and watch four kookaburras gather in a tree to watch a group of people around the barbeque. One even swooped down and grabbed something to eat before sitting up in the tree to mock them.
Steve took us to a few different scenic views including a look toward Byron Bay where we’ll go tomorrow for a closer look.
Half day of work, half day of play
Thursday, March 18th, 2010 | Australia | No Comments
I think I would be okay working half-days. I got up and washed and hung a load of laundry before I left for campus. I spent some time with Allan Ellis who is currently Director of Research and Research Training for the School of Commerce and Management. He teaches and supervises post graduate students in the field of learning, training, technology implementation and change management. We geeked out a bit, first about my hack-in-tosh then about Moodle and Second Life.
I left his office and headed to the Teaching & Learning Centre to meet with a few of their staff.
Kelvin & Steve came to collect me for lunch. We met up with Deb at the Left Bank Café; we tried the sweet potato chips, complete with chili salsa and sour cream to dip and I had veal on sourdough. We walked through the adjoining gallery before heading home.
We changed into running clothes and headed to Ballina for the afternoon. We walked along the river all the way out to the ocean. Kelvin got some running in and then walked part of the way with us to dry off a little. A quick stop at Shelley Beach let us put our feet in the water though Kelvin stood up on the beach and watched us; maybe if we go to Byron Bay before we leave he will have his Crocs on and join me in the water.
After quick showers and gathering Steve, we went back to Ballina for dinner at la Cucina di Vino. Kelvin and I both had the chicken with mushroom risotto after sharing a pizza and some calamari. Kelvin and Deb also polished off two bottles of wine; they both slept well last night.
My Tweets
- courtneyb: @FrostDavis and no one even realized she was in my lap. Score one for my good baby.
- courtneyb: In airport with infant. Everyone smiles, asks how old, then hopes their seat is not near ours.
- courtneyb: Lady A sounded great in concert last night, just disappointed at the brevity. Thanks Allentown fair.
- courtneyb: The babe slept in my lap through an amazing dinner at Amada in Philly. I can't get enough of that place.
- courtneyb: @snappity yeah Willa! but are you ready for her to be mobile?