faboo mama

That’s right…yesterday, I got to sit in pain in L&D get checked and shot and UGH…I’ve been having contractions for the past 2 weeks. Off and on, a few hours here and there. Painful, but since they only were in my belly, I ignored them. Yesterday was different. Yesterday, the pain started in my back and legs and radiated toward the front. In other words, real contractions.

I tried ignoring them by walking, laying down, drinking water, etc…nothing. Of course, since we had work to do, Adrian didn’t seem to care too much about them. He kept barking orders at me. Sit and spin, my friend. After 2 hour of contractions 3 - 5 min. apart, I called the Dr. I was told to get to L&D immediately. Now, I’m only 33 weeks, so if we had this kid, that means he’d most likely spend his first few weeks in NICU. Not to mention, we still aren’t prepared for this, so I really wasn’t trying to go into labor. Tell that to Adrian. He was pissed I called the Dr. (can you believe it?) because that means we’d spend hours at the hospital and what I went into labor? He has a meeting on Monday!!! The gall of my belly. Ass.

So, that means naturally he had to take 45 minutes to get ready. This includes spending 15 minutes to send out ONE email, gathering up chargers for our electronic equipment, bitching about the lack of a laptop, and whining that we were going to leave Ilia with our neighbors. That’s right…I’m in pain and he thought it was a brilliant idea to take our 2.5 year old with us. She was napping, but I had made arrangement with our neighbors to watch her. Adrian was concerned, “What’s she going to think when she wakes up and we’re gone?!?!?” Oh. Bother. After a brief discussion, it basically boiled down to he didn’t want to leave her. Good thing I wasn’t in labor. Bad thing is that now I’m officially pissed. If he can’t leave her for this, how the hell is he going to leave her when I go into labor. Of course, he’s all for bringing her into the delivery room anyway, so…

Anyway, we finally leave and get to L&D. They hooked me up in the same bed that I had when I had pre-term labor and regular labor with Ilia. How funny is that? I told them that when I come in to deliver this little guy, my bed better be waiting for me. Ilia, of course, was a toddler. Touching stuff, singing, yelling…Adrian, of course, was letting her and it was not helping. I was having more contractions that I thought I was AND they were sharper than I thought they were. On the pain scale of 1 - 10, I said I was a 7. But by the time I was hooked up, they had gone down to maybe a 5. I was like, “Let’s wrap this up people, give me my shot of terbutaline and let’s get on with life.” They had to “monitor” me. Ugh. So it took awhile before I got the shot. I sent Adrian away so that Ilia wasn’t bothering me, so I was there all by myself. Fun. Then they came back. Yay.

So, after the shot, I got this HUGE pictcher of water. Apparently, I was dehydrated. I didn’t believe them, so the nurse showed me the receipt from my check up. Like I knew what it meant. It had all this stuff and she pointed out my ketones had a 3 or -3 next to it. Um…okay…so I had to drink all this water. Ilia was trying to play dr. with me and the Dr. had wheeled in this ultrasound machine, so they had no place to sit, so I sent them back out. Then, I got a check up from the resident Dr. He checked my cervix with the ultrasound wand and then with his fingers (YIKES!!!). I swore he swabbed my flippin’ throat. Anyway, he decided my cervix with effaced 30% and I was 0% dilated. I told them. He did some cultures and left.

I sat there in pain drinking my water, coughing (because I’m still sick you know) and having contractions. Luckily at this point, the contractions were not painful anymore. The dr. came back and in whispered tones told me I had a yeast infection. WHAT???!???!??? I’ve never had one before, so I had no idea what to do. I asked him if I can treat it like normal (whatever that is) and he said he’s give me prescription. Then he told me that another Dr. wanted to check me out, so that means another ultrasound and internal check up. I told him I was ready to go home, but they insisted I was having horrible contractions and may need another shot. I told them that I was positive I didn’t need another shot.

They won.

That one burned. I was hot, then cold, then pissed. Another shot meant another hour sitting there. Adrian and Ilia had come back and left like 3 times. Adrian annoying me more and more. Like, I do I really care how shitty his meal in the hospital cafeteria was? I was uncomfortable with contractions, hunger and a crappy hospital bed and he wanted to complain about food. Get OUT!!! As they were leaving the new dr. came in to do the ultrasound/fingering thing again. They came up with the same response as the last time. This time the first Dr. informed me that I have also a urinary tract infection. WH-WH-WHAAAAAT?!?!?!?! This was a whole new experience for me: I had never been dehydrated, had a yeast infection or a UTI. All new stuff. All stuff I’ve heard other people whining about, but I had no discomfort like I would have expected with either of the infections. That makes those other people big crybabies in my book, since I’m a huge weenie when it comes to pain. Just kidding.

Anyway, after a few more hours of monitoring and me trying to convince them that the spikes were either me coughing or moving, they finally let me go. They gave me a prescription for Keflex and told me that I’m on bedrest at least until I see my OB in the next 3 - 4 days. What sucked the most was getting home and being told to get to work, while I having contractions again! I was so wiped out from the hospital trip, that I had to sleep. Laying down helped easy the contractions, but then the heartburn kicked in, so it wasn’t all that much fun.

Anyway, I see Dr. Carter tomorrow at 12:30, so we’ll see…

I’ve been asked by some of you about the baby shower guessing game. I said I’d be posting this every month and I haven’t so here is it again:

Date of birth:
Time of birth:
Weight:
Length:

Post your email in the comments, along with your name so that I can pass it along to the baby shower organizers.

Those of you who knew us the first time around may remember this game from Ilia’s baby shower. I had to split the winners then; one for day, one for time, one for weight and one for length. For some helpful hints:
1. Ilia was due May 18th, but came 3 weeks early on the 26th of April. She was born at 6:05am and was 8 lbs. 3oz and 20 in. long.
2. I am due on Dec. 17th.
3. I’m told that once you go early with your first, you’ll most likely go early with subsequent kids.

You don’t have to attend the baby shower to play the game. If you want to make a guess, go for it and I’ll pass the info along to the baby shower hostess.

Short since the OB was rushing to deliver a baby! Lucky lady that one. I can’t wait to have this kid, you know? Let’s see, heartbeat was strong and good. Ilia liked listening to it. OB will not induce me any time soon (heartless, I tell ya!) and [drumroll] for the first time, I actually lost weight. That’s right, instead of my usual 6 - 7 lb. weight gain, I was down a pound. Yay me!

Now, I’ll be seeing the OB in 2 weeks and I think after 36 weeks, I go in every week. Wish us luck!

Okay, I just realized that I’m 33 weeks today. That means that I have 7 weeks (ideally) of this pregnancy. We’re still living in our shoebox apt. in Hollywood. We still haven’t found a place to live. YIKES!!! Let’s toss in the fact that our first kid came 3 weeks early and I’ve been having contractions from hell the last 2 days, I’m SUPER-FREAKING.

Just had a chat with the Mr. about our sucky living situation. We thought maybe we’d get rid of the dining room table and chairs (pieces of crap that we rarely use anyway), move the office in there. Make the office our bedroom with the crib and buy Ilia a bed and let her have our bedroom. Sounds good, but we have too much stuff right now. Our garage is packed and so is this office with stored stuff. This after we’ve tossed, sold and given away all the junk. OMG! Let’s keep in the forefront that I’m 8 months pregnant, therefore unable to actually move stuff around anyway.

I’m not even going to mention the fact that we still only have the MINI as our sole transport. Can you just picture how silly it will be to try to do anything with that car with 2 carseats in the back and a stroller in the trunk? We’ll be able to have a diaper bag and camera bag in there. That’s it.

So, I put this plea to you: If you know of a place (3bd/2ba–1 ba is fine too) that’s for rent (under $1700, preferably, but we’ll stretch to $1900 if we must) in a livable neighborhood, PLEASE email me and let me know.

I’m not even going to try to make this coherent. I’m sick, impatient and miserable. If you want to stay on my good side, you’ll feel the same. After a week of waking up at 3:44am, Thursday night/Friday morning, I got to sleep until 4:20am. I woke to find my nose flowing faster than the Mississippi after a flood. I took some medication, emptied a box of tissues and decided that dying would probably be in my best interest.

Friday, I tried to work, but I was useless…I bought more medication, went through 3 boxes of tissues and decided everybody sucks. I’m not even going to mention the hot flashes and the fact that the little man in my belly thought that rolling around and around was a great idea for 42 hours straight.

Saturday, I felt a little better. Nose wasn’t running as much, but I had a little cough. Nothing major. I thought I’d be over this bug by Sunday. We went to an awesome crab restaurant in Little Tokyo, yummy even though I was craving ciopinno. Note: Get the Garlic Crab. We went to Ralph’s got some more medication and went home. It was 9:43pm and I was in my jammies ready for bed. My throat kinda hurt, so I had the Mr. check for redness and white patches (I am prone to strep throat). Nothing, so I passed out.

I awoke at 4:53am Sunday morning with a fever, and sore throat. My neck hurt so bad and my throat only got worse when I blew my nose…which led to more coughing…which led to hacking my lungs out. YUCK! I spent the next 3 hours hating life, the universe and everything. I must admit that I was also worried. The baby wasn’t moving. I had convinced myself that with all his rolling he had wrapped the cord around himself and…so now it’s about 9am, Ilia is awake, the baby is NOT moving, I’m passing in and out of lucidity with this fever thing and my husband is sleeping off a hangover. GREAT.

I guess I should probably mention my Super Duper Keep Away the Sickies regimen: Initially, I was taking Sudafed Nasal Decongestant, but now I’m taking Robitussin CF, honey-lemon cough drops, and loads of liquids; OJ, tea and water.

Adrian called my OB (The wonderific Dr. Carter) and I was given a prescription for ampicillin. Let’s add one more thing to my SDKAS regimen. So, I got my prescription filled, took it and immediately got all wobbly and sleepy. Yay! So I took a nap while Adrian took Ilia to eat. Here I must admit that I may be getting some unpleasant side effects from the ampicillin, if they continue I’ll definitely contact my doctor.

This morning, I woke up to the sounds of coughing from Ilia. I think she’s caught my cold. Poor thing. We had to fight to get her medicine down her throat. Luckily, she’s still pleasant when she’s sick, so it’s not so bad. So far, I’m doing fine, the baby’s moving like there’s a disco in there and Adrian has conveniently forgotten that I’m pregnant AND sick, so he’s barking orders at me like I’m just lazy. Which sucks. When he’s sick, he crawls into bed and whines and moans and the whole world has to stop for him. This morning, after hawking up the most beautiful yellow mucus and going through 9 tissues, he asks, “Are you still sick?” Like I’m doing it on purpose. He’s lucky that I was hot and weak and 6 feet away from him. Needless to say, he’s not the paragon of strength that one would appreciate at this moment. Add in the fact that Ilia’s sick too and the martyr in him is just fighting to come out.

So, I’m having another hot flash and he’s yelling at me to work and make phone calls. So, I’m off, but I wanted those of you who emailed me over the weekend to know I’m not ignoring you, I was just on my deathbed (oh woe is me!) and that I’ll probably not be around until this illness has been banished from my person.

I love my OB. I’m just so incredibly happy with Dr. Carter’s office that I need to shout it from the rooftops. My goodness, I don’t know how I’d be right now if I had stayed with Dr. Gupta. Depressed? Most likely.

Wednesday, I had my glucose test, so wish me luck. The nurse said that if I don’t hear anything from them by Monday, then I passed. I certainly hope I did. I ate two packages of Nutty Bars hours before the test (bad, but I was hungry!). My appt. was at 2:15, so I was supposed to take the drink at 1:15. At 1:00 I went to grab it out of the fridge, just knowing that the crappy fridge had frozen it. Sure enough, it was…so I had to take the drink at the doctor’s office and sit there for an hour. Unfortunately, that was my nap time, so I almost fell asleep in the waiting room!

Appt. update: I gained another 6 lbs. this month, so I’m up 44 lbs. since I got pregnant. Weird since I can still fit in most of my pre-pregnancy clothes. Odd, my maternity shirts do NOT fit me (gross, hairy stretch-marked belly hangs out). I’m guessing that maternity clothes manufacturers–”assholes” as I like to call them–must be under the impression that 1) women larger than size 8 do not get pregnant and 2) women with boobs larger than a C-cup don’t get pregnant. I shouldn’t have to buy something in 3x in order for it to fit me. That’s just silly.

I see Dr. Carter at the end of Oct. so we’ll see how much I’ve gained by then. Hopefully, we can talk about birth control at that appt.

Pregnancy Symptoms (29w2d):

Sleepy
Hungry
Pelvic Pain
Skin peeling off my feet (though whether this is pregnancy related or not remains to be seen.)
Leaky boobs (WHAAAAAAAT?!?!?!)
Insomnia (it’s baaaa-aack)