Nursery- Almost Done

We got shelves today! Still need to figure out how this is all going to pull together when we get the chair, but this is how it looks for now:

So Dan is off camping and I'm at home having what I'm assuming and hoping are Braxton Hicks so I thought I'd blog...

Dan and I took our "babymoon" which was really a day out in Malibu since I'm not allowed very far, but it was fun. We went to Paradise Cove and hung out for a few hours which was relaxing and beautiful and then had a beautiful dinner at Geoffreys which over looks the ocean. Overall it really was a beautiful and relaxing night! The next day we went and took "pregnancy pictures" which I'm posting for all to see....

I just have to say thank you again to everyone who has purchased something for the baby. I look at our registry and think there is so much on there that is so expensive, how are we possibly going to get everything we need? My friend Vicky bought our stroller which was so nice of her there aren't even words to express how nice! And my mom and dad got our crib, and dans mom bought the dresser, both which were rather expensive on our registry. I just really appreciate it. Our families know how strapped we have been financially and how we worry daily about finances so it was really amazing to not have to worry about things that would have been next to impossible to get. Now the only things we have to worry about getting that cause us stress are the swing and the pack n play. Now thats its getting closer and closer to Riley's due date I know that these are things I'm going to have to get myself, but its nice to know that there are really only 2 expensive items to worry about rather than 5 or 6!!! 

Here are our pictures:

Pain Scale Absurdity

After being in the hospital and being asked, "On a scale of 1 to 10, how bad are your contractions" about every hour, I found this and thought I'd repost it.....

Pain Scale Absurdity

Two patients came into the ER by ambulance complaining of pain.

One was a young woman with another migraine, who "usually gets" Dilaudid 4-6 mg IV in addition to IV Reglan and Ativan. She was allergic to many other medications, but she had a full bottle of dilaudid 8 mg pills and some Actiq lollipops in her purse from two different pain specialists. Her usual medications also included Ambien 20 mg at bedtime and Xanax 2 mg every 6 hours. Although she complained of vomiting constantly for 3 days, her vital signs, physical exam, bloodwork, urinalysis, and imaging tests were all negative, and she never vomited in the ER. She spoke calmly and was in no apparent distress.

The other patient was an elderly lady who had fallen at home, fracturing her hip. She was taking a blood thinner, so her grotesquely angulated and deformed thigh was also markedly swollen. The fact that she had crawled down the stairs after her injury in order to call the ambulance probably contributed to the swelling and deformity somewhat. She trembled a bit as she asked for something to relieve her pain.

Guess whose pain was a 5/10 and whose was a 10/10? 

JCAHO, your pain scale sucks about a 12 on a scale of 1 to 10.

Bed Rest - Day 3

So I thought I'd add the events of this week to the blog since I have nothing else to do right now :) Summer school started this week, and I got to meet and hang out with my new first graders. Well I got to hang out with them M-W. On Wednesday I had a doctors appointment, just routine, but I had some concerns I wanted to address with Taz.. the main being I am supposed to be monitoring her movements (Riley's not Taz's) and making sure I am getting 10 kicks an hour after I eat a meal. That has been all fine and dandy with the exception of the past week or so.. sometimes I get 10, sometimes I get 3, sometimes I get 8, sometimes I get 10.. it's all been very irregular, so I asked her about it and told her I was concerned because she is usually quite active. So I had my appointment and then did an ultrasound to check fluid levels which they said were beautiful, check movements, again nothing wrong there, and all was looking wonderful! Then they hooked me up to the NST which monitors the babies heart rate and if my uterus is contracting. I was hooked up for about 15 minutes, when Taz came in and said, "Girl, you're contracting! Do you feel that?" I didn't but they were apparently pretty regular and pretty close together, so she wanted me to go to Labor and Delivery to check for preterm labor. Just to be cautious. So I went, got hooked up to all sorts of machines, and then got another exam. 

This is where the REAL fun began... a resident doctor came in to perform the tests they needed on me, which included an internal exam. I was on my hospital bed, and she needed to elevate my bum to get a better look, so they put me on a turned over bed pan, put the head of my bed all the way down and proceeded. I.E. my butt at this point was much higher than my head. Now for any of you who know when you put a pregnant woman on her back, there is all of a sudden a lot of pressure and weight from the baby, when you add some incline to that, there is even more.. Needless to say, I started to pass out.. Got hot and sweaty, recognized the passy out feeling from the time I did it in college during my biology final, and asked to sit up, sat up too quickly, lost vision for a moment and then was put on my side, got oxygen and all was right in the world again. Except during that fun episode, the babies heart rate dropped. According to the next doctor, "Well duh, when you try to invert a pregnant woman and cut off her blood supply, it also cuts off the blood supply to the baby" She was funny, and very apologetic. Each of these episodes are fine by themselves apparently, but when you put the worry about movement, the contracting, and the drop in the babies heart rate all together, it spells overnight visit in cedars. :) So I spent the night and Riley was monitored all night as were my contractions. Got released the next morning still having contractions, but Riley's heart beat was perfect all night so that put me at ease. 

Can I say that I LOVE having Taz as a doctor? I know it worries her that something is going to go wrong and that it's me, so she's overly cautious with me, but I would much rather have someone who I know is going to be overly cautious than someone who is just going to write off things as random happenings and then something really be wrong! Plus it was really funny to watch the faces of the doctors at cedars when they were trying to do things, telling me they couldn't get a hold of my doctor and I was like well I'm talking to her on the phone right now, do you want to talk to her? But here I am on bed rest.... Ideally I would be out permanently of work til Riley comes, but I think I'm going to go back next Wed-Fri to finish up the week. I promised I wouldn't go if my contractions were still regular, or if I felt in anyway there was something wrong, but I think I have a good feeling about it. 

Side note. Dan was amazing through all of this. He stayed with me, brought me food, and other things I didn't even think to ask for and then spent the night on a really uncomfortable looking cot while the machines beeped all night. I felt so bad for him, and do now too as I sit on the couch watching him make breakfast... He's amazing, and I love him..... I couldn't have asked for a better husband or partner in this.... Oh, and Taz says there is a 99% chance I won't give birth in the next 2 weeks, which is wonderful because I am determined to make it to at LEAST 37. So keep your fingers crossed!