Saturday was my Colorado baby shower. Thankfully, I didn’t have any complications this time around and was able to attend! Here are some pictures from the event.
Bed Rest is Boring
Especially when it’s compounded by the fact my computer is still not in working condition. I did manage to acquire Windows to install but am awaiting drivers. Once I have drivers I can rebuild. 🙂 Thankfully Noah’s computer is at least capable of getting me on facebook so I could play farkle and wordscraper. My phone, a brilliant little computer itself, and the TV let me remain connected to the outside world as well as somewhat entertained.
On Tuesday I made it home a few hours before Noah but had a couple of friends over at the house to keep me company (thanks Melina, Amy and girls!). The rest of the week I would rise with Noah and he would carry me downstairs and make sure I was settled on the couch with plenty of food and water while he went off to work. Most of the time I challenged myself to sudoku puzzles, pet my dog, and processed my way through the DVR recordings. One day my friend Jessica and her infant daughter came for a visit. That was a welcome break in my mundane “schedule”.
Friday I finally heard back from my doctor’s office on whether or not I needed to stay on bed rest past my orders from the doctor in California. Since I had not had any further complications I was upgraded from bed rest to what Noah and I have dubbed “chair restriction”. Basically it’s a step-up from bed rest. I’m allowed to move around the house (Noah no longer needs to carry me up and down the stairs), but no cleaning, running errands, shopping, walking/standing for long periods of times or long distances and lots and lots of sitting. I did get clearance to go back to work only because I have a desk job, and even with that, I’m not allowed to leave my chair. My boss is very happy to have my back and is more than happy to make concessions around my limited mobility. It’s also good to be doing something productive instead of perfecting my bump on a log skills.
Yesterday we met with the perinatologist specialist to be rescanned for the previa. This appointment was actually made before we even went to California. His scan showed that the placenta is still partially covering the cervix, which coincides mostly with what I was told last weekend. I go in again for another scan at 36 weeks to check the location one more time. If it has not moved by then, which the doctor isn’t expecting it to considering it hasn’t moved yet (he said maybe a 30% chance it will move out of the way), Logan will be born later that week by c-section. Despite the 30% chance, the doctor’s told us not to bother with attending a birthing class (to get our money back instead) and to hold off on making the 38-week appointment. So today I canceled the birthing class and now just need to figure out when to reschedule the hospital pre-registration appointment, because right now it’s planned for the end of March. I’m not concerned about needing to have a c-section as we’ve known this is a possibility since week 19 and was told in CA, and essentially yesterday, that that’s what will have to happen.
The doctor yesterday also agreed that I’m fine to continue my current limited mobility status, so as long as I don’t have any bleeding or contractions. Those symptoms will put me on the fast track back to full bed rest.
Previa topic aside, it was wonderful to be able to see Logan again yesterday! We got one picture, and as soon as my computer works I will scan and upload it to his album. The doctor said Logan is measuring right around 32-33 weeks and is in the 75% percentile for weight – estimated at 4.5 lbs! If Logan was born at 40 weeks he would weight between 7.5-8.5 lbs, which fits right along with what Noah and I both weighed at birth.
Also, thanks to my increased mobility allowance, Noah and I were able to reorganize Logan’s room over the weekend with all the gifts he received at the California shower. So at least our baby will now have clothes and diapers to wear once he’s born! I did remind Noah last night that with the last month of my pregnancy being eliminated, the time-line for finishing the crib has been cut in half. It’s a good thing it’s almost done, really just needs to be put together and stained. And just in case, it’s also a good thing that Logan will start off sleeping in a cradle!
Homeward Bound!
Thankfully my stay in the hospital remained uneventful, as far as medical emergencies go, and I was released yesterday at 5:00pm after receiving my 2nd round of steroids. Additionally, the doctor gave me the go ahead to fly back to Colorado, but beyond that little bit of travel I am on strict bed rest, at least for this week.
This morning I had the fun task of trying to get my hospital records from CMH transferred to my doctor’s office in Colorado. The doctor here gave his office number for my doctor’s office to contact to get the information. However, my doctor’s office won’t do anything without a records release signed by me. So I call the L&D department at CMH and they told me I need to talk to the doctor’s office. So I called his office and they told me that since I was treated at CMH my records would be there. The number they gave me was disconnected so I had to Google the hospital phone number. I called only to learn that the medical records department won’t be open until 8am tomorrow morning. Lovely, I’m leaving around that time to head down to LAX. To try and get the ball rolling, I wrote a letter and had it notarized requesting my records be faxed to my CO doctor’s office that my mom will drop off tomorrow morning. It would be absolutely lovely if CMH accepts that document! Of course it would have been nice and tidy to leave CMH with this information, but again, the records department was closed over the weekend and today due to the holiday.
I am grateful that I do have permission to fly home. Noah left today with Lava and the car loaded up with shower gifts. His mom and 6-year old nephew are along for the ride, which makes me feel better that he is not having to drive the distance by himself! They are only going halfway today and will spend the night at a hotel in Utah, then continue on with an early start tomorrow morning. We should arrive home within a few hours of each other.
As for my legs of travel, I am taking a direct flight from LA to Denver and my dad arranged with the airline for me to have curb-to-curb wheelchair service. Hopefully this means I get to go through the express security lane and I should have priority boarding. 🙂 I have one friend meeting me at DIA and another bringing us dinner for tomorrow night.
I still have to call my boss and tell her the lovely bit of news that I won’t be in at all this week. Since I probably won’t remember to call by 7am PT tomorrow morning, I’m going to leave her a message tonight.
All that being said, please continue to be in prayer for:
- Safe travels – Noah driving and my flying back to CO
- No more bleeding (I really don’t want to have to cause the plane to make an emergency landing)
- That I take to bed rest well – so far I feel like a useless mooch
- My records get transferred to CO with ease and my doctor can make an informed decision on my care.
Continual praises:
- I haven’t had any new bleeding since Saturday
- My friends and family are wonderful!
Not the Weekend we had Planned
I write this as I sit in my hospital bed at CMH and on a loner computer from my dad too. Let first say that it’s hard to type with a doodad attached to my finger.
Backtracking, Noah and I left Colorado Thursday afternoon, driving to California for the weekend. The reason for the vacation was for the baby shower my sister and two close friends threw for me and all my California family and friends. Of course I brought my laptop with me and handed it off to my dad to do some regular maintenance. Unfortunately, when he turned it on it refused to boot. C’est mal. Looks like my brand new hard drive bit the dust. Really crappy. Hopefully the data on it can still be recovered.
Just when I thought that was going to be the biggest downside of the weekend…I guess that’s what I get for thinking. Everything was going fine until around 11:30 this morning. That’s when I noticed the blood, which is never a good sign at 31 weeks. I called my doctor’s office in Colorado and they told me to go to the hospital, and here I still am.
After being attached to monitors, had blood drawn, another ultrasound and a very uncomfortable examination, I have officially been diagnosed with placenta previa. If you recall, this was listed as a possibility at my 19 week ultrasound and I have had another scan scheduled for the 22nd of this month. Because of the bleeding and the previa I was admitted for a 48-hour observation to ensure no more bleeding. I am also being given steroids to boost Logan’s lung development, should he need to be born early. Praise the Lord that he is doing well! His heartbeat and movements are wonderful and show no sign of distress!
The original plan was to head back to Colorado tomorrow night, getting in on Monday, but that has been put on hold as I won’t be released until Monday. Then, there’s the question of if and how I will be getting home. Driving has already been vetoed and the doctor said based on how things go while I here he will determine whether or not I will be allowed to fly back to Colorado or have to stay in California. He said if it were up to him, this incident would officially put me on bed rest for the rest of my pregnancy. He thinks the doctors in Colorado will end up saying the same when I get back to them. If that’s the case, I can already predict the panic attack my boss will have…but to save my own sanity and so I can still bring in income, I will try to convince my employer to let me work from home. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
So as I was admitted to the hospital, I did miss my shower. 🙁 Noah attended in my stead and got to open all of the gifts and meet many people I mention a lot but he did not know. I really think they should have measured his “belly”. That would have been hilarious! 😀 From what I’ve heard and seen on video and pictures, the aspect of Noah at a baby shower was pretty comical. Thanks to all my friends and family that still went even though Logan was not present! He just got stage fright. 😉 I am glad that many have come to visit me in the hospital so far and hopefully more will come during the rest of my stay. My sister has been great in bringing in gifts for me to see and dropped off cards for me to start writing thank yous. Praise the Lord that I’m in a hospital in my hometown with my family just minutes away!
With the previa, that does mean Logan will be born by c-section and not born on tax day. My friend Emily said I need to pick a day that will coincide with a future Easter. 🙂 Planned c-section births are scheduled for 39 weeks, which if done on that exact day would put Logan’s birthday on April 8th (coincidentally enough, his original due date). If that becomes the day he his born, his 2nd birthday will be on Easter. 😀
So, that’s the latest news. Now, for a recap of the positives:
- Logan is doing great!
- My family is only minutes away!
- No new bleeding!
Prayers are always welcome and wanted. Some specifics to keep in mind:
- No more bleeding!
- Logan makes it to full term!
- I can travel back to Colorado safely!
Thanks and love to all!
To Carb or Not to Carb
On Friday of last week I got a call back from the doctor’s office saying my glucose levels were high and that I needed to go back in for a 3-hour glucose tolerance test. Thankfully, due to the holiday yesterday I was off work and able to spend the morning at the hospital lab to complete that test. The test yesterday had my get a blood draw, drink the glucose, then have a blood draw once an hour for the next three hours. The glucose for this test tasted stronger (sweeter) than what I had to drink on Thursday, and was a larger volume. It also gave Logan a bit of a sugar high! 🙂 After the test was completed, I told Noah yesterday that I look like a junkie with all the marks and bruises along the veins in my arms.
I do have to give Kaiser at least minor props, however. They do contact me with test results fast. I had the results from Thursday’s glucose test on Friday morning. Yesterday morning I got a call about another one of Thursday’s test results (that I am a carrier for GBS and will need to be on antibiotics during labor), and yesterday afternoon I was called with the results of my 3-hour GTT. The result: I passed! Yay! Bring on the carbs – no gestational diabetes!! This is a big answer to prayer.
27 Week Update
Yesterday I approached the HR director at my work and asked her if I had a permanent membership number with Kaiser yet. Oh right, well apparently she got it a couple/few days ago and forgot to tell me about it. Oy. At least Kaiser managed to make my temporary number my permanent number so thankfully that eliminated some confusion there as today was my “new patient” appointment at my new doctor’s office.
The whole routine is different from my previous physician. I had to check-in on the ground floor in grand HMO style, then get paperwork to take up to the 4th floor, where the OB office is located. There I had to check-in again, and fill out new patient paperwork and let the waiting commence. I don’t know why they always want pregnant women to come in with full bladders when they make you wait so darn long before you can pee in the cup. Logan wasn’t helping that situation at all either with all of his stretching and kicking. I was about to go up and say something when they finally called my name, about 20-30 minutes after my scheduled appointment time. Did I mention I got to the hospital 30 minutes before the appointment too?
The nurse finally call my name and and went through the routine check-up procedure. This office had me take my glucose test today, so that eliminated one of the tests I needed this month. And instead of having a 28-week check-up they did everything at 27 weeks, so took care of two appointments. My prior doctor wanted me to have an ultrasound to check on the location of the placenta at 28 weeks too, but the new office is sending me to a perinatal specialist at 32 weeks to have that scan. Tomorrow I’ll call and set-up that appointment. Logan was definitely squirmy again today. The nurse practitioner I saw was able to find his heartbeat easily but as soon as she did he would move away. It took about 4 times of relocating before he stayed still enough so she could count the beats. She also measured my abdomen at this appointment, which is on track for 27 weeks. So, I may look small, but Logan’s growing right along schedule. 🙂
After all the routine stuff and clearing up when to have scans I was sat down in another room to watch a DVD of pre-term delivery. Kinda unnerving to think that this could be a possibility and one I pray I won’t have to experience. After the DVD finished I had to go back downstairs and wait at the lab to have my blood drawn for the glucose and anemia tests. If I don’t get a phone call the results are normal. Here’s hoping for no gestational diabetes!
All in all, I was at the hospital for 2.5 hours! Next appointment is in 4-weeks, right before we leave for California. This time I’ll actually get to meet the doctor (with whom there is about a 1 in 50 chance will actually deliver Logan).
Insurance Fun
I get back from Ireland, check my messages in Chicago, and no word from Kaiser on my membership number. Remember I was told I would have it in a “couple of days” back in the middle of December. Right. Tuesday when I came into work I find out from HR that there were some problems in Kaiser uploading my company’s information into their database so there will be a delay in getting the membership numbers. However, we could call Customer Service and get a temporary ID so we could make appointments. I did that. And, as a result, now have my “new-patient” meeting with a new OB next week (although I don’t even get to meet the doctor then. Lovely).
Today HR sent out another email saying the membership upload was complete and we could contact her for our ID numbers. Of course I jumped all over that email but was told Kaiser is still waiting on some information or something for me. HR thinks it has to do with that Continuity of Care document I submitted and had rejected last month, so I don’t have a membership number yet. Every other employee has one EXCEPT for me.
Kaiser is not scoring any brownie points.
Slán go fóill
Why is it that vacations always seem to go by so fast, even when you’re going to be gone for nearly 2 weeks? For whatever reason, today is our last full day in Ireland.
This morning we went to church with Aaron and Katie. Their church is a good deal smaller than our home church but the pastor gave a nice sermon and we knew about half of the worship songs that were sung. After church we walked around St. Stephen’s Green. Once again, I could not find the IRB…I know they’re around that park somewhere. Oh well, while strolling through the park, Noah and I did enjoy snickering at Aaron for taking pictures of a frozen pond. Apparently ice and snow are not very common to Ireland and Aaron, also being from Southern California, is enamored with it. 🙂
We then headed back down Grafton Street, which was a lot more lively during the day (and sunny weather) and met up with another one of Aaron and Katie’s friends for lunch. As we all sat down around the table Aaron gave the following introduction to his friend, “Seo mo chara Casey agus a fear céile Noah.” Even without understanding the Irish language, I was able to conclude that Aaron just spoke, “This is my friend Casey and her husband Noah.” Perhaps it was the hand gestures that gave it away. 😉
After lunch Aaron and Katie took us by an Irish-speaking only pub, then dropped us back off at the apartment so we could relax, organize and pack in preparation for tomorrow’s departure. We all did spend one last night together for dinner as Noah and I had remaining groceries to cook. So we enjoyed spaghetti with either breaded pork chops or pan fried chicken breast and an episode of Father Ted. We also watched the film, Once, which Aaron tried to get me to rent prior to our vacation. The movie is very indy in style, but we didn’t watch it for the storyline or plot but for the location as it was filmed in Dublin.
Now it’s time for bed as tomorrow is going to come very early and we have a very long day of traveling ahead of us. We need to be at the airport around 8am, which means getting up around 6am.
So, Ireland, as we head ready to return back to the States, may I part with the following valediction: slán go fóill (goodbye for now), as I plan to come back again — probably during a warmer season. 🙂
Carrick-a-rede
Carrick-a-rede is a rope bridge that leads from the mainland in Northern Ireland to a small rock island. Originally this bridge was used by fishermen who were too lazy to row a boat to the rock and instead built a flimsy bridge to blow around in the massive wind gusts. Well, the bridge isn’t that flimsy as it is now a popular tourist destination, but the wind gusting is still applicable.
Since Aaron and Katie had been to the bridge before they hung back at the visitor center tea house while Noah and I trekked down the path toward the bridge. The winds were horrible here. Bitterly cold and gusting in the 50 mph range, I’m sure. They were strong enough to push me off my feet at times. However, the coastal view was spectacular as we made our way toward the bridge. In the distance, across the sea, we could even see Scotland! After what seemed like forever (because I had to pee almost as soon as we left the visitor center we arrived at the gateway to the bridge. I was not planning on crossing the bridge because I’m pregnant and tired, so I stood on the mainland, my face covered by my scarf, my beanie pulled down low on my head, and took pictures of the scenery and Noah as he made it across. On the way back to the visitor center I was beyond slow. Steep stairs were not my friend and my bladder was now very full. So, as became a reoccurring theme with our vacation, Noah took my hand and dragged me along the path.
Our next stop on our journey of Northern Ireland was to Downhill House and Mussenden Temple. The Temple is located on right on the cliffs above the Irish Sea, near Castlerock in County Londonderry. It was built in the late 18th century by yet another Bishop. Downhill House was the Bishop’s mansion home, also built in the 18th century but mostly destroyed by fire in the mid 19th. However, an amazing ruin! There are signs posted on the inner walls to detail what room was located in that area of the house. And what amazing views it had of the surrounding countryside! It must have been quite the abode when it was standing in it’s full grandeur!
As the sun set behind the hills, we headed back into town for some shopping. The British Pound is weaker than the Euro, so Katie and Aaron always stock up on groceries and buy random items while up north (this trip the big item purchase was a Dyson vacuum). We did a little shopping as well. The Dollar to Pound conversion is only a few cents off from the Dollar to Euro so we weren’t making as big of bargains. But I did buy a very nice fleece jacket on clearance for Logan for £4.50 (appx. $7.35) and a baby’s first Christmas shirt for £1 (appx. $1.63). Big spenders! Well, Logan needed items to acknowledge his trip to both countries. 🙂
Now we’re back in Dun Laoghaire and tomorrow is our last full day in Ireland. Wow, this trip has gone by fast!
Clochán na bhFómharach
A new year, a new country! Today we headed up to Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. So now, technically I’ve been to 2 countries outside the US, yet my passport only shows record of one (no fancy border crossing). The drive from Dun Laoghaire took about 3 hours, was very scenic, and thankfully I did not get sick at all! After yesterday, that is a BIG accomplishment! We even drove past some “mountains” topped with snow!
Our first stop was Giant’s Causeway (Clochán na bhFómharach) near Bushmills. Giant’s Causeway are naturally formed rocks that look like stepping stones. Legend is that a giant in Ireland built the causeway to get to Scotland to fight another giant. When the Scottish giant came to Ireland, the Irish giant was dressed as a baby. When the Scottish giant saw the size of the baby he panicked at imagining what the father would look like, so he fled back to Scotland, destroying the causeway as he went.
After the Causeway we drove to the B&B we had booked for the night, located in Portrush. I have never stayed in a B&B before but this one was nicer than many hotels! Our room was a corner suite complete with a king size bed, a sofa and a large private bathroom. I was impressed. Once we were checked-in we headed back out to visit with friends of Katie’s that lived nearby. After enjoying some convesration, tea and biscuits we headed upstairs where the men engaged in several rounds of competitive fooseball. I think Aaron deserves his own table and Noah needs practice.
For dinner we went to a restaurant on the harbor and all devoured delicious pasta! Noah and I also shared an order of tobacco onions. Odd name, but are like the thinly shredded onion rings at Woodranch. Very tasty…except for the world’s worst heartburn EVER I have tonight. I think I’m going to need to sleep sitting up tonight!
Tomorrow Coleraine and a rope bridge.