16 weeks

September 19, 2013

How far along? 16 weeks



Your baby is the size of an avocado (source)

Total weight gain/loss: I've been sick and not eating too much so I'm down 2lbs from last week

Maternity Clothes?  yep! and lots of dresses. Spent last week in pajamas while laying on the couch.

Stretch marks?  nope - using coconut oil...we'll see how that goes

Sleep? Good. Slept on my belly during the injury and that wasn't fun, but now I can't sleep any other way (for now)

Best moment this week:  Recovering from injury and nothing effecting the baby

Miss Anything?  being comfortable in my body. Things are so different and it's only the beginning!

Movement:  none

Food cravings:  none. Had a GREAT piece of pineapple yesterday.

Anything making your queasy or sick?  Nope!

Have you started to show yet? yep. Office polo shirt shows off my belly

Symptoms: Hello headache! and dizziness. I am very slow to stand up and start walking...the blood rushing throughout my body has me in fear of fainting.  I usually workout when Farmer J is at work, but I'm so paranoid about passing out I'll only workout when he is home. Again, this body doesn't feel like it's my regular body. Such weird feelings! I had a dream last night that I had a miscarriage! I hear those are common during your second trimester.

Gender:  unknown.

Labor signs:  none

Belly button in or out?  in

Wedding rings on or off?  off

Happy or Moody most of the time?  Happy, but can cry over any sappy commercial or facebook post. I'm trying to avoid those.

Looking forward to: Next doctor appointment in October to be sure everything really IS ok.

A pain in my Abscess

You have no clue what love is until - your husband is picking you up off the couch while you are screaming in tears trying to make it to the bathroom in time to tinkle for the millionth time that day.  you have NO CLUE

This man I married is AMAZING and I spent the last 5 days realizing what a great catch I have.

*disclaimer: while this is a love story, it's more of a medical journal entry so if you are queasy you may not want to continue reading. Just know that a good man loves you "in sickness and in health"

All month my lower back has been killing me. Hello, I'm 3 months pregnant, of course it hurts!
Last Monday when I went to work I couldn't help but grab some ice from the break room and ice my lower back. I've always had a bulge down there I called my "butt bump". It flared up on long drives and hot days. It's where you think a human tail would appear, if that makes sense. I had it flare up to a painful point when I lived in San Antonio and *cringe* one of my med student friends "popped" it and it felt better. It is in a place on my body that I can hardly see, so I'm not sure what it looked like before or after the "procedure". (I was in so much pain, I would have let him cut off my left arm that day).

Fast forward to the present when I'm icing my back Monday and Tuesday with no relief. Come Wednesday I can't get out of bed. Something is wrong. I decide to stay home and switch between ice and heat. Hubby is not happy with my self-diagnosis and wants me to visit the doctor. I don't want to drive an hour to Lubbock for a doctor appointment that might lead to nothing. He suggests a closer (45 minute) hospital where we are friends with one of the doctors, Isabelle. We call and Isabelle is no longer accepting new patients. "Ah-em! Doesn't she know who I am?!" so we text her husband abnd he suggests we use this new doctor and when I say new I mean NEW. Fresh off her residency, this curly blond haired big eyed doctor. At our first meeting I love her, Hubs isn't convinced.

She takes a quick look and says "Oh, it's an abscess. We'll just drain it and it'll go away". Whatever you say lady, I can't even see what's going on. We tell her I'm pregnant and she gets the look of doom "Oh, that limits our pain options and our antibiotics, let me think...." seems like she was thinking FOREVER!! She decides Tylenol will have to do for pain, anesthesia is out of the question and a form of penicillin will do for the antibiotic (grade B so kinda baby safe). She made a small incision to help "pop" the wound. Did I mention no anesthesia? We filled the antibiotics and raced home to rest. It worked for about a day, but Saturday-Sunday there was no progress. Again, I can't see this part of my body so I'm taking hubby's remarks and he's telling me it's actually getting bigger. When he pushes to help it drain the pressure is almost unbearable, but I tough it out. I know he's not pushing as much as he could...he can't stand hearing me scream out in pain.

You may not know, because I am behind on this blog, but I'm about 15 weeks pregnant. This pain keeps me from laying on my back and for some reason laying on my side puts my arms and legs to sleep. So I am forced to lay on my stomach. My bloated, growing baby belly stomach. The kid is not happy. I'm cramping all day, but that is nothing compared to the pain on my back. So I offer my pain to God and just ask that he keeps this baby safe.

Hubs is racing home from work every chance he gets. He's bringing me water, changing my gauze, keeping track of my medication. Unfortunately he has experience with this because his mother had a similar incident, but MUCH for harmful and dangerous. I know he's offering prayers for me and our baby. He's trying to keep me fed, which is hilarious. He doesn't know how to make soup or Kraft mac & cheese. He knows now...his children will thank him.

Monday morning we are back at the doctor. I'm not crying as much, but something is not right. There's no change! Dr. Doogie Howser takes a look at my wound and made an exclamation like "Woah!" just what you want your doctor to say. So she makes another incision, much larger this time, as I cling to my husband for dear life. Again, no anesthesia. Hubs is coaching me through slow breathing so I don't pass out (labor preview??) and takes such a beating. He asks the nurse for a wad of gauze so that I can stop biting him and bite the gauze instead. It felt like my entire weekend of pain just pour out of me. Hubs said the doctor's face was hilarious, good thing I couldn't see it, I would have freaked out. I felt incredibly better after the 2nd cut. If you are interested, YouTube draining of abscess....that's what happened. If you have a weak stomach. DO NOT YouTube that. FYI, I have NOT watched that video.

We head home and within minutes I'm standing and walking around the house, sitting in chairs and feeling AMAZING. I'm an antibiotics for another week and take one more day from work just to stay rested. Hello, I have 2 open wounds on my tailbone. Ouch!

My lessons learned are:
Go to the Doctor I had no clue my little "butt bump" it would flare up THAT large - Thank GOD I am in my 2nd trimester or the antibiotics could seriously hurt the baby's development. I didn't have insurance until this year (1-year probation at my new job) and I got pregnant as soon as I got insurance so this was a Murphy's Law moment
Let yourself be taken care of I wanted to get my own water and feed myself, but it would have only made the pain worse and delayed the healing
Use antibacterial soap Doctor said most people don't use antibacterial soap when bathing anymore. They use the sweet smelling or "all natural" soap (yep, that's me!) and she told me to switch to Dial soap immediately. If you're healthy and "detoxing" with a healthy diet and lifestyle, all those toxins are sitting on your skin. If you don't kill them with soap - where are they going to go? Oo! Oo! I know I know!!!  Dial is my new best friend. Hubs heard that if you use it every day your body will become immune to it....but I haven't used an antibacterial soap for YEARS so I'll use it for a while. It smells like my grandma's bathroom.
Pray and ask for prayers My ACTS community has a prayer line that you can request prayers via email. I wrote an e-mail through my pain and tears (it took me 30 minutes to write 3 sentences). As soon as I pressed "send" I felt at peace. As soon as I saw the e-mail distributed on the prayer list the pressure lifted and the next day my Doctor made the 2nd incision. Hubs and I have said rosaries every night this week. I don't say any of this to brag, Christ calls us to be humble. I only say this so you know there IS a higher power who helps us through our suffering and he DOES make change in our lives. Don't forget to call on him and his saints for intervention.
My husband is awesome woah. I knew we would bond over the baby and even in the delivery room. But this week was a pretty cool experience. Things are definitely not back to normal and I don't want them to be. I was completely exposed this week (in more ways than one) and this man didn't run and hide or pass me along to another care taker. He was by my side through it ALL. I cannot picture any other man I dated taking care of me like Farmer J did/does. He's so sad I'm back at work. He wishes I was at home...so he could love on me a little more. xoxo

This reminds me of a Xanga post, all words no pictures! Sorry about that. I wasn't sure what photos to insert, if you have any ideas leave them in the comments!

Grits,

14 weeks

September 4-11, 2013

How far along? 14 weeks - 2nd trimester!!!



Your baby is the size of a lemon (source)

Total weight gain/loss: 1lb gain total (lost .5 lbs from last week)

Maternity Clothes?  yep! Sister In Law brought me some more on Labor Day weekend! Such a blessing!

Stretch marks?  nope

Sleep? Sleeping well. Lots of vivid dreams. Last night I dreamt I was in a competitive ping pong tournament. It was me vs. hundreds of people. I had this ex-con on my team, this huge guy and I pinned him down and put my hand on his throat saying "Get in the game!" and he was like "really? you're trying to choke me? Your hands don't even fit around my throat". See? Crazy When I woke up I was winning the game 8-7. Does this mean my child will be a professional ping pong player?!?!?

Best moment this week:  Probably the free maternity clothes! And announcing it on Facebook!
Hidden at the end of our Jamaica pictures was this:

Do you see the baby footprints in the middle?

Miss Anything?  allergy medicine! Living in the plains of Texas means the wind blows in from all over! The weather channel said there was a high pollen count this week. I also read that pregnant women's sinus's get clogged up during their 2nd trimester...who know knows what it is.

Movement:  none - a girl in my "March Mommy" Facebook group says she's already feeling movement. I find that hard to believe...

Food cravings:  none but I'm loving all fruits and vegetables. Not really interested in meats just b/c the hormones and antibiotics. Only eating organic chicken for now.

Anything making your queasy or sick?  I can't really eat a lot. If I eat too much my throat hurts and I've very uncomfortable. Acid reflex but without the burn.

Have you started to show yet? yep. wore all black yesterday. VERY slimming!

Symptoms: Sciatic nerve pain, back pain and horrible sinus pressure. Got a massage today, but that loosened up my muscles so much, they hurt even more!

Gender:  unknown.

Labor signs:  none

Belly button in or out?  in

Wedding rings on or off?  off! I thought I cracked my knuckle too hard, but turns out my fingers are just swollen! bye bye for now rings!

Happy or Moody most of the time?  Happy. Everyone knows we are pregnant and all is good! Pray for us!

Looking forward to: finding out the gender, buying baby stuff, being a mom! BFF from Miami's response to the news: "You'll make great parents". That's the best compliment yet!

Summer Update

I haven't written since May?!?! That means I haven't been distracted at work or procrastinating on life.

Still, it's been almost 3 entire months. Not cool! I hope you forgive me. I have a lot of news to share but as I look back I didn't even take that many pictures over these past three months!

Let's update via Instagram and my Android Gallery for now:

PINTEREST PROJECT:

Painted a French manicure with those 'vintage' paper hole savers...came out pretty cool.

Ever since my wedding I've been obsessed with French mani's.

 

This is my old man and me at the Catholic Charities 'Night to Remember'

He got in a pretty fast bidding war with a doctor for a grandfather clock (that we have NO space for in our house). He lost that bid, but won a car emergency battery kit thing. It was only $150. He liked the auction atmosphere, so we have a lifetime of fun ahead of us! (Fun or debt?)

 

We had a day date at the only Lubbock lake. You North, South, East Texas people...better not take your lakes for granted! This was buffalo lake and it was a 3 on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the best. I would give an empty muddy bottom lake a 2 just because of the fun you could have in it. So ya, this place was NOTHING compared to my previous life. But I'm learning not to compare this life to the previous life. So many things are different like: I love my job, I work with nice people, there are no non-smoking bars :(, etc.

Lubbock doesn't have the best restaurants, but it is getting there. I picked up these dolmas at the Market Street grocery store. They were delicious!

 

My front porch was all abloom in late June. Roses, marigolds, some blue thing I planted in the blue pot and my gardenias who held off until August for their blooms. And yes, that's my Brussels griffon MAX hanging out with me. Actually he's probably tied up on the chair. If he wasn't he'd be right at my side! 

West Texas does have some great sunsets!

(no skyscrapers to get in the way)

 

We went to lame-o Buffal-o lake for Father's Day weekend. We actually spent the night out there. There are NO rental houses - only CAMPSITES. So ya, the whole family camped out. It was fun but,  there were these drunks across the lake who kept screaming at each other ALL NIGHT. We couldn't sleep...it was miserable. So Jesus and I stopped at a pool hall on our way home. I'm pretty sure I won every game. I'm the only contributor to this blog - so ya, I won every game.

really I don't remember who won. But it was fun.

Remember the T.G.I.F. show 'The Monsters'? "I'm the baby!"

I have no clue why this picture is on my phone, but I can't help but smile when I see it.

Those were the good ole' days!

Lots of rain this summer!

Farmer J got his 30-06 and we went out target shooting. That was fun. Not as intimidating as I thought.

Double rainbow! From our front porch

 

This was crab stuffed shrimp that was so delicious and I have no clue where we ate it at :/

Farmer J's birthday was in July so we had a Duck Dynasty party. It was a huge success. My goal of the party wasn't to entertain the birthday boy. I knew all he wanted was to watch TV and hang out with family and friends. But with 8 kids there, I was sure to have activities for them to play quietly and away from the birthday boy. It was a success. I made chicken, "hamm sammiches", Si's Vitaman Special (beans), corn from harvest and I let Farmer J pick out his own cake. He chose a Superman cake. Party pooper.

This is Lincoln. He is a Bullmastiff that was ours for a brief afternoon. He followed us home from a dog walk and wouldn't leave because we kept petting him! When Farmer J got home we walked him back to his owners house.

Doin' my hair in the car on the way to an Amarillo wedding.

The cutest Amarillo wedding!!

Good Fun at BFF's engagement party! These are ALL her bridesmaids. She's a pretty popular lady.

Farmer J and my sisters all attended the engagement party as well. Good lookin' group of people!

 

My Great Aunt Jean is the third from the left in this picture. She is my late-grandfather's sister.

She passed away this summer. Memorial blog post here.

And while one side of my family lost a loved one, the other side gained TWO new lovies!

My cousin from West Virginia had twin baby boys at the beginning of the summer!

Freakin' adorable! She is now the proud mama of three boys. No girls....all boys.

 



While that doesn't update you on ALL my summer fun, it'll have to do for now.

Until next time,

High Heels!