bedrest or bed-arrest?

Today is day 10 (I think) of bedrest. It is not enjoyable. The medicine I take to keep from going into labor still gives me occasional headaches. It often makes me look and feel like I have a sunburn. If I try to sit up in bed or in a chair in the living room--with the good TV and cable--my gallbladder starts hurting in my back. Then, in tears, I have to go back to bed where I can only lay on my left side. This is not fun. It's hard to read, watch TV, or do anything on the computer.

I look forward to anything, ANYTHING, that breaks the monotony.

I'm trying to look on the bright side of things though. So here's my gratitude list:

• Jon found a way to make fat-free chicken & dumplings last night. They were so good! He even made them yellow for me!
• Today a friend from church dropped by with a baby gift and a gift for me--thanks Lisa!
• Jon went shopping today and bought a fresh supply of snacks that don't have to be refrigerated, which means less times I have to get up. Snacks: dried mangoes; fat-free chocolate pudding; apples; and pears.
• I got a Bama snuggie from Jessica today. Thanks J!
• Jon also finished hanging pictures and things in the nursery, so we're almost ready there.
• I get to go to the doctor tomorrow afternoon; my only permissible outing.
• If I make it to Tuesday, William will be 36 weeks and pretty much out of the danger zone.
  

Pregnancy update, since January 20th

As I said in a previous post, I have been feeling pretty miserable since December. Part of it I'm sure was normal pregnancy misery. I had a hard time working, and I had several gallbladder attacks. One highlight was a shower that my friends at our new church gave for me and another mom in our group. We (Lori and I) are due about a month apart; she's due before me. The shower was so nice, and I got to meet a few new women from church. I got a lot of clothes for the baby, which was great because we only had a few things!

During the last week or two I kept thinking that something just wasn't right. When I went shopping for all of the million things we still needed for baby I would feel like I just couldn't walk.

Last Wednesday, Jan 20th, I called the doctor because of some weird pains I had. I was at work, and they told me to come to the doctor's office "just to check on things and make me feel better." I won't go into all the details here, but I ended up in L&D for several hours as they tried to stop my contractions. I was in pre-term labor! No wonder I didn't feel quite right. I felt really, really dumb because I didn't realize I was having contractions. Oh well . . . My doctor put me on immediate, strict bedrest. It was pretty shocking and stressful those first few days. I had not prepared to leave work 6 weeks before my due date. When the doctor called I was eating a snack of angel food cake, fat-free whipped creme, and strawberries--I think poor Martha had to clean my dish!

In theory I thought that bedrest (BR) sounded kind of good. It is very difficult. Poor Jon now has to do everything: cleaning, cooking, laundry, buying things we need for the baby, taking care of our demon dogs, acquiring a pediatrician for the baby, etc. There were so many things we had not completely finished or taken care of that now are pushed ahead to the top of the list. We thought we had 6 more weeks to get ready--now I could go into labor or back into the hospital at any moment. I take medication to prevent the contractions, but they still happen.

Some bad things about BR, in no certain order:

• I have to miss my prenatal massage appointment this weekend.
• I need to get a pedicure but can't leave the house.
• Totally messes up your carefully planned maternity leave.
• It's hard enough to find a comfy position in bed at night; now I should be doing it all day.
• There are many, many more.

Good things about BR, in order:

• Lets baby have more time to get his little lungs ready
• I'm caught up on thank you cards
• Makes it easier to let some things go without the pressure to get them done
• I get a chance to catch up on my blog

Pregnancy update, up to January 20th.

Now that I've done the Christmas posts (a month late), I'll catch up from there. This has not been the best pregnancy. Starting with historic reflux and indigestion from about week 7, I have been unable to eat a wide variety of foods. I also had awful morning sickness that started mid-morning and got worse as the day progressed. For quite a while in the beginning I could only eat bits of cheddar cheese, cottage cheese with a little fruit, pudding, applesauce, etc. I even started eating Gerber food for toddlers at one point. If I even looked at a tomato or onion or anything spicy I felt so sick. The end result was that I lost weight, which was fine at the beginning and typical in pregnancy.

I still tried to do things. In August I went to Austin, Texas, for my annual Society of American Archivists meeting. This was when I was feeling the worst of all, but God was merciful and allowed me a decent trip. Here I am with my friend Su Kim at an Italian restaurant near our hotel.

I went to Arizona with Jamie and Gina to see our friend Tracy and her husband and baby over Labor Day weekend. I was able to get through that trip with only one or two major incidences and had lots of fun.

Here we are at the Grand Canyon.

This one was taken at a park overlooking Sedona, close to where Tracy lives. It was beautiful there!

Jon and I managed one last mini-vacation in September and went to Gulf Shores for a weekend. Buddy, Betsy, and Harrison went too, but I don't think I have any pics. I was feeling pretty sick that weekend.

There was a period in late September/early October when the morning sickness went away. I still couldn't eat very much, but at least I didn't feel sick ALL DAY LONG. Throughout this whole period I could only eat about a cup of food at a time. If I ate more than that I felt as if I had gone back for 4ths at a bad all-you-can-eat fried seafood buffet. It was miserable.

In October I started having bad back pain. At first I didn't think anything about it--I thought it was normal pregnancy stuff, maybe the "round ligament" pain I'd heard so much about. I was still having problems eating. I think at that point I weighed 6 pounds more than I had when I found out I was pregnant in June. I mentioned and described the back pain to my doctor. He told me it sounded like gallbladder pain. He put me on a strict, low-fat diet. Then it all started making sense. The last time I had had the back pain (so bad that I couldn't breathe and should have gone to the ER according to my doctor) I had eaten a lot of cheese and eggs that day. Kim had thought I was having GB problems, but I convinced myself otherwise until then.

So in mid-October I switched to the low, low fat diet. I can't even have "good" fats like olive oil or almonds for snacks. This made life pretty tricky, aggravating, and difficult since I couldn't eat some of the foods that I needed in pregnancy. Add to this my reflux and indigestion stuff, and life really became fun. Since then my diet consists of 1% or skim milk with cereal; plain chicken or turkey, in small amounts; applesauce; sweet peas and other mushy vegetables; potatoes; and some fruits. That's pretty much it. It's pretty healthy really, but I needed some fats for the baby. I also needed more protein. One bad part about this is that if I eat very much chicken or turkey, I still had bad pain. Sometimes I accidentally ate things that caused attacks.

In late October Jon went to Sweden for about a week for a business trip. He had a great time! Here are a few of his pics:

Unfortunately, the last day of his trip I had a GB attack so bad that I had to go to the ER. Jon was flying over the Atlantic when I got there. Thankfully his plane arrived in Birmingham late that night, and he was able to stay with me. At the hospital they did an ultrasound of my GB. As the doctor said, there was good news and bad news. Good news was that the ultrasound didn't show anything bad with my GB; bad news was that the ultrasound didn't show anything bad in my GB. I couldn't have more definitive tests done while I was pregnant. The end result was that I was sent home the next day with a prescription for pain medicine if it happened again.

I have had quite a few attacks since then and had to leave work or miss work completely. My side or back hurts most days, but I'm able to manage the pain or just ignore it. If I eat just one thing, like a bite of cake or drink 2% milk, then I can have an attack. The end result has been that I have only gained 6 pounds during my pregnancy. As baby grows, other parts of my body have shrunken. It worries us sometimes, but my doc assures me that it's okay as long as baby is okay. Subsisting on this diet was not fun at all during football season, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. While other people at football parties ate wings, pizza, cheese dip, and chips, I was the nerd in the corner eating a boring turkey sandwich. I don't even want to talk about Christmas. It was the first Christmas in my life that didn't include making and eating decorated sugar cookies.

Late Christmas post

Since Christmas I've been feeling tired, yucky, and pregnant, and I just haven't had the energy to post. So this is about a month late! On Christmas Eve we drove to Mobile to spend Christmas with my family. We stayed a few days and had a great visit. Charley got to come with us, but poor Dixie had to stay in Tuscaloosa. I think I was 30 weeks pregnant at that point.

We stayed at Buddy and Betsy's house. They had everyone else over that afternoon for our large Christmas gathering and dinner. I of course didn't get to eat the yummy things that other people ate. All fat-free for me!

Christmas morning:

Christmas Day with Bud, Betsy, Harrison, Carrie, and Brody; Carey, Kathryn, Tyler, and Madison; and Kim, Chris, and Abbie.

Tyler and Madison: