Is this not the greatest facial expression ever? Lol. This is one of my sister's two cats; Garfield. She is the sweetest, SOFTEST cat ever. Totally relaxed, a real lover. Just looking at her makes me feel more relaxed. Just wanted to share.
Big news all around. Lots of updates. Michelle here. First, we hope everyone's doing great after the holidays. There's always that busy rush back to work and normalcy that you get caught up in. Here's to a restful and positive post-holiday season :) So, on to news.
Jen's exhausted. She's been sick for the last two weeks and working her ass off. However, due to California being broke, all of the OT is pretty much gone now. Hopefully this will be her chance to rest, because our circumstances have changed. I started getting sick again. Unbelievable. I think that we both thought that I was past the whole throwing up, headache phase of the Hyperemesis, but apparently, it knows no bounds. I started throwing up again about a week ago and had a really rough weekend last weekend. Braxton Hicks plus (my name for just a little more then a fake contraction) started and have been pretty strong, but no more then two or three an hour and very inconsistent.
We had an OB appointment on Thursday which turned out to be a real surprise. Our OB decided that me being sick again was out of the question and enough was enough. Then, she measured the baby. With a little under a month to go, she's already measuring at 39 to 40 weeks. Yes folks, she's big. Another big baby, lol. Too big though. She went three weeks ago from measuring right on schedule to measuring due and almost overdue. So, off to the sonogram room we went to measure fluid. I measured borderline low, which I think is only because I drink a lot of water, otherwise it may have been low to severely low. I think Jen would agree with me though, it didnt look like there was a lot of room in there. And her head? HUGE.
They did other measurements and said that if she was delivered that day, almost a month early, she would already be 8 plus lbs. So, she is right on schedule with what her big brother was. They dont want her to be that big, and they dont want the pregnancy to go on much longer for my health and Addison's health. Between the Hyperemesis, Gestational Diabetes, sudden weight gain, my narrow pelvic bones, they have a list of concerns. After the sonogram room, we went to the NST (non stress test) room and they hooked me up for half an hour. Addison was right on cue. I drank ice water, she played a game of flip the baby. She was all over the place. It made for a good test, but it was hard to keep her heart rate on the monitor.
They said that she had a few decels, but other then that, it looked good. My cervix is a little soft, but not efaced and I'm not dilated at all yet. No surprise. They do want to see me twice a week again, so we're back on the old schedule. We go in on Monday for NST #2 and they'll let us know for sure that day what they want to do and see if we agree. We've had wondeful support between ICan, John Muir Women's health, our OB and our other resources. Surprisingly, even Ican says that this baby probably needs to be born pretty soon. I cant say that I disagree at this point. I'm really tired. Tired of being sick. Tired of being tired. Tired of feeling like Jen's carrying all the weight. Our support systems are great though and our OB says that we're looking as early as possibly the 20th of January but no later then February 2nd. So, we'll let you know on Monday.
We also found out this week that Corey's coming home for good. That will happen either at the end of this month, or in June. More then likely June. We're hoping to find him an alternative arts school to go to because that's what he's really into, but we'll see how that all works out. To say that we have a lot of unexpected stress right now, is probably an understatement. There's always so much to do and to have two whole weeks taken from us to get them done, we're really feeling the pressure. We're sorry that we havent been on more lately, but it's hard getting a minute to get on here.
Ok, how about something fun and quick??? I'm curious as to what everyone's strangest cravings were when they were pregnant. Not just taste-wise, but maybe smell wise? Here have been my three addictions as of late:
Ice Breakers Wintergreen gum with Liquid caps - Completely takes away my nausea, I LOVE the taste and if I could put 20 pieces in my mouth at a time, I would.
Jen's home-made coffee - Bought her a Cuisinart grind n' brew so she grinds her beans and makes her coffee all in one step, and she makes the most addicting delicious coffee! I have always hated coffee, so, for me, that's a big switch. Plus, I love to inhale the smell of the beans as she's loading it up. MAN!
Ok, this is a weird one. Now that I have to take my blood sugar several times a day, I have boxes of alcohol wipes for my fingers. I LOVE the smell of the these little wipes. Terrible. The smell of rubbing alcohol is awful, but I swear, I could sit and inhale this smell for hours. Thankfully, they dont last that long, lol. Anyway, share if you feel so compelled, we'd love to hear :)
