Monday, March 15, 2010

Our First Trip to Labor & Delivery

Well folks, I did something I never thought I would do last night; went to the hospital 4.5 weeks before my due date. Obviously everything is fine and we were sent home about 2 hours after we arrived, but sometimes it's better to be safe than sorry.

We had new carpet laid throughout the house Saturday and Sunday, which was a quite a stressful process with a house full of furniture and "things". We stayed up late and woke up early throughout the weekend, in order to ensure our house was well prepared. Our hard work paid off and the carpet was laid by early Sunday afternoon. We have now begun the process of reorganizing the house. The carpet looks great, feels great and is more kid and pet friendly. I only wish we had more time to enjoy it, but we're too tired and too busy.

Apparently all the activity triggered some health issues for me. I've been more tired than usual, feeling uncomfortable and using the bathroom more often, but I chalked it up to being pregnant. The weekend was very short and busy, so I didn't have much time to relax. I have a difficult time sitting around, doing nothing, so I kept going. I wish I would have listened to my body because my body was trying to tell me to stop and rest. By Sunday evening, I had some cramping and spotting, so I called my OBGYN. She told me to rest, drink a big glass of water and go to L&D if I don't begin to feel better or if I begin to feel worse. I drank a huge glass of water, ate some crackers, laid down and even took a warm bath. Unfortunately, I did not begin to feel better and so we made a trip to L&D. The nurses hooked me up to a fetal monitor and I gave a urine sample. I had a few contractions during the 2 hours, but nothing strong and nothing frequent. It was great to listen to the baby's heartbeat for 2 hours, although she wasn't very cooperative. Her heartbeat could be easily heard, only when I was in an uncomfortable position. When I was in a comfortable position, her heartbeat was faint or the monitor wasn't even picking up her heartbeat. I didn't even realize I was having contractions while I was being monitored, so I asked a ton of questions. The contractions were nothing to be concerned with because the baby was responding well and I wasn't dialated. I was also running a low grade fever of 100.0, which is actually not considered a fever because it wasn't 100.4. My urine specimen on the other hand... well that presented some major issues. I had protein, bacteria, ketones and blood in my urine, which meant that I was dehydrated and my body was trying to fight an infection. The nurse consulted my OBGYN, diagnosed me with a urinary tract infection and prescribed an antibiotic. We spent about 2.5 hours in L&D and I'm so glad we went because I never would have known I had a UTI. All things considered, a UTI is nothing and both the baby and I are doing just fine.

Obviously I stayed home from work on Monday so that I could rest. It's the first sick day that I've taken that I didn't think about work or actually do work. Before I fell asleep last night, I thought about firing up my lap top and working from home, but I quickly decided that I needed a day of doing absolutely nothing. I didn't do any house work, not even a load of laundry. I laid in bed, watched TV and napped on and off. It's been suggested that I stay home again tomorrow to rest some more, but I don't think I could take another day of rest and relaxation. I'm afraid if I stayed home tomorrow, I couldn't relax and I'd be doing house work. I haven't decided what I'm going to do, but I'm definitely going to listen to my body.

That's about all that has been going on in the Lasher household. We're such exciting people these days. The excitement will surely increase in the upcoming weeks, as the arrival of our little one approaches.

Love always,
Ian & Kim

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