I'm Cured!

Whew! For the first couple of days after David was born I was doing pretty well considering that I'd just undergone major surgery. The nurses were all remarking how quickly I was recovering and I told everyone that having a C-section wasn't nearly as bad as I'd anticipated. I spoke too soon. The night before I was discharged I developed a TERRIBLE headache. The doctor and nurses all thought it was likely a reaction to the pain pills I was taking so I stopped taking them and went home Friday as planned.

The weekend was pretty awful. Just having the headache would have been bad enough, but the headache plus having to take care of a newborn was torture. Just to give you an idea, the whole time I was in labor, having the C-section, and recovering I never rated my pain as higher than 5/10. This headache was 10/10. I know I could have and probably should have called my doctor much earlier to let her know the headache hadn't improved off of the pain pills, but it was the weekend and I hate to bother people on their time off. Plus I kept coming up with alternate explanations (stress, sleep deprivation, hormones). Finally by Monday afternoon nothing had worked and even though the presentation wasn't exactly classic for a spinal headache after an epidural my doctor had me go to the ER just in case. Talk about a miracle cure! They did a procedure called a blood patch to reverse the effects of leaking spinal fluid and I immediately felt like myself again. It's amazing what a difference it makes to be pain-free. I can actually enjoy spending time with my baby!

And for those of you who are wondering how little David is doing, he is just fine. He's gained 6 oz over the weekend (in the hospital he didn't want to nurse and the pediatrician was keeping a pretty close eye on his weights) and he seems to be very healthy! I've posted some pictures of his first bath at home.

The Baby Who Cried Wolf

It seems to be a common fear that I am going to give birth and forget to tell anyone about it based on the number of phone calls I now receive each day asking for baby updates. Still I suppose it's better that they call me because whenever I call anyone now they race to answer the phone with baited breath and then are invariably disappointed to discover that I'm just calling to chat. This is especially true ever since the false alarm we had the other day.

On Wednesday I started to have some pretty painful contractions I didn't know what to make of. My pregnancy books clearly outline how to differentiate between false labor, pre-labor, and true labor but my symptoms were nothing like anything they outlined. The pain never let up between the contractions so I couldn't really time how close together they were or how long they lasted. Then after several painful minutes they would let up entirely for a few minutes to an hour or more. For 4 hrs I tried warm baths, drinking fluids, laying down, moving around and everything else I could think of and they only got more frequent and intense so I finally broke down and went to the hospital.

The nurse who hooked me up to the monitor declared that I was definitely in labor but that she couldn't really tell far into it I was because every time I had a contraction it set off a whole series of contractions. It was already 11:00 so I figured I better call my boss before it got any later and left her a message that I was in labor and not to expect me at work in the morning. We also put my family on the alert. They gave me some morphine to settle things down and it unfortunately worked a little too well. I started having fairly regular contractions about 3-4 minutes apart, but they weren't strong enough to have any effect. After 4 hrs the nurse still maintained I was in labor, but the kind that can last several hours to days before progressing to the next phase. The next morning we had the fun task of calling everyone back to tell them the baby changed his mind.

The Waiting Game

Just for comparison's sake I've posted a picture of me now to contrast with the one at the start of the third trimester. You may have noticed that my tummy's slightly larger now. My 1-year-old nephew definitely noticed when I saw him this week as he excitedly jabbed his little finger into my belly and exclaimed, "Ball, ball!" In fact everything's larger now that I've started to retain fluids. Most pregnant women complain about swelling in their feet the most and while virtually all of my shoes are now to tight for comfort, the worst for me has been my hands. The swelling has extended to the joints in my fingers making even simple activities like turning a doorknob, unscrewing a lid, writing, and pumping up a blood pressure cuff painful. To some extent I have joint swelling and pain all over my body, but the hands are definitely the worst. Unfortunately my job requires almost constant use of my hands, but this is my last week before starting my maternity leave. I guess this should come as a relief as working definitely isn't easy at this point, but if I go past my due date I suspect I may be even more miserable just sitting around the house by myself with nothing to do but wait.

Up until now my doctor had thought there was a good chance I'd deliver early considering the size of the baby and the fact that his head started to drop several weeks ago, but I guess no one got the message to my cervix which hasn't been cooperative. If it had my doctor would have been willing to induce me over a week ago, an issue it seems that nearly everyone has a strong opinion about. I've heard horror stories about inductions that include painful labors and traumatic deliveries that can end in birth defects or C-Section. Then again I've heard mom's who opted out of induction tell about meconium in the lungs and babies that are too big which result in traumatic birth or C-Section. I guess the silver lining is that no matter what the outcome, I haven't really been given a choice so I can't really beat myself up over making the wrong decision. My only option at this point is to wait, and wait, and wait.

Jonesing For A Fix

A sugar fix that is. For some reason I've been craving sweets these past couple of months, especially milkshakes and cheesecake. Part of the reason is because they don't seem to give me heartburn as much as other foods do and milkshakes actually seem to help, but I've been really bad the past few weeks. Our baby could be coming anytime now though and once he does I'm giving up sugar cold turkey. Not only would it be good for me, it will be good for the baby too. I've heard that what Mom eats changes the taste of breastmilk and that eating a lot of sugar while breastfeeding can predispose a baby for a sweet tooth. Even if this isn't true, I should get back into better eating habits before he's old enough to realize what's going on to set a better example.

By sugar I mean all candy, desserts, sodas, and and sweets in general. Foods that naturally have sugar like fruits and honey don't count and neither do foods that have sugar, but also have a lot of nutritional value like whole wheat pancakes with syrup. Plus I figure I need to make allowances for the holidays. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years get one exception each. The same applies for when I am company at someone else's home or at a party. I've used this plan before and found that after about 4 weeks my body adjusts and the cravings subside.

I figure that by publicly posting my intentions I'll be more likely to follow through. Once my baby turns a month old I'll post again on how successful it was so there's a little accountability too. Also I wondered if anyone wanted to join me or could at least support me by not bombarding me with sweets this holiday.

Yummy Vegetable Soup

I've decided to make some recipes that can be frozen and then reheated after our baby's born to save us the trouble of cooking for awhile. The first one is this tasty vegetable soup. It doesn't taste exactly like the minestrone at Olive Garden like it's supposed to, but it is yummy and not to mention very healthy. Don't be intimidated by the long list of ingredients. It doesn't call for anything unusual or exotic and most of them are fairly inexpensive. Also most of the chopping can be done with a food processor or chopper so prep time isn't too bad either. It will make an entire stockpot full of soup so you probably will want to freeze some of it. the best way I've found is to ladle the leftovers into ziplock freezer bags and freeze them. Then to reheat just soak in warm water until bag can be poured into a pan.

3 T olive oil
1 minced white onion
1/2 C chopped zucchini
1/2 C Italian cut frozen green beans
1/4 C minced celery
1/2 C carrots minced or shredded
4 t minced garlic
2 14 oz cans vegetable broth
1 14 oz can tomato sauce
2 15 oz cans red kidney beans
2 15 oz cans small white beans
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
2 t minced fresh parsley
1 1/2 t oregano
1 1/2 t basil
1 1/2 t salt
1/4 t thyme
3 C hot water
1/2 C red or white cooking wine
4 C baby spinach
1/2 C small shell pasta

1. Saute onion, celery, garlic, green beans and zucchini with oil in large stockpot.
2. Add all other ingredients except spinach and pasta. Bring to boil and simmer 20 min.
3. Add spinach and pasta and simmer for 20 more minutes before serving.

Don't Buy Stuff You Can't Afford

Most of you have probably already seen this SNL skit (I'm usually the last to know what's on TV), but if you haven't you can view it here. It's still hard for me to believe that our economy is in the mess that it is because so many Americans fail to grasp this concept. If I'm starting to sound too smug, please know that I am not speaking of instances like the single mom who buys a house out of her price range to get her children out of the ghetto and runs up credit cards to pay the grocery bills. Nor do I mean those who encountered catastrophic unforeseen circumstances, but I personally know of plenty individuals who simply wanted a bigger house, fancier car, and exciting toys so much that what they could actually afford seemed irrelevant. I feel bad that many of them are now facing foreclosure and bankruptcy (I do have a heart), but I feel even worse for our responsible friends, family, and neighbors who have lost their jobs and/or retirement savings because of it.

Nesting

Last weekend I got up early to clean out the fridge, scrub the baseboards, and organize our pantry. I also moved our rocker/glider into the baby's room, assembled a little nightstand to place next to it, and washed and put away all of our bambino's little clothes and blankies. Yesterday, much to Derek's dismay, I tackled our basement.

When we moved in all of the boxes of random junk were indiscriminately thrown onto the shelves in our basement. In the 2 years that followed the basement became a black hole for everything we didn't have room for. The shelves quickly filled up and huge piles amassed on the floor. Sifting through all of the boxes and piles was no minor undertaking, especially at 35 weeks pregnant. I probably did more lifting and bending over than is good for me and I had very little sympathy for Derek's complaints about his low energy levels and wanting to stop. He didn't stop though and we both worked really hard until everything had been sorted through and the stuff to throw away or donate were organized into piles and the items to keep were organized, consolidated, labeled and shelved appropriately. I'm amazed at how much space we were able to free up.

I guess this means I'm in the nesting phase where I'm racing through projects to get ready for baby. While it may appear that some of these projects have little to do with preparing for our little one they all are at least loosely related. For example, the room that is now the nursery used to be a place where we stored various items and since we've already maxed out our storage space upstairs, the only way to increase storage was to clean the basement. Now we not only have room to store what once belonged in the baby's room, but shelves to hold old clothes and toys as he outgrows them. And by reorganizing our pantry I've cleared off a shelf to make room for bottles, baby food and other baby necessities. Next on the list is to ready our guest room and downstairs bathroom so that my mom, and later Derek's mom, will have decent accomodations when they come to stay. I may be on my own for this one though. I think Derek's about ready to go into hiding until the baby's born.