Tuesday, January 31, 2012

T-Minus One Week

So, last night/this morning was interesting...

Yesterday afternoon was my 38-week check up with the OBGYN. Everything is as it should be. I'm still closed and long (no dilation, baby still not dropped) and still in a lot of pain. Seeing that I haven't slept in what feels like weeks, my doctor prescribed me vicodin for the pain. The day progresses, I still feel like the plague, so I take my pill and wait.

And wait...
and wait...

The pain gets worse. I had taken a good pain killer and I was still in a crap load of pain. I was horribly uncomfortable and in tears. I couldn't handle it anymore. So, we get to labor and delivery around 11pm and are admitted in to see how things will go. My contractions are mild, but 2 to 3 minutes apart. My scar burns like fire, and I'm super exhausted.

After a couple of hours of monitoring, the nurse hooks me up to an IV, sticks me with a hardcore antihistamine, and leaves me there to see what happens. My contractions get further apart, and I doze off. I still have enough pain to where I holler every ten minutes, but instead of every two, it's every ten, which is nice. A good half gallon of water is pumped into my system by then and I just want to sleep.

After 6 hours of being in L&D, I'm finally released home, told to take another vicodin, and told that my problem was the fact that I was dehydrated. How I became dehydrated, nobody even knows. My husband, even my stepmom-in-law were surprised to find that the problem I have is keeping enough fluids in my system.

I drink my weight in water, but apparently 64 oz of water every day isn't enough. Because of the scar tissue and the constant pull, I have to have *more* fluids in me to deal with my uterus. The husband bought me a large 44 oz cup from the gas station and I'm meant to drink that twice a day. The nurse also suggested I eat foods rich in fluids, like jello, soup, and watermelon for an extra boost.

This pregnancy has not been kind to me. Seriously. I'm very glad that in seven days I'll finally be able to hold my son.

Seven more days.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

It Feels Neverending

Well, I've been putting Lily's insurance card to work this past month. First, her yearly check up, which gave us referrals to two more doctors. The first referral, her eyes, which proved that she did indeed needed glass (which she wears regularly and looks adorable in.) The second referral, her ears, which showed that while she hears well, she shuts down emotioanlly when stressed and tunes out. That leads me to now.

I got in contact with an old clinic I used to go to when she was a baby. I have an appointment set up with my old psychologist to deal with the stress we are currently going through, and set one up for Lily with one of the child therapists so she can learn to deal with her stress as well.

The past six months have been hard on Lily, and she's been coping to the best of her ability, but she's only 6 and can only understand so much. I'm hoping this will help calm any fears she has, deal with her nightmares, and give her a healthier mental state. She's a smart kid and all of this stress is not good for her; it's not even good for an adult. I hope after a while, she'll be feeling a lot better.

T-Minus 2 Weeks

I had my 37 week appointment yesterday and all seems as well as it should be. Though I still considered high risk due to my 3 prior c-sections, they ran a sonnagram of my uterus yesterday to find that it is still very much intact. The burning sensation will continue, but as long as I am not bleeding or bruising I am in the clear.
Dorian is still very much a boy. I asked the ultrsound guy, named Guy, if he could check this far along even though everything is pretty much squished. "Is he still a boy." "Well, it will be a bit of a push this lare in the prgnancy...wait, yep. There it is. I saw his scrotum." :) Have to love my little exhibitionists.

I have my c-section scheduled two weeks from today. I'm so ready to hold my little man.

Monday, January 16, 2012

C-Section Scheduled

It's official. Dorian's arrival has been scheduled for February 7, 2012. So far, I have to be in surgery by 7am, however, due to another OBGYN dog-earing that time, it could change to 12pm if she takes it. I'll know for certain the evening of the 6th. Truthfully, I think this is poor OR management. It should be first-come-first-served and based on procedure, not based on "maybe" the doctor might need it.
Other than that, all is good in the pregnancy. I have nothing coming up with him until he is here, getting seen every week until then, just for them to tell me that I'm larger, heavier, and "it's almost time."

Three more weeks!

Friday, January 13, 2012

Appointments part Two

Lily went to the audiologist today to make sure her hearing is ok. I wasn't too worried about it. I figured that if she wasn't hard of hearing, she was being a smart ass and tuning people out. Come to find out, the latter was true, sort of. She isn't tuning people out on purpose; it's a stress mechanism. When Lily is scared, upset, or stressed, her mind's response is to completely shut down. The doctor and I had to get her attention in the *middle* of her hearing exam, startling the crap out of her. She didn't even noticed she had stopped paying attention. She felt anxious about the test, but once we calmed her down, she passed the test just fine, no problem.

I hate that she is feeling stressed. I know at this time, with her parents being unemployed and our family being homless, and the new baby on the way in just a matter of weeks, there's a lot to take in. I know *why* she's apprehensive about everything. I just wish I could teach her how to handle her stress in a healthy way. I, unfortunately, don't know how. I react the same way when I become upset. I completely shut down, tune out, and sometimes even block creating new memories when met with an extremely stressful situation I couldn't even begin to handle, or become severely upset with someone/something.

I'm thinking, perhaps, trying a child psychologist, if even just for a little while until things don't look so grim, to help her cope with her insecurities and her fears. At least I know that, overall, she's a healthy child, just has a lot to go through for such a young age.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Appointments Part One

Had my 35 week check-up yesterday. Dorian is good, I am good, and we are bored and waiting. :)

As for Lily, her optical appointment was today. It's official, she's her mother's daughter. Poor kid has astigmatism in the same eye I do, but it didn't phase her. She is SUPER excited for her new pink glasses to come in in the next two weeks. She didn't stop talking about it as soon as it was confirmed that she was getting glasses. The entire ride home she was trying to do the math. To calm her down, I had to tell her between what dates her glasses would come in. I'm quite sure the days between the 20th and the 25th are going to be brutal. ;)

doesn't she look adorable?

Saturday, January 7, 2012

See No Evil, Hear No Evil...

Lily had her 6th year well-child visit to the doctor yesterday. All was fine and dandy. (90/50 bp, 47.6 lbs, about 4 ft or so tall--yes, that is a whole foot shorter than I am, so she's almost as big as me.) All was fine until we had to do the eye exam. Her left eye was having some serious issues focusing. Her left eye was about 20/40, while her right eye was at 20/25. I wouldn't even be slightly alarmed if it weren't for the fact that last year both eyes were at 20/20 and also that astigmatism is hereditary. (I have it and so does my father--I have his eyes, and so does she.) We had this problem before, during one of her eye tests, where the light was a bight askew bouncing off of her retina, so they had to do the test twice every year. It seems to have worsen over time, which is the problem I had (and ended up getting glasses for.) I have set an appointment with the optometrist on Wednesday. Hopefully they can either confirm or deny my fears.

Shortly following her eye exam the doctor checked the rest of her. Her reflexes, and the rest of her body are ok. Her pigeon-toes are caused by tightness of the internal rotator muscles of the legs, located at the hips. We have to continue our stretches and increase the intensity a bit at a time, doing it about ten times a day. Lily hates it, but we've done it for the past two years. It's prevented her legs from getting any worse, so I know we were doing something right. The doctor said to just keep doing what we were doing and that, as soon as the external muscles were tightened and in the internal were loosened, she would have no problems with her legs at all.

As for her ears...she failed the hearing test miserably. There were 5 sounds that she needed to hear. She heard the first, and loudest one, but all others were lost to her. Her ears are fine in the sense that waves are passing through the canal normally, but she's not hearing the softer, and most times lower, tones of the exam. She didn't have a problem with this last year either, but if she truly does have a hearing problem, it would explain why she feels the need to yell upon starting a conversation. Her appointment with the audiologist is on Friday.

Other than that, no other problems. She's healthy, smart, and a large pain in my ass, which is what every 6 year old should be. I'll keep you posted when she has her next appointments and what those doctors tell me.