Totally off-topic, but Michael Steele was elected chairman of the Republican party today and for some reason I'm kind of proud about this!
Mr. Steele (at the time Lt. Gov. Steele) was the speaker at Ronnie's graduation from St. Mary's -I really enjoyed hearing him speak and have been a "fan" ever since. Anyway, he is a very intelligent, level-headed, normal kind of guy and I'm hoping he can do some good on the national stage.
Besides, if you add an "r" to the end of his name, he becomes Mr. Steeler. How could you not like that???
Friday, January 30, 2009
Quick update
Bebe and I are doing fine - we are finally relaxing!
Tonya is subbing for my class while I'm out, so that has taken an enormous amount of stress away - having a good friend who knows me, knows how I teach, and lives next door working with my students makes me feel so much better.
I'm doing my best to be nesting as well, even if I'm not supposed to be up and cleaning. I filed our taxes this morning, paid bills, got my maternity leave squared away with HR, and watched NFL Total Access to my heart's content. Strangely enough, I have an overwhelming desire to clean the bathrooms - but will do my best to put that aside :)
Tonya is subbing for my class while I'm out, so that has taken an enormous amount of stress away - having a good friend who knows me, knows how I teach, and lives next door working with my students makes me feel so much better.
I'm doing my best to be nesting as well, even if I'm not supposed to be up and cleaning. I filed our taxes this morning, paid bills, got my maternity leave squared away with HR, and watched NFL Total Access to my heart's content. Strangely enough, I have an overwhelming desire to clean the bathrooms - but will do my best to put that aside :)
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Just an update...
We had a follow-up appointment with the doctor today. Here are the "highlights":
- I will be on the terbutaline for another two weeks, until about 36 1/2 weeks, at which time I'll be 'allowed' to go into labor. Let's hope he comes soon after that!
- They offered me another drug "procardia" instead of the terb. since it is making me really shaky and jittery. However, the side effect of that is horrible headaches, so I decided to stick with the known evil.
- Even though I won't have the same restrictions in a couple of weeks, they don't want me returning to work until after the baby is born.
- My blood pressure was finally normal. Two weeks ago it was really low (80/50), in the hospital it was high (140something/80something), but today it was back in my normal range - 128/70. My swelling is almost all gone too from resting, so Seth can no longer make fun of my ankles (or lack thereof) and call me Frodo or Shallow Hal.
- Seth tattled on me to Dr. Penn. We weren't even seeing him today, but saw him in the hallway where Seth proceeded to tell him that I was washing dishes and doing laundry since "I won't listen to him"! It was kind of funny, but I did get reprimanded a bit ;)
As for me, as long as I take my medication on schedule (every 6 hours), I only have about one contraction during that time. If I forget to take it, or first thing in the morning, they're almost constant and kinda painful.
I'm just really excited to meet the little guy at this point! Hopefully he'll make his appearance in about 3 weeks so that we have plenty of time to spend together before I have to go back to work :)
Saturday, January 24, 2009
34 Weeks brings hospital visits and bedrest...Yuck!
So here we sit. Me and the dogs. For the next several weeks apparently. What fun.
On Thursday night, I started getting contractions after dinner, and by 8:00 or so they had gotten my attention. So I took an hour to see what happened, drank some water, laid down, everything the doctor told me to do in this situation. Well, by the end of the hour I decided to call the dr, and she had me come into labor and delivery at the hospital.
They hooked me up to monitors to watch the baby's heartrate and the contractions. Bad news - was having contractions every 2-4 minutes. Good news - the baby was doing well through all of it! So they gave me a shot of terbutaline to stop the contractions, and they did stop so they sent us home around 12:30am with directions to just go about life as usual.
Well, that didn't work out too great! From the time I got out of bed Friday I was having contractions, which got progressively closer together throughout the day. They would mostly go away while sitting at work, but would get much worse whenever I stood or tried to do anything.
So, long story short, we went to the hospital again at 3:00, had two shots and a pill of trebutaline before they stopped this time, and left at 8:30 with a prescription for Terbutaline every 6 hours (yuck, yuck, yuck - it makes you dizzy and makes your heart race), and strict instructions from Dr. Penn to stay on bedrest. The conversation went something like this:
Me: "It was kind of hard to relax today dealing with 20 fifth graders."
Dr. Penn: "Haha. Well, you won't be dealing with 20 fifth graders for another three months."
Me: "Haha. You're kidding, right?"
Dr. Penn: "No, you're done with work until after the baby."
Me: "What exactly do you mean by done? Can I work at all if I promise to take it easy?"
Dr Penn: "I mean totally done. Not going to work at all. You need to get some rest at this point."
Me: "Okaaaaaay. So what can I do?"
Dr. Penn: "You shouldn't be getting up from your bed or the couch longer than to use the bathroom, take a shower or get something to eat. No house cleaning, no shopping."
Me: "Oh."
Yeah, I didn't take it too well. Me, who loves to take a day off of work, is very upset and having a hard time handling the idea of being off work with nothing to do. Of course, part of this has to do with the amount of time I can take off (12 weeks), and a lot of it has to do with the idea that we have five more weeks of my pay coming in (that's all the sick leave I have accrued) before we're having to rely on Seth's job to get by. Hopefully we'll get a good tax return this year! Also, I am totally not ready to hand over my classroom to someone else. I am not organized or planned for that, and really do have to go to work for a day or two to get things settled!
I had been planning to work up until the first week of March, so that I could take all of my time after bebe was born and only have to go back to work for 3 weeks. Now it looks like I'll be taking 1/2 my time before he's born and going back mid-April. It's just hard to swallow at this point.
So, I'm kind of mopey and upset with this turn of events, even though I realize it's the best thing to do and is necessary. Just indulge me for now...
On Thursday night, I started getting contractions after dinner, and by 8:00 or so they had gotten my attention. So I took an hour to see what happened, drank some water, laid down, everything the doctor told me to do in this situation. Well, by the end of the hour I decided to call the dr, and she had me come into labor and delivery at the hospital.
They hooked me up to monitors to watch the baby's heartrate and the contractions. Bad news - was having contractions every 2-4 minutes. Good news - the baby was doing well through all of it! So they gave me a shot of terbutaline to stop the contractions, and they did stop so they sent us home around 12:30am with directions to just go about life as usual.
Well, that didn't work out too great! From the time I got out of bed Friday I was having contractions, which got progressively closer together throughout the day. They would mostly go away while sitting at work, but would get much worse whenever I stood or tried to do anything.
So, long story short, we went to the hospital again at 3:00, had two shots and a pill of trebutaline before they stopped this time, and left at 8:30 with a prescription for Terbutaline every 6 hours (yuck, yuck, yuck - it makes you dizzy and makes your heart race), and strict instructions from Dr. Penn to stay on bedrest. The conversation went something like this:
Me: "It was kind of hard to relax today dealing with 20 fifth graders."
Dr. Penn: "Haha. Well, you won't be dealing with 20 fifth graders for another three months."
Me: "Haha. You're kidding, right?"
Dr. Penn: "No, you're done with work until after the baby."
Me: "What exactly do you mean by done? Can I work at all if I promise to take it easy?"
Dr Penn: "I mean totally done. Not going to work at all. You need to get some rest at this point."
Me: "Okaaaaaay. So what can I do?"
Dr. Penn: "You shouldn't be getting up from your bed or the couch longer than to use the bathroom, take a shower or get something to eat. No house cleaning, no shopping."
Me: "Oh."
Yeah, I didn't take it too well. Me, who loves to take a day off of work, is very upset and having a hard time handling the idea of being off work with nothing to do. Of course, part of this has to do with the amount of time I can take off (12 weeks), and a lot of it has to do with the idea that we have five more weeks of my pay coming in (that's all the sick leave I have accrued) before we're having to rely on Seth's job to get by. Hopefully we'll get a good tax return this year! Also, I am totally not ready to hand over my classroom to someone else. I am not organized or planned for that, and really do have to go to work for a day or two to get things settled!
I had been planning to work up until the first week of March, so that I could take all of my time after bebe was born and only have to go back to work for 3 weeks. Now it looks like I'll be taking 1/2 my time before he's born and going back mid-April. It's just hard to swallow at this point.
So, I'm kind of mopey and upset with this turn of events, even though I realize it's the best thing to do and is necessary. Just indulge me for now...
Sunday, January 18, 2009
33 Weeks
So, here we are with 7 weeks left to go ~ give or take (hopefully take!). Sleep is becoming a necessity during the day and hard to come by at night. Otherwise, I'm feeling pretty good and we're finally getting the nursery ready for the little guy. The hardwood floors are down and finished, and we bought the paint for the walls, dresser and mural yesterday. It's so nice to feel like we're finally making some progress.
The next couple of weeks of school are odd - no school tomorrow, Inauguration Day on Tuesday (this being a really big deal since all the baloney is taking place only miles away), several early dismissal days, and a couple of teacher work days. I'm not complaining - it will be so nice to have a "break" from teaching all day every day. It just gets harder and harder every week at this point.
That's about it for now. We'll obviously be cheering on the Eagles and the Steelers today. I simply can't imagine my life for the next year if the Ravens manage to win...
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Bebe!!!
Here's our little munchkin! He's 'crying' in the third one and sticking his tongue out and licking his foot in the last one :)
I have been trying without success to upload the video of the sonogram onto here. I'm going to try some video editing software we have at school and see if that helps. I would love for you all to be able to see it!
Friday, January 9, 2009
So this is how we amuse ourselves...
We picked up our Christmas present from Ro - our awesome Chicco travel system (car seat/stroller combo). I am totally infatuated with this "toy" - and of course we couldn't resist giving our first babies a little test spin in the living room....
32 Weeks - All Better!
Much improved at the 8-month mark! Other than being really tired, I'm actually feeling pretty good lately. Keep your fingers crossed....
31 Weeks
Here's what I looked like at 31 Weeks. This is right around when I had the flu, so please take notice of how beautiful, healthy and "with it" I look in this picture....
My aunt Gwen
This was from my aunt Gwen's obituary, and it just really impressed me. I wanted to share...
Born December 14, 1938, in Centenary, SC, Gwen was the daughter of the late Wendell Davis and Frances Shepherd Davis. She finished high school at Rains-Centenary High School in 1957. She was valedictorian of her graduating class and an All-State basketball player.
Gwen graduated from Converse College in 1961 where she majored in art. After leaving Converse, she began her work career at Miller & Rhoads department stores in Richmond, VA, in an art position. Later Gwen returned to South Carolina to begin her twenty-eight year teaching career as an art and elementary school teacher. She taught in the public schools in Sumter, New Ellenton, Swansea, Blythewood, and North Charleston. She also taught in Savannah, GA.
Gwen took breaks in her teaching career to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of South Carolina where her thesis brought together much new information about the printmakers of Charleston Renaissance. She also earned a bachelor’s degree in interior design from the Savannah College of Art and Design.
Gwen established her permanent home in Charleston and lived there for many years. After retiring from teaching, she became an antique dealer and for many years was associated with the Antiques of South Windermere in Charleston.
When growing up, Gwen was a “tomboy” and always a sports enthusiast. Her fierce competitiveness in basketball and tennis in her younger years led to her ardent support of USC’s Lady Gamecocks basketball and track programs in her retirement.
Born December 14, 1938, in Centenary, SC, Gwen was the daughter of the late Wendell Davis and Frances Shepherd Davis. She finished high school at Rains-Centenary High School in 1957. She was valedictorian of her graduating class and an All-State basketball player.
Gwen graduated from Converse College in 1961 where she majored in art. After leaving Converse, she began her work career at Miller & Rhoads department stores in Richmond, VA, in an art position. Later Gwen returned to South Carolina to begin her twenty-eight year teaching career as an art and elementary school teacher. She taught in the public schools in Sumter, New Ellenton, Swansea, Blythewood, and North Charleston. She also taught in Savannah, GA.
Gwen took breaks in her teaching career to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of South Carolina where her thesis brought together much new information about the printmakers of Charleston Renaissance. She also earned a bachelor’s degree in interior design from the Savannah College of Art and Design.
Gwen established her permanent home in Charleston and lived there for many years. After retiring from teaching, she became an antique dealer and for many years was associated with the Antiques of South Windermere in Charleston.
When growing up, Gwen was a “tomboy” and always a sports enthusiast. Her fierce competitiveness in basketball and tennis in her younger years led to her ardent support of USC’s Lady Gamecocks basketball and track programs in her retirement.
Monday, January 5, 2009
More sad news...
My aunt Gwen passed away on Friday after battling several illnesses for a few years. If anything, Gwen was unique and I'm glad I got a chance to know her better as an adult. I wish I could be in South Carolina with mom's family tomorrow for the funeral, but I am not really comfortable traveling at this point.
I also heard today from my friend Jessica from high school. She was due 11 days after me, and lost her son at 30 weeks on Friday. She hadn't felt him move for more than a day, and found out at the hospital that his little heart had stopped. She had to deliver him, and they said the cord had gotten wrapped around his neck. I just can't imagine what she's going through right now and it's just breaking my heart.
So if you get a chance, please send your good thoughts and prayers. thanks.
I also heard today from my friend Jessica from high school. She was due 11 days after me, and lost her son at 30 weeks on Friday. She hadn't felt him move for more than a day, and found out at the hospital that his little heart had stopped. She had to deliver him, and they said the cord had gotten wrapped around his neck. I just can't imagine what she's going through right now and it's just breaking my heart.
So if you get a chance, please send your good thoughts and prayers. thanks.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Update 12/4...
Much to post, but I'm just getting over having the flu. I never realized how terrible, awful, horrible and horrendous being sick could be until it was combined with being 31 weeks pregnant!
I first threw up early Friday morning, which led to other lovely things like hundreds of broken blood vessels in my face, bloody noses, etc. My main concern has been staying hydrated for the baby and while it was shaky for a while I've been able to drink and keep down fluids since yesterday. Thank goodness.
I'm dreading going back to work tomorrow - even taking a shower is exhausting today, much less dealing with a classroom full of 10-year-olds. Wish me luck!
I first threw up early Friday morning, which led to other lovely things like hundreds of broken blood vessels in my face, bloody noses, etc. My main concern has been staying hydrated for the baby and while it was shaky for a while I've been able to drink and keep down fluids since yesterday. Thank goodness.
I'm dreading going back to work tomorrow - even taking a shower is exhausting today, much less dealing with a classroom full of 10-year-olds. Wish me luck!
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