Sunday, July 5

Sunday- a day of rest- check! I did nothing but lay in bed all day.
A day for Family- Check! Pam brought Mike and Alan to visit for a few minutes after getting back in town. Mrs. Bowyer also stopped by durring the day to keep me company. Sunday is when the Dr.'s were now saying I have recieved bed rest in the hospital until further notice- and not get my hopes up for going home anytime soon. They are now testing my urine for 24 hours to see what the protine levels are and I am on a 2 hour blood pressure check through the day and night. Sunday came and went and it was now time for bed again- I was hoping for a really good night sleep- but that was definitely not what happened. Besides- nothing was happening how I wanted, why start now?

I started feeling like I had just got done running a marathon- I felt like my heart was racing, however the Dr. said my pulse was normal- I was having shortness of breath, and pains across my upper stomach- It was almost as uncomfortable as a contraction- but only part of my stomach hurt- so it was not a contraction. The Dr. now has me on oxygen and at 12:00 midnight I am being wheeled down to radiology for a chest x-ray. After the chest x-ray I also received a breathing treatment to try and help slow my breathing down, in attempt to get some sleep. A sleeping pill does the trick- and I get at least a few hours of sleep. The Chest X-ray shows something starting to form- and my Dr. would be in in the morning to decide how to move forward. Good night world.....

Saturday July 4th

Happy 4th of July-

No major changes happened over night- slight increase in my potassium- they are now doing everything in pill form to help reduce the swelling and in fact the swelling has decreased. Some time in the past 12 hours they had done an ultra-sound to see the size of the baby- and they have also given me the steroid shot to help with the baby's lung development- in case they would have to deliver him early. Ultra sound shows that Ajay is doing very well and is probably around 3lbs. 4oz. I spent the evening watching the Grand Rapids Fireworks from my hospital room. It was nice- no crowds, no bugs, and no traffic. It was even kind of cool- you could see other cities/towns fireworks off in the horizon. Spectrum sits so high that you could see forever! Mike and Alan spent the day with my family where they enjoyed swimming, fishing, and boche ball. Alan was so tired he was in the trailer sleeping by 8:30- clueless to where mommy was.
I went to bed with my blood pressure still high and the swelling still all over. Hoping that the next day all my health would be back to normal and I could go home with Mike and Alan and continue on with things as a family....

Friday July 3rd

Friday morning continues with more blood work and my potassium even though I was now on my 4th bag of it- only went up to 2.7- by now the high risk specialist from my Dr.'s office has come in to check on me and baby- I did not like what he had to say- although looking back I can see why he said what he did- and you have to remember I was so swollen everywhere- there was a point when Mike was up visiting with me on Friday that he could not even see my eyes because my face was so swollen. I knew that it would be at least the end of the weekend before I would have any hopes of getting out of the hospital. As bad as I wanted to go up north I knew there would be no possibility of me going up- I WAS STUCK IN THE HOSPITAL!!! I insisted that Mike and Alan go up to my Parents for the holiday weekend with out me- and they did! I would just spend my weekend resting, and taking in any potassium that I could get in hopes to get the the 3.5 level that it would need to be at for them to "consider" letting me go home!

Thursday July 2nd

Today was the day that started our babies adventure way to early. I went for my standard check up at the Dr.'s office as planned. Heart beat was great, my blood pressure was up a little and Dr. Cottingham just decided that she would start seeing me every week based on my going into labor early with Alan. She was slightly concerned that I may end up with pre-eclamsia but was not to concerned at this point. She sent be to the Blood Lab to have blood tests done just to check all of my levels- She wrote STAT across the top. So I take Alan to the babysitters, pick up the few things we would be needing for our wonderful weekend up north with family and friends- and then I head to the Lab to have blood drawn. Silly and Thankfully I joked with the lady who drew my blood about the STAT status across the top- Dr. Jane had drew a smiley face- and the Lab tech did not notice the huge letters saying STAT- IF I had not mentioned the little note- it could have been a horrible weekend!

As most of you know I then went to work where I was taking care of fitting rooms, working on new hire stuff and doing the things I do every day without any hesitations. My Husband calls me at work and says- um- your Dr. is trying to get a hold of you! That was it for work- She has left a message that my blood work came back with my potassium levels so low that it is critical that I get to the ER right away and have them retest and if it is actually that low I would need to be there for a few hours to have an IV of potassium. I had no clue how your potassium affected your heart- but they tell me if I would have ignored things my heart could have been in real trouble over the weekend. My potassium level was 2.1 when I got to the ER that night- and average adult should be around 4.1. Well the next Dr. I talk to is saying they will have to keep me over night for observation and it could take a lot of potassium drips to get my numbers up. The longer I sit the more swelling I experienced all over my body. That night I get admitted into Spectum Hospital- placed on a heart monitor- and am now being visited by the OB Dr's, the internal medicine Dr.'s and The Heart specialists- not to mention the every hour blood draws! Get a good night sleep is what they tell me and we will see how things are in the morning! (yeah right!)

The wait is over Rebecca! Here is a new post! I think this one was well worth the wait! For those of you I don't usually talk to 5 times a week- We are having another baby. I know for the longest time we said Alan would be an only child, but he definetly has an Only child syndrom. We have actually been "trying"- well short of calculating and tracking everything- for almost 2 years. In October I figured it just was not meant to be- got rid of a bunch of stuff- pretty much everything but our crib- and then it Happened! January is when I figured it out- and was sicker than a dog at night. All is well so far and will continue that way:) I am due September 11th!

Here are a few pictures- but they are kind of blurry- but any little untrasounds are so cute! I was 10 weeks at the time! Enjoy!

I Hope that was worth the wait!

Hungry anyone???

Want to know how to keep a child like mine busy??? Just add Hippos!!! Alan is in Love with this game. He would take it everywhere if he could, but it is not the esiest game to transport. We finally earned Hungry Hungry Hippo for staying dry at the babysitters for 3 days in a row!!!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2008! Here a a few pictures- Just a week Late! We had Thanksgiving dinner this year with Mike's family at his Mom's house. Good time, Good food!

Alan eating the crispy onions for the top of my green bean's- he would eat the whole can if I would let him!
The Bird

Alan and Emma taking a "nap" while the guys watch football.

Alan and Grandma Pam reading a story.