Told you I'd be updating again by the end of the day!
Well, we went back in to the doctor this morning, and though some of my lab work came back negative or normal (primarily the tests for preeclampsia and my platelet count), it did indicate that the high blood pressure is beginning to make me sick and starting to do damage to my kidneys. At this time, however, being induced could be very difficult on myself and the baby, and we would run a much higher chance at a c-section as my body needs to do some natural work to get ready for labor first. In the meantime, we are on a ticking clock, trying to give the baby a bit more time in utero and my body a chance to prepare for labor without me getting to the point where I will struggle with labor because of the hypertension/kidney issues, and thus, needing a c-section because I don't have the strength to go through labor. So we wait and see! Our OB is predicting that we will be induced by this time next week, though we will know more when we go back into seeing him again on Monday.
When we got back, we talked with our director, and we are going to go ahead and go off-duty on Monday, with the baby pending so close, and lots of doctor visits next week anyway, and will stay off-duty until I've recovered from labor and we are ready to get back to work (about two weeks).
Will we keep you posted as we know things, and Lord willing, will be announcing our little one to you soon!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
The Baby Saga Continues...
I'll probably to an update to this post later today, but I wanted to blog this morning. :-)We head back into the doctor for the first appointment of the day this morning; we are killing our director, Dee, this week with being in and out so much as he has to watch the kids and is not used to being on campus by eight a.m.! All the lab work they did should be in, so after an hour on the fetal monitor, and then my check-up, hopefully we'll have a closer idea as to what our delivery date will be. If my lab work came back "bad", then we should deliver tomorrow or this weekend; if not, probably next week, but we'll see after my next appointment early in the week. Dee is praying it is not this weekend!!
I think this week has been a bit easier on Jonathan than last week, the primary reason being food! We've had someone bring dinner every night this week, and it was our shopping week, so Jonathan did a big order from Sam's and I made sure to include A LOT of easy-to-cook meals on the click-n-pull order. That and we've had great volunteers here in the evenings this week; yeah! :-) We'd talked about going off-duty this weekend (it is our weekend to go off), but in some ways it would feel kind of stupid taking off if we are getting ready to go off for a couple weeks starting next week. And, there isn't anyone to watch the house this weekend, specifically Saturday, as we were not planning to go off duty again until the baby is born, so yep; I think we'll be here this weekend. The kids have VBS next week, which will lighten the load some in the mornings (with the exception of the toddlers; in two weeks there is a VBS going on in which they can ALL go, which our relief staff will love!).
Speaking of toddlers, we are losing Brandon today to go back to his mom and dad. :-( We had to pack him last night and it was heart-wrenching. We are his 3rd placement, so we Jonathan pulled out his suitcase last night, it was an utter meltdown; the boy knows a move is coming. Screaming, crying, trying to take his stuff back out of bags and put it back away, etc. We also had to break it to the other kiddos, and they were upset - he's only been with us a few weeks, but has quickly joined ranks as their foster brother. *sigh* Only once have we looked on the leaving of a child from our house with joy and gladness in the year we've been here.
Maggie is going through the typical first week of "testing the boundaries". She's acting out via food, trying to use that as her control. We typically don't power struggle with the kiddos; if they don't eat, it's not a big deal - they just get it for their next meal (this has happened once or twice per kid in the house - usually doesn't happen again). I'm not strict on them cleaning their plates - our rule is all your veggies and fruit and half of the main entree, even if you don't care for it. Anything else, I don't care if you eat it or not (such as the bread, rice, etc). For her though, it's makes me roll her eyes; she's working on three pieces of fruit and refusing to eat them. We even had an awesome dessert last night, made by our executive director's wife (her creation with Jonathan's creativity in the picture!), and nope - she threw her fruit on the floor. Jonathan rinsed it and put it back on her plate. *sigh* So she spent some time in the corner yesterday for being very rude and disrespectful to our volunteer (and Jonathan!) yesterday, and depending on breakfast, might again this morning! But Jonathan and I brought her into our room last night and talked with her; she cried, and it's not easy for me, either. She is the exact same age I was when my mom died, and though I struggled for years and years with that, I at least had my familiar family and friends around me, not in a completely unfamiliar surrounding.
But anyway, this is getting longish and I need to take a shower. I'll update again after our appointment!
Monday, June 9, 2008
Baby Update
Here's the update of the day for y'all! :-)
We went to the OB today, instead of my scheduled appointment for tomorrow, since my blood pressure (BP) was kind of crazy over the weekend. We spent an hour on the fetal monitor, and since my BP has been spiking up over 150/100 anytime I get out of bed, I am now on a mild dose of blood pressure medicine so I don't stroke out next time I get up to go use the bathroom! I really don't like it, but that isn't uncommon; I don't do well on prescription medications. This one makes me groggy and shaky. But anyway, it seems to be doing the job; I've only been over 140/90 twice today (hypertension level), and yep, I'm still on bedrest until the little girls arrives into the world.
In the meantime, they are doing a slew of labwork on me and we have to go back in Wednesday morning for more. We will have all the results by my Thursday morning appointment and depending on the results, we could be induced Thursday or Friday. If everything comes back negative, we will probably be induced sometime next week, more for my health than the baby's. He'd like to see my get into my 38th week and see my body get a bit more naturally prepared for labor; with where I was at today, I run a higher risk for a c-section. But the baby dropped over the weekend, so he's hopeful with the extra pressure on my pelvis that I'll start to dilate a bit before we have to induce. It's thrown us for a bit of a loop; we were so sure that we were going to have a July baby (our original due date is June 29th), so two weeks early is not what we were expecting!
In other news, we got a new girl, age 7, today. Needless to say, she's a bit of a handful (she's ADHD, and really needs some guidance on respect, obedience, and manners!), and I feel guilty not being able to help her adjust more (only so much I can do in bed!) and then looking at us being off duty for at least two weeks. But at this point, we can only do what we can do, so I'm trying not to stress out about it. One of our kiddos, the 2 year boy, will be leaving on Thursday, and we're bummed; we've grown a bit attached to him over the past 5-6 weeks.
Well, we need to go to bed; I just wanted to post a quick update while I was online (we actually just finished our shopping list via Sam's Club click-n-pull) and we'll keep you posted!
We went to the OB today, instead of my scheduled appointment for tomorrow, since my blood pressure (BP) was kind of crazy over the weekend. We spent an hour on the fetal monitor, and since my BP has been spiking up over 150/100 anytime I get out of bed, I am now on a mild dose of blood pressure medicine so I don't stroke out next time I get up to go use the bathroom! I really don't like it, but that isn't uncommon; I don't do well on prescription medications. This one makes me groggy and shaky. But anyway, it seems to be doing the job; I've only been over 140/90 twice today (hypertension level), and yep, I'm still on bedrest until the little girls arrives into the world.
In the meantime, they are doing a slew of labwork on me and we have to go back in Wednesday morning for more. We will have all the results by my Thursday morning appointment and depending on the results, we could be induced Thursday or Friday. If everything comes back negative, we will probably be induced sometime next week, more for my health than the baby's. He'd like to see my get into my 38th week and see my body get a bit more naturally prepared for labor; with where I was at today, I run a higher risk for a c-section. But the baby dropped over the weekend, so he's hopeful with the extra pressure on my pelvis that I'll start to dilate a bit before we have to induce. It's thrown us for a bit of a loop; we were so sure that we were going to have a July baby (our original due date is June 29th), so two weeks early is not what we were expecting!
In other news, we got a new girl, age 7, today. Needless to say, she's a bit of a handful (she's ADHD, and really needs some guidance on respect, obedience, and manners!), and I feel guilty not being able to help her adjust more (only so much I can do in bed!) and then looking at us being off duty for at least two weeks. But at this point, we can only do what we can do, so I'm trying not to stress out about it. One of our kiddos, the 2 year boy, will be leaving on Thursday, and we're bummed; we've grown a bit attached to him over the past 5-6 weeks.
Well, we need to go to bed; I just wanted to post a quick update while I was online (we actually just finished our shopping list via Sam's Club click-n-pull) and we'll keep you posted!
Sunday, June 8, 2008
A Tisket, A Tasket, A Green & Yellow Basket
Okay, so I'm getting a bit bored. :-D Welcome to life on bedrest! Since my blood pressure (BP) has been fairly good today, Jonathan has allowed me some computer time while he takes a nap during naptime, so yeah - blog updates for you (as well as updating the bank statements, facebook, and e-mails).
I can't whine too much about being on bedrest; I've done this once before for three weeks while I had mono 2 1/2 years ago, so I can handle it, and yes, I've been behaving (for the most part). I did have Jonathan bring the kiddos clothes to me this morning while they were at church and I folded them while in bed (the girls were running out of clean underwear and socks), and oh yeah! My bed also turned into the hair salon this morning; do you know how long it takes to get all these girls' hair ready for church? It will be worse in a couple of months, when we will (tentatively) have six girls and two boys, not including our little girl and myself! Of course, that could change, but from what we've been told, that is about what we will have come another month or so.
It hasn't been the greatest weekend, though; my BP has been crazy. It doesn't help that my OB is out of town this weekend, so I've had to talk with the OB on call (he's from a different OB/GYN office). Needless to say, I like my doctor more; he is just very calm, thorough, and reassuring, and I needed that this weekend when my BP spiked up to 158/99 and we could not get it to go down. It finally did after several hours; this other OB continued to recommend bedrest and call my OB Monday (tomorrow) morning.
We're learning a few things about my blood pressure as we track it throughout the day, though. It is typically higher in the morning/early afternoon, and though it is never 120/70, it will typically stay around 135/85 if I lay quiet on my side (especially my left, but I can't live on my left side - my hip kills me after awhile). However, if I sneeze, go the bathroom, eat a meal, or anything, it will immediately shoot up over 140/90, which is very not good (the goal of the bedresting is to keep it below 140/90), and it can take 2-3 hours for it to go down again, though sometimes sooner. So even though I have my weekly checkup on Tuesday morning, I will call and talk to the nurse tomorrow morning to let her know how our weekend is going to see if she wants to change my appointment to Monday or not. It makes me a bit nervous that it is such a struggle to keep it below 140/90; hypertension during pregnancy restricts the blood flow to the uterus and placenta, so the baby doesn't get as much oxygen and nutrients and thus, the placenta will eventually start to disintegrate. Not the greatest environment for our little one!
Another odd pregnant thing happened this morning, too, that I will talk to our doctor about as well; I was in the shower this morning and noticed that all the skin below my belly-button is suddenly flabby. Truth be told, it makes me wonder if she has flipped herself sideways, because the top of my stomach is now very pronounced and hard. I think Jonathan is more worried about it than I am...
Anyway, I think that is about it for today! Oh, and check out Jonathan's blog at http://www.southerncoffee.blogspot.com/. He's doing a "dad edition" of my site, as he journals what it is like to run the house without me.
I can't whine too much about being on bedrest; I've done this once before for three weeks while I had mono 2 1/2 years ago, so I can handle it, and yes, I've been behaving (for the most part). I did have Jonathan bring the kiddos clothes to me this morning while they were at church and I folded them while in bed (the girls were running out of clean underwear and socks), and oh yeah! My bed also turned into the hair salon this morning; do you know how long it takes to get all these girls' hair ready for church? It will be worse in a couple of months, when we will (tentatively) have six girls and two boys, not including our little girl and myself! Of course, that could change, but from what we've been told, that is about what we will have come another month or so.
It hasn't been the greatest weekend, though; my BP has been crazy. It doesn't help that my OB is out of town this weekend, so I've had to talk with the OB on call (he's from a different OB/GYN office). Needless to say, I like my doctor more; he is just very calm, thorough, and reassuring, and I needed that this weekend when my BP spiked up to 158/99 and we could not get it to go down. It finally did after several hours; this other OB continued to recommend bedrest and call my OB Monday (tomorrow) morning.
We're learning a few things about my blood pressure as we track it throughout the day, though. It is typically higher in the morning/early afternoon, and though it is never 120/70, it will typically stay around 135/85 if I lay quiet on my side (especially my left, but I can't live on my left side - my hip kills me after awhile). However, if I sneeze, go the bathroom, eat a meal, or anything, it will immediately shoot up over 140/90, which is very not good (the goal of the bedresting is to keep it below 140/90), and it can take 2-3 hours for it to go down again, though sometimes sooner. So even though I have my weekly checkup on Tuesday morning, I will call and talk to the nurse tomorrow morning to let her know how our weekend is going to see if she wants to change my appointment to Monday or not. It makes me a bit nervous that it is such a struggle to keep it below 140/90; hypertension during pregnancy restricts the blood flow to the uterus and placenta, so the baby doesn't get as much oxygen and nutrients and thus, the placenta will eventually start to disintegrate. Not the greatest environment for our little one!
Another odd pregnant thing happened this morning, too, that I will talk to our doctor about as well; I was in the shower this morning and noticed that all the skin below my belly-button is suddenly flabby. Truth be told, it makes me wonder if she has flipped herself sideways, because the top of my stomach is now very pronounced and hard. I think Jonathan is more worried about it than I am...
Anyway, I think that is about it for today! Oh, and check out Jonathan's blog at http://www.southerncoffee.blogspot.com/. He's doing a "dad edition" of my site, as he journals what it is like to run the house without me.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Bedrest (Again!)
I think my title says it all.
Bedrest.
Again.
But this time for longer; at least until next Tuesday, when we go back into the doctor for our weekly checkup. I have a funny feeling though that I will be on bedrest until our little one decides to make an appearance into the world. Our OB is already planning on having us not go past our due date due to my blood pressure issues. Thankfully, it is still gestational hypertension and not preeclampsia (a much more serious pregnancy induced hypertension). And as we track my blood pressure, we tend to find that it is higher in the morning and early afternoons than in the evening, which I would have figured would be the other way around. It's frusterating at times; for example, just taking a shower this morning bumped it up to 144/94, and took an hour and a half before it came down again.
We are managing, though, and Jonathan has done well in running the house. Thankfully, we have three kids going on home visits today for the weekend, so it won't be some busy here. How we are going to do the grocery shopping will be interesting... the Sam's Club order will be fine (we do it online and just pick it up), but Publix... we're still working through that! Plus, since Jonathan is cooking, he needs to make a menu that suits him; my cooking style is different! :-)
I'm keeping my sanity; I pulled out my craft basket yesterday and got started on an unfinished cross-stitch I started right after our honeymoon, and am working on a new afghan that will probably end up being a Christmas present for someone (I tend do give craft stuff for gifts if I can plan enough ahead!). I'm also reading through Jane Austin's books, which is fun, and a friend of mine brought me a whole stack of magazines to flip through this morning. Maximum time for bedrest should only be about three weeks, so I think I can handle it.
Well, I should be signing off now - have a wonderful day! :-)
Bedrest.
Again.
But this time for longer; at least until next Tuesday, when we go back into the doctor for our weekly checkup. I have a funny feeling though that I will be on bedrest until our little one decides to make an appearance into the world. Our OB is already planning on having us not go past our due date due to my blood pressure issues. Thankfully, it is still gestational hypertension and not preeclampsia (a much more serious pregnancy induced hypertension). And as we track my blood pressure, we tend to find that it is higher in the morning and early afternoons than in the evening, which I would have figured would be the other way around. It's frusterating at times; for example, just taking a shower this morning bumped it up to 144/94, and took an hour and a half before it came down again.
We are managing, though, and Jonathan has done well in running the house. Thankfully, we have three kids going on home visits today for the weekend, so it won't be some busy here. How we are going to do the grocery shopping will be interesting... the Sam's Club order will be fine (we do it online and just pick it up), but Publix... we're still working through that! Plus, since Jonathan is cooking, he needs to make a menu that suits him; my cooking style is different! :-)
I'm keeping my sanity; I pulled out my craft basket yesterday and got started on an unfinished cross-stitch I started right after our honeymoon, and am working on a new afghan that will probably end up being a Christmas present for someone (I tend do give craft stuff for gifts if I can plan enough ahead!). I'm also reading through Jane Austin's books, which is fun, and a friend of mine brought me a whole stack of magazines to flip through this morning. Maximum time for bedrest should only be about three weeks, so I think I can handle it.
Well, I should be signing off now - have a wonderful day! :-)
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
A New Month Has Dawned
So, it's the third of the month, but still a new month for us! :-) All the kids are out of school as of tomorrow and I'm looking forward to the slightly more relaxed schedule, especially as I need rest breaks more often!
But summer is great, and Jonathan and I are looking forward to things we have planned, such as the library's summer reading club (appropriately bug themed this year, which is great for our kids!), swimming at the YMCA and swim center, going to the park, having daily craft/school prep time when it is too hot to play outside, and reading through a book(s) as a family (we are starting James and the Giant Peach tonight). We are also starting a new devotional series with them; last summer and fall we went through the Pentateuch (the 1st five books of the Bible), and this spring have gone through the Ten Commandments, the Greatest Commandments, and the Fruit of the spirit. This summer, though, we are going to start going through the Bible and learning about the names of God, which I have really enjoyed studying as I write their daily "lesson" for them.
My only hitch in starting all this is that Baby Rogers may be coming a little earlier than we had been planning. I've been planning for a July baby, as we have an end of June due date, but today at our weekly OB appointment I was told that I will most likely not be allowed past my due date and need to prepare for the fact that I may have to go early. The reason? My stinking blood pressure; the stint of 1 1/2 to 2 weeks ago when my BP skyrocketed seems to be having lasting effects. Though my BP is not in the danger zone at this point, it is still higher than normal. Secondly, I'm retaining fluid like mad, though I'm drinking a gallon of water a day. I gained five pounds of water weight in one week, which frustrated me to no ends, as we really been watching my diet of the past couple of weeks. I feel like a bloated whale, literally! So though I'm excited about seeing our little one earlier than we thought, I'm not wild about the idea of being induced - harder labor (I want to do this naturally), higher chance of a C-section, not being able to labor quite as I'd like to, etc. But it's about the health of me and the baby in the long run, so if it's in God's will, it is!
Well, I'm working on dinner so we can go swim tonight - adios!
But summer is great, and Jonathan and I are looking forward to things we have planned, such as the library's summer reading club (appropriately bug themed this year, which is great for our kids!), swimming at the YMCA and swim center, going to the park, having daily craft/school prep time when it is too hot to play outside, and reading through a book(s) as a family (we are starting James and the Giant Peach tonight). We are also starting a new devotional series with them; last summer and fall we went through the Pentateuch (the 1st five books of the Bible), and this spring have gone through the Ten Commandments, the Greatest Commandments, and the Fruit of the spirit. This summer, though, we are going to start going through the Bible and learning about the names of God, which I have really enjoyed studying as I write their daily "lesson" for them.
My only hitch in starting all this is that Baby Rogers may be coming a little earlier than we had been planning. I've been planning for a July baby, as we have an end of June due date, but today at our weekly OB appointment I was told that I will most likely not be allowed past my due date and need to prepare for the fact that I may have to go early. The reason? My stinking blood pressure; the stint of 1 1/2 to 2 weeks ago when my BP skyrocketed seems to be having lasting effects. Though my BP is not in the danger zone at this point, it is still higher than normal. Secondly, I'm retaining fluid like mad, though I'm drinking a gallon of water a day. I gained five pounds of water weight in one week, which frustrated me to no ends, as we really been watching my diet of the past couple of weeks. I feel like a bloated whale, literally! So though I'm excited about seeing our little one earlier than we thought, I'm not wild about the idea of being induced - harder labor (I want to do this naturally), higher chance of a C-section, not being able to labor quite as I'd like to, etc. But it's about the health of me and the baby in the long run, so if it's in God's will, it is!
Well, I'm working on dinner so we can go swim tonight - adios!
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Summer is Almost Here!
I think I'm actually a crazy mom who is looking forward to the summer! We already have one out of school, three more finish today, and our oldest finishes next Wednesday. I've enjoyed having four kids home this week, and I'm working on a tentative "schedule for the summer" which has worked great this week. For example:
- Wake-up/clean rooms/breakfast: 8:00 am
- Play outside until 11:00'ish (until it gets too hot)
- Craft/reading time until lunch (will be 12:30'ish) - this splits up the kids; 4 kids read while 4 kids do their craft/school activity; we switch halfway through.
- Nap/Quiet time: 1'ish - 3:30
- 3:30 - 6:00: Playtime and/or outing time (usually swimming - we are at the YMCA or Swim Center several times a week; we also have a couple awesome parks that we enjoy going to)
- 6:30 - supper time! My volunteers arrive around six to eat with us, and then help with whatever I need help with - bathing toddlers, dishes, laundry, sweeping/mopping, etc. It has been a wonderful help for me, and I'll be leaning on them even more after the baby comes, I'm sure!
The one thing Jonathan and I are still debating is bedtime for the kiddos; the toddlers will still be around 8:00 pm (we have learned that once you miss that first bedtime window, they are nearly impossible to get back into bedtime routine!), but the school-aged kids can stay up later than eight in the summer. About two weeks before school starts, we start backing up the bedtime to the school year time, so the start of school is an easy transition. Anyway, we aren't sure what ages will we have at that time; we have three leaving in the next couple of weeks, and two more in the middle of the summer, so we may just have to play it by ear.
In other news, we are doing really well. Once my medical stuff started clearing up last week, I have felt so, so, so much better! I'm starting to feel very preggers, though; getting the bigger/heavy feeling. The kids are obsessed with my stomach right now; I'm constantly getting touched, patted, listening to, etc, all day long. One of the three year olds has this horrible habit of yanking up my shirt to look at it, no matter who is around (especially if they are asking about the baby!). Six hours of uninterrupted sleep is rare and wonderful, like last night. Of course, I had crashed about nine o'clock, Jonathan came to bed around ten, and I woke up about 3:30 for the bathroom run and nope, could not fall back asleep. Of course, I woke the kitties up when I got up and Egypt loves to snuggle in my hair, but she kept trying to lick my face, which drives me crazy! In some ways I cannot wait until they are big enough to stay outside 24/7; my sleep will approve (our hope is that they will be totally outside before the baby is born). So I'm up - revamped the June budget (just have to show it to Jonathan to get approval), and now I'm blogging! But this means I'll actually get a shower this morning! :-)
Well, I should sign off; we have a big day today! My PreK's finish school today, and get out early, and our six year-old is leaving with his adoptive family today after a big campus-wide party tonight to celebrate/say goodbye to him and his older sister with their new family and friends they've made here. He's excited, but a bit apprehensive, too. Anyway, he and I have to finish packing this morning, and then make cupcakes for tonight. But pray for our other kiddos, especially the other boys. D'ante's been struggling with it, and Logan has been horribly jealous and thus lashes out verbally in cruel ways towards him and some of the other kids. This is one other hard part with these kids; they become siblings, and it is hard when the family dynamic is changed. We've worked really hard with X leaving to work through the adoption with the other kids; for some of the younger ones, adoption is this scary black hole kids fall into and we never hear from them again. We weren't here when Z, the baby, was adopted over Christmas, and when we came back the kids kept going on and on about how somebody just came and took him! I felt bad that no one had worked through that with them, so with these upcoming summer adoptions, we've really tried to prepare them.
Okay, this is getting long - y'all have a wonderful day! :-)
PS It's May 29th! One more month to our due date!
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