A general update

Hello,

It’s been a while… I know.  It’s been a challenging week.  Here is a general update of all that we’ve been dealing with.  No wonder I’m stressed!

Monday started with a visit to “Dr. Risky” who is aka Maternal-Fetal Medicine or Perinatologist – the high risk obstetrician.  I was very anxious about this appointment.  What were they going to tell me?  My worst fear was (honestly) that I was going to be fine and I had nothing to worry about.  Well, I guess my worst fear didn’t come true.  With all my anxiety about the appointment – my blood pressure was about 140/80 – too high.  I told them I was very anxious and that I had been taking my blood pressure everyday and it was around 115/70 and that I had even fainted because of the low blood pressure, but they said they wanted me back on the medication.  I asked what BP they wanted me at and they said 120/70, or thereabouts.  So, I came home and checked my BP, and it was fine.  So, I haven’t started it up again.  It’s not something they prescribe pregnant women unless they have to, and if I don’t have to take it – I won’t. 

I also have a low amount protein in my urine, both a symptom and a sign of preeclampsia and just generally that the kidneys aren’t functioning as well as they should.  This may be just the way I am when pregnant, so they’re not too worried right now, but it will be something they keep a close eye on. 

I also had an ultrasound at the appointment.   It was great to see our little baby.  Baby was moving around quite a bit and wanted to face backwards a lot during the scan.  We got a couple of pictures to keep and baby is measuring right on time.  I’m 14 weeks now and starting to feel better.  I ate dinner again these past two nights.  Yeah! 

You would think, on the other hand, that having low blood pressure sounds great!  Especially after having high blood pressure…. well, you’d be wrong.  I’ve been feeling very low energy and very tired, more than the usual.  I get very tired going up stairs and generally doing anything.  And fainting is not fun, either.  But, for now – I’ll take the low blood pressure and all that comes with it.  My BP has, like I said, about 105-115/70-80. 

I got a migraine on Wednesday night/Thursday morning.  It was pretty awful.  I can’t take any medication for migraines, partly because I haven’t had one in so long that I don’t have it anymore and even if I did, it’s not a great medication to take when pregnant.  Lance took care of Alex all night on Wednesday and woke him up on Thursday and got him ready to go.  While I was puking in the bathroom, Alex would come in and scream that he didn’t want to go to preschool and didn’t want to put his clothes on and this… and that…  It was so rough.  I knew what was happening – he had missed me the night before, even though he had a good time with Lance, and by the time Thursday morning rolled around and I was still incapacitated, he broke down.  I felt like such a bad Mom.  All my kid wanted was a little time with me and I couldn’t give it to him.  I know that I’m not a bad Mom, in fact, I’m a good Mom – but in those moments – it’s very difficult to think that way.

Alex has had an ear infection and we had to learn a few things about ear tubes and infections before the medication started to work.  First, warm rag on the ear for a few minutes before putting the medicine in.  It warms everything up, Alex loved it because it felt good and he got to hold it and once you take it off – you use a q-tip or something else to clean all the gunk out of the ear first.  Once you have it warmed up and cleaned out, then put the medicine drops in the  ear and it (mostly) goes down smoothly.  At first we were just putting the ear drops in and trying to get through all the gunk and it wasn’t working.  I was ready to go get oral antibiotics if needed, but after those tricks – we didn’t need to and I can (hopefully!) say – his ears seem to be fine now.

We also started taking him to see my chiropractor.  She told me that ear infections are often caused by misalignment of the back and neck.  We took him in and she did a couple of tests.  She asked me if he turned his head one way more than the other, and I said I hadn’t noticed.  But, I thought back to when he was a baby and he would NOT sleep on his back – it had to be his side, and he definitely favored one side.  So, she did his adjustments and he loved it!  It was strange watching it all happen.  She was so good with him (she has 4 kids of her own!) and would ask him if he heard the popcorn in his back when she was doing the adjusting.  I think the adjustments were definitely helping with his ear infection and we took him 3 times last week and go on Monday, too.  

I’ve also been seeing a accupuncturist and have enjoyed my treatments.  At first I felt like it wasn’t doing anything, but I can see now that it is.  I come out much calmer and remain calm for at least 3 days.  I have been clenching my jaw, which not only hurts my jaw muscles which are sore, but has been hurting my teeth.  She has been really helping me with this. 

So, there is a reason I’m writing all this.  We have been having very busy weeks with many appointments for myself or for Alex.  I don’t know if I’ll be able to do another post this week or not.  I feel bad that I haven’t posted any pictures lately, but the truth is that I haven’t been taking many pictures.  I’m hoping with feeling better that I will be able to do more.  I miss showing you all what we’ve been up to. 

This week we have for Allison: 2 chiropractor appointments, 1 regular OB appt, 1 massage appt, 1 accupuncture appt and who knows what else.

For Alex: at least one chiropractor appt and a swine flu vaccine appt. 

Busy week!