Christmas and Pregnancy Update

We had a good Christmas but we missed not being with family this year.  Mike wasn’t surprised by any of his Christmas because everything that he would buy for himself in the month leading up to Christmas I would quickly confiscate and wrap as best I could so he wouldn’t know what gift was what.  

He did surprise me this year with a Kitchen Aid.  He used the money that mom and dad gave us plus the money from his parents and the money he was going to spend on my gift anyways and got me something that I never would have got for myself.  I love it and I can’t wait to be able to use it more!

We went to my weekly doctor appointment yesterday and they told me I was already dilated to a 3 and I was effaced 50%.  The doctor said he is VERY low which I already new because it feels like he is going to fall out when I stand up!  I hit 37 weeks on Friday so we are in a perfect position for him to come this week.  My doctor has been very clear that if I don't come on my own in the next few weeks they will induce labor.  That makes me extremely happy because I don't think I could be on bed rest until the end of January AND I'm SO ready to meet our little man!

Me at 36 1/2 weeks.  The picture really doesn't do my stomach justice.  This is the best picture I could get to how far he sticks out for how far a long I am.  Some days are worse than others.  

Secret Santa & Ornaments

Here are a few of the crafts that I've been working on for gifts over the past few weeks.  I can now post these because I've handed them out.  After Christmas I will have a bunch more if I can ever get them done!

This was a gift I made for my work's secret Santa.  I just used mod podge, paper, and stickers.  It was VERY simple once I figured out what to do.  Unfortunately, I couldn't ask her what her colors were because it was a secret Santa gift.  

This was just a sticker that I had.  I thought it added a nice touch to the gift.  
In my recipe group this month we all made ornaments to give to one another.  I found these stars at Michael's for 25 cents and then painted them white.  I then used mod podge to put the cute Christmas paper on.  You can't tell from the pictures but the paper has glitter on it.  I just drilled a hole through the top of the star and used thin twine to tie it up.  (Yes, that is my grandma couch from the Goodwill!)



This ornament is the only one I didn't like how it turned out because I messed up on it.  I was trying to use as little paper as I could and fit three stars on one sheet but I didn't think about the trees not going straight up and down.  

These stars where a very simple ornament to make and if you had specific colors for your tree you could make some cute decorations for next year (or this year if you fast!) I was able to make 12 of these fairly quickly.  

Bed Rest

I've now received my results from my most resent tests and they have now put me on bed rest.  With the results they found that I'm am PRE-preeclampsia.  I don't have anything yet but if I don't start resting now it could easily develop into something and mostly likely would.  Luckily, I don't have anything serious yet and as long as I stay off my feet I should be fine.  During my non-stress tests, our little guy is acting fine so we don't have any need to worry about him.  I think the hardest part about bed rest is seeing my house a mess and not being able to fix it!  Thank you everyone who has shown concern for us over the past couple of weeks and hopefully now things will slow down.      

24 hours of FUN!

Well, here is my update on the pregnancy situation.  We found out today that drinking water DOES help with the amniotic fluid level.  Imagine that!  My fluid was back up to the perfect level and now I can at least stop worrying about that.  

Unfortunately, that wasn't all that we've found out today.  I also had a non-stress test again today which showed my blood pressure being up again for the second time during the tests.  The doctor is having me collect ALL of my urine for the next 24 hours (fun huh?) so they can check it for protein and other deposits.  They think that I could possibly have preeclampsia, toxemia, or pregnancy induced hypertension which is basically all the same thing.  The nurse hinted that I might now be on moderate bed rest but I won't find out for sure until tomorrow during my doctor's appointment.  

Even with all this stress I can't help but think how blessed I am.  It seems that things keep coming up that help me discover complications before they become actual complications or more severe.  For example:  The doctor noticed that I was measuring large so he scheduled the ultrasound which in turn found out that I had really low amniotic fluid.  Because of the low amniotic fluid I've had to do the non-stress tests which has brought up that I've been having high blood pressure for a week.  Hopefully, we have caught this complication early enough to limit any serious difficulties.  

One plus about MODERATE bed rest would be that ability to get a lot of my crafts done or start some new ones that I've been meaning to do!  Unfortunately, we would be loosing out on a good chunk of money we were planning on getting.  We have to take the bad with the good.  I'm sure everything will turn out alright and I'm surprisingly calm about it all!

ps...During the ultrasound we had the tech do a double check on the gender....He is definitely a boy!

My Mom's Creativity!

Since I can't post any of my recent creations, (most of them are gifts so I have to wait until after Christmas,) I decided to show you something that my mom is great at that I never mastered.  Over the years she has done SEVERAL toll painting projects but this is one of them that she gave to me that I love.  It has personality AND it is something that my children can play with without breaking. (Don't look at the shelf too closely.  I didn't have the energy to dust before I put the nativity set up.)  

Pregnancy Woes

At my ultrasound on Tuesday we discovered that our little guy IS measuring two week larger than he should.  I'm not that surprised based on the genes that were handed to him.  Unfortunately, we also discovered that my amniotic fluid was REALLY low.  For the next week I have to drink a gallon of water a day and go in for another ultrasound next Tuesday to see if the fluid level has risen.  If the fluid level doesn't rise they might have to get him out prematurely.  Hopefully, the fluid is low just because I wasn't drinking enough water and not something else.  I also have to go into the hospital now for non stress tests.  I've done one already this week and I have another one on Friday.  They just measure our babies heart rate and movement for a period of time.  They also found out the I'm having "contractions" already but until I can feel them we don't have to worry.  

Drinking a gallon of water a day is almost painful at times.  I took a nap after drinking about 20 oz of water and woke up hurting A LOT from the strain on my bladder.  I hope that my body starts to get used to this mass amounts of water because I think I go to the bathroom 10 times a day now!  I was also starting to swell a little before I started drinking the water but now I can tell I've ballooned out.  At least I know that my body is starting to absorb the water!

Here is just some fun pregnancy humor that I found.  Most are VERY true!