Thursday, October 2, 2008

Post from October 1st, 2008

Doc Appointment
posted on 10/01/2008

We went to the doctor today. She said I am between 2-3 cm. . . still 50% effaced and "all soft and ready". Also, the baby is at a -1 which means she is 4cm up and 1 cm away from the birth canal. So basically she can could arrive any day now.



Of course this said, my Doctor will be out of town from the 3rd to the 12th of October. She has asked me to cross my legs. I am thinknig that means Spoon will be born sometime between those dates. That is just the way things happen.

Post from Sept 29th, 2008

Today I am officially off of bed rest. Yipppppeeee!

My goal for today was to clean the house, as it DESPERATELY needs it before Spoon arrives. However, being the smart girl that I am, I decided to remind work that I was off bed rest. OF COURSE this means they need me to work. So I figure what the hey, I need money. . .so I go in.


Dumb, Dumb, Dumb ME!

It was a PAINFUL day. Every step, my body was yelling at me. I walked slow and in a strut resembeling Quasimodo. By the time I got home I could barely stand. Needless to say unless I start to feel better over the next week, I will NOT be repeating that mistake. UGH!!!!



BUT AT LEAST I AM OFF BED REST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Update: 20 days of fun

So as many of you know today was my appointment with the doctor to see if I was off bed rest or if the baby was still trying to push her way out.

The good news is that I have not dialated any more. I am still at 2 cm and 50% effaced. Yipppeee for lack of labor process.

HOWEVER, since I did start to dilate at 33 weeks the doctor mentioned I might not want to work until I hit the 37 week mark. As of now if spoon is born she will have to spend time in the ICU because she is not big enough nor developed enough. After 37 weeks she could be born safely and most likely avoid the ICU. So of course like any responsible mom to be I said, fine I won't work for a few weeks. . . no biggie. I can handle no work, gives me more time to do other things. There is still SOOOO much to do to get ready for the baby and not to mention the house could use a good cleaning. No work, no problem.

Of course these were the thoughts in my head. . not reality. My smart and concerned husband had the sense enough to ask "does this mean she is still on bed rest?". To which the Doctor replied "ohhh of course" . . and to which I whined "COMPLETE BED REST???" and of course the doctor replied "Yes, most definately" . . . I even begged for 30 mins a day to walk around or clean or put sheets on the crib. . .ANYTHING . . .to which I got a big fat NO. Complete bed rest. . . means complete bed rest.

I am not just whining because I am bored. I am not just whining because complete bed rest means I can not even sit up, making even computing hard and painful on my wrists. I am whining because there are 20 million things to do. I am whining because Mark has papers and trials and should not be coming home to clean, fix me meals and wait on me. I am whining because I feel like a total burden and like I can not contribute. :(

However, once again my smart husband knew what to say. He reminded me that our babies welfare is more important than a camping trip (damn I am missing that this weekend), cleaning the house or even going to the grocery store and that me being on bed rest is what I have to do to keep the little one safe. He also reminded me that marriage is team work and sometimes one person pulls more weight than the other and this is his time to pull more weight. . . and he is okay with that.

It made me feel better but I admit I still have the urge to sneak and do the dishes. But I won't. I shall lay here like a vegetable and only get up to go to the bathroom. Fun, Fun for 20 whole days.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Spoon is making a break for it

I figured the easiest way to update everyone is through a blog, that way I can save the fingers and only update once.

Friday night, while walking my brother in law back to his hotel, I got hit by a skate boarder. It was an accident, although a stupid one. He just did not judge his space or how much time he had to stop correctly, so when he attempted to stop he flew off the skateboard and into me. Hitting me really hard in the shoulder and flinging me back. Luckily I did not fall. The skateboarder apologized and I went on my way with some back and shoulder pain.

Well all the next day (yesterday) I felt like crap. I was having a lot of back pain and I felt feverish. I probably should of called the doc earlier (like my mom, Andrella and Mark told me to do) . But I always worry I am being a drama queen and over reacting. So I waited for Mark to get home. He was not overly worried until I told him that I had only felt the baby move on two occasions that day and demanded I call the emergency line right away.

The on call doc thought everything was prob okay but since I did not feel the baby more than twice she said that is an automatic trip to labor and delivery for monitoring.

We arrived at Aurora Medical at 9pm and were checked in (they did not have any of my pre-registration information that I KNOW I did in April, which was annoying but whatever). They hooked me up to the monitor and of course Spoon started kicking up a storm as soon as the put the sensors on me. After an hour, they said the baby was def fine. . . plenty of movement and a strong heartbeat. Mark then asked what the second number on the monitor was and confirmed it was my contractions. But they were mostly just light with a couple of strong ones which was normal for my stage. So she was going to call the doc and give her the information to see about releasing me.

But then my contractions got stronger. By the time the nurse came back my contractions were stronger and 2 mins apart. So of course they checked for dilation. I was 2 cm dialated, 50% effaced and my cervix was soft. Being that I am only 33 weeks pregnant this was not good news to me. I don't want this baby out for at least another 3 weeks and neither does the doc. But I have been worried lately she was trying to come early, guess I was right.

Next another nurse came in and said that the first nurse thought I was 37 weeks along, which is why she thought this was all normal. But being that I was only 33 weeks they did not want me being dialated or having contractions 2 mins apart. So they gave me a shot to relax my body and try to stop everything. Then said they would monitor me for an hour to see what happened.

Okay let me say I HATE that shot. Totally worth it, totally will take it once a day if it keeps Spoon in there another 3 weeks at least but not a fan of the feeling. It basically feels like when I take my strong inhalers, makes me feel all jittery and shaky like I have metal running through my veins. Not fun. But it did make the Spoon EXTRA hyper . . .I thought she was going to kick her way through my belly.

Within that hour my contractions slowed down to only having big ones every 20 mins or so. Which is good. And they checked again and I was not dilating any more. So they sent me home with bed rest orders and I have to call the doc on Monday before I get cleared to get off bed rest. Fun, fun. We got home and got into bed at about 430am. . which is why I slept till almost 11. We were both EXHAUSTED.

Of course now this puts us in full rush mode. It seems this baby may not be working on our schedule so we better stop slacking and get ready. My bags were pretty much packed, but last night while at the hospital we made a list of all the things we may want that were not in the bag and added those today. Now DH is running around by himself today trying to get things for his office so we can go ahead and get that set up with the crib. . (something we have been procrastinating on).

So that was my fun night. Certainly lit a fire under both of our butts to get things done. . . of course since I am on bed rest my fire is just burning my butt since I can't actually do anything :(


Sunday, August 24, 2008

The Nesting Begins

So what happens when you leave a pregnant woman home alone? Answer, she goes a little crazy. Ha ha.

Yesterday after Mark headed out for a day of climbing with Joe, I started to feel restless. I looked around at all the boxes of baby stuff piling up, all the bins of clothes, blanket and towels lacking organization and took action.

First I sorted through all the bins and separated them (i.e. clothes, blanket, bath stuff, feeding stuff and so on) so I could figure out how many more bins I needed to make this organized. Then I folded all the babies clothes (which I washed this week and put them away).

Then I went went through all the boxes and took all the things we would not need right away downstairs to the basement (toddler gym, travel bed and so on).

Then I busted the pack and play out of the box and went to put it together a) to make sure it did not need to be returned and b) So then I could break it down into the travel bag and put it in the basement. This by far was NOT an easy task when ones hands are SWOLLEN so much that is caused carpel tunnel (my fingers constantly go numb and certain movements cause immense pain). The swollen hands made simple tasks like snapping snaps painful. Not to mention, who does the instruction books for these things. All they do is show you the parts and then a couple of pictures. . . if you are LUCKY it has one or two instructions but not really. It is like some man said ha ha she is pregnant and hormonal lets see if we can make her crack over a pack and play. The changing table attachment was the worst, Bella was watching me wearily while I was cursing over it. . .just in case it flew across the room in a moment of frustration. But after MANY choice words and having to walk away a few times I got it together. However, by this point my hands were so swollen and sore I could not break it back down so I pushed it into the corner to wait for Mark to get home. Even though I would of rather of broken it down before hand so he would not think I was crazy for putting it together with 5-9 weeks before the baby arrives.

Here is the finished product:


After that, I put together the car seat (which was MUCH easier) and added on the cute car seat toy that Nancy gave me. I resisted the urge to put it in my car. Ha ha. Gotta love the nesting, want everything to be ready and perfect mode.



After that, Unpacked and figured out the bottle warmer. I put batteries in all the toys. And then I cleared out all the boxes.

Then I hit the road. First I went to buy Mark's birthday present (his birthday is Sept 2nd if anyone needed the reminder). Then I went by REI to make sure they had our stroller in the color we wanted for the sale price they had online. After that I went to babies-r-us where with the gift cards Rebecca gave me I bought the extra car base for Mark's car (damn these things are expensive), a sheet for the pack and play, a set of baby hangers and some mitts to keep her from scratching her face. I must admit I spent about 30 minutes looking at all the clothes. ESP the cute little coats and faux down vests. But I resisted the urge.

After Babies-R-us I went to Wal-mart, where I picked up my online order of the changing pad and the ocean wonders mobile. Since they said I had to take it out in the box it came in (which was HUGE) they had to get me a cart. Go figure the only cart they had was a huge gardening cart, so here I am this huge pregnant lady with a huge box on a huge cart going down these narrow aisles. Thanks wal-mart.

After Wal-Mart I headed over to Bed, Bath and Beyond. . where I finally exhausted the WONDERFUL wedding gift card from Melis, Rockstar and Angi and bought three more canvas bins (in brown and green) for the babies stuff. But of course I had to stop at the bathroom first, as I am pregnant and we must pee every 30 minutes at the minimum and I have been holding it in for an hour. I can honestly say that bathroom stalls are not built with pregnant women in mind. When you try to shut the stall door you find that your belly is blocking its path, so you have to straddle the toilet to get the door closed. Fun fun. When I attempted to leave the bathroom I found that the staff was unloading some furniture from the back room blocking the exit to the bathroom (Mark does this count for a false imprisonment lawsuit???) They apologized and I waited fie minutes while they moved it all out of the way. They were nice enough to offer me some cleaning supplies to entertain myself while I waited. Ha ha. No thank you.

I was dehydrated so of course before my next stop what better to do then refill my bladder (Spoon does seem to think it is a trampoline when it is full, so I try to oblige). So I stopped at chic-fila for a caffine free diet coke. One of the FEW places that has that . . .God bless them. Ha ha.

My last stop was target where I loaded a crib matress into their tiny shopping cart and tried not to brain anyone with it or knock displays down as I made my way to the cash register. Of course I must admit I did stop in the clothing section and got a few cute things for $5 or less (they had the cutest jean skirt.. . who could resist). Then I played reverse Jenga to get it all in my car (cutting my hand in the process . .. mean hangers).

When I arrived home, Mark was still out so I unloaded my car quickly before the rain started. It took about 5 trips with Bella checking out everything very carefully as it came in just in case there was food involved.

After Mark arrived home (and laughed at all I had done) we headed back out and got the BOB stroller. LOVE it but damn that was our most expensive item, it better last as long as everyone promises.

Now minus the shelf for the baby stuff we have pretty much all of our big items. Thank the lord. It is nice to feel a little more prepared. As if the night could not get any more organized we sat down and figured out how we were going to arrange everything and decided to set it up the following weekend.

Of course it did not continue that way. The next morning we put together the crib, which looks a LOT better when it is put together (yippeee for the $20 garage sale crib) and put the mattress in. It looked pretty good.






Of course once we got it together we realized that it was way bigger than the space we were thinking of putting it in. . . and not only that it was bigger than anywhere we measured. I guess I am prepared with some things but I still have a LOOOONG way to go.

I do need a break now because my whole body ACHES!!!!!

Oh and for those who I have been talking about it too I start hostessing on Monday which should give my body a much needed break. :) Wish me luck!

Saturday, March 8, 2008

The Solomon Family Expands

It has been an exciting week. This weekend we found out were were pregnant and yesterday we went to the doctor and found out our estimated due date is September 19th.

Can you say WOW!?!

It feels like just yesterday I was thinking how cute Mark was as he was sitting on my couch in Gosnold Mews for the first time, then in a blink of an eye we were moving off to DC together to start on Mark's law school adventure, another blink and we are engaged .. .planning the rest of our lives together and before we can even blink again we are married.

It still seems magical and new to me that we are married, that Mark is my husband. But now here we are in Denver on part two of our adventure, as Mark finishes off his second year of law school . . .me 12 weeks pregnant. Before the end of this year, our next adventure, Parenting, begins.

I can not WAIT for this adventure. Where the idea is a little scary right now because we were planning on waiting another year and a half, it is also exciting. How can it not be exciting, we are expanding our family. . .we are going to have a miniature version of ourselves to love.

All of this makes me realize how lucky I am to have Mark. He has already become the doting husband and the concerned father. Immediately looking up all the possible harmful effects of the prescription meds I was taking before I knew I was pregnant. Making a veggie tray for me so when I get home from work and he is asleep I still have a healthy dinner. Helping me do research on what is good and bad for the baby. But most of all just being the sweetest, most considerate and wonderful husband ever.

I can not wait for our next adventure, because I know together we will do a GREAT job.

Friday, February 29, 2008

Feb 29, 2008 :: Recording podcast fun

We were testing microphones and had some fun making an epic sounding podcast with absolutely no content.

Enjoy.

Thursday, January 24, 2008