Away To Me

OB Update

So I visited my OB this morning, her first appointment of the day. I really like her! Yes, I was having contractions. No, I'm not supposed to have them all day. But they aren't changing my cervix so I'm not worried. 

I am not on bed rest or any restrictions other than absolutely not lifting anything, especially not Jake. Which is going to be difficult. It also cramps my sheepherding. I trailer my sheep out to a field and now I can't do that cause I'm not allowed to lift anything, including the tail gate of the trailer. So I think I'll be selling my sheep.

My blood pressure was awesome again, 66/114.  Both babies' heartbeats could be heard. Lefty's was 136 and he was cooperative. He's the mellow one that doesn't move much. Poncho was all over the place, hard to get a handle on his heartbeat for awhile as he moves non-stop. I knew I felt him a lot, but it was nice to have the doppler on him and have the doc confirm that he was moving a lot. His heartbeat rate was 132. He was all the way up by my belly button today! I can feel him there right now as I type this. Too funny!

I go for an U/S appointment on 11/10 and then see my OB again on 11/11. Basically if I get these contractions again I'm to sit down or lay down and chill for as long as possible. If they get worse I'm to go to the ER. I told her I felt a little silly for calling as I wasn't in pain and the problem was gone by this morning. And she told me she's very glad I called that she wants me to call again if this happens and told hubby to make sure I call. She said, "That's what we are here for". I know that, but it is still nice to hear it. 

So that's the recap!

Pacing is for the birds

So here I've been a good little girl, sitting down, taking it easy, staying at home, etc. What happens I get crampy type contraction things going on. To the point where my back hurts and I've got that sensation running down the tops of my thighs. 

I had to call my OB and she wants me in first thing tomorrow morning. She said to continue to drink my fluids and to keep quiet the rest of the day/evening. Which is good, means it is not an emergency but something to check out soon. 

So really pacing just isn't my style! 

Jake and Marge

Pacing myself

Thank you to all who wrote their concerns about my last post. I can assure you, at the time I was over doing it, I never felt bad. It caught up to me later. And while I will still be working my dogs and doing a few trials, I've decided not to enter the trial that is the same weekend I turn 30 weeks. My body has told me it won't work and I'm listening. 

Today I paced myself. I spent a bunch of time on my butt. But I don't care. Honestly the babies come first, so I'm happy to sit and gestate. Although I must admit mentally it is not comforting having to ask for help. But hey, time to cowgirl up and get over that!

The only real accomplishments today was getting the cornice board for the babies' room sized and put together. I also returned something at Walmart and did a quick run through there to pick up non candy trick o treat items for Jake and of course a bag of candy. I mean I'm not a totally mean mom! But Play Doh and Match box cars and things like that are a fun trick o treat item for him at this age and he doesn't need all the candy. Since I'll be providing the trick o treat gifts for my friends to hand out to him, I figure this might be my only year to control his candy intake! Oh and just to explain why I'm bringing the items for my friends, we will be at a dog trial and he'll be the only trick o treater going from camp site to camp site. I dont' expect any of my friends to have candy or goodies for him on hand, so I warned them I'd be bringing stuff for them to hand out to him. Should be fun and a good first trick o treat experience for him. 

Well, now that I've had my 30 min break I better go start a simple dinner. Hubby can help with clean up later. That's my goal for tonight, to except his help with clean up. He almost always offers and tonight I'll agree. 

See, I learn! 

Feeling pregnant

So I hit 20 weeks on Friday and I have to say I'm feeling pregnant now. Saturday morning I got up early, made a huge batch of enchiladas and baked a 2 layer cake. I swept and mopped floors, vacuumed the whole house, cleaned the guest bath, dusted the furniture and just did a good cleaning.

Company arrived around noon, just a mere 10 minutes after I'd finished with my shower and gotten dressed. I was so busy I didn't drink enough water and once guests arrived I sort of forgot my water intake. Now the guests were family so it wasn't like I felt the need to jump up a lot, my family is comfortable to be around and they help themselves if need be. And of course hubby helped a lot. Jake was pretty good, but still he's 2 and he needs some guidance around company. 

By 3pm I was feeling stiff and sore. I didn't want to get out of my chair for water or to even eat. (we had a late lunch / early dinner type meal). My dad actually asked if I was okay at one point because he said, "you look like you don't feel well". I said, "I'm a little tired and my feet are sore". UNDERSTATEMENT of the year. By the time they left at about 4:30 I was done! I took off my bra, put on a big comfy shirt and cotton shorts and tried to repair the damage to my body. But it was too little too late. I was MISERABLE. My feet were so sore, my ankles swollen, my shoulder had a spasm going on that was odd. I felt tight in my tummy and my lower back ached big time. Even my wrists were sore. 

Hubby did his best to take care of me, but seriously, I just needed to sleep. By 8:30 I was asleep. I cried myself asleep cause I really couldn't get comfortable. I just couldn't believe that I could hurt so badly from doing such normal chores. Granted there was a lot of them, but it wasn't like I ran a marathon! 

I woke up at around 1:15 to pee and I was still sore. By 6am I was up and feeling better but not 100% at all. Hubby did everything for me Sunday morning (short of wiping my ass). LOL! Around 11:30 we decided to take a drive up to the local mountains to look around and grab lunch at  a place he saw last week that he wanted to try. We had a great lunch. It was a cool place, attracting mostly bikers and rich desert folks seeking relief from the heat by heading to the mountains. It was certainly an eclectic crowd. They had a 2 man band out on the patio where we sat and ate. Jake was mesmerized by the guys singing and he was content to sit for well over an hour! Such a nice treat for me to enjoy such a long leisurely lunch with my 2 1/2-year-old. 

After lunch we drove around looking at some property in the area. It is so gorgeous up there. The valley itself is not mountainous, but it is at 5000 feet elevation and it sits in the middle of the mountain. The location would be ideal for us. It's about 40 mins from where we live now and about 30-40 mins from hubby's new office. It is much more expensive than where we are now, much more remote (No gas station, no stores, NOTHING- except the one cafe). But it is gorgeous and I could have my sheep and horses right on our property. Dream... dream .... dream! Maybe in a few years it will be something we can look at seriously.

On the way back home we saw a pair of Bald Eagles. We pulled over to watch them circle around for about 5 mins or so. Then they headed over to the lake. Bald Eagles are rare for our area of Southern California, so this was an extra special sighting. When I was a kid there was a pair that nested near our home so we saw them often. But this was the first time hubby had seen a Bald Eagle in the wild. The one Eagle had been tagged, her orange tags were clearly visible and hubby jumped on the computer when we got home and read about the pair that has been documented in that area for many years. 

When we got home I was feeling very "done" for the day. Just sitting in the car made me tired. Hubby handled dinner and I basically sat on the couch, drinking water and had a heating pad on my shoulders or lower back the rest of the evening. I did get up a few times and work on my project (another post will explain that). But basically I took it easy. Today I'm feeling very full and slightly uncomfortable still. I decided not to work the dogs today and just take it easy again. We have a big dog trial this weekend, so I need to rest up for that. 

The rewarding part of feeling so pregnant was Poncho (right side baby) moving around SOOO much yesterday and last night. He was moving and grooving all day and the movement was strong. Makes all those sore muscles totally worth it!

Winner!!!!

I think I won this battle. The headache was gone within about 30 mins of taking the med. It's been gone since (5 hours later) I'm wired from the caffeine in the med, but that's okay. I'm waiting for two roofers to give me estimates, one is very late .... that doesn't bode well for him.

Headache?

It's 3:30am. I woke up 10 mins ago, with the start of a headache. I immediately took one of my new pills, I'm drinking a large glass of water and I put a heating pad around my shoulders as I feel stiff on the left side. 

I'm going to put an ice pack on the back of my head (near the base of my skull) as soon as I'm done drinking the water. I'm also going to remain sitting up straight or walking around to see if that helps. Laying horizontal has always made my headaches worse.

Please, cross your fingers for me that this works. Last week I had a headache from Fri-Mon and it sucks. I just can't endure another weekend like that. 

I have big plans for the day. A yard sale put on by a local mom of multiples club and I've got 2 more roofing contractors coming to give me bids. My dad and brother my come over on Saturday and the Breeders' Cup races are today and tomorrow. Please, please, please no more headaches!

Pregnancy has set in.

I think I'm officially feeling on the pregnant side of things. My belly is sort of like a fifth appendage all of a sudden. For the past few days getting settled in a chair or in bed takes a lot more effort. My feet or sore in the evenings and my body is just flat tired by 7pm.

I had to laugh, a group of friends and I were chatting on line last night and one of them said, "well with 2 babies at 20 weeks, that sort of makes you 40 weeks pregnant". So I'm taking that as justification for feeling pregnant.

It is currently 4am here. I've been up for an hour cause I had to pee. Then I realized I was hungry, so I got up to drink a glass of milk. Now my tummy is upset and I think I did something to my sciatic nerve, cause I can't lay down. I'd like a long hot soak in a bath, but I can't do that cause I'd wake up Jake. And besides, having the water come up just a few inches really doesn't do the trick and it only feels good when it's really hot.

I do feel good though. Still no headache since Monday afternoon. Woohooo!

Today I get my hair cut and I might try to sneak into the chiropractor. I've got 2 contractors coming to give us estimates on getting our roof -reroofed. Should be interesting. Times are tough for roofers right now. Of the 4 people I called, 3 wanted to be here the following day by 8am! I have 2 coming today and 2 coming Friday morning. It's a huge expense, but we have to get our roof redone. It's a 25 year old shake roof, we had leaks this past winter and since then we have had some wind storms and a new roof mounted AC unit that I'm sure caused some more shingle damage. It's time. 

2 1/2

Today, in fact right at this very moment, 30 months ago, my darling boy took his first breath of air. He's 2 1/2 today. WOW. Time flies when you are having fun. 

I love him so much!

Gone for now

It has been 36 hours with no headache! The doc called me back with a second prescription but I have yet to try it out. Monday afternoon my headache was better so I decided to wait it out and see if it would go away on it's own. It did and now here it is Wednesday morning and I'm still headache free! Woohooo.

Feeling a tad more pregnant in other areas. My belly seemed to grow overnight on Monday. Tuesday I started a new project which really is so funny it deserves it's own post, but I'll tell you this much, I was so sore from working on said project. I took a hot bath, got a massage from husband and still wasn't comfortable! I ended up crashing while watching antiques road show. I woke up to the TV showing ugly porcelain clowns dancing! I didn't drink all my water on Tuesday, but I have to say I slept straight through till 5am! It was amazing not getting up to pee 2 or 3 times during the night. Today I have to get my water in, as my urine was florescent orange this morning! LOL

I couldn't feel either baby move for 2 days which freaked me out. Poncho has been moving around a lot since last night, but Lefty has yet to move enough for me to feel him. Sort of makes me worried, but everything else seems normal so I'm going to try not to worry.

Yesterday my MIL called. Geeze, that woman can say some stupid ass things. She asked me how I was feeling. I told her great other than the headaches and then explained about them. I mentioned I got a new prescription and that I was hopeful it helps the situation as I've been really sort of miserable with them for 6 weeks! She replied, "well I hope the medicine doesn't do anything to hurt the babies". I told her that I got the prescription from my OB and that I'm sure it was safe to take. She wouldn't let it drop at that. She had to go on about how there used to be meds they thought were safe that caused all kinds of birth defects. But, "You are probably too young to remember that". It was a tough conversation cause to be honest I was having lots of guilt about taking anything to begin with. I'm a very happy pregnant person with really no complaints at this stage other than the raging headaches. But when you can feel your pulse in your eye and you think your son in the room across the house is pounding on his door, only to realize it's not your son it's the pulse pounding in your ear .... well I think it's time for some medical help. When I couldn't feel the babies move much the past two days, it really made me feel terrible and freaked out. MIL's statement just irked me to the core. She's had a few statements prior to this one (via email) that have been confusing and annoying this week. But yesterday's phone call just takes the cake! 

Oh and she further annoyed me when she went on and on about how I'm doing so well with the pregnancy cause I want to be pregnant. That is her theory on why I didn't have morning sickness. I was just shaking my head while she was jabbing on the phone. I know of a few people that have worked and tried to be pregnant for so very, very long. They have finally achieved that goal and are happier than you can imagine and they are suffering from severe pregnancy ailments like morning sickness through their entire pregnancy! But I'll be sure to give them MIL's theory! (Rolling eyes big time)!!!!

This morning Jake and I are going to pick up two papasan style baby swings from another twin mom. I joined a Mothers of Multiples club and they have a classified section on their forum. I'm getting a good deal on them so that's exciting. Friday, another MoM's club is having a yard sale open to other MoMs only on that day, then to everyone else on Saturday and Sunday. I'm going to get there early and see if I can find some sweet deals on some necessities.