Bed Rest and Not Enough Morphine

I wasn't feeling too well but got up to get ready for church anyway. It would be so nice if church wasn't at 9 in the morning... but oh well. I was having contractions, more than usual, but they weren't "consistent" so I didn't think it was an issue. I got up, ate my Cheerios, and headed off - it was raining so we cheated and took the car.

It didn't take long for me to start feeling really sick and then this random sudden pain came in my abdomen. I wouldn't have paid too much attention to it, but it didn't go away. Then I started getting light headed and nauseated. It became very hard for me to keep my head up so I kept leaning it on Eric or resting it on my arm. I tried leaning forward and dropping it to see if I could get more blood to go to my head but nothing seemed to be working. Eric asked if we needed to go home and I said yes. I was worried I was going to pass out and I was continually throwing up Cheerios in my mouth (it'll be a while before I can eat those again) Before we got up to go a lady - brand new in the ward - came up and asked if I was ok. She was sitting 2 rows behind us so apparently it was pretty obvious that I was unable to control my muscles. She said she's a nurse at the hospital and that she could help get me out of the chapel.

It is thanks to her that I didn't hit the floor the instant I stood. She could read in my face that I was going down and she knew just how to hold me. Between her and Eric we made it to the couch and she checked my pulse. She wanted someone to call an ambulance, but our car was right outside so we said we could just drive. She was very adamant that we go to the hospital but I just wanted to go home. I could see in Eric's face that he didn't like the idea of just going home but he supported me and we went home.

Once we got home my visiting teacher called and said we needed to at least call the on-call physician at my clinic... the doctor we spoke to also said we needed to go to the hospital. I asked Eric if we had to and he said yes, he wasn't going to back down this time. I then said, "I hate hospitals though, they always stick you with something." If only I had known how true that was...

We got to the hospital and I was wheeled up to the 5th floor where Labor and Delivery is. We got all checked in and were shown to our room. I was then hooked up to various monitors that showed my blood pressure was stabilized, the baby had a good heart beat, and that I was having contractions. After taking a long time to get my history and such the nurse finally called my OBGYN who was going to be at the hospital that day for a delivery so she said she would stop by and check on me. She also ordered blood work, an ultrasound, and she said that we could take away the pain. So the nurse poked me (remember what I said about getting stuck with things???) and then got me in a wheel chair to go to the other side of the hospital for the ultrasound. Before we headed out she went and got my pain relief - morphine, in a shot (again with the sticking me...). I considered telling her that my pain was all gone, no pain, no need for morphine...isn't morphine what they gave the guy in Saving Private Ryan right before he died? (That's a quote from Brian Regan... if you haven't seen his hospital clip, you should look it up)

As we rolled down the hall the nurse explained that the morphine was to serve 2 purposes. One was to stop the pain and the other to stop the contractions. The nurse, knowing by this point that I do not like needles, tried to make me feel better about the shot mentioned that she got the shortest needle possible and was giving me a smaller dos because I'm little. I didn't feel very comforted. When we got down to the ultrasound room I was given the shot (ow) and then had my stomach examined. When we got there I said "I like ultrasounds, they don't poke you and they don't hurt..." Man was I going to eat my words. All my organs are squished so they had to push and prod to get any good pictures - I am surprised I don't have any bruises!

After almost passing out again from the morphine (lovely side-effect) we ran more tests, learned that the morphine had failed to stop the contractions, learned my doctor had to go deliver another baby, and eventually a conclusion was reached. My placenta had torn away from my uterine wall. It was a minor tear but it has the potential to grow. So I was ordered bed rest.

We were very lucky to have friendly nurses, but we were at the hospital way too long. We got there before 11:30 and didn't leave till after 6. Eric was exhausted, I was exhausted... I took a sleeping pill at 9 and was out in the next 10 minutes.

Today, bed rest is officially awful. Simply because I cannot get up and do anything I suddenly want to do everything! The morphine wore off so now I am in bed, in pain, not allowed to get up.  Eric is home, so if I get up I'm busted... He is perfectly willing to get anything I need but he is taking the doctor very seriously (she said I can only get up to us the bathroom). I know I need to be careful and take care of the baby, but really, what is strenuous activity? I feel it is in the eye of the beholder... :D

Free Fixes

There are 2 things about my home that needed fixing (ok, more than 2, but I can only do a few at a time... :D ). I wanted to make them free fixes... I thought I'd show you my crazy ideas because I am actually pretty proud of them.

The first fix was my stack of Ensign Magazines. Everytime I rearrange or clean I simply move the pile to a new place where it continues to look ugly and it is hard to sort through when I want a specific issue. I looked into magazine holders and I found a few but they were between $3 and $9 for 1! I knew I would need at least 3... So I wandered around my house looking at things. Finally, my eyes rested on our large cereal boxes. Yes, I said cereal boxes. CRAZY, I know, but let me tell you, they were PERFECT! I cut them down and covered them with paper. Unless someone pulls them out to get an Ensign Magazine, they will never be able to tell they are actually cereal boxes.

My other fix dealt with my couch. We have an ugly couch. Don't get me wrong, we are grateful for our couch - it was free... but it is ugly. This isn't a great picture, but you can see how the back cushions are slouchy and there are 3 large throw pillows. When Eric and I sit on the couch to watch a movie, the big back pillows usually end up on the floor and the 3 pillows are placed along the back on the side where we are sitting - leaving the other side of the couch bare. Well, I had an idea. Why not take those ugly back cushions and cut them into smaller pillows. The 3 that we already have cover most of the back of the couch so we'd only need like 2 more... So today I started cutting and stitching. (I have no idea what these things are stuffed with, but it is some kind of weird nasty stuff... no wonder they slouch so bad!) We now have sitting room on our couch and I am very pleased with it.

O My Soul Hungered

This may sound blasphemous, but my soul really was hungry! I needed good food... and Eric gave me the perfect excuse. 

Call us nerds if you want, but I have become SUPER ADD since I got pregnant - so one thing that Eric and I enjoy doing together is watching Starcraft 2 matches. They are short and we usually find pretty intense games. (It's a national sport over in Korea so technically you could call Americans nerds for watching football, soccer, or baseball...) Over the past month or so we have been watching the TSL 3 which is a tournament that had some pretty sweet players in it. To make things more interesting, Eric and I filled out brackets. :D  Eric said that the winner would get to pick where we went out for dinner.  What he didn't tell me was that he knew where I wanted to go and he had planned to say the same place if he won, simply to keep me happy... silly boy. At first I had the better predictions but then he started to pull ahead. Eventually we stopped keeping track because he revealed that he had chosen the same restaurant as me.

So on Saturday we had our date night. We went out to the Thai Kitchen. mmmmmmmmmmmm I didn't realize how much my soul desired Yellow Curry till I put the first bite in my mouth - HEAVEN! The worst feeling was when I started to fill up because I wanted to keep eating.  Luckily we didn't have some crazy physical activity planned for after dinner - we simply went to a movie and relaxed.

Then, on Sunday I had great food again! Eric has been wanting to try and make a soup, so one day while I was blog surfing, I came across a recipe for Tomato Basil Soup. We decided to make it for dinner and I swear it tasted like we picked it up at Zupas. SO good! Eric and I are officially the best cooking duo ever! A funny story about the soup ... we tasted it and felt it needed something. So I looked at my spices and chose Oregano and Celery Salt. Eric gave me a look, but I threw them in anyway and it totally worked! The funny thing? I had never cooked with nor tasted Celery Salt... :S But hey, all turned out well.

My soul is satisfied for now ...

Gardens and Showers

So, today I had lots of help from my favorite brother, Thomas and his best friend Wilson. I needed to cart dirt around from the back (by the garden) to fill in where the cats had been pooping. They had stayed away for a few weeks since I put oranges in the pit so theoretically they now know the area is off limits. *crosses fingers* They also helped me put up netting around the strawberry plants and weed whacked around the cracks in the patio. It looks awesome! I wanted to show you pictures!

Here is that nasty pit all filled in with flowers!

 There are flowers back by the mail box too, they are just harder to see

 Beyond the strawberries is a large hole... it looks like we were digging a grave.

Hopefully the landlord doesn't come by and freak out.

 In this picture we have 3 grape tomato plants, 2 jalapenos, 1 bell pepper, 

1 zucchini, and 1 cantaloupe.

This is a picture of our first strawberry!!!

These are some pictures from the Utah Baby Shower

 These are the cupcakes that some participants decorated attempting to match my cravings. Blech!

 My 2 cousins and I. The first, Teresa just had her baby girl named Aspen, 

Rachel is due June 14th (ish) and I am due to be induced around July 7th.

 These are 2 of my best friends from growing up - Erika and Erica. Somewhere, I have a 

picture of us from 5th grade on "twin day" ... I changed my name to Ericka for the day. :D

 Me, Kimberly, and Stephanie!!!

Not sure why Anna wouldn't smile.

Wanting a Bath

I went to the doctor last week and learned I have yet another infection (those seem to be common with me now that I'm pregnant). Ever since I started taking my antibiotic I haven't felt so good... I am blaming the antibiotic.

Today, all I wanted was to take a bath. The problem? We don't have a bath. We have a tiny corner shower - the kind that fits one person (2 if the second person is small, though they don't actually get to stand in the water...). Slightly discouraged I decided to at least stand in the warm water stream.

Throughout the shower I started thinking... I'm going to have a child soon and since our sinks are roughly the size of the pipes under them, he'll need to be able to be bathed in the shower. But how? So I started wondering about plugging the shower. I looked at our drain and it's one of those ones that has a million holes the size of my pinky. Hmm, can't just stick a bottle in the drain. Then I thought about rags. Once they absorb water, it takes longer for the water to leak through - so I grabbed 3 rags and laid them one on top of the other and placed them over the drain and then placed me on top of them. Voila - instant though not as efficient as an actual plug.

But then I ran into another problem - by the time the water falls as far as it has to to collect at the bottom it is cold. The rags aren't terribly efficient so it takes longer than it should to fill up and obviously drains faster than I would like. Bummer... by this time my water heater ran out (it has about at 15 minute life span and takes just about all day to get back up to that 15 minutes).

I have plans to try and use boiling water from the stove in conjunction with the water from the shower... but that won't work so well for a baby, just for a mommy who is desperate enough to go through the effort.

I thought about using a bunch of pens to plug the shower, but one time my roommate flushed a pen down the toilet and we had serious problems... I don't want to risk that. Plus, pens would probably poke me - and the baby.

Realize I can only fit about 10 inches worth of water in the shower anyway... so I'm not expecting fantastic results, just results.

Does anyone know if they make plugs for the multi-holed drains? Or does anyone have a great idea for a MacGyver plug??? I am seriously asking here - any suggestion is a great one. I'll try it and tell you if it works!

The Mood Ring Experiment

Every morning when I get up I sift through my rings to see which one fits that will end up serving as my “I’m taken” notification to the world. (My fingers change size daily and so I have yet to find a ring that fits every day) Today, the ring that fit was a mood ring. 

Throughout the day, depending on what I was doing I would glance at the ring… it was pretty fun and so I thought I’d share with you what happened.

When I first got up and put on the ring, it was Emerald- Average Reading; Normal, Neutral, Fine, No Great Stress, Calm, Easily Amused, Alert, Involved, Sensitive, Tender, Ambivalent, Inner Disquiet

Later, I got on the computer to chat with Eric and the ring was Sapphire- Happy, Relaxed, Free, At Ease, Calm, Accepting, Optimistic, Lively, Joyful, Coasting, Peaceful, Contented, Pleasant, Moonstruck, Near Bliss, Warm, Giving, Lovable

The color didn’t stay very long, it quickly changed to Violet - Love, Romance, Heat, Passion, Sensual, Elated, Revitalized, Happy, Relaxed, Dreamer, Deep Thought, Keen, Intrigue, Mystical, Impulsive, Mischievous

I went to return a car part and the dealership told me that I couldn’t return it without the Ziploc bag it came in (even though I had the sticker that was on the bag). The problem was that I left the bag at the mechanic’s… So I went back and they couldn’t find the bag.  That’s when the ring turned Silver/Steel- Little Emotion, Neutral, At Rest, Cool, Unconcerned, Aloof, Inhibited, Sullen, Tired, Saddened, Depressed, Paranoid, Worried, Pessimistic, Very Nervous, Angst/Afraid

So I immediately called Eric. Which turned the color immediately to Sapphire- Happy, Relaxed, Free, At Ease, Calm, Accepting, Optimistic, Lively, Joyful, Coasting, Peaceful, Contented, Pleasant, Moonstruck, Near Bliss, Warm, Giving, Lovable

I then went on a journey of driving the car for 50 miles so that the internal computer would reset. As I drove and listened to music, the color was Indigo/Dark Blue - Ecstasy, Truly Happy, Deeply Relaxed, Inner Harmony, Tranquility, Jubilant, Bliss, Highly Passionate, Lovestruck, Very Romantic, Aglow, In Love, Sublime

After getting the car taken care of (it passed safety and emissions and there were no problems getting it registered!) and going to the doctor’s (learning that my doctor will be out of town on my due date, so she moved my due date up a week) I got home to find Eric had made dinner. That’s when the ring turned Ruby- Allured, Aroused, Love/Fiery Passion, Thrilled, Awestruck, Active, Adventurous, Excited, Anxious, Insecure, Fazed, Tensed, Alarmed

Now that Eric is quietly doing homework beside me, it is back to Violet - Love, Romance, Heat, Passion, Sensual, Elated, Revitalized, Happy, Relaxed, Dreamer, Deep Thought, Keen, Intrigue, Mystical, Impulsive, Mischievous

Now, I don’t put too much stock into these things – but it was definitely fun today to see how the ring changed throughout the day.

The end to the car saga ... I hope

Drew

So, Eric gave me permission to jimmy-rig the car to pass inspection. (here are my car troubles) Rather than break more things by trying to take apart the dashboard and playing with wires, sharp objects, and matches... I called my cousin Drew. After he tried a few things we asked my dad for help.

Dad

After that we decided to pay the money to get it fixed at a mechanic's shop because jimmy-rigging it wasn't working. My dad has a mechanic he trusts and since he needed to get his car inspected, we both went this morning. He got his car inspected and I left my car at the shop. I had planned to just have them fix the mark light (the one where the dealership gave me the wrong part) but when I was filling out the paper work, the mechanic saw my paper work from Jiffy Lube talking about the stupid sensor light and apparently that has to be fixed too because apparently even though the light isn't always on, they plug the car up to a computer and the problem will still show up - light or no...

The mechanic laughed at me when I told him that I tried to do what Jiffy Lube suggested regarding getting the car fixed and I almost yelled at the poor man. By this time, I know the people at Jiffy Lube aren't mechanics and I know their advice isn't sound (I should have realized that when they suggested super glue)... I know I've done stupid things trying to get this car fixed. Next time I'll do a better job and it won't take me as long - but I don't need to be made fun of for being stupid, I already know that!

So, theoretically, by end of day today the car should be ready for me to take in to Jiffy Lube to pass inspection and then the DMV to register it ... so by end of day tomorrow I should have a safe, working car.