37 weeks

Had another OB appointment yesterday. It was short & sweet. Baby Boy Light is doing fine, getting HUGE, and moving around like crazy. My OB asked me if I had any questions. I told him I wouldn't harass him about an induction date this time.

The girls are so excited. I went on a field trip with Julia last week. (Last one for a while; it wore me out for 2 days!) She told me as I got on the bus, that she had promised all her friends that they could rub my belly and feel the baby move if they wanted to. I told her... ummmm NO. She was a bit disappointed. :( I am such a mean mommy.

Natalie is becoming a fantastic piano player lately. She practices daily and it sounds really nice! She's turning into a little lady. She and Julia were "Best Friends" on Saturday and played outside all day long. It was so sweet.

Ben is halfway through his Biology class this semester. He's working hard at interviewing with different law enforcement agencies, but so far we are still waiting for official job offers. We'll see.

That's about it for this week. :)

My Birth Plan.. Part 1

OK, so I am a lame blogger lately. I'll try to be better. I got an email from MyPregnancy.Com today about writing out a birth plan for my hospital stay. As an L&D nurse, I sometimes roll my eyes at some of these birth plans that patients come in with. I am not a granola, natural person. I like drugs, epidurals, scheduled inductions, & I am OK with a C-Section if this kid doesn't just fall out in a few hours of labor. Try that on for a birth plan! Only I seemed to have picked a very conservative, careful, OB/GYN. He doesn't share my same idea on giving me a scheduled induction 1 wk before my due date just because I want one. He thinks my cervix needs to be ripe & my baby's head should be in the pelvis. (sigh.....) whatever.

So here is Part 1 of my dream Birth Plan for Baby Boy Light...

• My Due Date is 11/17/09 - (If I come into the hospital anytime in the week before my due date and I am not in labor, you are just going to have to keep me because I am not going home. INDUCE ME if I am not in labor.)
• I would like to be free to walk, move around, & change position at will throughout labor. (I will not be walking much as I plan on having an epidural ASAP! I agree to to change positions, but you may have to remind me and help me do so b/c I move as well as a beached whale.)
• I would like to be able to have fluids by mouth throughout the first stage of labor. (I would like to eat & drink whatever I want, whenever I want it. I know I am only going to be allowed ice chips while in labor with an epidural. I am actually an ice chomping monster right now, so just keep the ice chips coming & we’ll be fine. I will be puking occasionally while in labor & for the 1^st 24 hrs after delivery regardless of what I eat or drink, so please let me eat & chomp my ice chips at will. I will be needing IV Zofran 4mg q 6hrs while I have an IV. This will only help me feel less nauseated. I will still puke. If you don’t keep the ice chips coming, my husband will be sent to refill my ice cup. And if you don’t keep the Zofran coming, I have my own stash of Zofran that I will take while you aren’t in the room.)
• I will be bringing my own music to play during labor. (Actually no music needed, I’d rather sleep or watch TV).
• Monitoring. (I would like to have continuous fetal monitoring because I am a control freak and I want to make sure my baby is not in distress. Feel free to use external or internal monitors as needed).
• Labor Augmentation/Induction. (I would love to be AROMed to get my labor going. We can try anything: pitocin, cytotec, etc. I would like to avoid the ‘natural’ methods like walking or nipple stimulation. Walking is too much work and ‘nipple stimulation??’… Let’s just use the drugs God gave us to use.
• Anesthesia/Pain Medication. (I know pain medication exists. Let it be clear that I would like a heavy, strong epidural ASAP. I do not want to try any IV pain medication before the epidural because it will make me even more crazy than I already am. If Dr Brown is available, I pick him to do it. :)

That’s all for now… I’ll finish Part 2 later… :)

Meet Rachel's "Harry Potter"

I Failed my Glucose Tolerance Test

Are you freaking kidding me??? I thought it was a fasting 1 hr glucose tolerance test, (which when I showed up, it turned out I didn't have to be fasting). The last thing I ate was a bowl of ice-cream around 10pm. I woke up, did a few chores. Did not eat or drink anything. I showed up for the test around 1pm in the afternoon (starving to death), drank the nasty orange crap, & waited an hour. They drew my blood & that was it. I went straight to Taco Bell and ate a huge meal! I just got a call that I failed the test and now I have to do the 3 hour test. This sucks. If I have gestational diabetes, I will die! I have no self control when it comes to food. I eat whatever & whenever I want. I won't say I eat a lot, but I don't have self control when it comes to dieting or exercising. I just don't care. I love my food!

Champs Swim Meet

Natalie & Julia did great @ the Champs Swim Meet. It was so fun to watch them. They really improved their times on all strokes. Natalie is the breast stroke queen! This is Julia's 3rd year on the swim team and this will be her last year as a 6 & Under. She had many 1st & 2nd place ribbons this year. I survived the summer. Ben did all the volunteer requirements and then some. I just sat in the shade and made sure the girls made it to their races. I did swim in one parent relay team with my preggo belly about 2 weeks ago. I only had to do one lap of free-style (25 YDS). It was the most exercise I've had all summer (not counting 8 hr shifts running around @ the hospital). Two more weeks until school starts and 15 more weeks being pregnant.

Random Thoughts

I am so not into taking pictures or blogging lately. Sorry. I started back to work. It has been nice to only work 8 hr shifts. I feel like I am missing half of my brain. I seem to have forgotten all passcodes and door lock combinations and I don't know where anything is. There are some new policies and I am slow at charting and I could go on and on. My patient last night was psychotic. Luckily, she delivered within 45 min and I got her upstairs to Post-Partum as fast as I could. Did you know it is against our hospital's policy for a patient to keep her own placenta? My psychotic patient threw a fit because she wanted to take her placenta home and bury it so she could plant a tree over it. This is granola-ville California!! She can't do that? I personally think it is gross, but whatever.

The tooth fairy is visiting Julia for the first time tonight. She went to the dentist today and begged her to pull her wiggly little tooth on the bottom. Julia had been working on it for weeks to no avail. The dentist kindly abliged and helped Julia out by numbing it with orajel and pulling it. She was so excited. Natalie also had her appointment and was very brave while the dentist removed her spacer. Tonight, I checked on the girls as they were sleeping.... And I found a note next to Julia's pillow. It said, "Dear Tooth Fairy, Could you please give my sister Natalie money for her spacer? Sincerely, Julia" (Only it was written in very mature handwriting for little JULIA to have written... ) I wonder what the tooth fairy will say to that... :)

Julia has changed career choices for when she grows up and states she wants to be a car cleaner. She recently helped me detail my car with armor-all and a Q-Tip. Yes, I know I am crazy... but it felt so good to get that Q-Tip all in the little cracks and have all that dirt come out. It was that or buy a new car. My 99 Rav4 is still running strong with close to 189K miles and I am broke so having a SPOTLESS car makes me feel almost like it is a new car.

Not a good day...

It has been a rough day. I've been calling my OB's office since Tuesday asking for a refill on my Zofran (anti-nausea) medication. I won't run out until Saturday-ish, but I am going back to work Sunday night and I really need to have it refilled by then so I can function. I finally got the refill ordered today, Thursday (2 DAYS later), and sent to the pharmacy, but apparently my insurance won't pay for the medication unless I have my Dr send a special note to authorize my need for more than 15 pills a month. (I take this medication 2-3 times per day!) The medical assistant at the OB's office assured me that my MD will return from his vacation Monday morning and work on the special authorization then. I tried to explain that I have to function Sunday night for 8 hours and then sleep all day Monday and then function Monday night for 8 hours. She stated ever so kindly that first thing Monday morning my MD will solve my problem. The problem will start Saturday when I run out of Zofran and I start throwing up until I get more Zofran!!! I begged for the OB covering for my Dr to please write the special note to the insurance co. She said it has to be from my OB & not the on-call OB. (I don't believe her!!! And I plan on asking my OB if this is true!!!) I cried all afternoon. Solution to my problems.... Pay $5 per pill and get a two day supply of Zofran until my MD returns from Vacation. Anyone have any Zofran around you can spare??