Down by the water

DSCN1064
Originally uploaded by dmmodz.

Michelle's parents came in from California on Friday and took off on Tuesday morning. Michelle had her baby shower on Saturday and it was nice that her mom was able to attend. While the girls were at the baby shower Michelle's dad and I made our way to the farmers market to get fresh asparagus, Sevens paint store to get paint for our rental unit, and then we went to a couple greenhouses to get vegetable plants for the garden. When the girls returned home Michelle perched herself onto a lounge chair in the back yard and began to dictate where each of the plants was to be planted. Sunday was a little less active. We went to church service in the morning and Michelle's mom put together a couple dinners and froze them so we'll have them at a later date, she's great like that. I found a little time to do some prep work for painting at the rental and we later found time to play a few games as a family. I took Monday off from work and spent more time with Michelle’s parents, we played yet a few more games and in the evening we took Ruby over to Reeds Lake. There’s a section near the south end of the park where we always let Ruby off the leash and let her swim. There seems to be nothing that dog likes more than to play fetch in the water. She fetched for about ten minutes until the ducks started to tease her. Believe it or not, she was retrieving the ball when a duck flew in and landed right in her return path. She stayed the course and brought the ball back to me but she really wanted to go back in after the duck. A short time after that, another duck came over and before you knew it there were four ducks swimming around in circles right where we were playing. She behaved pretty well, for a while. I left her off the leash and we played fetch on land and she was great. Then the ducks came in closer to shore and I too was having a hard time restraining myself from letting her go in after them, finally we all had enough, Michelle, her dad, and I all agreed we would just see what happened if we let her go. She made a run for it. She hit the water and the ducks lifted off, flew about ten feet and landed and continued to tease her, she closed in on them and they would just lift off for about 10 more feet and land again, trying to get her to follow them towards the center of the lake. I've talked to several people at Reed's lake that have had to have their dogs rescued by boaters because the ducks had led them out to the middle of the lake and would not come back on their own, but Ruby didn't fall for their game, she came back in as soon as I called her. She's the best!

Double Duty

I hit both doctors offices today and the results are somewhat the same as last time. First up was my OB - relatively uneventful. I'll be seeing her again next week and then every 2 weeks until 36 weeks - then I will see her every week until I deliver. Of course on the "off" weeks I'll be seeing the specialist. The specialist was 2nd in line yesterday. I had an 11am appt - they were running on time (which is noteworthy- I think they are all great, but they do tend to run late - very late.) Anyway, I got in right away and they started the standard work up. There are certain things the ultrasound tech (Dana) checks at every appointment (1) baby's heart rate - in the 140's today, which is good! (2) a measurement of the amniotic fluid - which was good. (3) blood flow rate to/from the placenta-also, good- (4) and, she always tries to find the baby's face and get a good shot for me to take home - I don't know that she ever has to do this, but I think she just likes to spoil me :) Anyway, all that went great, the doctor came in and said my effacement and dilation was essentially unchanged since last visit, but it looked like I was having a contraction....so, they stuck me in a lazy boy with (2) monitors strapped to my belly - one for measuring the baby's heartbeat and the other to measure contractions. This was fine with me since it was essentially the same as the bedrest I was doing at home. I grabbed a magazine and started browsing... 1/2 hour goes by and the nurse comes in, takes a look at the paper, rips it off and tells me she'll be right back. I figured she was just going to come back in and let me go. It's now about 12:30 and I'm starting to get a little hungry, but no big deal. So, the nurse returns and opens up a drawer and proceeds to tell me that she needs to wake the kid up, so she's going to stick this little instrument on my belly and it vibrates and makes a loud noise - fine - I thought it was a little cruel and I'm worried about future payback, but I wasn't really going to argue. So, now, baby is doing flips and jumping all over. I figured I'd be in for another 15 minutes or so...nope, 45 minutes later the nurse returns - note: I'm pretty darn hungry now and completely finished with the magazine in the room - she rips off the paper and asks if I can feel any slight cramping or discomfort...I really can't feel anything but the baby moving like crazy. She leaves the room and comes back with a little pill. Apparently, my uterus looks unhappy (can you blame it?). There appear to be mild contractions and so I get to take a sort of muscle relaxer to calm it down. She added that I might feel a little shaky or feel like my heart is beating fast... well, I was already shaky from the severe sugar low and by now I just wanted to get out of there and eat! Normally, I listen to potential side affects and think that they are just that - a possible side effect. So, I take the pill and have another 45 minutes in the chair. Yeah, they weren't joking around about those side effects. It was like having a caffeine drip when you're dehydrated. Apparently, they have me on a low dose - I can't imagine how I'd feel on a normal dosage. I already feel like my heart's about to beat out of my chest and I'm shaking like a recovering addict. Supposedly, your body adjusts to this and the side effects go away in a couple days....I'm really hoping they aren't lying about that. I got out of there around 2:30 and headed straight to the border....Taco Bell. I don't even feel a twinge of guilt about it.

30 weeks

May Days

It has been, for me, an uneventful week - as it should be. I try to remind myself that benefits are truly that....benefits, despite the multitude of phone calls, annoying hold music, automated call answering services and numerous transfers from one person to another and yet another. I guess since I'm on bedrest I really have the time. It seems like since I have the time it would cease to aggravate me, but that simply isn't the case. I'd rather be mulling over whether I should be putting an 8 or a 2 in that specific box of my Sudoku puzzle. Lucky for me, I had some friends stop by on Tuesday and had the opportunity to catch up....AND they brought lunch!

Dan and I visited my doctor Wednesday - there is no new news to report, which is a good thing. Baby Modz seems to be getting around more than her mom these days. I find it so amusing to see my belly deform and know she's just kicking around in there without a care in the world.
Dan's been busy with all the wonderful things that Spring brings - fertilizing the lawn, roto-tilling the garden area, planting grass seed, walking the dog, trying to keep the dog out of the seeded area... added to all the house chores that I'm no longer helping with. He's been great about it all and I'm so grateful for such a wonderful husband :)
~Michelle~