Apparently Keith and I purchased some of the tainted hamburger meat sold by Safeway a few months ago, but since we buy it in bulk when its on sale and freeze it until we need it, the thought never seemed to cross our minds that when the recall was sent out that it would actually apply to us. Big mistake for this post #1 (Keep track here people).
I decided to be a good wife and bake lasagna for dinner on Sunday night. This way, there would be plenty for dinner plus leftovers and I already know that it is a food that Luke will consume, so even more bonus points for me, right? No. Oh, heavens no. Both Keith and I began to feel sick on Monday morning around 10am, but because we were both at work and weren't able to contact each other, I thought I just felt off from being pregnant and stressed and all the other fun stuff that goes into the last week of school before Christmas Break. And I don't think the running around at Faculty Follies practice that morning helped my cause either. Needless to say, the pregnant lady in me thought that eating would solve my tummy dilemma and I ate another entire portion of lasagna for lunch(Big mistake #2). By 1:15 I was miserable and had to leave work.
I barely made it home before the fireworks began. I'm not going to give the juicy details, but I have a picture taken today, 3 days after this all started and my eyes still look like this.
All the little red dots are broken blood vessels. Now imagine those on my eyes too and my eyelashes are covering the same dots underneath my eyes. That was some forceful vomit that happened. Enough said.
Monday night was miserable. I couldn't get comfortable and I kept waking up with what I thought were those pesky Braxton-Hicks contractions and stomach pains which I attributed to the bad food. Turns out they were real contractions that were waking me up from a dead sleep. Instead of calling the doctor because I didn't want to wake him or bother him (Big mistake #3, if you're still counting), I decided to not tell Keith and tough it out. I never really had had regular contractions with Luke because I was induced and the pitocin at the time sent my labor from 0 to 100 in no time flat once it worked. I had no clue that what I was experiencing were real contractions.
By 4am, I was convinced that I wasn't going to go into to work on Tuesday so I called the sub line to request a sub and tried to get some sleep on the couch. My "Braxton-Hicks" contractions are probably 5-6 minutes apart by this time, but I'm so tired and nauseous, I don't really care. When 6am rolls around, I convince Keith I'm fine to go into school to make my sub plans and as I'm pulling out of the driveway, I had two contractions 4 minutes apart. For some reason, when the thought rolled through my head at that point "this isn't a really good idea" I totally didn't listen because I was so intent on completing those plans (Big mistake #4).
As my contractions continued to come 4ish minutes apart the entire drive in, I knew I had to make it quick at the school so I could call the doctor. Part of me looks back now after all is said and done and thinks, why had I not called the doctor already? Duh, Katie. Get with the program. Half and hour later with sub plans done and secretary notified, I put the call into the doctor's answering service. By the time I hear back 20 minutes later, I'm already home and he tells me to head to the hospital so they can check me out because I'm probably just dehydrated from all of the fun I'd had the night before. As I waited for Keith to come home from work (poor guy didn't really understand what was going on at the time because I didn't want him to worry-Big mistake #5), my contractions start to come 2 to 3 minutes apart. Not good.
Keith gets home, we head to the hospital, and we have to check in at the E.R. Lucky me, because I'm pregnant, I got to wear a sweet mask in the E.R. while waiting for transport services due the Swine flu. *side rant commencing: Who makes a pregnant woman who is already nauseous and disgusting and can hardly breathe wear a mask to protect her from some flu she's already been vaccinated for?!? I get it was for my health and safety, but I thought I wasn't going to survive that part of the ordeal from lack of oxygen.* We get up to L&D and the nurse asks me a million questions about my health history, gets me ready to be hooked up to an IV to start getting fluids in me, and at the end decides to check me to see if I've dilated at all. Apparently she didn't think my contractions were that special before, but when she looked at me and said "That's disappointing," her mind had been changed. I was already 3.5cm dilated and she had to call the doctor.
I ended up being admitted to the hospital overnight and put on some wicked medication that blurs your vision and relaxes all the muscles in your body. It thankfully stopped the contractions and our sweet girl is still cooking in there for the time being, but my doctor said he be excited if we made it another 3.5-4 weeks. Keith and I decided our goal is at least 2 weeks since she'll be 36 weeks at that point and be at a much lower risk for complications.
Like I said, the medication they gave me was some crazy stuff and since I had to be on a fairly high dosage to slow things down quickly, I thought about some random things during my brief stay there. For instance, although I do remember some of the really important things the Neonatologist came to talk to us about, I basically remember thinking it was somehow funny he was wearing a Bengals jersey. Some people take mini-vacations before their child is to be born. We actually did that this time-at Hotel de la Mercy Gilbert. Most expensive vacation ever, but worth every penny. My parents had been begging to keep Luke overnight. I know that it was at our house, but at least Grandma had the chance; maybe Pop Pop won't have to work next time. I make some really stupid and not smart decisions. I really put my child's life in danger by thinking that I had to get stuff ready at work (although in my defense after the lack of sleep and food in my body at the time, I can't really be held responsible). I learned what a real contraction feels like and when it is time to hightail my rear to the hospital.
Most importantly, my sassy girl is doing fine, still growing away in the ever-ginormous belly, and is back to kicking the bejesus out of her mother. All is right in the world again.
Luke would like to demonstrate some of his vast knowledge. He's trying to prepare for the anatomy portion he'll need to know to become a doctor someday. :)
He is so big!
He lifts up his bib to show where his belly is.
Piggies.
Hair.
Fingers.
Nose.
Ears.
While I was on Fall Break, Keith took a day off of work so we could take Luke to Mother Nature's Farm for their Annual Pumpkin Festival. I was so excited to take Luke; I have this slight obsession with "punkins" and had been waiting for months to take Luke to pick out a pumpkin and take pictures with pumpkins. The day was even that much better that Keith was able to come with us. It ended up being a seriously good thing because there would have been no way that my pregnant self would have been able to keep up with Luke solo. That kid can run.
Next up was the petting zoo portion of the Farm. Luke loves animals and he was excited to see turkeys, goats, sheep, horses, cows, and pigs. He even moo'd when he caught sight of the cows.
From the petting zoo, we meandered over to where you wait for the hayride. We passed the moon bounce/jumpy house thing on our way and Luke took off into a full sprint trying to get to that thing. Poor guy is still way too small to be jumping around with the larger kids, so Keith was the lucky one who got to explain that he wasn't going to be able to go on that. At the rate Luke is growing though, he'll be able to fend for himself next year.
We finally got on the hayride and as it started, Luke shot me this look:
To me, it screams, "Seriously, Mom, this is not a hayride. It is a giant cart with three bales of hay in the middle so they can claim its a hayride. We going along a really bumpy, really dusty road looking at the junk the farm's neighbors have spread across their property. Waste of my time."
The farm had a neat little covered area where they had tables set up with peel-n-stick decorations for the pumpkins. Luke and I enjoyed picking out stickers and putting them on the pumpkin.
The last stop on our day of pumpkin fun was the pumpkin patch area to take the required pumpkin pictures.Luke was near the end of his rope by this time, so the majority of the shots look like the first one: just his back as he's running away from us. At least he was laughing as he was doing it!
Although the whole thing only took about 1.5 hours, we had a great time sharing pumpkin picking with Luke. Can't wait for next year!
our view
And now 18 months.
When he was born, he weighed in at 8 lbs. 11 oz. and was 21.5 inches long. At his check-up, he weighed 29 lbs. and is 36.5 inches long. Amazing the growth that happens in such a short span of time!
And where we are now:
He is growing to be such a ham who loves to get laughs out of people just so he can laugh back at you. Since starting daycare, Luke loves to be able to sit at the kitchen table for whatever reason because he feels like a big boy;snack time, coloring, watching tv, just because. His vocabulary is expanding by leaps and bounds and we are constantly amazed at what he understands and can even repeat now. Because his baby sister will be here before we know it, we've switched his crib to a toddler bed and he is doing wonderful so far. Keith and I sometimes find him in crazy positions in the bed, but at least he stays there and sleeps. That's all I really care about.He's also so ridiculously tall that he switches the lights on and off throughout the house. He thinks this is the greatest game ever invented. The neighbors must think our house is haunted or we have some serious electrical issues in our house.
Luke is becoming quite the little boy, and is leaving the baby stage behind. I'm sad to see him grow up so quickly, but I'm also excited to see what he'll do and learn next. Love you buddy!
All the little red dots are broken blood vessels. Now imagine those on my eyes too and my eyelashes are covering the same dots underneath my eyes. That was some forceful vomit that happened. Enough said.
