Just RK

Ah, those were the good ol’ days. Dizziness, very low blood pressure, periodic aches, IV in the hand… oh yeah, and labor! Can it be? One year ??

I just received this from my friend Missy, and I think it's worth sharing! Many of you know that Sequenom had been developing a new test that they claimed could diagnose a first-trimester unborn baby with Down syndrome with up to 95% accuracy. It was a blood test, so it surely would be used often by women, and the likelihood that abortion rates for babies with DS would increase was a very real concern. The news came out today that the test release is delayed due to “the discovery by company officials of employee mishandling of R&D test data and results.” I don't know what that means exactly, but I know that I'm pleased. Prenatal testing is a hot issue, and I'm not trying to debate that at this point. Just sharing the latest info on something that many of us have been watching. Here's Patricia Bauer's article.

It's fun to go to the bathroom with all the contraptions. And then my nurse scans my bracelet to see what I'm worth! At least that's what M thought she was doing... no comment on his comment. But seriously...that gown isn't flattering at all. The IV makes it hard to type, but I'm doing my best to make this labor and delivery as internet/bloggy/geeky as possible. M's across the room with his laptop playing poker and watching shows. We're making this experience special. But now I should rest... so I'll try.

That's when we head to the hospital to start this fun induction process. 7:30pm is when we're to show up and get things going. Last night we spent about 4 hours up there. Not because there were contractions or pain or anything... nothing so exciting. I'd begun to feel bad around 11 am yesterday, really lightheaded and very weak all over. I couldn't really hold Braska, and just felt like a limp noodle. I slept for a while, rested alot, ate some food, drank water, and decided to call L&D at around 4pm. I am fairly famous, as a patient, for not calling to ask about things and not reporting things I should. So I decided it would be just horrendous to get this far and then have something go wrong when I should have asked or told someone about it. So I called, my OB was in the L&D area, so I talked to her. She agreed that it didn't sound "pregnancy related" but that we should still probably check it out if it didn't improve. She said to drin...

I didn't even have to beg. She was ready for me to make my requests for an induction date, so she was all prepared. The options were Saturday or Monday... I picked Saturday, no surprise, but the hospital preferred Monday, so we go in Sun night to get things going, hopefully deliver Monday morning. That's the plan. Unless she decides to show up sooner...which is also ok. I'm headed out now to have dinner with a couple pals...mexican. Maybe I can spice Kinlee out of there.

Yeah, that's right... I said y'all. I was raised in Texas and Arkansas with a little Kentucky thrown in there... it's who I am. (Be glad I resisted the "you'uns" of Southern Illinois...ick, never could stand that one.) Ok, since there seems to be a feeling of left-out-ness for a few of you who like more details on the pregnancy, I'll make an attempt. The rest of you can go make your next Scrabble move on Facebook or something. ~I will be 40 weeks on Friday, according to my schedule. According to the OB's schedule, I'll be 39 weeks tomorrow. According to the MFM's schedule, I'll be 39 weeks on Monday. Confusing enough? The bottom line is the math for their schedules just plain doesn't work. Just trust me on that one. ~I go to the OB again tomorrow afternoon, so we'll see. She has previously told me that she would be ok with scheduling an induction for Monday the 9th if I got this far with nothing happening, so that's wh...

I'm exhausted. Braska's been getting up in the night for no apparent reason, unhappy and won't go back to sleep. Two times one night, three times another night, for a few hours at a time... I thought I had a few more weeks for sleeping through the night!!! So this will be short and simple... As an FYI...there is conflicting data on my "dating" as they call it. Like when I'm actually due. My timeline is as you see in the side bar on the blog and the timing in these updates. The OB seems to think I'm figuring it a week too early, that I'm actually due one week later. So they think I'm 34, I say 35. I told her it would only be a problem if the baby is getting bigger than I would like or if they think I'm hanging on til 41. No deal. We came to an agreement, so that's good. ~~I've lost 2 lbs in the last two weeks. No surprise to me. It seems to be my weird thing. Total weight gain in 35 weeks...6 lbs. I can deal with that. ~~Ove...

Because so many of you are more interested than I expected in the progress of this pregnancy... here's some quick info. ~I'm going every 2 weeks now. Just to the OB. Done with the MFM. ~As of yesterday, I've gained 8 lbs. Yes, 8 lbs. And that's 21 lbs more than with Braska at this point. (I'd lost 13 lbs at this point with her....but that was a whole different story.) ~Everything has been good, no causes for concern. My blood pressure was up just a tad this time, but still in a safe, normal range. ~There is still discrepancy on the exact due date. I'm going with earlier than they are, but we'll see. Still probably looking at week 2 of February. ~The achy sore stuff that's been bothering me for a couple months is still around, guess it's just something to deal with this time around. It's no fun, but we'll live. ~Kinlee's moving alot. ALOT. Braska did too, then she was mello on this side...hope we get a repeat of that. Wishful thin...

We call it pregnant brain. Some call it pregnant stupid (yeah, you know who you are). It just means that for many, and I'm one of them, when carrying a parasite of sorts, known as a tummy baby around here, the host loses a great deal of it's thinking capacity, memory, and common sense. I'm sure I'll have plenty of examples for you as the months go on. If any of you other prego buddies wanna share your stories so that I don't feel so silly, please feel free. I have incidents everyday of this fun side effect, but today was a sad first for me. M called before lunch and asked if Braska and I wanted to meet him up by his work in Historic Downtown St. Charles at a new Mexican place he heard about. I'm always up for such an outing, so the girls got dressed and headed out. (Yes, we got dressed just before lunch... it's what we do.) We parked right by the still-slightly-high Missouri River and walked up to cobblestoned Main Street . There was M waiting on a bench fo...

I've had alot I thought about blogging about, but I can't seem to find 5 minutes of lucidity to compose any thoughts. How you 3-a-day-post-people do it....I'm so clueless. Braska's got 5 therapy appointments per week now, so that in itself makes for busy. And this week we added an appointment for me today, and an appointment for her with the pediatrician tomorrow. That's alot of places to be in 5 days. Oh, and we're also going to look at houses tomorrow night, but it's very preliminary. This weekend we spent 3 days in South County with the fam, I'm thinking we need a vacation home there already. Am I glad the drive is only 40 mins? Yes!! Do I kind of wish for weekends like this it was 10? Yuppers. I'm so darn exhausted. We had a great 4th hanging out at Cindy's place by the pool. Then Saturday Cheryl had a graduation party and we hung out some with Jerry and Nadine, relatives from Iowa, who were in town. Sunday it was back down for ch...