I learn something new every day.

Jeff's sister Tricia and her kids came from Lexington to meet their new little cousin Rose (Brian and Amber's baby). Since they here they came to visit me too. They brought me a blizzard from Dairy Queen. Mmmmm. Yummy! They also covered my walls with artwork, so my walls are much more interesting now. While they were here the nurse put me on the monitors, so they had the chance to hear baby Gaby's heartbeat. The nurse had tried to get the heartbeat earlier in the evening, but Gaby wasn't interested. It sounded like she was tap dancing, playing drums, and doing martial arts, but it was impossible to isolate her heartbeat. I guess she wanted to wait and show off for her cousins.


During my ultrasound yesterday, I learned of "Placental Lakes." It's nowhere near the Finger Lakes or the Great Lakes, both of which I am familiar with. Placental lakes I wasn't familiar with. So I googled. (Side note: how long do you think before the verb "to google" gets added to the dictionary?) Everything that I read on the internet indicated that it is a very common occurrence, so much so that it rarely gets mentioned. It is also generally harmless. The only concerns that came up were low birth weight and premature births, which was related to the size and location of the lake. Not that I don't completely and 100% trust the content of the internet on all matters, especially regarding my health and well-being, but I'm going to ask my doctor for more information when she gets here later today.

So my doctor just came, and I asked her all of my questions. Regarding Noelle Lake (that's my own personal placental lake), it is not that big, and is not affecting baby Gaby's growth, so low birth weight at this time is not an issue. So no worries on the lake front.

About everything else, my doctor said that there is nothing new, that we are just proceeding day by day, hour by hour.

Jeff and Rachel came by earlier this afternoon. We had a very nice visit. Typical of Rachel, the visit did get cut short because she was kind of tired, and after about 40 minutes she was tired of being the perfect little angel, but until then she was very good, and played with me on my bed. She said "mama" several times, so that made me happy too.

Happy Anniversary

Today marks one week exactly since I came to the hospital to stay. Happy anniversary to me!

Jeff and Rachel came by last night for a visit. I noticed that Rachel was wearing some pants that I didn't recognize. They were pink denims. Did she acquire them in her travels to the various homes where she has received care this past week? Did Grandma buy her some new pants? Did she make her way to the store, buy the fabric and a pattern and make them herself? I just don't know. What I do know is that in spite of the fact that I don't like or wear pink, Rachel is not afflicted with my aversion. She was very content in her pink jeans.

Rachel climbed (or was rather lifted) onto my bed where we enjoyed some play time. Shockingly the first thing she found was my cell phone.

Looks like the phone is for me.
I love my hugs from Rachel.

Typically they bring me my dinner at around 5:30 p.m., and breakfast at around 8:30 a.m. How's your math? According to my math that is 15 hours between those two meals. That is a long time. Usually I'm pretty hungry when I wake up. So yesterday when the hospitality lady (who brings my food) asked me if I wanted a snack for that evening (the nurse must have given her the heads up that I've been kind of starving to death in the morning) I gratefully accepted. So I had a late night snack last night of a turkey sandwich and some Baked Lays. I thought that was pretty nice of her.

My doctor came to see me this morning, and she said it seems like I'm holding my own pretty well. She ordered another ultrasound to see how things are looking on the inside. I think the ultrasound will be a weekly event. So far there are three weekly events. 1. Every Sunday I get weighed. 2. Every Wednesday I get a shot (that stinking hurts a lot!). 3. Every Friday (I think) I get an ultrasound. These are just the things that keep time moving along.

So I went to the office of the high risk pregnancy specialist (which is connected to the hospital) for another ultrasound. The area that looked like a bleed she said was a lake (something like that) and basically normal. Baby Gaby looks fine, and everything seems okay. So that's good news. All in all, today has been pretty good.

I am not complaining, I'm just reporting.

So I take this medicine every six hours that is supposed to "relax my uterus." (Sorry for the graphic details, but I feel I must for the sake of clarity.) While it has been great to stop the cramping, there are a few other side effects, such as I get completely flushed and my heart races, and it gives me a headache. So far the headache has been pretty mild. They offer me Tylenol, but so far I have been able to handle it without extra meds. The real problem is that I take it every 6 hours. When I started I was on a schedule of 8:00 and 2:00. That's not so bad during the day, but they woke me up on Tuesday morning from a sound sleep at 2:00 to give it to me, and I could not get get back to sleep. I asked my nurse the next morning if it was possible to shift the schedule, so she did. Now I'm on a 12:oo and 6:00 schedule. I slept better last night. She still had to wake me up at midnight and again at 6:00 this morning, but I slept pretty well in between.

Yesterday evening my nurse came in with a syringe and said, "Are you ready for your progesterone shot?" "Huh?" I said. Turns out another pleasure of my hospital stay is a weekly shot in my hip of progesterone. It is oil based, and takes forever to diffuse, and it hurt! So last night I had a headache and a very sore hip.

My evening was definitely brightened when I got the news that Amber had her baby girl. 7 lbs., 3 oz., 18 inches long. Brian brought her to my room and I was able to hold her for a few minutes. So sweet, and so tiny!

Yesterday morning Rachel came by to visit me with Jeff's mom. She was a little tired as naptime was approaching, but she really did a good job of playing and not destroying the room too much. After she left I found that I could no longer adjust my bed with the little buttons. It turns out that Rachel found the on/off switch to my bed. Being the queen, or maybe crown princess of button pushing, she had turned my bed off. No worries, though, the nurse took care of it. Now I can raise and lower my head and feet like crazy. Very entertaining.

Just to keep mixing things up, when my nurse came in this morning she told me she had a student nurse with her, so at least for a while today I get to be a practice model. The student nurse did a fine job.

I had contractions again this morning. I didn't really feel them, but it showed up on the monitor, so they gave me another pill to relax everything, then left me hooked up for nearly four hours. The only problem was that I couldn't move around too much, and my back started really hurting. The back pain made them think it was labor pain, but I think it was lying in bed pain. Finally everything settled down, and they took me off the monitor.

When my doctor came I told her about my back pain, and she said she would order me a heating pad and some physical therapy, so hopefully that will make it better.

I'm doing pretty well, though. I can't say enough positive about my doctors, nurses, and the hospital staff here. They have been super.

Here I Am

Yesterday in the early evening I lost my access to the internet. The power cord on Jeff's computer died (again). Arggg! How was I supposed to survive this with my most readily available source of communication ripped from me. Well a little later I got a visitor, and when I told her of my loss she said that she thought she had a power cord that would work. Sure enough this morning she reappeared with a power cord, so I am VERY happy to be back on line.

I have had a lot of visitors this morning, one of whom was Brian who is here with Amber. She's working on getting her baby girl out while I'm working on keeping mine in.

My doctor came to see me today, and while I didn't really learn anything new, she did remind me that baby Gaby weighs 1 lb., and at 23 weeks that's a good thing. I am lying here right now on the monitors, one is checking my contractions, and the other is listening to the baby's heartbeat. It sounds great, and I feel so close to my little girl right now. She's pretty feisty. I think she's doing martial arts in there right now. She's kicking the heck out of the monitor.

I have gotten a lot of visitors, and I really appreciate it. I am also extremely grateful to all of you who are looking after Jeff and my other princess Rachel. Rachel came to see me this morning, and she is looking good, so thank you very much.

By the way, my toenails are fine.

I'm running out of unique titles

but that is the price I must pay for doing daily updates on this blog.

They really seem to like me here. I mean, they don't want me to leave. Or maybe they are keeping me captive. I might really be on to something here. After all they have restraints on me. Actually the restraints consist of these leg message thingies, for the purpose of reducing the risk of blood clots in my legs. But I am attached to the bed. Of course it is closed with Velcro, so I can get up when necessary (every hour on the hour if you know what I mean).

It is hard to know what the schedule is around here. Yesterday my doctor came at 3:00 p.m. and today she came at 8:30 a.m. When I say "my doctor" what I really mean is a doctor from my group of doctors. I think I may have met them all by now. My doctor today was not someone I have seen since I've been in the hospital. I've seen her in the office several times, but today was her first time checking on me in my current condition. I was just staying in bed without keeping my head raised too much, but she told me she wants me with my head down and my feet up to resist the effects of gravity as much as possible. She used a big word for this position, starts with "T" but I don't know what it is. Maybe that will be my project today, learn that fancy word.

I learn more about my condition every day, but I'm afraid if I go over it all again you will get bored, so I think I'll wait a few days before I address it again. Unless of course something interesting happens.

I love hearing from and seeing you all.

Another day, another post

Yesterday was Rachel's 17 month birthday. I asked Jeff to take some pictures so I could post them here. So here they are. Doesn't she look kind of sad that Mommy is not around?
Here she is putting on a brave face.I think this was still early in the morning. She looks a bit surprised to me.

In the evening they came to visit me in the hospital. Rachel gave me a big smile when she saw me, and even a bigger smile when I shared a cookie with her from a batch that I got from Matt and Bethany.

One of the perks of staying at the hospital is I get to hear baby Gaby's heartbeat several times a day. Yesterday Jeff brought the microphone, and recorded her heartbeat. The link below will allow you to hear it. It is a 14 second clip, and you may need to crank your volume up a bit. At the 12 second mark you will hear a much louder noise that is her giving the monitor a swift kick.
http://www.machtyn.com/Gabriela/media/audio/Heartbeat.mp3

Last night around 6:45 I was moved to another room. It is more than twice the size of my previous abode. The walls are kind of boring, but I have a nice view out the window of a wall and a little sky too, so that's awesome.

I have had a very busy afternoon. At 3:00 my doctor came to see me. Since I am feeling pretty good now, no pain, I asked her if it would be reasonable for me to go home and stay on bed rest there. She said no. Besides my incompetent cervix, there is also the possibility of an abruption as indicated by the possible bleed they saw on the ultrasound on Friday. They just do not want to risk it, as delivering Gaby now would be extremely bad, and her chance of survival would be low. So I'm staying.

Almost immediately after a social worker came by to talk to me about what was available to me should I deliver premature. I really don't remember much of what she said, but she was nice.

Next my mother-in-law came by with Rachel. We had a nice visit for about an hour. The nurse brought Rachel a cup of grape juice (which she sucked through a straw, and allowed a mouthful to dribble out onto her shirt and Grandma's pants), and we gave her some more cookie. Technically Grandma gave her the cookie, but it was my cookie, so I'm taking some of the credit. Rachel finally gave up on playing with just her toys and me and the stroller, and started getting really fussy around 4:30, so they left.

The nurse came and gave me something to put on my legs to help the circulation ad reduce the risk of a blood clot (what with my lying around doing nothing all day). It's this thing that wraps around my calves and massages them. Not too bad.

Shortly after that a premature baby specialist doctor came to see me to talk about what some of the possibilities are. He kind of scared the pants off me a little. There is no way I want to deliver within the next 2 weeks. After that it is still really way too early, but it would be better. The 28 week minimum is what I'm looking at, preferable 37 weeks.

Then I got a couple more visitors from church, and they brought me some pretty yellow flowers to brighten my room. Dinner came while they were here, and they just left, so now I'm finishing my blog post.

Well, I guess that is all of the excitement for now. I have enjoyed getting visitors. Thanks to all of you who visit or talk to me in any way (phone, e-mail, blog comments, instant message, whatever).

Today Rachel is 17 months old

Unfortunately I haven't had much interaction with Rachel this past week. One thing I know is going on with her is her communication skills have really increased a lot lately. I'm waiting for some pictures of Rachel from Jeff to keep the photographic record of her up-to-date. I'll post them as soon as I can.

My status. I debate with myself how much detail I should share here. I mean, maybe you're not interested at all, but the thing is if I post it here, I (hopefully) don't have to repeat myself too many times as people ask me questions. So if you would rather not know, skip this part.

My doctor came to see me this morning. I would like to take this time to say that I have really liked all of the doctors from my practice who have cared for me. The practice is fairly large, with six doctors, and so far they have all been great. I admit that I have been kind of scared with this whole pregnancy thing, but they have all been very supportive, caring and helpful. So applause to the doctors of Total Women.

Anyway, my doctor came to see me, and we chatted for a few minutes. There are two conditions that I have shown symptoms of. One is preterm labor, and the other is incompetent cervix. (Just one more area of incompetence in my life!) One can cause the other, and the situations overlaps. The thing is, they don't know what came first. It is greatly to Baby Gaby's benefit for me to be able to carry her to at least 28 weeks. Before that she could survive or not, but even if she survived the risks of health complications is greatly increased. So the most important work I can do is stay in bed and gestate.

I feel bad for both Jeff and Rachel because, well, for one thing, I miss them, and second of all, Jeff has been thrown unexpectedly into the role of a single father, juggling caring for Rachel, keeping up with his job, and giving me attention. I don't want to demand too much of his time, but hey, what can I say, he likes me and wants to see me on occasion. So for all the people who ask me what they can do for me, please take care of Jeff and Rachel. That will set my mind greatly at ease while I while away the hours, conferring with the flowers, consulting with the rain. And my head I'd be a scratchin' while my thoughts are busy hatching' if I only had a brain. But I digress.

They started me on steroids today. The reason they gave me was to help baby Gaby's lungs develop so that if she does come early, she will have as many advantages as possible. Of course there is also the possibility that they hope to make me stronger and faster so that I can have a career in major league baseball. I got a shot this morning, and I get another one tomorrow.

So here's a funny story that happened today. I didn't think it was funny, but I'm sure you will get a laugh. Early this morning, before breakfast, I wanted a drink of water. Bear in mind that I'm lying down, the cup I was pouring into is Styrofoam, and therefore I can't see the water level, but I thought I had plenty of room. Yeah, I didn't. I ended up pouring the water all over my chest. COLD!!!!!! Then a few minutes later, I tilted the cup towards my mouth to access the straw, but I missed, and poured more water on my chest. It was chilly.

Well, I look forward to reading the masses of comments that I'm sure you will all leave, and seeing your beautiful faces as you come to visit me. Is my hint subtle enough so that I don't come across as pathetically desperate?

Tales from the crypt. I mean the hospital.

My doctor finally came to check on me today. I say "my doctor" rather loosely because my OB office has six doctors, and the one I saw today I had not met before. But I think I have now met 5 of the 6 doctors, and it sounds like I will soon meet the 6th. I am happy to report that I like all of them. They have all been very nice to me. (I like it when people are nice to me.)

I am feeling better today. Yesterday I got a total of three shots of turbutaline (or something like that), as well as one tablet of motrin, for the purpose of stopping the cramps, and it seems that it has finally worked. (YAY!) So that's the good news. I asked her if she thought I would be going home on Monday, or if I was likely to be here for the long haul. Guess what she said. Give up? She said that I should prepare myself for being here for the long haul. I might get to go home early, but I shouldn't plan on it. We are getting close to viability, and don't want to mess that up. She said that I could end up here until I reach 28 weeks. That's a little over 5 weeks. Did they tell me 4 weeks last Tuesday? Yeah, I guess they were just kidding.

So if you want to visit me, that's totally fine. Even if you don't like me very much, I wouldn't object to the change of scenery.

One piece of good news is that Rachel can come visit me. Of course she doesn't have her drivers license yet, so somebody needs to bring her, but at least she can come. I haven't seen her since we put her to bed Thursday night, and I miss her. She's coming to see me today, though.

I gave Jeff strict instructions to continue to take pictures of Rachel, not just for the blog, but also for me too. She is such a cutie pie I know she has 1000s of adoring fans who just can't wait to see her little angelic face light up the screen.

I am allowed out of bed for bathroom privileges, and a very short shower. I took advantage of my shower privilege today, only to find that the water was cold. Not freezing, there was just enough warmth to take the major chill off, but as someone who likes hot showers, it was not pleasant. On the one hand I was really fast getting out of the shower, but on the other hand I was really slow getting into the shower. I told the nurse, and she had maintenance come and fix it, so tomorrow I should have a hot shower.

I want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all of the people who have helped out my family at this time. Jeff has been super, and I hear that Rachel has been quite a trooper. My mother-in-law has been a life saver, and my sister-in-law too. So thank you everybody.

Maybe I'll see you around . . .

Not a happy camper.

This morning at about 4:00 I woke up with cramping in my abdomen. It hurt. I woke Jeff up, and after rousing Brian and Amber to come over and stay with Rachel, he took me to the hospital.

In triage they took a blood sample, and did some other exams (rather invasive if you ask me), and after talking to my doctor they said they were going to admit me for "a while." I asked what "a while" meant, and they said they didn't know until my doctors had a chance to check me over.

So I was brought to a bigger room in L&D, and Jeff was able to finally catch a few winks, and we waited for my doctor(s).

First the high risk doctor came in and did another ultrasound. He said that the cervix length looked unchanged, but he found an area that indicated fluid where it shouldn't be, and said maybe there was a bleed that was causing my cramping. "A while" turned into a few days.

Next my regular OB came in and told me that I have a high C reactive protein level (should be .5, and mine was 27), which indicates inflammation, but doesn't indicate where or what.

I sometimes worry that I am a bit of a hypochondriac, but it turns out that this time my precaution was a good idea, and it was a good thing I came to the hospital.

So if anybody wants to visit me . . .

A Glorious Moment

This morning Rachel signed "mama" and said "ma." I knew she could do it. Maybe my absence from her minute by minute existence made her appreciate me a little more. It makes this bed rest thing more bearable. She still gives me lots of hugs and kisses, and those are great too.