IT MOVES!!

Here is the latest Belly Picture

And... Some of the most exciting baby news recently (well... other than the part about it's gender)...

JAKE GOT TO FEEL THE BABY MOVE!!

Just about 20 minutes ago. Hooray for baby growing big and strong!

True Blue Football

BYU has a tradition that during Homecoming Week called "True Blue Football".

This involves setting up several giant slip and slides into a mass of blue foam. Indeed there is nothing football-y about it.

Even though this is my fourth fall here, I have never gone. But Jake REALLY REALLY wanted to take me. So, despite my skepticism about the weather (it had been DUMPING rain about 15 minutes before we had to leave), we went.

After waiting in line for over an hour, this is a general idea of what was going on:

We were smart enough NOT to bring a camera, so I borrowed this picture from the newspaper.

All of our pictures were taken once we arrived home.

Jake was twisting and turning on the way down the slide. I tried to stay on my bum to protect baby. Jake also was slathering MORE foam onto himself once he hit the pool at the bottom. I was less excited once I saw how the foam there was more of a gray with grass and dirt and who knows what the heck else was in it... So I am significantly less blue than he is.

Good times though!

IT'S A BOY!!

Yesterday was the big day!! The 20 week ultrasound!!

And the news is....

BABY'S A BOY!

For your viewing pleasure, here are some pictures from the ultrasound. I may or may not post the video file on here. But its on facebook. So you could always find it there.

Baby wanted to stay laying on its face the WHOLE TIME! She tried to shake it awake and everything! So they have to do another ultrasound when I go back next month to try to finish some measurements. They said I should make sure to drink some caffeine so that baby will wake up and be moving around that time.

Spooky Story

Since it is October, I thought we could start out the Halloween month with a real life spooky ghost story!! Well... maybe it's not a "ghost" story. But it sure was spooky!

Earlier this week, I was working the graveyard shift at work. This means that my shift lasted from 7 PM - 7 AM. At 6 AM, two more CNAs come in to start the work of the day shift.

In order to understand the following events, I have made for your pleasure a CRUDE map of the Berkshire, where I work. Numbered rooms are patient rooms. The orange ones were the occupied rooms at the time of this story. The two red Xs will be explained in just a moment.

SO.... Around 6:15, I was walking back from Room 9 to the CNA station with one of the 6 o clock girls. When we got to where the X is between rooms 10 and 11, we heard a man's voice say "Hey."

Which may not be too weird until you consider that 1) ALL of the staff in the building at this time were female, 2) all the patients are still asleep, 3) The patients in rooms 8, 9, 11, AND 13 are all female, and 4) the man in room 12 has a much higher pitched voice. Once you realize these four things, it gets a little creepier.

The other CNA and I stop dead in our tracks, look at each other and have the "Did you hear that?" conversation. We can't figure out where the voice came from and although we're a little weirded out, we continue on with our duties.

Around 6:30 or so, the same CNA and I were in the back section of the building. When we were at the second X (near room 16 - feel free to scroll up and consult my map), we heard the same voice again.

There were male patients nearby this time - in roms 14, 15, and 16. However, we checked on all of them. And they were all dead asleep. None of them have ever talked in their sleep before. And because the voice sounded the same as the first time, we didn't figure sleep talking was a likely answer anyways.

Now we were SIGNIFICANTLY creeped out....

Then, around 6:50 the physical therapy staff started arriving for the day. One of them stopped at the CNA station and asked us if we had heard about "Bob" (name changed). Bob was a patient who had been in our facility. He was admitted into room 16. As he got sicker, we moved him into room 10 so that he would be closer to us and we could keep a better eye on him. A little bit later, he was still getting sicker and had to be ambulanced to the hospital.

Turns out, Bob had died the night before. And where did we hear this man's voice? Right outside rooms 10 and 16. The two rooms Bob had stayed in.

Spooky.

Baby Update

Baby is finally big enough that you can SEE some evidence of my labors from the last 4 and a half months. Which is exciting!!

ALSO, less than one week until we find out if baby is a pink or a blue! Hooray!

Old Navy's Maternity/Baby Sale

Old Navy has been having this HUGE Maternity/Baby Sale. And I needed another pair of maternity jeans. So we got some stuff. Then we realized that we were only about $12 away from being able to get free shipping. So, we decided to take a look at what baby things we could add on.

We haven't bought ANY baby things yet. We don't find out the gender for 2 more weeks (Oct 6). But we decided it wouldn't hurt to look for some neutral things that we liked.

And this was just too cute to resist:

The Beginning of Nursing School

I started Nursing School this semester. So far, nothing too exciting has gone on.

But on Monday, I had my first round of clinicals at the hospital!

I was on a Medical/Oncology floor and assigned to a nurse named Trent. Because we haven't learned much, there wasn't much for me to do. I listened to some heart beats/lung sounds on some patients. And checked their pulses and such. And cleaned up some poo. Otherwise, I just followed the nurse around.

So, it was uneventful. But everyone has to start somewhere, right?

Here I am all dressed up and ready to head to the hospital!! I felt so official in my uniform with my badge and everything!

I would like to make excuses for this picture by saying that at this point in the day I'd already been at work for almost nine hours (after working twelve hour shifts the two days preceding)... So I was TIRED! But the battery on the camera died so we only got one shot. And this is it.

Baby - 17 Weeks

Okay... So... I realize that it has been FOREVER since I posted. But.. School started and life got busy! Until I have time to do another post (which will either be tomorrow or sometime late next week), here's a belly picture and a quick story!

I went into the OB yesterday. And we were listening to the baby's heartbeat on the Doppler. All of a sudden we hear this loud WHOOMP. The nurse starts laughing and said that that was the baby kicking at the microphone!

ALSO.... we scheduled the big anatomy scan/gender ultrasound!! So mark your calendars! October 6th at 3:30PM

Can't wait!

Back to School Barbecue!

My parents like to send us Omaha Steaks packages (which we LOVE!!). However, we usually go through everything else before we use up the burgers. So we have had hamburger patties accumulating in our freezer for a while. We decided to put them to use by hosting a back to school barbecue!

Jake took charge of cooking the meat.

We invited a bunch of old roommates and good friends - some of whom I hadn't seen for a year and a half or so.

It was fun! There was lots of yummy food and I think everyone had a good time.

And what better way to end the night than with an impromptu watermelon seed spitting contest?

14 Weeks

Well... 14 weeks (3 and a half months) down... and not much to show for it yet!

Someday...

But anyways. Baby is now about as big as a lemon, and making its own urine! And, baby's thyroid is now starting to produce some of its own hormones! Which I think is pretty cool! :-)

On another note... Our OB won't check gender until 20 weeks (roughly mid-October). But there are some clinics where you can pay $40-$50 and go in around 16 weeks to find out gender. If I can talk Jake into it (big maybe), then we might know by the next time we post a belly picture!

12 Weeks Belly Picture!

With all of the kidney and hospital shenanigans, I never got around to posting the belly picture for 12 weeks pregnant. Since tomorrow we're at 14 weeks and probably taking another picture... I figured I should get on that.

So here ya go! :-)

Mary Versus the Kidneys: Round Two

If any of you have been reading the blog from the VERY beginning (as in... March of 2009), then you may remember the first round of the ongoing battle I have with my kidneys. They like to throw rocks at me from time to time. LITERALLY!!! Kidney stones. Last time I spent about 7 hours in the ER and then 3 days drugged on my couch before finally passing the stone. This round of the battle was FAR worse than the first time... Here's how it played out.

Friday, August 13th, 2010

NOTE: Friday the Thirteenth!! This should have been my first clue!! Nothing too bad was going on at this point. I just had a crampy achey feeling in my left kidney. It just lingered, and didn't get worse, so I just chalked it up to weird pregnancy pains or something and somewhat ignored it, going to work like usual. I was scheduled for the 4 PM - midnight shift, but went home around 10:30 because I wasn't feeling well and the night had settled down by then.

*NOTE* It wasn't as silly as it may seem that I ignored it. With the other kidney stone, I went from being perfectly fine to being completely debilitated by pain within about an hour and a half. Since this nondescript achey feeling went on for HOURS, I figured it was something else.

Saturday, August 14th, 2010

Saturday, I was scheduled to work from 9 AM - 9 PM. Just before 7 AM, I was awakened by my phone ringing... the second person scheduled to work at 6 AM didn't show. Leaving only one person working the floor. Despite the fact that I was looking forward to about another hour and a half or so of sleep, I hustled my bum (attached to my still achey kidney) into work to help out. I got there just before 7:30 AM. I mentioned offhandedly to my coworker that I thought I might be starting to pass a kidney stone. By 8:30 the pain had gotten MUCH worse, and I was vomiting from the pain. The other CNA for the day had shown up by then, and they volunteered to cover the floor so Jake could take me to the Urgent Care.

We ran to the BYU Urgent Care. They ran blood work and checked out some other tests that I had *conveniently* just had run on Friday for some routine prenatal labs. They agreed that it was likely a kidney stone, and sent me on to the ER.

So, we headed to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center's ER (still vomiting and in tears from the pain). They ran more blood work. And hooked me up to an IV. Got some morphine and some good hydrating fluids.

You can still see the bruise on my arm from were they drew my blood the day before!

We spent... a good 4-5 hours in the ER on Friday. Because of Baby, they didn't want to run a CT scan to locate the kidney stone. So, they opted for an ultrasound. They did a full abdominal ultrasound - which was kinda cool. I got to see my kidneys and ribs and lungs and whatnot. But... they couldn't FIND a stone. However, my urine tests indicated that the kidney was probably infected. So, they went with that diagnosis and sent me home with drugs for pain and nausea as well as some antibiotics for the infection. They also told me to come right back to the ER if I started running a fever, or had uncontrolled pain or vomiting, etc.

It was a long, unhappy day.

Jake was a trooper though. He read his book and helped me out when I needed it. :-)

Sunday, August 15, 2010

The day started out promising! Less vomiting, and the pain meds seemed to be doing their job. Until about 9 PM that night. The pain meds (the prescription said 1-2 pills as needed every 4 hours) were... no longer doing their job. Those two pills were only lasting about an hour. I roughed it out through the night, sleeping on a bag of frozen veggies to help with the pain.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Monday morning showed no signs of improvement. We called the OB to check with them about what they wanted me to do. They said to head back to ER. So... we did. After another 5+ hours full of blood work and ultrasounds (and THANKFULLY some serious duty pain meds!), they decided to admit me. The new theory was that although the infection was under control, there was ALSO a stone that was blocking my kidney and not allowing urine and other fluids to drain the way they should.

So, we were wheeled up to the seventh floor to my luxurious room!

I did have a pretty sweet view. This isn't actually the window in my room. It's a window across the hall, but I could see out it from my bed. So it kind of counts. I could see Life Flight, BYU, Rock Canyon, even the Provo Temple!

Here's most of the room. And the chair where Jake spent his time. (Although I did let him go home to sleep in a read bed. I'd been keeping him up the last 3-4 nights with my tossing and turning).

The urologist decided to give me throughout the night to see if I would pass the stone on my own. To facilitate this, they were gave me my own little morphine pump! It was all hooked up to my IV and I had a little button that I got to push! Whenever I pushed my magic button - instant relief!! SOOOooo much better than having to bother the nurse every hour.

But... I DIDN't pass the kidney stone that night... which led us to Tuesday.

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

Tuesday morning, they decided to do a cystoscopy and go seek out the stone. Basically, that just means that they sent a little camera scope up through the bladder and on its way to kidney. When they found it, they went ahead and took it out!! BEST WAY TO GET RID OF A KIDNEY STONE EVER!! SOOOO much better than passing it mysef! I was a little scared and worried... but it really wasn't bad for me. I was out under a general anesthetic for the whole deal.

A few funnies:

If you are around Jake and I, you may have noticed that instead of regular pet names, I call him "Boy" and he calls me "Girl". I vaguely remember as they were wheeling me into (or out of?) post-op, asking everyone "My Boy, My Boy. Where's my Boy?" I guess they all assumed I was talking about the Baby, because they kept telling me "We don't know that it's a boy, but it's fine." Of course, this didn't satisfy me. I kept asking about "My Boy" until someone finally asked what my boy's name was and connected that "Jake" meant "husband".

As I returned to my room, the nurse and CNAs were asking me if they could get me anything. As in anything - a blanket, meds, etc. Evidently I immediately said "Orange juice??". So, they brought me orange juice. But that wasn't the end of it. I guess I was sooo excited to have my orange juice that I told Jake MULTIPLE times "Look, Boy! I have some orange juice! They brought me orange juice!"

While I enjoyed a nice post-op nap and slept off the rest of the anesthesia, I SWEAR I saw Jake come back from the cafeteria with pizza and a plate full of DINOSAUR EGGS! There were all different kinds of dinosaur eggs, and each one had a picture of the kind of dinosaur that would hatch from it!

But, immediately after the operation, I felt so much better! Didn't need any pain meds from the minute I got back! The only lingering unpleasantness was the matter of my potassium... Evidently my potassium levels were CRAZY low. So they decided to give me a boost through my IV. But... potassium through an IV is NOT fun!! It burns up your arm the whole way through the vein. I had to have an ice pack on my arm to be able to bear it. :-(

I got back from the operation around noon. And by 6:30 that evening, we were cleared to go home!!

Mike and Karen where wonderful to bring over dinner for us that night. It was such a blessing!

NOW

I'm still kind of tired and feeling a bit weaker than normal. And my bladder/kidney area is still tender and a bit sore. But nothing so bad that I've needed so much as a tylenol!

MUCH BETTER!

Fun Outings

Last Thursday, I had to drive up to Taylorsville (near Salt Lake) to get fingerprinted as part of my background check for the Nursing Program. Jake was kind enough to accompany me!

It was NOT an enjoyable drive... Sasha, our Ford Taurus does NOT have air conditioning. So... it was a hot yucky miserable drive.

Afterwards however... we had some coupons for....

THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY!

Conveniently located on our return route! Our coupons were to get a slice of cheesecake (any flavor) for $1.50. They usually cost about $7 - $8 a slice. So the fact that we got TWO slices for $3?!?! A steal!

The restaurant itself was PACKED. So we walked next door to the mall to eat our cheesecake and enjoy some people watching.

I chose just plain original cheesecake with strawberries on top! YUM!

Jake always likes to try new and exciting things when we eat places. He chose a White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake. He let me try a bite. It was good, but I preferred mine. :-)

The city of Provo hosts outdoor movies on Monday nights in August at Rock Canyon Park. They set up a big inflatable screen at the bottom of the hill and project the movie onto it. Then everybody brings blankets and such and sits on the hillside in a stadium seating sort of arrangement.

This week they were showing New in Town, which neither Jake or I had seen. It was pretty good! I kind of want to go EVERY week. But, I need to remember to bring pillows!

Week 11

No belly picture this week... It looks the same as ever. So... until there are noticeable changes, we'll likely shoot for every other week.

This week, baby is about the size of a lime! And there is about a 1:1 ratio between the size of baby's head and the rest of baby's body!

Supposedly, this is about what baby looks like right now (it is so hard to write these things using non-gender-specific pronouns!... No "her" or "his" or "she" or anything... only "baby". haha)

Baby's fingers and toes are no longer webbed, and they're growing hair follicles, tooth buds, and starting some fingernails!

Baby's ears have moved to their permanent position... I'm going to have to do some more research to figure out exactly where they were before...

Baby is busy kicking and stretching (I can't feel it yet) and soon will be able to open and close little hands into fists!

Baby's diaphragm is forming, and baby is likely hiccuping to strengthen it! Baby's kidneys can function now and are cycling amniotic fluid.