Sunday, August 19, 2007

Week 32

I haven't done a week in review in awhile so I thought I would mix it up and write one this week. A lot happened during this week, some good and some not so good.

Tuesday was lamaze class. While I was hopeful of the class would be good and informative because we were learning how to bathe the baby and also get a tour of the hospital, it did not turn out to be as great as I thought. I learned a little bit about bathing the baby. Some of the basics noted below:
  • Use a wash cloth or a cotton ball first to wash one eye from tear duct to the outside of the eye. Use another corner of the wash cloth or another cotton ball to wash the other eye.
  • The second thing to wash is the ears but you are not to stick anything in the ear that is bigger than your pinky finger. So that means no q-tips.
  • Next she suggested washing the other parts of the baby (minus the bottom) using a wash cloth.
  • Finally when you are done washing the back, head, feet, etc, it is time to wash the baby's bottom and girl/boy parts.
The best thing to note is you are just to sponge bathe the baby until they are able to hold their head up and then you can place the baby in a baby tub. She also said to keep the baby wrapped in a towel as much as possible as they will get cold. That (apparently) is why hooded towels are so great. =)

So next up was the tour of the hospital. I was very excited about this but all it ended up doing was making me very, very scared. Seeing the room and the environment where Elizabeth will be born made it all too real. It didn't help that we had more videos to welcome us back to our normal class. They were a bit disturbing and then we had the 'pleasure' of talking about women ripping during delivery. I won't go into detail and I know there is no good way to approach the topics....but still. Honestly, by this point, I am now somewhat immune to watching/hearing about this stuff. I think that is the main goal of the class to show you so much stuff that it won't even affect you anymore.

Erin had her doctor's appointment on Tuesday and found she is progressing even more. It really could be any day now for her little one to come. We are very excited!

That was Tuesday and then came Wednesday. We had our doctor's appointment on Wednesday and while the baby is doing fantastic, momma is not doing so hot. My blood pressure was very high and the nurse was very alarmed by it. Sadly, I was not shocked by this but was trying to do the best I could to keep myself calm. In any case, the awful words 'bed rest' came up but I fought it - only because I want to try to get it down and my blood pressure went down a little (I stress little bit) while at the office. So to try to get it down the doctor ordered me to not work more than 8 hours per day / 40 hours total per week. For those of you that know me and know my job, that is really hard to do...but I am determined to make this work. I do not want to on bed rest. But I stress again that the baby is doing great and her heartbeat was wonderful. We have our next appointment on the 29th. So, we'll know more whether this relaxing and not working as much is working by lowering my blood pressure. That will also be our last every 2 week appointment and then we go to weekly. I'm very excited about this because that is when we start to see if I am progressing and have a better judge on when Miss Elizabeth will be joining this world.

Needless to say going out on Tues and Wed really wore me down so unfortunately I woke up sick on Thursday. It was just a mild sore throat so I wasn't concerned and took a quick nap before joining some friends for dinner. Naps are truly wonderful things that I never realized were so important until now. On Friday I woke up early to work and unfortunately could barely talk. It progressively got worse as the day went on and I actually took the day off from work in order to take care of myself. I ended up taking a 3-4 hour nap and just relaxed. By Saturday, my throat no longer hurt but I still sounded like a frog because the cold had taken over my sinuses. Sadly I haven't gotten any better the last 2 days but I am hoping to magically wake up tomorrow and feel better.

That summarizes the week. Next week I hope to have news about my sister's baby. So stay tuned!

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