WOW!
A long time has passed and I have not kept up on journaling! For the most part the pregnancy has progressed nicely albeit a few bumps in the road.
August
Alot has happened since August. August finished without incident and all was going well.
September
In September we began taking our parental readiness classes at our local hospital, we took classes on: breastfeeding, baby basics, prenatal/labor readiness class, ask the doctor, and Jared took Dad boot camp. They were all very good and helpful in getting you into a mind set to think about things and prepare yourself. We had a nice labor day weekend and went to a party at our friends house. 3rd Trimester started September 23rd and I started getting weekly massages and chiropractic adjustments which proved to be wonderful at moderating all the added aches and strains of pregnancy.
October
October proved to be a bit tougher of a month as my lungs began acting up and I ended up on IV antibiotics. Considering how tired/draining IV's normally are and adding pregnancy to that it was not possible for me to work during that time so I was off of work for almost 3 weeks. Normally when I miss work I worry about it alot and return back to work asap, generally too soon and end up worn out. Considering I was taking care of my daughter too I did the opposite and took the doctors orders gladly and used the time to rest up and work on some projects and reading I had been wanting to do.
Upon returning to work within 2 days I began having alot of contractions whenever I was on my feet, this had been happening at home too but since I was ill and less active it did not ever get to the point it did while I was working. My 4th day of work I called the doctor and went in for a non stress test (NST) where they measure the babies activity and my uterine contractions, while she was doing fine I was having contractions about 5 minutes apart. The doctor administered a tocolytic medicine called procardia under my tongue that works to stop the contractions & it did work. They then allowed me to return to work on the medicine and we hoped all would be well. Unfortunately the medicine made me ill I had to have Jared drive me home from work and by the time I took the second dose that night I was extremely ill knew I couldnt take it again. Jared called the doctor who prescribed a different medicine that did the same thing for me which worked and did not cause the side effects. After one day of rest to ensure the medicine was working and I was over a head cold I had aquired I returned to work. Unfortunately, I was still having more contractions than they wanted when I was working (more than 6 an hour) but not too bad. They sent me home from work 2 different days and I was getting a bit impatient with the whole process so my doctors did a fetal fibro nectin (FFN) test. This test is able to anticipate if you are giong to go into labor within 2 weeks - if it is negative there is less than 1% chance you will go into labor within 2 weeks, if it is positive it is a 50/50 chance--luckily mine was negative so armed with that information and the fact that I was not dilated they allowed me to return to work. I learned that there are some women who have a more 'active' uterus than others and will contract all the time prior to delivery and it will never cause labor, it is as if the uterus is just practicing and never leaves the stage of braxton hicks (BH) contractions and that it is possible that is what is going on with me, they still leave you on the meds to stop contractions, I am taking terbutaline, just to make it more comfortable for you and ensure the contractions don't escalate to labor.
November
It was during all of this per-term labor scare that my boss and I discovered that the 2 weeks of vacation I had saved and planned to role over to next year to extend my maternity leave was not allowed to be saved and I woudl have to use it. As a result of this I only had 4 more days of work until I had to take my vacation in order to use it up before my maternity leave started so that is exactly what I did. So thus I ended up off work for 3 weeks due to illness then I worked for 2 weeks, 3 of which I was sent home early for due to contractions, and then I started my 2 weeks of vacation--rough life! So my vacation started on November 10th and my maternity leave started on November 28th. All total you normally get 3 weeks paid time off for maternity leave before your due date and I added the 2 weeks to that, too bad I probably will not make it to my due date to take advantage of those 3 weeks. I have used all the 2 week of vacation now and used the time to get things in order around the house, finish the nursery, and just overal work on all those lingering "to do's" that always seem to be there since I doubt there will be any time in the near future for any of that!
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