Friday, July 9, 2010

A Very Medical Day

I had my second prenatal appointment with my midwife yesterday.  Everything is great.  I've actually lost a pound (not that I'm trying - I'm eating when I'm hungry, and I'm eating whatever sounds good, it's just how things have worked out).  My blood pressure was an unprecedented 104/58.  The baby's heartrate was 160 bpm.  Old wives will tell you that means it's another girl, but I don't know.  This pregnancy has been so different from the other two, I'm thinking boy.

We'll find out in December. 

Here's a tip - don't wear a dress to a prenatal appointment.  Normally when you wear pants (or a skirt) and a shirt, they just lift your shirt to listen to the heart.  Um, duh.  How many dozen prenatal visits have I been to?  But I swore off of pants (everything squeezes and makes me want to throw up - or it's too big and they fall off) and have been wearing dresses almost exclusively, and it made the whole heartbeat-listening part a little awkward. 

I really, really like my midwife.  Do you know anyone who just makes you feel calm without saying a word?  She has that quality.  It'll be good for me during the birth, because I tend to be high strung (I know this comes as a complete shock to most of you).  I'm really excited about having a midwife this time.  So far she's on board with all of our preferences (inducing but otherwise a natural birth, leaving the hospital after 12 hours if the baby and I are both fine, etc.).  I told BJ that I just don't want to spend the whole pregnancy fighting, and it doesn't look like I'll have to, which is a big relief. 

We're donating the baby's umbilical cord blood for Huntington's disease research (and if you're pregnant or thinking about becoming pregnant, by all means e-mail me and I will give you more information about it).  We did this with Claire's too.  Mary Grace was born too quickly, and we ended up leaving the collection kit in the car (I was HUGELY disappointed).

BJ took my car yesterday and I took his, because he had the kids.  I had left the paperwork for the donation in my car, though, so it wasn't where I was.  After I picked the kids up from school I ran it back down to the midwife's office (ALLLLL the way across town near the hospital). I could've waited, I mean, we have 5 months, but I didn't want to lose it in the 8 weeks between now and when I see my midwife again (next time I'll see my backup OB).

So everything proceeded pretty normally, I went into my usual afternoon coma and the kids watched a movie. Then, just after dinner, Claire stuck a bead up her nose.  I tried to get it out with a Q-tip, but I could barely see it and I was terribly afraid to push it in farther, so we went to the ER.  She was freaking out at home, but calmed down enough to fall asleep in the car (told you it was allllll the way across town).  Sleep was exactly what she needed, though, because as we were standing at the desk talking to the admitting nurses, I saw a bit of the bead peeking out of her nostril.  I held the other side of her nose and she blew and out it came - before we paid for the ER visit!  HOORAY!!  She must have relaxed and stopped crying long enough for the tissue swelling around the bead to go down. 

Right after she blew it out I grabbed our insurance card off of the counter and said, "Quick, let's get out of here before they charge us!"  Heee...

We managed to get the kids back home and to bed only a little bit later than usual.

That was our first ER visit since MG had rotavirus in February of 2007.  Not bad for a family with small kids.

What have your kids stuck in their noses?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

heh, heh. remember Tart'n'tiny candies from when we were kids? Yeah, totally dared my little sis to stick one up her nose and then eat it. Too bad for both of us it got stuck. Mom grabbed it with tweezers and I was in BIG trouble. Sis was just upset she didn't get her quarter b/c she couldn't eat it after mom confiscated it. ;)

angel0199 said...

Oldest stuck an M&M up her nose. It was funny because I discovered it when it started to melt and brown was runny out of her nose. We discussed it and she is my rule follower so I thought that was the end of. Next day she stuck an unpopped popcorn kernel up her nose as we were watching a movie right before bed. It wouldn't blow out and daddy freaked and want to take her to the ER. I ended up pulling it out with tweezers (I know wasn't which you really aren't suppose to do so I guess I'm not the best rule follower either.

Neighbor's daughter stuck polly pocket shoes up her nose and had to go to the ENT to get them pulled out. Just one more reason to dislike polly pockets and their tiny rubber clothes.

I can't stand pants when I am pregnant. For casual settings where fashion doesn't matter I wore overalls. On the occasions I had to wear pants they came off as soon as I got home and I went bottomless at home. I guess I can't have anymore kids because mine would be horrified if I went pantless now.

strwberrryjoy said...

My younger sister Holly crammed a Reese Peece (how to you spell that!?) up her nose. I felt bad because I told her to. She was 4. I was like 6? Anyways my mom sat on her and yanked it out with tweezers! I remember Holly screaming!

Chelsea said...

Lol the Ultrasound Tech couldn't be bothered to throw a paper sheet over your legs? Jeez. ;)
Dresses are awesome in the summer, pregnant or not!
I remember in kindergarten we were making Christmas ornaments for our families out of jar lids, glue, glitter and red hots (serious art) and one kid says, "Yum these smell like cinnamon!". So this kid named Jeff leaned down, took a big sniff, a couple of the red hots shot up his nose! Ouch. He started screaming and had to go to the nurse's office. It was funny.
I have been lucky, none of my kiddos have stuck anything up their noses. Yet. (Knock on wood)

Momo Fali said...

Why didn't I know this until today?!!! Congratulations! Sending you love and kisses and anti-nausea thoughts!

Cate said...

Just catching up on your posts -- Esther stuck a nut, like a nut that screws onto a bolt, the day we got back to Hooper Bay after our summer travels in 2007. She was yelling "Tool thing! Tool thing!" and pointing up her nose. I was like, "Heck, couldn't you have done that yesterday when we were not a hour plane ride from a doctor?" I didn't know what to do, so I called the on-call village health aide for advice (it was the weekend, so there weren't office hours) and she said, "Have you tried letting her blow her nose hard?" I hadn't even thought of that. She did, and that heavy "tool thing" came right out. It's one of my silly momma stories. :)