Another Appt

Today was another follow-up appointment to monitor my contractions. Last night was a rough night - I was in a lot of pain and I had contractions pretty steadily throughout the night. Yesterday I tried to reduce the anti-contraction medicine, so today we are going to return to taking the maximum dose at scheduled times (every 4-6 hrs) to see if that helps. I am also staying on the tylenol every 6 hours. I'm still measuring right on target, but I seem to have lost another pound this week. They also sent out another urine culture to see how my UTI is doing. I have to call the maternal fetal medicine place and ask when I can do another course of the 2nd medicine. Other than that, I seem to be doing okay. They don't really know if the contractions/discomfort will continue throughout this pregnancy or if they will magically disappear, so I'm supposed to focus on each episode at a time and not try to project for the rest of the pregnancy.

Perhaps I spoke too soon . . . .

Well, after my great sense of relief that everything has been going so well, my fibroid (you know, it kind of feels like it needs its own name . . . please feel free to offer up options) started to get pissed off again. It hurts. It stings. It is stabbing periodically - I'd say, it is generally displeased with my current state of being. Around 4:00 today, the contractions started back up. I had been emboldened by the past 24 hrs, so I had dropped down to only 1 pill of the anti-contraction medication "as needed" - so perhaps that approach is now letting these contractions sneak in there. I'm not so happy about it. I took one pill at 2:00 today, and I took a 2nd pill at 5, and the contractions do seem better, but I may need to think about returning to my structured regimen of 2 pills every 4 hrs. And to think I was having visions of stopping the medication, just taking tylenol, and avoiding future bouts of contractions. Ahhh . . . how foolish and cocky I can be.

Hanging in

I stopped my medication for the fibroid yesterday afternoon, and so far, so good - no hospital visits yet! I am definitely uncomfortable, and the contractions have increased, but I am not in excruciating pain, and the contractions are not regular. Let's hope this continues along like this - I could manage the rest of the pregnancy like this.

Next step . . . let's make it to my appointment tomorrow morning without any more trips to the hospital!

Wish me luck!

I'm a bit nervous. . . . since I started taking this 2nd medicine on Thursday afternoon, well, I've felt pretty good. I hardly have any pain/discomfort connected to my fibroid right now, I'm tolerating the side effects of the medication well, and the contractions are few and far between. I was able to resume "normal" activities today . . . I babysat my nieces (okay, I made Elliot do all the work, chasing and lifting) but we went to play at Niki and Eric's house, and we ate dinner, and then we put them to bed. After we finished babysitting, we stopped off at Ken and Erica's housewarming party, and finally got home. I'm tired, but feeling great. Tomorrow, my mom and I are going to run to a jewelry show we've been wanting to attend, and I'm hoping I feel well enough for that.

I will be taking my last dose of this wonderful medication at 11:00 am tomorrow, and the medicine is due to wear off around 5:00 pm. I'm just worried that the pain and contractions will return, and that we'll end up back in the hospital. Let's hope the medicine did more than mask the problem and actually did some healing the past few days. We are supposed to attend Bill's birthday party tomorrow night - I hope we make it!

Our renovations

Many of you have been interested in our home renovations. The background is that Elliot bought this house over 12 years ago. When we met, the house was a mess, and we couldn't sell it, so we decided to renovate it. Our goal is to move in there for up to 2 years, sell my place (which might be bigger, but it is a townhouse/condo) and then move into a bigger house that we actually can fit in. This house is a "cape cod" that was built in the 30s, and at some point, it was expanded with dormer windows to create an upstairs. All in all, it has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms upstairs, a kitchen/living room/dining room/powder room on the main floor, and a rec room/laundry room/bedroom/full bathroom in the basement. So, it is kind of a tight fit for us, especially since we both work out of the house.

So, here is the "tour" - these pics were taken a few weeks ago. We are really hoping this will be finished next week . . . but I'm not holding my breath. I called the contractor and yelled at him from L&D at the hospital! When you walk in the front door, the stairs leading upstairs are right in front of you.



If you look down the hallway to the right, there is a closet and it leads to the 1st floor powder room:


Powder room:


To the left of the powder room is the kitchen:


We removed the wall between the kitchen and dining room, so now it is more like an eat-in kitchen:


The dining room connects back to the living room (here is a view of the dining room/kitchen from the living room):


The living room is just to the left of the front door:



When you go up the stairs, the baby’s bedroom is the first door on the left at the top of the stairs:





Just across from the stairs (and immediately outside the door of the baby’s bedroom) is the baby’s bathroom:



There is a long hallway upstairs (view with back to baby’s bathroom) – there are two half-closets that will be linen closets on the left, there is room under the window before the closets for a window seat, and the door at the end of the hallway on the right leads to the master bedroom:


When you enter the master bedroom, the main room is to the left, the master closet is to the right, and the door to the master bathroom is straight ahead. This is a pic of the entranceway to the master bedroom from inside the room:


This is a picture of the master bedroom from the back end of the room (the entranceway would be to the left):


This is a picture of the master bedroom standing in the entranceway with the master closet behind:


Here are pictures of the master bathroom:




Here are pictures of the master closet:




From the main floor, just across from the powder room and before you enter the kitchen, there are stairs leading to the basement. The basement is pretty open, with the laundry room to the left, a rec room area and a bedroom to the right:

Rec room:


Bedroom:


Bathroom:



As you can see, we still have painting, carpet, cleaning, and we have to finish the wires/lighting and vanity tops.