TheBeanBlog

Let me preface this by saying my husband is a wonderful man with countless positive attributes…but his patience is not one of those qualities- he has the attention span of a 6 year old at times. Until recently he would only put his hand on my belly for a minute at a time and then say he didn’t feel anything and give up.

Friday night I was able to get him to lean his hand on “the belly” while watching tv and after about five minutes the bean gave a big kick. Joe’s eyes lit up, he was so excited. So I really do have a baby in there….

That’s what my 4 year-old nephew Angelo said in response to my sister pointing to my bump and saying “You can see there’s a baby growing in Aunt Kelly’s belly, right Angelo?”

I love kids. Apparently I either am starting to look pleasantly plump or in four months I’ll be delivering a baby chicken :o)

Fast forward to Wednesday afternoon. I go with some fellow co-workers to a local nursing home to Christmas carol and bring gifts. I told one of my friends (and fellow carolers) about the Charles story during lunch. We sing songs and hand out gifts to a group of 60 lovely and gracious elderly people. Then the nurse tells us there’s another smaller group waiting for us upstairs.

Upstairs we sing and bring more presents. Midway through the second song an older man in a walker comes over to listen. Throughout all the songs he is beaming and singing along when he can. He keeps making eye contact with me and has such a sparkle in his eye. When we finish up I decide I want to go over and give him his gift personally. I bring it over to him and notice he has a little pack on his walker with his name embroidered on it. “Charlie” it says. My friend (that knows about my morning name drama) looks at me with an expression that says “Charlie! Now that name is meant to be for you!” She later tells me this…

Charlie turns to me and thanks me and the group for coming and with tears in his eyes tell us a little about his life. He’s almost a hundred and fought in World War II. He wishes he weren’t stuck in this place. He introduces us to his wife and then he cries a little more. We try to cheer him up a bit and get him to laugh and he makes a joke about not having any money to tip us for our performance. We do an encore song just for Charles William and then we wish him a Merry Christmas and leave.

In my hormone-charged state I bawl my eyes out on my way to my sister’s house (her kids had a Christmas concert I was going to see that night). It is so sad to see those lovely people so lonely and not with their families. My husband calls me several times on the drive trying to calm and sooth me…he tells me he was wrong and he thinks we did a wonderful thing by cheering those patients up- he thinks the name Charles is a great name. Who knows if we’ll have a boy (I’m still feeling this baby is a girl) we’ll name him Charles, but sometimes the serendipitous events in life never cease to amaze me….

I know my hormones were raging with a speed and intensity to be reckoned with, but….As my husband and I were getting ready Wednesday morning I mentioned one of my favorite boy names again to him and said I really like the name (Charles).

Last night when we went over names for the 25th time and he once again vetoed nearly everything he did “accept” Charles and said it was fine.

Well apparently 8 hours of sleep changed everything, because he said he didn’t like it anymore…and then he said I’m picking too ethnic of names- excuse me when the hell were Elisabeth, Madeline and Jack considered “ethnic”?!

I couldn’t take it and basically projectile-cried and then began screaming like a banshee that I couldn’t deal with him anymore. He actually looked a little frightened before he uttered the words, “over-reacting much?”

He obviously didn’t get the response to that comment that he was hoping for- I dropped the f bomb several times which I never do-whoops….All is well in our universe again, but I am fed up with the naming battles and told him he needs to create a list of six names for boys and girls that I can review. I gave him a deadline too of Christmas Day also :o)

We just got back from the appointment and were able to see some great shots of the spine, feet and profile. Everything is ok, I can breath again. We saw a new doctor tonight and he was friggin hilarious and very down to earth.
I asked him about sleeping on my side and he said I should definitely start doing that at this stage (sleeping on your back puts pressure on your vena cava), but then he said- “who is really able to control what position they sleep in- you do the best you can.” I’m glad Joe was there to hear that as he has made a habit of waking me up to get me to sleep on my side as of late, which is very devoted, but at the same time I neeeed uninterrupted sleep please!!! I’m actually laugh at what I just typed because I haven’t had uninterrupted sleep since about my 7th week. Let’s just say I don’t need anyone other than the baby waking me up in the middle of the night!

The doctor also told me that as long as I’m not drinking or bathing in a vat of my acne meds I should be fine. Lovely what pregnancy does to you- I’m still in the beer-gut-not-cute-baby-belly phase of growing and I get to have pregnancy acne too-sexy eh? I’m still waiting for that beautiful pregnancy glow, maybe it’s been back-ordered and hasn’t made it to my doorstep yet.

All in all it was a pretty quick and uneventful visit, thank goodness. 19 weeks, 2 days.

Well I had an eventful weekend.  Saturday Joe and I picked up the new SUV, a Buick Enclave.  It’s a beautiful car, but now I’m afraid to drive it.  I’ll tell you why:

Sunday morning I collapsed and lost consciousness at church.  I remember standing up for a part of the service and not feeling “good” about standing.  A few seconds later my fingers and toes started to tingle and my vision flashed and blurred.  And then everything went black.  As I was falling down I heard myself hit something but I couldn’t see, so I had no clue what part of my body I hit.  The next thing I saw was my poor, panicked husband looking over me.  Funny things was, I had no idea I was even at church.  I thought I was at home waking up from a nap!  Joe tried to explain what had happened and although I wasn’t lucid I started to see other less familiar faces over me so it was obvious I was not home. 

They called an ambulance and the fire department showed up first.  Everyone was so kind to me.  They checked my vitals and gave me some oxygen.  My fingers and feet were still numb and I felt very light headed so I was actually happy to see the EMTs when they arrived.  They checked my blood sugar which was a 77 (a little low, but not dangerously low) and then inserted an IV into my hand (oww!) and  gave me some fluids and dextrose. 

I spent about five hours at the local hospital ER with Joe.  I spent the whole day in the hospital praying that everything was ok with the baby, because I knew some part of my body hit the pew on the way down (Joe just couldn’t catch me fast enough).  They checked my blood sugar again and it had dropped to a danger zone in the 30s.  They gave me more fluids and dextrose. The ER doc; however nice, had pretty much said to me if there was anything wrong with the baby there was nothing they could do at this point (because I was only 19 weeks).  I understood the need for honesty, but on the inside I was a mess.  He had an OB nurse come down and check the baby’s heart.  The heartbeat was a little lower than normal, but as she was checking me with the doppler the bean kicked me (thank God) and I could actually hear it on the doppler and then the heart rate picked up.  She said everything seemed fine and if I felt movement it was a good sign.

Today my husband drove me around town to doctors for more answers as to why this happened.  The doctors aren’t sure what caused me to lose consciousness, but they think it might be a combo of low blood pressure and hypoglycemia.   I had a big breakfast before we left and I felt ok, so I just don’t understand what could have caused it.

I have to go in for more blood-work tomorrow, but needless to say the whole event shook me and poor Joe up a bit.  I won’t soon forget that panicked, frightened look in his eyes.  I’m afraid to drive for fear of blacking out at the wheel (it came on so quickly I couldn’t even sit down to catch myself).  I’m not going back to work and the 2 hour commute until I get the results back from the blood-work and have my “big” ultrasound on Wednesday.

I do have to say that there has been an overwhelming amount of kindness and caring from family, friends, people at church, and even fellow “nesties” checking on me.  It’s like a comforting pillow to wrap around and cushion me and the little bean.

The bean has been kicking consistently every day now since I started to feel those first stirrings last week.  The most activity tends to be after meals (this kid definitely has some of my family’s genes in it ha, ha) and at night.  This afternoon it was so active I felt like it was practicing an Irish jig in my belly.  It is bizarre and yet fascinating and amazing at the same time.  Definitely brings a smile to my face.

Last night Joe tried to begin some rudimentary communication with the bean.  He spoke into my stomach “One kick for yes, two kicks for no.”  Of course it was just to make me laugh and he definitely succeeded…makes me thing what a great Daddy he’s going to be.

The other symptom I’ve been having lately is heartburn.  This is reflux of a level I have never touched before (guess the GERD I had before I was pregnant would finally catch up with me).  I literally feel as though I can torch people’s eyebrows with the fire that is coming from the depths of my stomach.  In desperation the other night water, milk and ice cream all proved they were no competition for the foe that is this burning…

On a positive note, the “all-day-nausea” has really become “evening nausea” and “nausea when I don’t eat every other hour”- definitely much more manageable then constantly feeling green.  Well I’m off to do some more online holiday shopping…note to self: ask Joe for a gigando sized tub-o-tums as a stocking stuffer!