Pregnancy Week 31: Another L&D Visit, Nursery Mobile DIY, and How to Fix Scuffed Heels

Here are my 31-week comparison pictures. This pregnancy is on the left; my pregnancy with E is on the right.

I'm looking way smaller with this baby for this week than I did with E. I think it's because this baby dropped to -2 station so early, so she's much farther down. I'll be interested to see what tomorrow's comparison pictures look like for 32 weeks!

It's been another eventful week, hooray. Hubs got home on Friday and we enjoyed a nice, relaxed weekend. He is still struggling with jetlag, but it's getting better day-by-day. Then Monday happened. Mondays are the worst, and this proves it. My stomach started to bother me Monday evening. At first, I thought maybe it was just gas. Then it became a full blown stomach ache. I threw up for the first time around 2300. It all nose-dived from there. I will spare you the details. Stomach bugs are gross.

I had an OB appointment at 0930 the next day, so I figured I could wait until then. I attempted to start my day at 0740. By 0840, I had managed to put on clean clothes and put my hair in a bun. I couldn't stand for more than 30 seconds at a time without feeling dizzy and nauseous. Hubs texted me to check in on me and I sent out an SOS, so he came home to help me get E ready and take me to my appointment.

My OB was originally going to let me go home and try to rehydrate on my own, but then she listened to baby girl and checked my stats. My BP was 90/64, my ketones were off the charts, and baby girl's heart rate was way too high. She called ahead to L&D and I waddled on down the hall. After three attempts at placing an IV, the nurse called in someone else. IVs are the worst. Once I got some anti-nausea medication in me, I felt significantly better.

When I first arrived, I was contracting every three minutes. This didn't surprise me since I was severely dehydrated. Baby girl's heart rate was oscillating between 180-200, which made me nervous. After two bags of fluids, the contractions had slowed to every 8-9 minutes and baby girl's heart rate decreased to 160-165. She is normally 145-155, so that was much closer to her norm. They let me go home and I started feeling much better the next day. Today, I feel completely normal and can eat regular food again.

DIY Floral Nursery Mobile

A friend posted her plans to make a DIY mobile for her nursery, and it inspired me to make my own. I can't seem to find purple decor for baby girl's room, so I'm just going to make my own. I went to JoAnn's and bought a foam wreath, two types of ribbon for wrapping and hanging (thick purple ribbon and thin white ribbon, various purple blooms, and a spray of pearls. I already had small push pins with pearl beads on the end to pin things in place. I also used my glue gun to attach the spray of pearls for hanging the mobile. I couldn't find my glue sticks, but my neighbor had some :)

I wrapped the white foam wreath in purple ribbon and secured it in place with two pins. Then I arranged and pinned the flowers one bloom type at a time to make sure I spaced them evenly. Then I hot glued the very last pearl on each strand around the outer rim of the mobile. This way, I could hide the glue globs behind the flowers. The last thing I did was wrap the stem of the spray of pearls with white ribbon and pin it in place. The stem was pink and competing with the purple too much for my liking.

Supplies minus the thin white ribbon.

Finished product!

Hanging over the crib. 

This was a lot of fun and now I'm in a pinteresty/crafty mood. I'll post any other creations I make as the pregnancy progresses :)

DIY Scuffed High Heel Repair

I have a pair of nude suede heels that I love. Unfortunately, the heel portion of the shoe became too scuffed to wear. I didn't want to throw out the shoes because I was pretty sure I had a pinterest craft lurking in the archives somewhere. With spring around the corner, I finally got the gumption to do something about it.

All it took was some mod podge glue, some extra fine glitter, and a sponge to apply the mixture. I mixed the glitter and glue, then applied it in a thick and even layer. I let it dry and repeated the process once more. It worked great and only cost me $4. Much cheaper than replacing the shoes :)

Pregnancy Week 30: Preterm Labor and More Dresser Updates

This has been the most eventful week of this pregnancy so far. Three visits to labor and delivery (L&D) as well as one visit to maternal fetal medicine (MFM). Before I get into the details, here are my progress pictures. It's kind of hard to compare this week to this pregnancy with E because of the angle I took the picture.

30 weeks with this pregnancy

This pregnancy on the left, E on the right. 

So, back to the busy week I've been having. Hubs left for a work trip about a week and a half ago. The next day (a week ago Thursday), I started to feel really weird. I didn't have an explanation for it, I just felt off. I even called my midwife's nurse about it, but it's not like they can test me for off-ness. I had an appointment scheduled for Monday, so we decided I would wait until Monday.

On Sunday around 1:00 AM, some contractions woke me up. I have contractions all of the time. Sometimes they get regular, but they are not very strong at all. These had a little more pressure behind them. It was enough to make me want to get out of bed and move around because lying down wasn't very comfortable. They only lasted for about 45 minutes, so I went back to bed. I figured if it was the real deal, I wouldn't have been able to make them go away by moving around.

Later that morning, I started bleeding heavily and passing vast amounts of mucus blobs. My friend and her husband came and stayed with E while I went to L&D. When I got there, they triaged me. They noted my OS (external cervix, essentially) was about 1cm dilated and funneling down to about 1/2cm. They also felt I was a little effaced, at about 20%. They brought in an ultrasound tech to try and find the source of the bleeding, but they couldn't locate it. They noted my cervix was 3.3cm long, which is still a decent length. They wanted it to be closer to 4, but anything over 3 would keep them happy. Based on what they saw coming out of me, they believed I had lost my mucus plug. Thankfully, that reforms over time.

After a couple of hours of monitoring, they let me go home since I wasn't progressing anymore. They told me to follow up with my midwife. I went into my Monday appointment, and my midwife agreed with the dilation/effacement assessment. She decided I needed to start meeting with an OB ASAP. She also put me on nifedipine to try and shut down my contractions since she couldn't be sure which ones were causing the issues and which were harmless Braxton hicks contractions.

I met with an OB the following day and she wanted to check me to get a feel for where I was. She asked me to clarify what my midwife and L&D had told me. At some point in the 24 hours between seeing my midwife and seeing the OB, I had dilated and effaced more.

She sent me back to L&D, which was a bit of a process. Since hubs was out of town, I couldn't exactly drop off our daughter. After placing a few phone calls, one of hubs' coworkers was able to come get E for me. His wife came and stayed with my in L&D so I wouldn't have to sit there alone, which was nice. The nurse checked me and said I was almost 2cm dilated and 50-60% effaced. My OB ordered a massive amount of tests to try and figure out what was going on to make my cervix dilated and effaced this soon.

Everything has come back normal, so they are at a bit of a loss. I've had the steroid shots to rapidly develop baby girl's lungs as a precaution. My OB also rushed a referral for me to be seen by MFM. I was allowed to go home since my contractions weren't changing my cervix. The next morning, I started bleeding, passing blood clots, and passing mucus globs again. I called hubs' coworker again and he came and got E. He and his wife really, really helped us out. I don't know what I would've done if they couldn't watch E for me.

When I got to L&D, I had the same nurse as the day before. This was great because she was already familiar with my cervix. When she checked me, she noted I was still just shy of 2cm dilated, but I was now 70% effaced. Baby girl had also dropped to -2 station. I was also contracting about every 6 minutes by that point. I assume the nifedipine was helping reduce their intensity or something because they were not causing me to dilate.

I got an appointment to be seen by MFM and L&D let me go after giving me the second steroid shot. I was not particularly impressed with the doctor at MFM. She acted like she couldn't be bothered with my case. She wouldn't tell me how long my cervix was at first. She kept saying, "It's plenty long. It's fine." She also said she wasn't sure why I was referred to her and she would not be accepting me as a patient. She said there was nothing unusual about my pregnancy. What a load of horse crap. She finally told me my cervix was 2cm long. So from Sunday to Wednesday, I lost 1.3cm of cervical length.

At this point, I would rather see my OB and midwife anyway. They have never once made me feel stupid or acted like I was being ridiculous for feeling concerned. The reason they wanted me to go to MFM is my hospital doesn't deliver before 34 weeks. They wanted MFM to take me until I got to 34 weeks then they would have me come back after that point.

I'm still spotting, but it is nowhere near the level of bleeding I had on Sunday and Wednesday. Hopefully that stops soon. If it increases, I have to go back to L&D for another evaluation. My OB and midwife are going to trade off appointments so they can see my weekly rather than biweekly. I am hopeful that all of the eventfulness is over and that I can go back to regular third-trimester complaints like backaches and sore ribs.

Dresser Updates

In my last post, I included pictures from the DIY dresser refinishing project. While bumming around Hobby Lobby and TJ Maxx, I found some knobs I liked, so I swapped out the originals. I also finally put a picture of E in the carriage snow globe (only updated in the final picture--it's her strawberry costume picture because it's adorable). Only took me a year, hahaha. 

I also hung up E's shadow box and another picture from her hospital newborn shoot under the main picture on her wall. it looked like a big blank space because she used to have a chest of drawers rather than a dresser

Pink glass knobs on top, cream colored rose knobs with gold accent on the bottom.

Filling in the blank space. I need to update the picture in her shadowbox so it's not identical to the one next to it, haha. 

I also finally replaced the knobs on the TV stand in the basement. It is a heavy, solid piece of furniture, but I never cared for the tiny little brass knobs. So I updated those as well. 

The nursery is also arranged how I want it. It has no decorations yet, though. I'm supposed to be resting, so I can't really go shopping like I want to. I'll post pictures of it once it's complete. 

Pregnancy Week 29: So Much Nesting + Dresser DIY

The theme of this week has been nesting. I can't concentrate on anything until I get at least one project done per day. Some of these projects require my husband's help since I can't lift heavy furniture or paint. We are a little more than one week into the second trimester. I still can't believe it. This is the most pregnant my husband has ever seen me. He deployed shortly before I hit 29 weeks with E, which is why I look less than thrilled in the pictures on the left.

I am carrying way lower this week with this pregnancy than with E. I'm not surprised since baby girl has her head crammed into my pelvis. My current pregnancy complaints are vomiting in my sleep, back pain, pelvic pain, and pain in my heels. However, E balances out my pregnancy complaints with her cuteness. She is ecstatic about being a big sister. I'm sure she will be less thrilled once the baby gets here and she has to share attention, but for now she loves the idea. She gives my belly kisses and asks me about her "sisser" all the time.

Nesting Projects 

I bought a dresser from a neighbor with the intention of painting it. Hubs had to do that. Poor dude. All I could talk about From Friday through Monday was his progress on the dresser, finishing the dresser, etc. He also took apart the old guest bed and put it back together in E's room. Then he put the crib together in the nursery and moved E's old dresser into the nursery as well. After that, he brought in the painted dresser and I put away E's clothes, made her bed, and all that fun stuff. He also put together the new guest bed frame. 

E's room is done enough for my liking, the guest room is ready, and all the necessary furniture is in the nursery. I still need to figure out how I'm going to arrange the nursery, but if I had this baby today we would be ok. No major movements need to happen from here on out; everything is small projects. This makes me feel so much better. I'm not sure why, but it was making me absolutely insane not to have these things taken care of. I still have months to go before the baby is born, but the nesting urge apparently does not care hahaha. 

Here is the before and after of the dresser. It looks so happy :) A fresh coat of paint (or two) makes all the difference.

Here is E's new bedding on her big girl bed and another view of the dresser. E absolutely loves her new bed. She wanted to go to bed the second it was put together. Seeing as bedtime was still over an hour away at that point, she had to wait. She stayed in it the entire night, though, so that is an improvement over the toddler bed.

She likes to do anything to be more like mommy and daddy. She went on and on about our bed, her bed, and how she's a big girl now. It was really cute. I'm really glad she's liking the transition. For now, we removed the box spring so she can get in and out of the bed on her own should she need to. It also makes for a much shorter fall should she accidentally roll out of bed. She's been sleeping dead center in the bed so far, though. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

For kicks, here is the new guest bed. We upgraded our guests from a double to a queen. Fancy.

Pregnancy Week 28: Third Trimester + Life Insanity

The week leading up to the third trimester was hell bent on dumping as much nonsense on us as possible. It started with hubs' credit card getting compromised right before he had to leave for a week long business trip. The CC company obviously would not be able to get him a new one in time, so that was fun.

The day after he left, it snowed half a foot. I had to shovel out our driveway so I would be able to leave for my chiropractor appointments later in the week. This did not do any favors for my back, which the chiropractor noticed right away, haha. I've been having stomach troubles as well. This forces me into the bathroom for extended periods of time.

During one of these bathroom trips, E obtained a marker and colored three walls, a door, the floor, the fridge, a book, herself, her clothes, and some of my socks. At some point while I was in the bathroom or cleaning the marker, the cat took it upon herself to crap at the bottom of the stairs. E decided to help by rolling my yoga ball down the stairs and using it to hide the evidence. So I got to clean that up as well. I also managed to cut up my ankle. Thank goodness for my friend Tracy. We had set up a visit for that day, so I got to vent/interact with another adult. We also got oreo McFlurries, which always make life better.

Hubs was due home late Friday evening. On my way home from my chiropractor visit, I stopped at TJ Maxx to looks for nursery storage. When I went to leave, I saw I had a flat tire. I called roadside assist at 11:20. They told me it would be about 45 minutes. They got to me 90 minutes later. Then it was another hour at the tire place just to be told they could not fix my flat nor did they have the type of tire I needed. I finally got home at 14:10 with a hungry, grumpy, sleepy toddler.

The next day (my birthday, woo!), hubs and I went with E to where I originally got the tire. They said they could repair it and that it would be about 30 minutes. After an hour, they told us it would be another 15 minutes. Oh, and my battery was completely dead. Oh really? Completely dead? THEN HOW DID I DRIVE IT HERE? On magic battery fairy farts? We got a new battery since the print out did show it was very low. So our half hour tire repair turned into a 90-minute tire repair and battery replacement.

I try to remind myself that things can always be worse, but that was my limit for bullshittery. Here are my 28-week pictures :). E on the left; this pregnancy on the right.

Nesting Update

Holy urge to nest, Batman! I don't know why the urge to nest is kicking in so much earlier with this pregnancy. I feel restless and antsy not having the nursery ready or even close to ready. Some aspects I can't rush, like the crib. E is now using it as a toddler bed. Soon, we will take off the rail. Then we will move her to the big bed and hubs and I will be able to get the crib set up in the nursery. 

However, there are plenty of things I can do. I got E's toys moved out of the nursery and down into the basement. I also rearranged some of the furniture to accommodate my office desk, so that is out of the nursery now as well. Not having a dresser is also bothering me. I'm going to look at some tomorrow. They'll need some refinishing/painting, but hubs is on board with some DIYing. 

Normally, I would do that kind of project myself, but pregnancy dictates otherwise this time around. Once we have the dresser situation taken care of, I can get E's baby clothes out of storage and put them away. Now I just need to figure out what I'm going to do with all my shoes in the nursery closet, hahaha. The master bedroom closet is kind of a joke. I may just leave the shoes in the nursery. I didn't start needing closet space for E until she was a toddler. Once this baby is that age, we will be moving again anyway. 

I've also been cleaning up clutter. I went through our mail holder, hubs' random stuff basket (holds his wallet, keys, glasses, etc), and our junk drawers. We have three, hahaha. I could probably consolidate it to two now that I've cleared them out. I just don't feel like it since I don't need the drawers for other stuff. I also organized the master bathroom vanity drawers. I still have a little work to do in there, but everything is much more organized. I also hid my bedside table stack of books in a decorative box. It has a hollow under the drawer, so it looks much neater now. My next clutter area to tackle is on top of the fridge.