Miriam's Life

After an exhausting holiday weekend (for me), Elise and I headed out the door this morning for my routine check-up.  I was not feeling well yesterday, probably due to all the extra activity and little sleep, but today have felt a lot better.  I am still looking forward to a nap this afternoon though.

As for the doctor appointment, it was fairly routine.  When I sat down in the doctor’s office I realized I hadn’t felt the baby move all morning, at least not that I had noticed.  This made me a little nervous, but as I began visiting with the doctor, the baby made his/her presence known.  The heart beat was quite strong and the rate was 135.

I’ve been noticing quite a bit of swelling in my hands and feet, a symptom I’ve been blessed to not experience to a great extent in my last two pregnancies.  My blood pressure was good at the doctor’s though, so they were not worried about the swelling, saying it was basically an uncomfortable, but normal part of pregnancy.  Yesterday my hands were so swollen I could not remove my rings, so when the swelling finally went down I removed my rings last night and have not put them back on.  I’m not swollen all the time, but it is annoying to me to not be able to remove my rings when I am.

I have also been waking up with carpal tunnel syndrome pain in one of my hands and wrist.  This is again an unwelcome symptom of pregnancy, but means nothing in particular.  It is related to swelling and because I am waking up with it, means I am probably sleeping on my hands in a position that is aggravating it.  The pain usually leaves after I get up and start using my hand, unless I am doing something like crochet, which makes it return.  The doctor said to try putting ice on my wrists before going to bed and/or wearing splints to bed if it is really bothering me.  If it gets debilitating, they have injections they can give me, but it is nowhere near that bad yet.

I checked with the doctor about the red raspberry leaf tea that I have begun drinking.  It is supposed to prepare your body for labor and seems to also relieve some of my hip pain.  He said he was fine with me drinking it now.  He said the only problems he sees with herbal remedies is if you have other complications or are taking other medication that have unknown drug interactions.  He does not recommend me continuing to drink the tea after delivery because I will be going on anti-depressants for post-partum depression and he doesn’t want to risk any interactions between the two.

We will discuss my birth plan at 36 weeks and will probably also discuss then our plan for going on anti-depressants in an attempt to avoid or lessen my postpartum depression symptoms.  He mentioned the fact that he still wants to discuss this with me and so I am glad it is still on his mind.  We also discussed my hospital choice-Willow Creek, rather than Siloam.  I explained that I had been to visit someone at Siloam recently and it was hard as there were a lot of memories there.  He said in my situation, Willow Creek is a good choice for me.  I toured Willow Creek last week and was quite impressed with their facilities.

My next appointment is at 34 weeks.  At that time I will be 6 weeks from my due date, and for some reason that seems lots closer than the 8 weeks I am from it now.  Thanks for your continued prayers for us and for the baby.  I am dealing with extra emotions lately, including some nervousness at the thought of possibly going through post partum depression again.  I have began to put this matter before God in prayer, and would appreciate any other prayers concerning this as well.  My desire would be to have no dealings with depression again, but I know that it would most likely require an act of God to rearrange my physical/hormonal condition in order for that to happen after delivery.

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The rest of the Trip:
Saturday, May 5:  On Saturday, still at John’s Aunt Sue’s and Uncle Mark’s houise in San Luis Obispo, John helped his uncle lay prepare his floor for wood to be layed down.
Sunday, May 6:   Elise and I went to church with Aunt Sue and the girls, while John and Uncle Mark stayed home and worked on laying the wooden floors.  They worked all day on this and the results looked great.

Monday, May 7:  We headed South again, through LA, and kept going to Dana Point.  Dana Point is very beautiful and right on the ocean.  We got there mid-afternoon and John got right into some painting with his Uncle Hyatt.  Uncle Hyatt and Aunt Anne are both artists.  That night we took Elise to a park, which she enjoyed immensely.

Tuesday, May 8: In the morning, while John and his uncle discussed computers, Aunt Anne took Elise and I down to “baby beach,” which is a shallow beach protected by the breakwater.  This means there were no waves to worry Elise, and though she was still hesitant to get into the water, she soon was splashing around and getting wet up to her neck.  It was a warm day (around 80 degrees), so I enjoyed sitting in the sun and wading with Elise.  We got back for lunch, and Elise and I had naps.  In the evening we took a picnic to the harbor.  That evening, John and I got a quick lesson in printmaking and monotypes from Aunt Anne.  We both got to try our hand at it, which was a lot of fun.
Wednesday, May 9:  In the morning John and I took Elise to the mission at San Juan Capistrano.  It was beautiful!  Then we headed towards Laguna and stopped at a beach that had some beautiful rocks covered in green growth.  They were continually splashed by the waves, and it was very beautiful.  This beach was a little harder to wade in as the waves broke right next to shore.  For lunch we headed back to the harbor at Dana Point and had a wonderful mexican meal.  Then came naptimes for Elise and I, which John used to do some more painting.

Thursday, May 10: We got up bright and early and headed even further South to San Diego.  On the way we “enjoyed” a long wait in very slowly moving traffic.  Our destination was the San Diego Zoo.  Despite the traffic, we arrived shortly after opening, and began our enjoyment of the numerous animal species.  Elise always asks to see the giraffes at any zoo, so we made sure to get to them.  One of our favorite sightings was a mother gorilla carrying her baby on her back.  Elise got to imitate this behaviour on the gorilla statues outside the enclosure.  When asked what my favorite part of the zoo was, I am tempted to say the moving sidewalk that carried us back up the large hill.  :)  Though it was not as hard on me as Disneyland, the long day of walking did wear me out.  We spent the night in Encinitas with “Linda next door.”  (She used to be the next-door neighbor of John’s mom in California.)  That night we went out to eat at a mexican resteraunt across from a rocky beach.

Friday, May 11:  We arrived back at Uncle Hyatt and Aunt Anne’s house mid-morning.   John helped his uncle to set up the new computer he had bought earlier in the week.  Elise and I spent part of the afternoon in the hot tub in the backyard.

Saturday, May 12:  Aunt Anne took Elise and I for a drive along the beach and shopping.  We bought some “new” books for Elise at a thrift store.  We got back for lunch, and then John and I took Elise back the “baby beach.”  It was cooler that day (in the 70’s) so Elise wasn’t sure about getting wet.  John rented a kayak for an hour and Elise and I busied ourselves with burying each other’s feet in the sand and then building a giant sand castle.  When John got back, Elise was ready to get into the water, so he waded around with her for awhile and I sat in the sun and talked to all the kids that were attracted to our sand castle like a magnet.  We went out for ice cream after the beach and then headed back.  I spent some of the afternoon starting to pack up stuff, and John did some more computer work for his uncle.

Sunday, May 13:  We left bright and early Sunday morning.  We were a little bit hurried because I had thought our flight left at 10:00 and realized after we got up in the morning that it left at 9:00!  But we made good time and dropped our car off at the rental car place and rode the shuttle to the airport.  Security moved pretty quickly, and we made it in plenty of time to our gate.  We used the time to get some breakfast and eat on the floor like a picnic, since there were not many seats available.  Many people were headed to Hawaii that morning.  Our flight was good, though we experienced some turbulence coming into Denver.  I was sick by the time we landed, but thankfully we had almost three hours before our next flight so I had time to let my stomach settle.  We ate lunch and let Elise play and ride the moving sidewalks some.  We were all pretty exhausted by the time we boarded our smaller flight to Tulsa.  Elise was adamant she was going to stay up, but thankfully I awoke from an uncomfortable nap half an hour after take-off to find her sound asleep.  She slept most of the flight home.  We rode the shuttle to the hotel, got our car, and drove home, arriving around 8:00 pm.  Though it isn’t usually seen as a positive to lose two hours, in one way it was good to have a shorter day since we were so tired.

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This morning I had an appointment to take the glucose test for pregnancy.  Basically this consists of drinking down in one sitting a small bottle of sugar water.  Actually I don’t know exactly what it is, but that is my best guess.  I chose the orange flavor and it basically tasted like orange pop without the fizz, so it wasn’t too bad.  The worst part of the test is that I couldn’t eat breakfast until the test was done, so I was pretty hungry.  I left for an hour after drinking the stuff, but couldn’t do anything categorized as exercise (I guess that would be cheating).  I was a little shaky, but actually not as bad as the last time I had to take this stuff.  When I returned they called me back after exactly one hour and took a small blood sample.  The idea is to see how well your body processes the sugar in that amount of time.  If it doesn’t do well, then you take another longer test to determine if you may have gestational diabetes.  I passed the test with a number of 115.  Anything under 140 is normal, so I think I did pretty good.  Since they were pricking my finger anyway, they also tested my hemoglobin level (to check if I am getting enough iron).  Since I was not very consistent with taking my prenatal vitamins on our trip I was not surprised to hear my number was 11.1.  If I remember right, they like to have the number above 12.  Earlier in the pregnancy when I was checked, it was 13 or 14, so I have really dropped.  This is actually quite normal for me to be low at this point in pregnancy, but I will try to get back on schedule with my vitamins and may even add a natural iron supplement in as well.  They did not seem worried, but I guess they may check it again at my next appointment to see if I brought it up.  I didn’t get to see the doctor today except in passing, but I have another appointment in two weeks.  I am 30 weeks today, meaning that I have just 10 more to go to my due date.

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Summary of our trip to Southern California. 

Friday, April 27:  After leaving our house as spotless as possible we headed to Tulsa and checked into the Hilton Hotel at the airport.  We left our car there for a reasonable price.

Saturday, April 28: We woke up at 4:30 am and left the hotel via airport shuttle at 5:00 am.  Elise was excited about the day beginning, but the early rising didn’t help with her emotional state by the end of the travelling day.  7:00 am we were boarded and shortly on our way to Denver, CO.  After one flight change we arrived in Los Angeles International Airport at about 10:00 am.  We’d been travelling nearly 5 hours, but had gained two because of time zones.  We picked out a rental car and travelled to John’s grandparents house in Palos Verdes Estates.  PV is a really beautiful neighborhood that is quiet and full of beautiful houses.  The rest of the day was spent going out to eat, napping for Elise and tired Mommy, and spending time visiting with Grandma and Grandpa.  Exhausted we turned in shortly after Elise retired for the night.
Sunday, April 29: We attended church with Grandma and Grandpa at a church that makes ours look very small.  After going out for lunch John, Elise, and I travelled south to Irvine, CA to visit friends-Tom and Kathy.  On the way we stopped at Newport Beach and found out that though Elise loves the sand she is terrified of the waves coming towards her.

Monday, April 30: Monday was spent relaxing at Grandma and Grandpa’s.  John helped Grandma set up a new monitor for her computer.

Tuesday, May 1: Disneyland!  We enjoyed several rides, including John and my favorites as children.  Elise liked them except for the “scary” ones, which were any with dark tunnels basically.  For these she would close her eyes and refuse to open them.  She enjoyed meeting Mary Poppins, Mickey Mouse, and a friendly pirate.  Our day ended when Elise began showing her need for a nap, and I started limping in pain from all the walking.

Wednesday, May 2: We took a drive North to John’s Aunt Sue and Uncle Mark’s house.  The drive took us through beautiful mountains, along the ocean, and through orange groves and vineyards.  Though it is not as green in CA as it is in AR, it has a spectacular beauty all its own.

Thursday, May 3: In the morning we visited Avila Beach.  Since it was fairly chilly to be out on the beach, we had a portion of it all to ourselves and enjoyed resting in the sun while Elise played in the sand.  She even thought it was fun to make sand angels.  She renewed her strong dislike of ocean waves, but by the end of the morning had managed to get up the courage to get her feet wet without screaming.  For lunch we ate fish and chips and italian ice cream.

Friday, May 4: Again we headed out for the morning, this time to a place called Morrow Bay.  There is a huge rock there called Morrow Rock and another beach and harbor.  We bought a kite and attempted to fly it on the beach, but were unsuccessful.  Elise gathered shells and pretty rocks and eventually begged to get in the waves.
She was fine until an unexpected wave would  hit her higher than she expected.  These waves were larger and there were several people out surfing.  In the evening, John and I left Elise to be watched by John’s cousins and went out for dinner and a movie.

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We arrived back safely from our vacation today. I’ll update the blog with a review of our trip including pictures later. Tonight, my mind is heavy with other thoughts. I was foolish to think that because I was spending the whole day in airports and on airplanes today I could just skip over Mother’s Day with little thought to the sadness that it contains. I actually enjoyed the fact that I got wished Happy Mother’s Day by more people today than I would have were I home. Everyone from the Enterprise employee checking in our rental car, to the flight attendants on the plane gave their best wishes for the day. It was not hard to miss that I am a mother as I was towing along a 4 year old and am very obvioulsy expecting another. I didn’t give much thought to the fact that these people have no idea that I am a mother of three, not just of two. That’s a thought that would have been more in my mind last Mother’s Day. But as I neared home, I started to find sadness in the day. My thoughts were drawn to Emma and my eyes were filled with tears. It didn’t help that I seem to have missed the first bloom on her rose bush this year, and though there are several new buds, I miss the present God gave me last year in her memory on Mother’s Day–a rose ready to be made into a corsage. I know it doesn’t help that I am exhausted from two weeks of vacation (funny how rest and relaxation can still be so wearing), but I feel very sad tonight.

Anyway, I’m sorry for the depressing post. It is just how I feel tonight. Don’t worry, it doesn’t reflect on the trip we just had, which was a lot of fun. This is the first time I’ve taken for tears in awile and so it is not surprising that I need to release them on this day.

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