23 Weeks, 3 Days - It's been a busy month!

Well it's been a couple weeks since my last update. We have been super busy! Finally we found out we got the house, and the posession date is July 1. Fortunately we have the keys already so we've been going in and working on the bedrooms and living room, and cleaning up everywhere else. Things are looking great so far! We're done the nursery already, and just need to move stuff into our bedroom and the living room to finish those off. Here's my pictures so far...

So our little boy has his room all set up and waiting for him to get here! Still 3 1/2 - 4 months to go until he's here... Man does that seem fast!

Finally 2 weeks ago I started feeling him kicking. It wasn't much at first but has been getting stronger all the time. J can feel him when he kicks hard enough. A couple mornings ago I was woken up by the little guy's kicking and I snuggled up behind J and let the baby kick him a little bit, what a fun way to wake up! It's been pretty consistant the last few days, I feel a few kicks each hour, and it gets really crazy after supper, he's just in there kicking and punching away to his heart's content! He's even woken me up a few times each night, he kicks so hard. I think it's awesome!

We also had another ultrasound yesterday morning. 8:30am we got in and H was moving around, not kicking hard enough for me to feel it, but we could see his movements. He was playing with his face, and then pulling on his feet. We saw him wiggle his fingers and toes. He even managed to touch his foot to his forehead, pretty flexible! We got a picture of him yawning. He's looking so much bigger, and he's looking pretty cute! The ultrasound tech said he's got long legs, and weighs 600g, or 1lb 5oz. Right on track with what he should weigh. We couldn't get a measurement on how tall he is, because of his legs being folded up by his head! The tech also confirmed for us, he is most definitely a little boy! I am so happy and excited to meet him... these next few months will just fly by I'm sure!

The big yawn!Our cute little guy is smiling at us!

After the ultrasound, I got my bloodwork done and was expecting to have to get a phlebotomy this week sometime. So imagine my surprise when the nurse walks out and tells me, this pregnancy is doing great things for me, and my counts actually came down since last time! That was awesome news, I am not sure why my counts would come down when they normally go up until I get blood taken out, but apparantly I just need to do another blood test in 2 weeks to see where the #'s are at and I think I won't need blood out for another month yet. It's been 8 weeks so far, and by the time I get my next bloodwork done it will have been 10 weeks. That's wonderful! J said if pregnancy makes my blood counts easier to manage, we'll just have to keep me pregnant. What a goof. It's pretty awesome that I still don't need anything done though! Yay!

Happy Birthday to me! :D

Well, yesterday that is! So I'm 23 now. And its been 10 1/2 months since my stroke. I've been getting used to the schedule of getting blood tested every 2 weeks, then waiting to hear if I need a pint taken out to keep the blood cell count low. So far this week I did the bloodtest on Monday and got good news, that I can wait two weeks till the next bloodtest without getting the phlebotomy done again. So that's great, it's already starting to normalize without drugs! Yay!

I've been working more lately too, just one day last week and then 3 full days in a row this week. Hopefully I'll be getting more shifts in the coming weeks too, because I can really handle them a lot better than before! Still hoping I can hold off getting sick as well!

Anyways enough about work. I am excited that I can at least DO it, but I know its not the most exciting thing to write or read about!

Didn't do much yesterday for my b-day. After getting home from the daycare it was supper, then out with J to a meeting, and then clean the town office, then home and sit in front of the computer for a couple hours so I could get to bed at a decent time. I actually forgot to open the present my dad got me, oops! LOL! So didn't really do much, J wants to take me to the Astroboy movie that starts today sometime, other than that not much has been going on. We have been enjoying his present to me - Nip Tuck Season 5 pt. 2, I love that show. I hate that they for some reason decided it needed to be split into 2 parts though, just wanted to make twice as much from the sales I suppose. Oh well, I had to see it!

Anyhow not much more has been going on lately. So I will be back when something fabulous and interesting happens!

Pokes and Pills and... Potty?

At this point I was in serious need of a diagnosis. What could cause this in someone my age? It was not pleasant going through the process of getting a blood test every 6 hours, and my arms were getting pretty bruised up from all the poking around. Not to mention the constant IV feeding into the back of my left hand. I didn't take a single shower on my own the entire time I was in the hospital.

One day was so much like all the rest that it got to be hard to keep track of time. I was at least happy to be able to choose my own menu each day from the offered hospital food, which was pretty good! I got quite attached to their vegetarian chili. Mmm!

The constant battery of tests kind of got to me too. MRI's, an ultrasound that I slept through and didn't even know about until later. One afternoon I had my normal 1pm vial of blood taken out, half an hour later they took 3 more vials, and 15 minutes after that another vial. I was not in the best mood by the time that third nurse came by with the little rubber tie-off for my arm... The next thing I found out was that I was going to have a bone marrow aspiration. Now I'd heard about those ones. They drill into your hip and take a chunk of the spongy stuff inside your bones out, and I'd also heard it was not a nice experience. So the days went by and finally the doctor came in and did what she could to freeze where that huge needle was going, which by the way was NOT enough! Longest 30 minutes ever! Now I know I'm a wuss for pain, how on earth do I think I'm going to handle having a kid??? Well anyways when the ordeal was over with I was telling J how I'd love to see what the bone marrow looks like, since I had to go through all that just to get it out. A nurse heard me and gave me a quick look, this little brownish twig in their tube before they rushed it off to get tested. So that was that fun day.

While waiting for the results of the bone marrow, I was given the news that on Christmas Eve I'd get a day pass to leave the hospital. I was off of the Heparine IV and taking warfarin tabs by that time, so I just had to be back by 9pm to take that pill. I was pretty excited about just getting to leave the hospital, BUT the nurses had a surprise for me first. They wanted me to load up on laxatives on the 23rd, so I wouldn't have a real upset stomach the day I got to go out. So I took what they gave me and... nothing. So they gave me more. Still nothing. So they tried a different type... Still nothing. Took some more. And again, nothing. Went to sleep that night and didn't feel any different in the morning, so they gave me some more... and finally I felt 'something'. Darn those different shifts the nurses have to work: I had probably taken around 5 doses of different laxatives, and then when they finally started to kick in I took off for my first Day Pass. SOOOOO... we kinda stuck around the hotel that day!

Still, it was nice just to get out and see differently-colored walls for the first time in nearly 3 weeks.