Category Archives: Pregnancy

My 1st Non-Derby and Allergic Reaction to Meds

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Anyone that has ever been to Louisville, KY knows that the first Saturday of May is reserved for the KY Derby.  Anyone that lives in Louisville knows that Derby season starts two weeks before and there are plenty of activities and parties to keep you busy.

One of my “side hustles” is running a website for urban professionals in the area.  I give away tickets to many parties and also get to attend many of those parties for free.  It’s a great time to reconnect with old friends, get my groove on and shop for a cute outfit.  And while I thought I’d be okay to not be out and about this year – it’s starting to get to me.  This will be the FIRST year since I’ve been of age that I haven’t been able to to attend a single Derby event.  Even last year, Milton and I went out Thursday and Friday night before leaving early Saturday morning for our honeymoon.

Today is OAKS Day which is just like the Derby, but a day earlier. It’s the day many Louisvillians go to the races and all schools in the city are closed.  Many of my friends have posted their Oaks Day pics in their cute dresses and matching hats.  They all look AMAZING!  And then there’s me – posted up in bed with a t-shirt and wild hairstyle.

It doesn’t help that I am now allergic to my medicine.  I took prometrium every night in the hospital and was given a generic prescription when I left (it helps relax your uterus to prevent contractions). My first night home, my legs started itching profusely.  I assumed it was from bed sheets that needed to be cleaned.  I had the same thing happen a couple of days later and even after I took a shower, the itching didn’t stop. I looked at the bottle and it said “Do not take if you have a peanut or soy allergy”.  Yikes, I’m allergic to peanut butter.  I called my doctor’s office.  It was my doctor’s day off but another doctor suggested I take Benadryl.  I really didn’t like that solution but gave it a try.  This morning I wake up still itching some so I felt as if I had a dilemma. 1) Do I not take the medicine because of my food allergy, but risk having contractions/early labor? or 2) Do I keep taking the meds and pray nothing more major happens?

I tried calling the doctor’s office again this morning and guess what? Even they are closed and at the Derby!  I left a message at 9:00am on the voice mail of the on-call doctor.  At 3:00pm I still hadn’t heard anything.  I call back at 3:20pm then the on call doctor calls back. After hearing about my condition for the past month he decided to prescribe me something different.  Milton will pick it up on the way home.  Part of me actually started missing the hospital and the level of care I received.  Everyone (for the most part) was on the same page and a simple press of the button got me the help I needed.

Let’s hope Baby Turner keeps staying “in” so that after next week I can move around more and be out in public.

Top 9 Things I Haven’t Seen While on Hospital Bed Rest

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Friday, April 29, 2012

It’s 1:30am and for some reason I can not sleep.  I should be sleeping well because tomorrow I will be released from the hospital.  I haven’t had many other sleepness night, but for some reason tonight I am awake. I’m not having contractions, I’m not nauseated, I’m not having discharge – I just can’t sleep.

Tomorrow, well now I guess it’s actually today is April 28, 2012.  It’s exactly one month from the day I “stopped by” Baptist East to see my OB-GYN and somehow that led to four weeks of bed rest in a bed that didn’t belong to me.  Here’s a list of the top things I have not seen or had to worry about while on bed rest.

1. The price of gas!  – The last vehicle I rode in was an ambulance a month ago.  I remember always passing gas stations and watching the gas prices (usually rise) but now I could not tell you how the inside of my car feels or looks.

2. Shoes! – Who needs shoes when you’re in a hospital and the only flexibilities you get are a wheelchair ride and a 10 minute walk around your floor.  Me and my socks rocked it in style!

3. Bras! – Once again, I have no reason to look cute for anyone and my belly definitely overshadows my breasts.  Although I only wore the hospital gown the first night, t-shirts and silk pajamas have kept me comfortable in bed.

4. A coat! – Who cares what the weather is outside if you’ll never get to enjoy it.  I couldn’t even tell you if it was warm or cold outside each day. Well, I did wear a coat for my Thunder Over Louisville date with Milton.  And it was Milton’s coat, it was mine.

5. Stair!  My walking has been restricted to 10 minutes on my floor.  Steps are an unheard of word.  I sure hope they don’t tire me out once I get home and have to use them to get up and downstairs.

6. Grass!  What’s that?

7. Washing machine and dryer! – Okay, I’m kinda glad I didn’t have to see those.  Thanks to my amazing husband for washing (and folding!) all of our clothes each week.

8. My Fitness Studio! – Luckily the night before I entered the hospital I taught Zumba classes.  One of my biggest struggles with being here was having the studio covered. I definitely miss all the ladies.  Even though I’m going home, I know I won’t be able to do Zumba for a little while longer. And if Baby Turner comes early, it will be a little bit longer than that!

9. A grocery store or kitchen! I’ll admit with this one too, that I’ve been spoiled with eating.  I get breakfast, lunch and dinner delivered (in bed) to me and all I have to do is look at a menu and decide which items I want. Milton is the better cook in our house and I hope I keep eating enough at home to keep my weight up.

Almost There & Sad About Zumba

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Hooray, I am 31 weeks and 4 days pregnant!  To me, this (and every day) is a milestone because I entered the hospital at 27 weeks and slept on a labor and delivery bed for several days. If everything goes as planned – and I try not to get my hopes up – I’ll get to go home this weekend.  This is important for two reasons.  1) Our Baby Shower is supposed to be on Sunday and 2) Our 1 year wedding anniversary is on April 30.  I would love to sleep in my husband’s arms on that day.

My sole purpose in life is to lay.  If I’m in bed, my doctor thinks I’m a rockstar!  I haven’t had major contractions since Easter Sunday.  I feel and look fine. My weight is at an all-time high 141.9 pounds.  (Wowsers, that Ensure must really be working) Everyone says I’m all belly, and I believe them. Well, I WAS at 141.9 pounds, but that was right after Milton and I ate Red Lobster.  The weight has now gone down to 138.

Today I had an ultrasound.  Baby Turner is at 4 pounds.  YEAH BABY!  All looked well.  The only things I noticed was that his head was very close to my pubic bone which means he’s sitting LOW!

This is an emotional week for me. For the past six months I’ve been working directly with the KY Derby Festival to bring a Zumba event to their Fest-a-Ville.  When I say I’ve put in a lot of work, I put in A LOT of work.  When the doctor said I’d be on bed rest for four weeks, the first thing I thought about was not being able to perform at the event.  Hours, days, months of preparation and work – everyone else will be doing Zumba, I’ll be in bed watching a rerun of Shark Tank with Milton.

Now, I could have been the type of person that backed out of organizing when I knew I wouldn’t be there, but I’ve built a wonderful relationship with the KY Derby Festival and know how many other opportunities can come from the event.  It definitely sucks that I won’t be there, especially watching all of my Zumba friends that are overly excited about the event.  I hope the event will be a success, but I also hope that people give me credit and show appreciation for putting the event together.

I guess Milton, Baby Turner and I can have our own jam in our room.  Well, maybe not.  Maybe Baby Turner and I will just watch Milton entertain us with his funny dances!

Thunder Thanks

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This past weekend Milton and I had planned a trip to DC.  He had arranged some tours and we were excited to go -especially Milton since he is a history genius.  Obviously the trip didn’t happen. Obviously I was laid up in a bed.  Although I get two wheelchair rides a day, I rarely take them because Milton comes to visit at night and I know he needs some time to unwind.

Thunder of Louisville was this weekend and since I’m “locked up” downtown, we decided to make watching the fireworks our wheelchair date for the day.  Now, if you’re not from Louisville, Thunder of Louisville is the largest fireworks show in the nation, and one of the largest in the world. Over a half million people come to Louisville just to watch it (google it, you’ll love it)

Milton and I take wheelchair rides to the top floor of the parking garage because it’s a great way to look out at the city. And this would be the location for our fireworks date.  Saturday comes around.  The fireworks were scheduled at 9:30pm.  We called the nurses for a wheelchair at 9:15pm.  We bundled up.  And I mean BUNDLED UP!  It was freezing outside.  I put on Milton’s sweatpants and one of his heavy coats.  We start walking/rolling to the garage and we pass a lady that has some soft drinks in her hand.  She asks if we are going to see the fireworks and she suggests we come join her “party”  on the parking garage.

I thinking it’s going to be a herd of people, but she and about six family members are all standing up there. As soon as we get out there, she brings me one of the heavy blankets they have and says “Here honey, we need to keep you warm.” I say no thank you.  But she insists and says “No,  honey, we gotta protect that baby.   Here let me tuck it in on the sides for you.” She offered Milton a chair and both of us soft drinks.

The fireworks started and unfortunately our viewing area was mostly blocked by a high rise apartment complex. We stayed for maybe five minutes and then I was ready to go back inside and watch it on television with the best front row warm view I could get.  Before we left, Milton returned the blanket to the lady and thanked her for being so hospitable.  She walked up to the both of us and said “You’re my Christian sister and I know everything will be fine.  I’ll be praying for you all.”

I asked her name, she said Kim. Kim was opposite of me in every way but you could tell the thing she cared about was my mine and Baby Turner’s well being.  Although our outside experience with the fireworks was very short, I’ll never forget the caring ways of Kim.  My mother passed away six years ago and Kim is the first person that has given that motherly touch since I’ve been in the hospital.  I truly appreciate her.

Weight a Minute!

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You’d think laying on your tush all day would be an easy way to gain weight.  That’s what I always assumed.  Since being in the hospital on bed rest my highest weight has been 139 pounds (my pre-pregnancy weight was 122 pounds). That was a couple of days after I arrive here. I’ve watched my weight decrease to 137 then 136 then 134.  Now, although the 134 was a day after I was strictly on ice chips for 24 hours, my weight is still moving in the wrong direction.  I think this is for two reasons.

Reason 1: I am generally very active and usually burn a lot of calories in the day to help increase my appetite and the amount of food I eat.  When you live on bed rest island, none of that activity happens. I wake up in the morning and order breakfast.  I am in one position (minus turning from the right side to the left side).  Several hours pass.  I still feel full because I’ve done nothing to burn off the breakfast calories.  However, I know it’s lunchtime and I need to order food.  So I do.  When lunch arrives, I only eat half of it because I’m full.  Several hours pass again and the same thing happens for dinner.  I try to eat but I’m not hungry. The food on the menu isn’t bad and I get the select the items off the menu that I want – I’m just not hungry.

Reason 2: I am in bed all day, and get two wheel chair rides twice a day. All of that equals loss of muscle mass.  My muscles probably forgot that they even exist because they’ve been neglected for almost three weeks. All of gymnastics, cheerleading and track lessons in my youth to help my muscle development have been thrown by the wayside.  Perky booty be gone.

While in regular life losing weight would be opening welcome, it’s not suggested for Baby Turner’s healthy growth.  Baby Turner needs to be big and strong, especially since he’s a boy so we have to eat, eat, eat to grow, grow, grow.

Dr. Weeks’ suggestion was to add two Ensure’s to my daily intake. My first response – “That’s what my grandmother used to drink!”  Whenever Grandma Lottie would come visit from GA, we’d stock up the refrigerator with Ensure so she had something to drink. I was now going to be a part of Team Oldie in order to get Team Healthy.

I’m still not gaining consistent weight.  I’ll go up for two days and then back down a pound the next.  In addition to the Ensure, I’ve also been granted two 10 minute walks on my floor.  I asked the doctor if I could walk downstairs to the cafeteria and he gave me that “don’t push your luck” look.

Every day, every pound is a success – so we’ll carry on!!

Not a Good Day

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The doctors at University Hospital do weekly rotations.  Sunday was the end of one doctor’s rotation (Milton and I really liked him).  Milton and I talked with him in depth about what his plan for the next two weeks would be if he were here.  It was a great conversation and I understood his course of action. Today started a different doctor.  I hadn’t met him yet because he had been off work with a broken arm.  He came in with the cast still on but I liked him based off our first conversation.

His plan was similar to the previous doctor but a little in reverse.  Previous doctor wanted to do the betamethasone shot earlier in the week and the fetal fibronectin test later.  This doctor wanted to do the opposite.  Short education level:

Betamethasone – this is a shot given in your booty, once or two over a 24 hour period.  It’s purpose is to help with lung development in case the baby is delivered early. However, it only stays in your body for up to two weeks.

Fetal Fibronectin – this is a test that can be done on women who are 24-34 weeks pregnant.  They pretty much scrape inside of your va-jay-jay.  It shows if a certain fluid is present (which shouldn’t be present toward the end of your pregnantcy) exists. If the results are negative, then there is a 99% chance that you will NOT deliver in the next two weeks.  However, if the results are positive, there is a 33% chance that you might deliver in the next several weeks.

Current doctor wanted to do the fetal fibronectin test first because if the results were negative then there’s no reason to give me the beta shot.  I was excited at the possibilities because if my results came up negative, they were considering letting me go home early since the probability of me delivery before 32 weeks was 1% likely.

I said my prayer “Come on 99%!” This was not the time to be a part of the unique group.  One of the residents that I see daily came in around 11:00am to do the test. I thought positive thoughts.  It took very little time and the results would have one taken 1-2 hours.  I ate lunch (my left over Cracker Barrel Milton bought us the night before) and was watching tv. The resident came back in and said the results were positive.  THAT SUCKS!!!  No early hospital dismissal for me.  Baby Turner may still come out sooner than later.

I was very disappointed.  More disappointed from this than anything I’ve experienced since I was first told I’d be entering the hospital. I was sad.  My normal smile was non-existent.  While sitting there sulking, and after calling and telling Milton the unpleasant news, a nurse came in an worsened my mood even more. Labor and delivery was filling up so they needed to move me AGAIN back over to Post Partum (their over flow).  I was NOT a happy.  This move would have been my 5th room in less than three weeks.  Milton was not there to help me so I’d have to pack/move everything solo.  I instantly shut down and didn’t want to be bothered by really anyone. I had flashbacks of the closet they call a room in room 321. I started packing my things and then just laid there. I turned off the lights and tried to devise a plan where I could maybe go back to Baptist East for these last two weeks if it meant I would be in ONE decent room.

An assistant nurse of some sort brought in a cart and was going to walk away before asking if I needed any help putting my thing on it. Umm yeah… I have a month’s worth of both my and my husbands items, I’m on bed rest, can only walk 20 minutes a day, can not to do exercise or activities that involved using ab muscles – and you ask if I need help?

Almost an hour passes before the nurse comes back, and I wasn’t about to look for me.  She, Charley, was actually very helpful.  She could tell that I was bothered by this move and the constant transitions and wanted to see if there was something they could do.  Luckily someone gave birth which freed up another room.  By the end of the night, six women gave birth which freed up several rooms. If she hadn’t have been my cheerleader, I would have been stuck in the crammed up room while many free rooms were still available here.

I stayed in a funk the rest of the day and laid low as much as possible.  I thought about whether I would ever be able to put on my  maternity clothes again before giving birth. Milton brought some great dessert from the Homemade Pie and Ice Cream Kitchen and Baby Turner kept moving around to remind me that it’s all about him. I love him already and just want him to be okay and healthy.”