Thursday, September 23, 2010

The Big 3-0!

Today is an BIG day...and by BIG I mean large in number, ha! Today is my 30th Birthday and I can hardly believe it, I swear I still feel at least 26 years old!

Since people say "you're only as old as you feel" I guess it's a good thing that I only feel 26!

I thought that I would put together some pictures of lovely things all about Birthdays...from the looks of these pictures you might guess that some cupcakes are definitely going to be in my future! They all looked so delicious, pretty, and festive!









All images

My sweet hubby will be back in town tonight, so we will be celebrating with dinner out tomorrow night and I am so excited about that!

I hope that you have a Wonderful Friday Eve...we've almost made it to the weekend!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Bed Rest

I have spent the last 4 days on bed rest because my blood pressure was high last Thursday when I was seen at the hospital to make sure that I was not leaking fluid.

When I was released from the hospital Thursday night, I was instructed to follow up with Dr. N on Tuesday and to be on bed rest until then.

During these last 4 days on bed rest I have found myself more rested than ever, ha! I watched every lifetime movie entertaining enough, got tons of fall/decorating ideas from HGTV, and discovered at least 15 different recipes for fall that I need to make from the Food Network! I am pretty sure that I will be at least 10 pounds heavier by the time that baby Jett comes due to the fact that there are so many new things that I need to make, ha!

I was up bright and early this morning for my follow up appointment. I made every attempt to stay as relaxed as possible this morning to try to avoid any increased blood pressure. As I sat there patiently waiting to be called back I prayed that everything would be fine. I prayed that my blood pressure would be normal, that baby Jett would still be great, and that I could be released from bed rest to return to work. All I wanted was to be able to continue to carry this sweet baby and get ready for his arrival.

My prayers were answered this morning, Praise the Lord! My blood pressure was below normal like it has been through out my pregnancy so far {113/76} and there were absolutely no traces of protein in my urine from the 24 hour test! I almost started crying I was so thankful and excited!! I was released from bed rest to go back to work tomorrow and I don't think that I have ever been more excited to go to work, ha!

Thank you to all of you that prayed for me and sweet baby Jett! Now that things will be back to normal around here I need to get back to regular blogging! I still have to do some weekly preggers updates along with updates on the nursery decorating...super exciting!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

My Trip to Labor and Delivery

I spent the day yesterday in Labor and Delivery...yesterday was quite the day for sure!

If you are the least bit squeamish by anything related to pregnancy, it would be my suggestion to you that you make the choice not to continue to read, ha!

My day started yesterday with something not normal for me thus far. I woke up and my panties were not dry {sorry, I warned you}, but not in any way that they have been before during pregnancy...if you know what I mean. I called the doctor and they told me to monitor the situation for a few more hours then call them back, after a few hours it was still happening. At that point they told me to head to labor and delivery to make sure that I was not leaking amniotic fluid...dreaded!

Let me interject real quick that my hubby was out of town yesterday and was 5 hours away...that definitely added some extra anxiety to the situation for sure!

I called my best friends Tennyson and Brooke and we all met at the hospital. They hooked me up to all the belly monitors and sweet Baby Jett was totally fine. He was moving all around like crazy and his heartbeat was right where they wanted it to be, so he was totally fine...Praise the Lord! After hooking me up to all the monitors they did the litmus test that would show if I was leaking amniotic fluid and again, Praise the Lord it was negative!

After the test came back negative for amniotic fluid, my FABULOUS nurse Libby {who is proceeded to call Libbs all day} came back in and informed me that she had called my doctor to tell him that the fluid test came back negative. I thought at this point that I was home free {it was around 2:30 pm}, boy was I wrong...little did I know that I was going to be there until after 10 pm!

Libby informed me that my blood pressure had been super high the whole time that I had been there {like 146/105} and she said that Dr. N wanted her to run some blood work to make sure all my numbers weren't in the range of having preeclampsia. Keep this in mind...I had been to the doctor on Monday and my blood pressure was fine then, in fact it is always fine every time that I go {like 116/70} so this whole high blood pressure situation was totally out of the blue.

The preeclampsia tests came back within what is considered "normal" parameters, so she said that Dr. N wanted to do a 24 urine analysis to make sure that there wasn't any protein in my urine...which is a sign of preeclamsia because your kidneys start not filtering all the protein out. Sweet Libbs informed me that she was going to move me to a more comfortable room and start the test. At this point I was in an exam type room that basically had a gurnie for a bed...it was seriously uncomfortable!

Once we got to my room and I was hooked up to all the monitors again I just tried to relax and watch some TV. My blood pressure was completely fine once I was moved to the new room...I secretly think that it was the gurnie that I was on that was breaking my tailbone that caused the high blood pressure, ha! Once about 5 hours passed and my blood pressure continued to be lower than average I asked Libbs if I could continue this urine test at home. She said that she was leaving at 7pm and that she'd call Dr. N to see if that was possible...of course to my extreme disappointment he said no.

At 7pm Libbs came to my room to tell me bye, she was seriously the sweetest! I began to have a full blown crying breakdown to her. At this point no one was there with me {my dad was on his way} and I totally felt all alone. I was scared because I don't want to have Jett at 31 weeks, uncomfortable, I missed Billy {I told him that there was no reason for him to come home to be bored with me peeing at the hospital} and I was so tired of being there. I certainly didn't want to stay the night all just to pee...I could do that at home. I don't mean to sound like a total brat in any way, but you have to understand that Jett was totally fine and NOT AT ALL a concern and my bp was no longer a concern either...I was just completely over staying there to pee in a giant, orange reserve.

Libby told me that everything was going to be okay and that she was sorry that I had to stay there but that she would pray for me tonight in her prayers that I would get a good night sleep and feel better. This made me feel better and I just excepted in my mind that I was going to have to stay there by myself for the night and I knew that everything was going to be okay. Libby left for the night and I told her that when I actually went into labor with Jett that I was going to ask for her because she was seriously THE BEST...I loved her!!

As I layed there watching TV around 9pm, my night nurse Jamie came in and informed me that Dr. N had called to check on me and that since my bp had been normal for so long that he was going to let me take the orange reserve home and then bring it back to the hospital lab tomorrow. As you can imagine, I was so happy!!! She said that I would have to be on bed rest until when I followed up with Dr. N on Tuesday and that she was going to give me a shot of steroids then Billy would have to give me one again 24 hours later. The steroids they give just as a precautionary measure just in case you have go into pre term labor.

So I am hanging out on bed rest until Tuesday when I follow up with Dr. N and hopefully at that point I will be released from bed rest and back to life as usual. I have made a few trips up to Drug Warehouse to check my blood pressure and it has been normal each time, so I am hopeful that it will stay that way until Tuesday as well. Sorry for the super long picture free post! I would so appreciate any prayers that you would be willing to send my way. There is nothing more that I want at this point than to carry this sweet little babe to term! I hope that y'all are having a great weekend!!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Tasty Kitchen

If you are unaware of the amazingness of the Pioneer Woman's Collaborated Cooking website, Tasty Kitchen, I am about to rock your world!

I am a girl that makes a weekly menu {most weeks} and this website makes it so much easier for me to do! Before I knew about the Tasty Kitchen I was constantly searching website after website to make my weekly menu. I am the type of girl that likes to make new things and not have the same tired casseroles and side dishes from week to week.

I love the TK website because there are multiple search options available. You can search by the meal category that you are making, ingredients that you have on hand for last minute meals, or by top community favorites.

Last night I made White Chili Casserole and let me just tell you...it was simply delicious! It was super easy to make for a weeknight dinner and it was so good that Billy and I both had seconds!

I only made one modification to the recipe...I left out the celery. It was so good and something different that what I normally make...this one will definitely be going into the recipe file for sure!

Guess what's on the menu tonight???

Ree's White Chicken Enchiladas...I can't wait! For some reason I was definitely feeling the white chicken theme this week, ha! I will let you know how the enchiladas turn out!

Happy Friday Eve!

Labor Day Weekend

I can't believe that it's Thursday and I am just now putting the weekend recap up, ha!

My long weekend was just as I expected it to be...simply lovely!
I enjoyed spending time with my sister, watching my Razorbacks win, and even squeezed in a mini road trip.
My sweet hubby and brother-in-law were working in Jefferson City, Missouri so my sister and I decided to take a mini road trip up to see the guys. Even though it was just a one night trip it was still so nice to see Billy and be able to eat dinner with him...I missed him so much while he was gone! It's the little things like eating dinner together that I miss so much when he is out of town.

We got home from Missouri around 8pm on Monday night, so as soon as I got home it was time to get myself prepared and in bed for work the next day! After a long weekend 6am sure does come early for sure. I have pretty much decided that we should have a 3 day weekend mixed in at least once a month...they are so nice!

Did you do anything super fun this Labor Day weekend?