Pregnancy and Pain Don't Mix

This weekend was wild for me.  Friday morning, I woke up with a slight tooth ache which I thought was caused by clenching my teeth too tightly the night before.  As the day progressed, the pain kept building and as business was closing, the pain became excruciating.  Finally, around 8 pm, I called my dentist to ask him what pain medicine I could take for it and what his thoughts were.  He asked me a bunch of questions if anything was swollen, fever, sensitivity, etc.  He then said that he thought it had to do with hormones while being pregnant and to call my OB to find out what medicine I could take to help out with the pain.  He also told me that if it still bothered me Saturday, he had some time in the afternoon to meet me at his office to take a look.

Sadly, the pain kept coming and I didn't know how to get a hold of my OB or an ask a nurse to get some answers.  I took Tylenol and it didn't do much with the pain and the Orajel I had only affected me for a minute or two tops.  On a scale of 1-10, I rate child birth as a 10 and this was going between an 8 and 9.  I had pain that was creeping up my right side of my head and caused pain in the ear and nose and I couldn't concentrate on much as well.

I tried to go to sleep for the night and I just couldn't for the life of me.  I tossed and turned all night long in between bathroom breaks and what not.  Finally, I left my room around 2 am and started making some phone calls to get some answers.  I called the hospital women's services to see if they could tell me what medicine to take and they said to try my OB so I called the main number again and went to an operator.  She took down my info and told me I would get a phone call from the on call nurse within 40 minutes and I should call back if I don't.  I waited an hour and decided I was too tired to call back so I lied down curled up in a blanket on the couch to try and get some much needed sleep.  The good news is that I fell asleep for about a half an hour but then realized it was 5 in the morning and the kids would pummel me if I stayed on the couch so reluctantly, I moved to my bed again to try to sleep some more.  It didn't work and I was still in terrible pain.  I tried to do my normal routine with kids, but Jared stepped in to help feed them and get them occupied with things to help me out since I didn't seem to have things in order.

I called my dentist and left a message saying I was still interested in coming in soon because it was still painful and I didn't sleep all night long because of it.  I got a hold of him around noon and he agreed to meet me at 2 pm.  While I waited, I had to call my OB and find out what pain meds were okay to prescribe me.  After convincing them of the urgency and calling back twice, I found out that I could have either Tylenol 3, Percoset or Loritab.  I tried to work through the pain another couple hours and then it was answer time.  I got x-rays taken and sure enough, the dentist told me I have an absyst (spelling) on the top of my roots on one of my teeth.  For those who don't know, an absyst is a bacterial infection like a wound with puss and it looked like it had been developing for a month now and he was surprised I hadn't felt anything until now.  

The game plan went as follows, he started the first step of a root canal to drain the absyst and place antibiotics up into the roots.  However, we ran into a little snag because one of my two roots had become calcified and it didn't want to reopen to help clear out so my options are to try again with my dentist down the road or end up finishing with an oral surgeon.  Either way, I'm pregnant so not much can be done, but I am glad that the pain is gone now and I'm taking antibiotics to help battle the infection.  Hopefully all will work out between now and when the baby comes since anything major will have to wait.  I only took one prescription pain med once to kick the pain and I've stuck to Tylenol the rest of the time which hasn't been very many.

Oh yeah, to top that all off, I have finally caught the cold bug going around again and now don't know if it's okay to take cold medicine on top of everything else.  Whoa is me.  You become so helpless when you are pregnant.  

Simple Toys

They always say that your kids will be interested in playing with the simplest of things and here is some proof.  For the passed week, my kids have been entertained with juice bottles and cereal.  They keep getting them out and moving them in lines around the downstairs, taking time to move the back towards the front and so on.  I think it's funny, but it makes them happy.

Oy! Rhogam

So naturally, my blood type is negative which means for each of my pregnancies, I have been RH negative.  It's a curse which I've gotten use to and means I have to have a shot of Rhogam at 28 weeks and after delivery if the baby is positive in blood type.

My first experience with Hayden's doctor, the nurse did something funky because my butt hurt for a couple weeks straight.  No kidding.  Was totally not fun and wasn't looking forward to getting it ever again.  The good news was that they do them at the hospital more often and I had a great nurse give me my post delivery shot so that was good.  Hadley's doctor was good too.  Didn't hurt too bad and I didn't have to get one after her delivery because she is negative too.  Bad news for her when she has kids of her own though.  This time, apparently, they have stopped giving the shots at the OB offices now.  The second admitting clerk I talked to at the hospital thinks that it is because the shots have gotten so expensive that the doctors can't afford to order them for their patients in advance.  Sad.  So here is a recap of my exciting adventure to try and get my rhogam shot.

After Hayden's doctor appointment, we went over to the hospital to get my rhogam shot.  Naively, I thought it would be a quick piece of cake and I'd be done.  WRONG!  I went in and starting the paperwork at admitting and a few phone calls were made and it turned out that the prescription they gave me to get it was not authorized by my insurance even though they handed it to me saying, "You're all authorized to get it done."

Apparently, the doctor's office was going off old notes from my insurance saying they didn't need authorization for this shot when really, they do.  SInce it was so late in the afternoon, there was no way I could get things cleared in time to get it done that day so the nice lady had me fill out all of my paperwork ahead of time while I was there to register for the rhogam shot, delivery and baby.  Once that was all done, I went and collected Hadley from a friend's house and we went home.

The next morning, my doctor's office called me and I was given clearance to go in and get the shot finally.  I again figured, I did all the paperwork so I just have to go in quick and get it done.  I set up to have both kids be over a friends house while I went to get it done.  I got there and had to wait for two people ahead of me at admitting and then it was my turn.  I told them I was there to get a rhogam shot and that I did all the paperwork yesterday.  She looked me up in the computer and couldn't find me anywhere.  It turns out that the last lady never scanned in my sheets and what not so the second lady had to do it all real quick.  While she did it, she talked about the guy who signed in after me, keeps giving her dirty looks and she didn't like it.  She was fun to talk to.  Finally, I got my bracelet on and headed up to the maternity ward for my shot.  There, I had to fill out another piece of paper and wait.  THey asked if I had a copy of my prescription and blood test in my paperwork.  I didn't have my blood test proving negative in there so they had to call and get it faxed over.  Yeesh!

Then they said, it would be about an hour to wait because they had to mix the shot up and get it ready.  I immediately freaked out in my head because I was going to be late to get the kids back from my friend so she could pick up her son.  FInally, they said I could leave and come back so I did.  On the way, I tried calling a couple people and one friend said it'd be fine to move the kids over to her house while I finished up the process.  Grateful, I trucked the kids on over and returned to the hospital where I waited another 20 minutes or longer and finally went in to get the shot.  They took me to their triage labor and delivery overflow and hooked me up to the machine and created a profile for me and then gave me the shot.  

The nurse had me lay down and told me to relax my leg.  She warned me that I would feel a pinch and immediately as she poked me I jumped really bad and she told me to relax.  I told her I was trying and she finished putting it in.  She rubbed the area a little after which I think helped out and I was finally done and off.  Luckily, when I got home, it was nap time for the kids and I could lay down and work off the shot too.  It only hurt a little while lying down but eventually went away.  Anywho, that was the story to my rhogam woes.  Thanks to all three people who helped my shuffle my kids during it.  It would have been an even bigger nightmare wrestling kids the whole time.  I really appreciated it.

Holy Sickness Batman

So I'm glad that I was able to at least avoid sickness until this late in the season, but man am I finally fed up and done with quarantining my children in order to overcome the nasty colds we've been dealing with.  To top it off, Hayden slept really bad a week ago and was moody and emotional the whole day and finally at 3:30 in the afternoon, he complained that his right ear hurt.  Concerned, I called the doctor to try to go in, but they didn't have openings until the next day and I had to take the afternoon because my OB appointment was already in the morning.  By the time we got to the doctor, Hayden had become himself again and slept through the night.  The doctor told us it was because of his ear drum popping and no pressure was built up anymore.

Great, I failed my child by not getting him in sooner.  Is his hearing screwed up?  The doctor told me that his ear will heal with scar tissue closing it up, but if it happens more than a few times, THEN there could be hearing loss or damage that occurs.  We'll have to watch his ear like a hawk now, but I'm glad I know what to look for now.  We were sent home with two prescriptions.  THe first is an oral antibiotic that he takes twice a day and then ear drops that happen twice a day too but these had benzoyl product in them so the two days of applying them were excruciating for Hayden and hard for me to watch him and hold him down so the drops can work their "magic."  Yeesh.  At least we're healthy again.

Fat Shot

It's been a while and although we were good at taking series pictures with the other two, I'm afraid it has taken this long to get one finally.  So for everyone who is curious, this counts as my 6 month fat shot.  Everything is measuring normal for once which is awesome and I am actually as big as I was with Hadley when I delivered.  Grant it that I started out a little heavier, but I am definitely feeling the stress on my body with the third one coming.  My back is killing me and I can't breathe so it should be a fun third trimester.  We'll see how things develop.

Curbing Cravings

So I have hit a streak of cravings that has set me off on a little bit of a baking frenzy, but man, they taste amazing.  Here they are in no particular order:

1. Waffles with Strawberry Freezer Jam and Whipped Cream.  Tastes so amazing!

2. Pumpkin Pie.  I love pumpkin pie and since I stocked up on filling mix in between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I can make a bunch of it.

3. Cinnamon Rolls.  So good even though they take a while to make.

4. Butterfinger Ice Cream.  Oh yes.  A family favorite growing up.  Mixing butterfinger chunks into vanilla ice cream for my own personal blizzard.

5. Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins.  Also good, are Applesauce Cake Muffins.  I think they are on the rotation next to make.

6. Chocolate Chip Candy Cane Cookies.  Definitely a personal favorite of mine in the cookie world.  I stocked up on candy canes too.

7. Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars.  Yeah, they are next to be made.  I like having something to grab and munch on throughout the day.

8. Carvel Cake.  I found a coupon in the Sunday paper and I totally want to dig into an ice cream cake full of crunchy goodness.  That will be a splurge possibly funded by leftover Christmas gift money.  They did our Wedding cake because I hate thick, strong, sugar frostings.

Storing Food

I nearly forgot to express my gratitude towards my amazing husband.  Christmas this year was fun for me.  I'm always made fun of because I ask for things having to do with Cooking and other household uses instead of really thinking of what I truly want.  This year, my husband bought me a big present of which I love.  I finally got a Shelf Reliance Rotation Rack to help me with my food storage.  

Our pantry was getting so full with all of my different cans here and there and silly me, I thought I'd have a ton more room in my pantry after getting one of these babies, but apparently, I stock up on things pretty good.  

See what I mean

Oh well, thank you honey!  I truly do love my nifty new gadget.  You are amazing!  Love you!