28 weeks - 12 to go.

I would like to preface this story to say that baby and mama are doing fine. Much better so don't get excited.

This past week has been very eventful for the Baker family. It all started Wednesday afternoon. Chris was playing disc golf at Bellamy in Dover. I have been trying to get exercise in the form of walks. I decided that night that I would multitask. I would take a walk to the grocery store because I had to pick up a few things. Hannafords is not too far away so that is where I was headed. I also went to Ace Hardware to pick up a dandelion picker - probably not what this tool was intended for but it works great. I got done with my errands and headed back home. Chris called on the way to say that he was going to be a little late and we needed another alternative for dinner. I was prepared. I got to Walgreens and was about to cross the street to the other side because that is where the sidewalk was. I was waiting to cross the street in their little grassy area and as I was about to go, I stepped in hole that didn't appear to be there before - it was covered in grass. My ankle went one way and I went down to my knees but popped right back up. I thought, hmm that kind of hurt but I have to get home which is about a half mile. I started walking and it really hurt. I did eventually make it home. I just kept thinking, birth is going to be way worse than this so just breathe. I got home and put my feet up on the bed. I texted Chris about the fact that my foot hurt so I probably wasn't going to be able to make dinner so to stop somewhere and pick something up. I also called him a couple of times. Now before you think badly of him, at the time, I didn't think it was all that bad. He did call back and asked if I had put any ice on it. I said no and that I would go get some. I tried to take one step on that bad foot and could not so I called him again and told him he should probably come home and take me to the ER. So that is what he did. We got there and had to park kind of far away. He got me a wheel chair - so ridiculous - and wheeled me in to the ER. They must have been slow that evening because I checked in and didn't even get to finish before they triaged me. The nurse who did that ended up being the sister of a former co worker who we had met before at another friend's house. What a coincidence. She was super nice. Then she wheeled me down to one of the rooms. There the RN came in and did an evaluation of my foot. He felt a couple of key bones and because they didn't really hurt, he said we wouldn't have to do an X-ray because it wasn't broken. Just a bad sprain. He decided to call the OB GYN on call at Garrison and let them know what had happened and they suggested I go upstairs to get a non-stress test. While this was happening, one of the other nurse assistants tried to find the baby's heart beat with the doppler monitor. The first one they used was not really supposed to be used for fetal heart rates because the tip was so small and localized. They found the other one, but that one apparently did not work because you couldn't hear anything. Finally they found an old school one and the instant she put it on my belly there she was. I wasn't really worried about this because I had felt her move earlier after I had gotten back home. Poor Chris was not too happy about all of that. I was then fitted with an air cast and crutches (crutches have to be the worst thing to use in this world). Chris wheeled me up to the Labor and Delivery area. I was put in a bed and strapped up to a fetal monitor. The monitor indicated I had a contraction. They gave me some toast and some water and came back about 10 minutes later and found that I had more contractions. Not good. I also mentioned the fact that I hadn't really eaten or drank anything since about 3 ish that afternoon and it was about 8 ish. They said that they were going to put me on iv to get some fluids and if that calmed it down ten I would be ok. If not then they would have to monitor me for the next 4-24 hours. Chris did not like the sound of that. They also gave me some toast with peanut butter and because we were going to be there a while, Chris found some hospital food to heat up. While all this was going on, he had to call his co worker Al to see if he could work for him that night. He thought he might be able to make it but when this all came about he realized he better get a replacement. Thanks so much to Al for helping us out.
The IV took about an hour to go through. In the middle I had to use the bathroom. That was fun with all the wires and being attached to the iv. Chris is such a good husband putting up with all of this with me. Finally the nurse came in and said "do you guys want to go home?" I said YES!!!! She showed us the printout from the monitor. At the beginning there were a lot of spikes but as the fluid got into me, it basically went down to a flat line which is what they wanted to see. They also said the baby was doing fabulously so that is the best news. Chris wheeled me out to the car and we went home. Also, while I was in the hospital, I realized that I was not going to be able to drive my car to work since I had a standard and the left ankle was the issue. So I called my director and asked if she could pick me up. She is awesome and picked me up Thursday and dropped me off after work. Chris was able to do it on Friday. Thursday I used the crutches all day although, my other coworker Cathy was super good to me and would get my clients and most everything else I needed. Cathy asked the maintenance guy, Burt, as a joke, if they had a wheelchair. He said they did and if I wanted to use it. I told him that Friday I would because Cathy would be out. He brought it up towards the end of the day and I started using it. It was soo much nicer having that. Friday I used it all day. I think it was much better for my feet.

Friday night, we were having a relaxing night at home. Well at least I was. Chris was doing the laundry and other stuff around the house that I couldn't really do. We were watching a dvd and all of a sudden I heard a rush of water. I told Chris to pause the dvd and he ran downstairs. The week before I had been gardening and my gloves got really muddy. I rinsed them off in the sink downstairs and left them on the side to dry and so that I could wash them later. Our washing machine has a pipe that empties into this sink and the water gets pretty high. It sucked one of the gloves down and clogged the sink. Chris had to mop it up with about 18 towels. Sorry Chris. As if I wasn't a pain in the butt already. He has been soo helpful to me through this time.  There were some times when I thought he was going to get really frustrated but he powered through what I asked of him which I hope wasn't too much.  He is the greatest!!!

Saturday was the baby shower at the Alton house. My parents were coming up and they were nice enough to let me borrow their car for the week - automatic - and take the dog for the week because Chris was going to NJ for the week. We headed up early because my dad absolutely loves the Olde Bay Diner with their homemade toast so we had breakfast there. Then we headed to the Alton house. The shower was AWESOME!!! Thanks so much to Jean and Dan for going crazy on the food and doing such a wonderful job of it. I really loved it all. We had all sorts of food including BBQ chicken, hot dogs, 2 kinds of chicken sausage, pasta salad, quinoa salad, potato salad and soo much more. Then for dessert we had strawberry shortcake, keylime poundcake, lemon squares and brownies. It was all really good. We had about 25 people there. We got a lot of good stuff. Diaper cake, diaper bag with essentials, tons of clothes - not all pink yeah! - sound machine, humidifier, floor gym, towels, cloths, receiving blankets, and soo much more. I finally have gone through it all so thank you cards will be going out soon. Thanks to Sarah Buchanan for writing it all down for me so that it is much easier when I go to write these.

I think my favorite gift was the crab hooded towel. I saw that in Target when I registered and just had to have that. A lot of stuff went with our underwater theme of the room so that was really cool. I have awesome friends and family and they were all really generous. Thanks everyone. We all had a great day even though it was super cold out. At least it didn't rain like it has since that day and will until the end of time it seems like. Maybe hopefully we will have some sunshine on the weekend.

                                          Here are some pics of the party...

This is before I started opening presents.

This is me opening the crab hooded towel. Don't worry there are more of him. That's my mother-in-law Jean in the background.



More crab towel. It is sooo cute!!!!



Paula and Jess are on the left. I used to work with them in Rochester. Chad - boyfriend of Jess and plays disc golf with Chris. Lena, my boss, is on the right.



This was the first of the super cute outfits that we got.



That says "Little B Princess" B standing for Boston Red Sox. Chris loved this one.

This was a cute one that had ruffles on the butt from Beth. She made this really cool present that was all in this pink basket. Very creative. She also made a photo album for us. Love it!!!

crab onesie to go with the crab hooded towel of course

The cutest diaper cake ever. Thanks Abby!!!

Here is the pink tutu outfit from Brian and Kirsten.

My ergo baby carrier. I will need to check out the directions on how to use it but my friends rave about it. Thanks mom and dad.

Another pic of the crab towel because I love it soo much

Had my prenatal appointment yesterday. This was the one where I got to drink the orange sugary soda thing and get blood drawn to see if I had gestational diabetes. It wasn't bad to start off with but it was disgusting by the time I was done. It did not make me feel great. I haven't heard anything today so must mean I passed. Good thing. I guess I have gained a little too much weight but that could be because of being off my feet for the past week. On the other hand I have been having some pretty terrible heartburn and so haven't been able to eat much because of this. I think I am retaining a lot of water due to the injury. My right foot on Saturday was enormous. I tried on 2 pairs of shoes that I just couldn't fit into so finally got into one pair. It was disgusting. It has been getting a little bit better. Saturday night I was able to start walking without crutches although it is tender. Today was the first day without the cast on. I don't think that thing was treating the rest of my leg well. It is steadily getting better. Going down stairs is still difficult and if I move my foot to the side or walk on uneven stuff it is still a little painful. Most of the swelling has gone down so that is good. Must be better by Saturday because I head out to Westmoreland to get the dog and switch cars back. I am so thankful for my parents for doing this for me.

Hope this blog post wasn't too long but there is a lot going on here in Dover. Can't go too long without excitement around here. Hopefully it will calm down in the next few weeks. Have my next appt on 5/31. Will update again then.

Take care.