Good evening all! I hope you had a lovely Veteran's Day and were able to get outside for a bit. We had a steady line-up of visitors who were most welcomed and provided a much needed boost as we wrapped up our first full week at the hospital. The new infusion of chocolates and treats was especially appreciated as one of us (cough cough Noah) has decimated our original stock. Speaking of food, I seriously don't understand why doughnuts and pizza are so hard to find in a hospital. As my co-workers can surely attest, doughnuts and pizza are my two main food groups. (These are things you think about at 2am when the alarms indicating someone attempted to steal a child goes off).
Medically speaking we had a fairly decent day. I took one dose of Procardia at 5am and lasted all the way until 3:30pm before needing a new dose. We are now anxiously waiting til 9:30 to see if I need another based on my contraction monitoring machine. We have definitively nailed down that today is 23 weeks and 4 days. There was some debate among the nurses and doctors about whether we were at day 4 or day 6 today. We also had a visit from the NICU and Labor & Delivery education nurses. I know their job is to help us feel informed, but they are also very good at stirring up all sorts of anxiety. We are working on getting a tour setup for Noah to see the NICU. I would like to see the NICU but I am not cleared to sit up in a wheelchair :(
On the anxiety side of life, I'd say it has been something of a roller coaster. It is very hard to try and figure out what are "normal" pregnancy symptoms and what are not, especially since this is our first pregnancy. The nurses have been very kind and patient, but it is a definite personal struggle for me as I attempt to analyze and comprehend what is going on and also learn (via fast track) how to ask for help and not just plow through the pain/discomfort (my normal M.O.). One of the charge nurses took the time to come talk to me (and my lovely and patient friend who sat with me for two hours while Noah ran home) and explained some of the alternative activities available to me. So tomorrow I am going to look into the hospital's art therapy program, a non-profit knitting club, and possibly some very limited physical therapy. I was also very happy to discover that the Arlington library has a homebound service; I've really been missing my daily library visits. I can't believe they will deliver books straight to my hospital room!
Tomorrow is the first day Noah is going back to work. Please keep us in your thoughts as my dad steps in as my "minder" and Noah battles the stress of picking up where he left off last week. Also, it is going to be a challenge for both of us to not have each other for support throughout the day.
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