drywall

Day 32 of the construction project, drywallers arrived to put the walls & ceiling in the new room, plus cut & box around the kids' bathroom skylight.

Facing the front of the house (street side):



Facing the back of the house (yard):


Kids' bathroom:


Adding the skylight didn't visually raise the ceiling like we'd hoped, but it does add a LOT of much-needed natural light, which is great! Admittedly, it's a very small room for this kind of skylight, but we're glad we did it. The old window (on right, above the toilet) has been drywalled over, and hopefully we have some leftover tile packed away in the basement that we can add to match the rest of the pattern.

Drywallers are coming back Saturday to add a new ceiling to the garage (directly below the addition). Building code requires a fire-resistant board between garage & living areas (inspector is also requiring us to hard-wire smoke detectors in ALL the bedrooms, which we were more than a little steamed about! So far this "simple little addition" has resulted in work being done in 8 out of the 12 rooms in our house (counting garage & basement). 66% of our house that needs to be patched, painted, and cleaned..... sigh...... We keep reminding ourselves that it will be worth it in a few months, when everything is done & touched-up.

Any suggestions for carpet & wall colors? I'm thinking maybe a pale lime paint on the walls, but not certain. We already have every shade of tan/off-white imaginable on other walls in the house, grey in our bedroom, blue in Evyn's bedroom, and yellow in the library. Ideas needed!

and the OB says....

.... he supports going ahead with our original birth plan.

What I've learned in the last few days is there is a wide range of opinion within the medical community about the best approach to late-pregnancy 4th degree hemorrhoids. It was immediately clear to me that there is a contentious (if functional) working relationship between the surgeon I consulted, and the obstetricians, with regard to this issue.

I am content with the resolution, though - it's now in my file that I'll have a local anesthetic administered during labor to facilitate a non-medicated birth. I think this will work well, especially since there is a good chance my labor will be quick, like it was with Evyn, and possibly not provide enough time for an epidural even if I wanted one!

Other updates: baby is still in left occiput anterior position (his/her tush under my left ribcage), which is good, and very low. Heart rate was 136 bpm. Group B Strep results came back negative! This is great news, no messing around with IV antibiotics during delivery, like we did during Evyn's birth.

So now that all THAT is settled, our pregnancy updates can go back to being mundane for the next few weeks. Only 26 more days until our due date!

lights, camera, door!

I got a chance to see the new room from the inside. Tuesday the hallway was cut open and a new door installed, so we now have access to "the room." (I'm thinking we should start calling it the office, but somehow it doesn't seem to fit until the office stuff is in there - funny)



Also on Tuesday, we had lights installed in our living room. It had always been a dark room, and difficult to light. When the patio roof goes up, the room will be significantly darker in the daytime, so extra lights were a necessity.





In baby news, my appointment with the surgeon went well. As expected, nothing new came out of it, but the surgeon- Dr. Frederick- spent a considerable amount of time discussing options with me and reassuring me that, in his professional opinion, there is no reason why I can't pursue a non-medicated birth. Yay! I explained to him that the communications I've had via phone with the OB's office led me to believe they would be slightly less supportive (although, in fairness, there are quite a few doctors at that practice, with a wide range of opinions and professional styles), and Dr. Frederick offered to contact the OB on my behalf to lobby for our original birth plan.

We also discussed follow-up... as I've mentioned, I already had some issues left over from when Evyn was born... and Dr. Frederick agreed to do some surgical work in the future, after this baby is finished nursing. So, a bit of a wait, but good news nonetheless!

My blood pressure as of yesterday had dropped back down, closer to my pre-pregnancy levels - 104/68. Dr. Frederick also gave me the go-ahead to stop taking the prescription pain medications, which was what I was hoping for.

This afternoon I have my 36-week prenatal appointment, I am eager to hear how baby is progressing. I am starting to see signs that we're getting close. I really need to get those hospital bags packed!

still uncertain

I have a follow-up appointment with the surgeon from the E.R. tomorrow at 11am. I don't anticipate any new developments from that appointment, except perhaps recommendations on post-natal treatment for the hemorrhoid issue/residual damage from Evyn's birth.

I had a lengthy conversation with my OB's nurse this morning and filled her in on the weekend's goings-on. She didn't sound encouraging on the prospects of following through with our plan for a non-medicated vaginal birth. She didn't call back before the office closed today so I hope to hear back from them tomorrow. I do have an appointment scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, so by Wednesday evening I should have some definite answers.

For now, I am mentally prepping myself for the possibility of an epidural,
or even a c-section. With apologies to those who have had, and those
who prefer cesarean births, the idea has been difficult for me to accept.
So, if you can, keep your fingers crossed that it won't become necessary!
Thanks :)

windows, a roof, and a date

Third week of construction wrapped up with the crew finishing our roof replacement, adding windows to the new room, installing the skylight over the kids' bathroom, and placing the posts for the screened patio.







Friday night Evyn stayed at her Grandma & Grandpa B's house so Scott & I could go out to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary. We had a late dinner at Iron Hill Brewery (thanks for the gift card, Grandma & Grandpa B!). We used to drive down to the West Chester restaurant for pizza in life B.C. (before children). Who knows when we'll get the next chance to dine out without kids in tow!

THAT wasn't part of the plan....

Read at your own discretion, this post contains some medical info that will be TMI (too much information!) for some people.

Well, our labor/delivery plans are up in the air at the moment.

On Wednesday I noticed a significant improvement in the back & rib pain I'd been experiencing over the last couple months. I'm not sure if the baby officially "dropped," but s/he is much lower now. The good news is, I've hardly had to wear the big, ugly support belts that I'd been wearing 18+ hours per day to help my back & ribs. My appetite returned a bit as well. The bad news is, the baby is apparently putting a lot of extra pressure inside my pelvis. (TMI upcoming, don't say I didn't warn you!)

My labor with Evyn was very fast & very intense. I had a lot of damage afterward, including a tendency to develop hemorrhoids. I've been dealing with an increase of them the last month or so.... but now, with the extra pressure from the baby, one has thrombosed. I'll spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say I am in a lot of pain. (Don't google it - take my word for it, you don't want to see the pictures that the websites put up indiscriminately!) After a particularly bad day Saturday, Scott placed a phone call to the on-call OB who, after learning the details, told me to head to the ER to have it excised. So, that's where I spent my Valentine's evening!

The ER physician was concerned about the severity of it, and immediately called in a surgeon to excise it. The surgeon, however, wasn't willing to perform the procedure on a 36-week pregnant woman. His primary concern was that causing any bleeding in the region could interfere with healthy blood pressure and potentially interrupt blood flow to the placenta, which could put the baby at risk. Of course, this is all worst-case scenario, but worthy of consideration.

Neither the ER doctor, or the surgeon, were able to answer my questions concerning how a thrombosed hemorrhoid would affect our plan for an non-medicated vaginal birth. I do know, from the research I've done, that a 4th degree prolapsed hemorrhoid (I am borderline) CAN result in c-section birth.... again, worst-case scenario, but with only a few weeks to go before this baby arrives, I have to consider the possibility. The ER doctor asked me to reconsider having an epidural, which, I know would be an easy decision for many people.... but for our own personal reasons, it just wasn't in our plans.

So, I have prescriptions to take, including pain meds, which I'm not entirely comfortable with, but I need to do everything I can to heal quickly. I'm supposed to spend as much time laying down as possible, and not allowed to lift anything (do they know how much work needs done here at home??). I have a follow-up with the surgeon on Monday, and need to call my OB first thing Monday morning to discuss his feelings on proceeding with a non-medicated vaginal birth plan.

Whew, that got long!

It's actually a very common condition, and in the broad scheme of things NOT a big deal. I'm just not good at being a "patient." Taking it easy is a tough pill to swallow, especially when there is so much going on (construction, etc). I'll be able to relax when I know how (if at all) this will affect our birth plan. I'll post an update when I know more!