Year: 2014

At the end of this post, you’ll realize things are no different than they were at the end of the previous post, but you just can’t make this stuff up. Thought I’d share my adventures over the last 36 hours. Oh, but still no baby, don’t worry.

Yesterday morning, Thursday. I woke up and was making Ashton’s breakfast before our speech therapist arrived at 8:15 am. All of a sudden…ummm!!! Did my water just break?? OMG! It never broke with Ashton and I was frozen to the spot. What should I do? A few thoughts crossed my mind, one in particular: when I was in labor with Ashton and arriving at the hospital, I met a girl who was on her way out as I was on my way in. She wished me luck and announced she was doing the walk of shame home. You see, she thought her water had broken and showed up to have her baby but, in reality, she had merely peed her pants. There are so many indignities in pregnancy and this story has always haunted me. How embarrassing! And to not know the difference!

So there I stood in my kitchen. Hmmm. Hmmmmm. My water? Or pee? I pondered, waited and eventually went to work. But it nagged me and I called my OB’s office at lunchtime. I said, “I really don’t know if my water broke, but if I’m leaking amniotic fluid, it would be good to know.” They absolutely agreed and told me to come in. I saw a male OB who I didn’t really know, but it was a quick test. Let’s just say, I was not leaking amniotic fluid.

But something bigger arose and he was concerned about the baby’s heart rate, which should be anywhere between 110-160. Baby Nill’s was holding steady around 105. He sent me to Maternal Fetal Medicine at the other side of the hospital for a non-stress test. They are easy – you sit in a comfy chair with your feet up and have a monitor on your belly. A machine spits out a nice line of fetal activity on a piece of paper.

I sat there for about 45 minutes and in that time frame, had three very nice, strong contractions. The nurse in charge claimed I was going into labor. I said, “Trust me, I really don’t think so.” But she insisted on sending me up to maternity to be admitted (after agreeing the heart rate was a bit low, but very consistent with nice accelerations and tolerated the contractions just fine). So, up I went, registered, got a bracelet, the whole thing. They hooked me up to ANOTHER fetal monitor, at which point my actual OB came in. We chatted, I said, “I’m not in labor” and she agreed. “But I’m not worried about the low baseline. You can walk around for a couple hours and then I can check you again, or…” “I can go home?” and she said, “Yes. But I can put you on the list to be induced on Monday – would you want that?”

“YES.”

So off I went, the only difference after two hours being that instead of wondering if I had suffered the same embarrassment as the girl from 2.5 years ago, I knew I had. At least I was at my own house. Although now that I’m announcing it on my blog I might as well have been in the most public place imaginable.

I spent the rest of yesterday and this morning (Friday) planning to be induced on Monday now. Until around 11:00 am today, when the scheduler called and said, “I know Dr. Konig put you down for an induction on Monday but…” and I held my breath. “Sorry honey, no way jose – we have too many people already.” Come on! I was getting bumped again and she actually said No way jose? So I got scheduled for a routine ultrasound to check the fluid levels in addition to the regular appointment on Monday I already had.

Anyway, so that was that until about 6:00 pm tonight. We had just gotten back from a walk around the block and my phone rang. It was the same doctor who had tested for amniotic fluid, or uh, lack thereof. He said, “I’m sorry, but I’d really like you to come in for another non-stress test, preferably as soon as possible. I just wasn’t happy with the results from yesterday. If I feel the same way after this one, I won’t have you wait until Monday to be seen, I’ll induce you tomorrow…” I was shocked and really surprised – if my actual OB wasn’t worried yesterday, why was this doctor now following up with me? But of course, I went right away. Luckily Jason was not working and could stay home with Ashton. I arrived, re-registered, got another bracelet, did the non-stress test. The doctor came out and said, “Well this all looks perfect. Beautiful in fact…but…gosh, you know I hate to have you do this, but I’m going to ask you to come back in on Sunday for another one, just because of the results of your ultrasound.” I said, “What ultrasound?” and he said, “The one you had yesterday?” And I told him I hadn’t had an ultrasound since 18 weeks. At this point he was looking very confused and showed the nurse the correspondence that had been left for him. It said, “Please check in with Kristen Nill over the weekend due to x, y, and z…she needs a followup.” Well, turns out, I wasn’t the one they were looking for. Which is great, but I said, “I hope you figure out who DOES need the additional testing!” And he apologized for scaring me and all of that. I was relieved that the mistake was innocent as far as I was concerned, and that Baby Nill was fine. Then it occurred to me: “Sooo, I’m NOT going to be induced tomorrow.” And he said, “Sorry, no. You are free to go – Dr. Konig will see you Monday as scheduled.”

I walked out in a daze. This week, it’s been four days of goodbyes and then next morning “Hello again, still here”s at work, three possible inductions, two non-stress tests, two different hospital bracelets, two days past my due date, one flood in my pants and…zero baby. Not to mention every time something happens I have to update several people, only to have to update them again when it turns out to be nothing. Perhaps I should change my approach there; good thing I have unlimited texting. But I’m exhausted and actually sick of myself at this point.

So Jason and I decided that today was my last day at work, no matter what. The back and forth is killing me, I’m at a good stopping point with a great replacement who is ready to start immediately. This baby could be another few/several/many days but I’m not going to think about that. I’ll spend some extra time with Ashton, walk more, and keep waiting. See? I told you this post would leave off exactly where the other one did, with an appointment on Monday. But what kind of blogger would I be if I didn’t tell you the whole story? Bye for now…

Well, Newton-Wellesley Hospital made my decision for me. I got bumped for the induction tomorrow due to them having too many others scheduled that were considered medically necessary (mine was the only one classified as elective). I’m taking it as a sign and was perfectly ok with the news. She said, “For what it’s worth, I studied your chart and it looks great- you could go any day! Like any minute!” Ha.ha.ha.ha.ha 🙂 We all know better.

And so, my next appointment is Monday and unless this baby comes on it’s own, I won’t be updating until after that. So begins life post due date!

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Dear Baby Nill #2,

Today is your due date. I have to admit, I did not expect to see March 12 and still be pregnant. I guess that’s what I get for interpreting the information my OB and the nurses gave me as “you’ll be early!”. I should know better than that. And then after last Thursday’s false alarm…well, you’ve been setting expectations since 36-37 weeks and I just didn’t know what was going to happen. Clearly, nothing before today at least. We rode a big wave of hype last weekend and then, you stayed in.

So now I am on the list to be induced tomorrow. They could always call me today at some point to bump me, but if they tell me to show up at 8:30 am ready to go, will I do it? I was up all night last night debating. Your dad has some big work commitments coming up and I’m not going to lie, it would be easier if you were here by this weekend. An induction would also make it easier to plan for Ashton and family visits and just about everything really. But I keep going back to the fact that you are still due just today, and although it would be nice to meet you and say goodbye to pregnancy discomfort, is this about me and what I want? Not really. Can I have my first act as your mom be to force you out? I’m not a landlord with a tenant who is behind on their rent! You are perfectly entitled to take another week (at which point, though, I would be much more willing to induce) and you are certainly not the first baby in history to keep people waiting. We’ll survive. But oh, the convenience of knowing you could be here tomorrow…

Every morning I wake up and think, Ok, if today is the day, this is how the schedule with Ashton and the visits and family coordination will play out. And every morning, there’s a solution. The difference between the past 10 days and the future 10 days lies, as I mentioned, with your dad’s schedule. He wants to be there as much as possible for me and for you and it’s going to get more complicated as the days tick on and you aren’t here.

And so, I still don’t know what to do. Can you please just come out on your own? And I can be one of those moms that says, “I was scheduled to be induced and then went into labor the night before!”. Your room is all ready, your clothes are washed, your carseat is set, and we are pretty sure what we will name you. You hang out with your brother all the time:

And we already love you to bits, no matter when you decide to come. But perhaps you could think about starting the trip 🙂

xoxox
Mom

Another day, another update! I had my OB appointment this morning and there is no change in “conditions” since last week. The important thing is that the baby is fine, happy, and very content up in there. But out here, the wait has become…well, a wait. We had a very long weekend of waiting.

So, the basics. I’m due Wednesday, and they put me on the schedule to be induced on Thursday. The receptionist told me to expect a call Wednesday night with either a) what time to show up on Thursday or b) the news that I have been bumped because they were too busy with other medically necessary ones (vs. my elective one). The (b) scenario is pretty likely, it seemed. And if that happens, I show up next Monday for my same weekly appointment and go from there. Unless of course, I go into labor at some point on my own.

That’s about all I have for you. I’m still working, and plan to until I have the baby, so at least I’m not sitting around watching the clock tick. After swallowing my disappointment in the form of a very large doughnut after my OB, I decided to go about my day like usual and look at the bright side. At least I can watch the season finale of the Bachelor tonight 🙂 So much for second babies being earlier, faster, etc!

Wellllll I have no updates! No baby yet. At my OB appointment last week she said she expected end of the week/this weekend but I always take those estimations with a grain of salt. Still three days from my due date and the baby is going to do what it feels like. My next appointment is tomorrow and it will be interesting to see if she mentions an induction. For now, just enjoying the weekend and relaxing- I’m having a fine time!

Well, it officially feels as though the entire world is waiting on me to have this baby. I made a catastrophic mistake yesterday morning too which beyond exacerbated the problem. Allow me to tell you what happened.

I woke up at 2:34 am, middle of Wednesday night, with contractions. Like, bad ones. The kind that made me go, “Oh my GOD I forgot how much these hurt!!” and the kind you can’t even talk through. In the dark, I downloaded a contraction app (the same one I used for Ashton, it was just sitting there for me in the iCloud, isn’t Apple so smart) and started timing. For an hour, they were 9 minutes apart and lasted for two minutes each. I thought, oh my gosh, is this it? This is it! As much as I wanted to wake Jason up, I didn’t because there was nothing he could have done to help me. Annoying but true. Us pregnant women walk the line of pain alone. At least until the doctor administers the epidural. Anyway! At some point, the pain leveled out to a dull level 3 and I fell into a half-sleep for a couple hours. When I woke up at 6:30 am, I was still uncomfortable and could feel that something was going on so I texted my mom that I was almost positive today was the day, emailed my work that I thought I was in labor, got Jason up and prepared to pack my bag for the hospital (no, I had not done that yet). It was about 10 minutes after that that everything came to a screeching halt. And I mean screeching. Pain and contractions one second, no pain and no contractions the next. Hmmm.

Ashton has speech therapy on Thursday mornings and I had Allison come and go like normal. Chera picked Ashton up and it was 9:30 am and I looked at Jason and said “Welp, I guess we should go to work. No sense sitting around here all day! I’ll call you if anything changes…” and well, readers, since then – nothing has changed. Except that I have had to explain myself to every person I see at Bentley over the last two days because they had all heard the rumor that I was in labor yesterday morning. To all the pregnant women out there: take it from me, read up on the differences between pre-labor and actual labor and really determine what you are experiencing BEFORE you announce to everyone that your baby is on its way.

While we wait, we are still thinking about names. And by we, I mean Jason. He is obsessed. He takes the baby name book with him to work and finds these obscure websites that promise to generate a perfect middle name based on what you enter for a first and last. He even writes names on post its and rearranges them on the coffee table like they are little game pieces. Last night I was too tired to care and told him flat out I didn’t think we were going to come up with any new ones so late in the game. Lo and behold, he did! It was like finding a piece of gold in a river that you have already raked a thousand times. It went straight to the top of our (girl) list and then, like any true treasure hunter, we were inspired to keep going and find that same eureka moment for the boy list (I have had my favorite for a while but he is not sold on it). Anyway, hopefully when everyone hears our new son or daughter’s name they will think it is absolutely perfect and I will give all the credit to Jason and his hard name-finding work 🙂

I have had a lot of people ask me if Ashton has any idea what is coming. The short answer is, “Um, absolutely not.” Sure, he can parrot back to us that he’s going to be a big brother but there is no way he knows what that really means. And I do feel a little…guilty? At the fact that I’m about to make him share his mom. Wistful? At these last few nights where it’s just him and I. Scared? That he is going to act out and turn into a little monster. Lots of different emotions going on really.

Things have wrapped up at work and I am officially leaving each day like I will not be back. I have a wonderful temp replacing me for the next three months (and then hopefully I’ll be back two days a week from June-Sept before resuming full time). I just trained her this morning. Luckily, she is flexible – I told her I plan to work until I go into labor, so her first day could be Monday or a week from Monday and she is fine with it.

So, all the pieces are in place, we have a couple different plans for Ashton depending on what day and what time this all goes down, and for now we are just waiting. Still 5 days from my due date but since everyone else is so darned antsy I plan to have spicy buffalo chicken for dinner 😉 Stay tuned!

I can’t say that we are totally “ready” for this next baby, but at least the nursery is! There are two main things left to achieve in this room – first, as it used to be our office, it is the only room in the house that is set up for our phone line and wi-fi router. Currently, all the wiring and blinking lights are hanging out under the crib, but I definitely plan on moving them before the baby sleeps in there full time (probably May or so). Second, I should probably take the packaging off the lamp haha.

Here’s the before on the desk wall:

We got a little mini crib (thanks Kari!) because Ashton’s not out of his yet, nor do I want to rush him, and also now that everything else is in there, not sure it will fit that well. I need to get a crib skirt, you’ll see the wires I mentioned underneath. Anyway, I made the paper flag bunting myself, and also did a frame wall over the chair using free printables I found online:

The bassinet will go in our room for the first 6-8 weeks until we are ready to move the baby in here full-time.

Anyway, considering we did not change the existing paint color (Palladian Blue by Benjamin Moore) and I managed to find a rug, chair, etc. and tie it all together, I was very happy. Overall there is no theme considering we don’t know the sex; this fact has gone from being minorly to majorly annoying as I’ve tried to get ready for this baby’s arrival. But colors are basically aqua, yellow and gray.

And that’s it for our office-turned-nursery! Still 9 days from my due date, I’ve had a few contractions but nothing to shake a stick at. I’ve had a pretty bad cold for the past week and am feeling drained – I am hoping this baby knows to wait until I am back up to snuff before deciding to put me through what I know is coming! To be continued…

I have the most fantastic news ever. Ashton had his 2.5 year old allergy appointment yesterday at Childrens Hospital and, very much like what they did at his 1 year, they pricked his back with a bunch of different allergens and waited to see if there was a hive-like reaction that would indicate a positive result. It was a little difficult to keep him still for the 15 minutes the test required (because his back was itchy), but we had come ready with a paci and the iPad:

Final results!

You’ll see quite clearly that sesame is still the monster. But the long and the short of it is, his egg and peanut allergies have gone down significantly! YAAAY!!  Only 1 in 5 kids outgrows a peanut allergy and the doctor said that while at his 1 year appointment the egg allergy was a 12, it is now a 4. I think he meant size-wise, in millimeters. Because what happens now is that due to the egg and peanut hives being small enough, if his bloodwork comes back consistent with these results, he is eligible to do oral food challenges for both. This is done at the hospital, in a controlled environment, where he is given increasing amounts of the food to see how he reacts. This is one of the last steps in greenlighting these foods!

A little bit of background here for those who don’t know. Ashton had awful eczema as an infant and it was suggested that he might be allergic to something in my diet that was coming through my breastmilk. I cut out dairy, wheat, soy, nuts, eggs, everything – a complete elimination diet with the hopes of gradually introducing the foods back in one at a time to see what might be the culprit. Except his eczema never entirely cleared, so they did a RAST test, which is a blood test used to determine what substances someone might be allergic to. And lo and behold, the sesame allergy was the standout. Although I cut out a lot from my diet, I was still eating hummus…which is made with tahini…otherwise known as ground sesame seeds. When I found out, I cried for a really long time. I obviously had no idea that that was what was causing it and felt beyond awful I had caused my baby so much discomfort and pain. I stopped eating it immediately (I found that Trader Joe’s makes a good tahini-free hummus, actually) and Ashton’s skin was clear for the first time in almost his whole life. All the prescriptions, wet-wraps, and dry, itchy cracks were a thing of the past. He literally glowed. But so began the story of his food allergies. We carry an Epi-Pen but thankfully have never had to use it, so I’m not sure what would happen if he ingested any sesame. I don’t want to find out. His skin does remain very sensitive and we smear Hydrolatum on him nightly after bathtime, which I swear is thicker than glue. He’ll randomly get some breakouts from time to time or have scratches from itching (he gets dry patches behind his knees and on his ankles, for example) but we treat those with a steroid cream and overall, we manage it quite well.

Interestingly enough, when the allergist looked at those RAST results about two years ago, he said he thought it was a good possibility that Ashton would eventually grow out of everything but the sesame allergy. It’s looking like that’s the track he’s headed down, fingers crossed! We should get the bloodwork back in a couple of weeks and see if we can go ahead with the food challenges.

All in all, I know it’s a funny way to feel, but I was so proud yesterday. Yay Ashton! He has turned into such a big boy and the thought of doing something as simple as giving him a PB&J or scrambling up some eggs makes me beyond happy. Who needs sesame anyway 🙂

Oh p.s. for my records – at almost 2 years 7 months, he is 34 pounds and 3 feet, 3 inches tall.

UPDATE: Bloodwork from this appointment.

02/26/2014 11:03
    IgE                                      185 units/mL        H     0 - 30       
    Allergen, Aspergillus                    <0.35 kU/L          NA                 
    Allergen, Alternaria                     <0.35 kU/L          NA                 
    Allergen, Pen Mold                       <0.35 kU/L          NA     
    Allergen, Birch                          <0.35 kU/L          NA                 
    Allergen, Mite                           <0.35 kU/L          NA                 
    Allergen, Cat                            <0.35 kU/L          NA                 
    Allergen, Dog                            1.94 kU/L           NA                 
             
    Allergen, Almond                         1.15 kU/L           NA                 
    Allergen, Brazilnut                      0.70 kU/L           NA                 
    Allergen, Cashew                         0.68 kU/L           NA                 
    Allergen, Hazelnut                       0.95 kU/L           NA                 
    Allergen, Pecan                          <0.35 kU/L          NA                 
    Allergen, Pistachio                      1.11 kU/L           NA                 
    Allergen, Pine Nut                       0.48 kU/L           NA                 
    Allergen, Walnut                         <0.35 kU/L          NA                 
    Allergen, Egg White                      5.08 kU/L           NA                 
    Allergen, Ovomucoid                      <0.35 kU/L          NA                 
    Allergen, Peanut                         1.91 kU/L           NA                 
    Allergen, Sesame Seed                    46.30 kU/L          NA     

The time has come for me to stop yapping about this and just show you the goods! So this post is all about, you guessed it, our new master closet.

Let’s begin at the beginning. Our house was built in 1920 and is blessed with those closets that are so old that people used to hang their clothes on rails then went front to back, vs. side to side. If you can even picture that. Most people can’t. Anyway, Jason filled that closet up pretty quick and my clothes went on two racks in the office, awaiting a more long term solution. When we found out we were expecting another baby, I knew I wanted to make the office into a nursery and my clothes and other stuff needed to come out.

The far wall on our bedroom has a pesky radiator and one window. Following the same process as the living room built-ins, I took to the skies (er, internet) for an inspiration picture as to what I saw working for a built in closet there, wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling, complete with a window seat that doubled as storage or a hamper:

And proceeded to get some quotes from various carpenters. They averaged $10,000-$18,000. Laugh with me: Ha ha ha ha ha! Undefeated, Jason did some more research and found a few different DIY bloggers that had posted about using the shells and inserts from Ikea to fashion themselves their own built-in closets. Their Komplement system is very comprehensive and while labor-intensive, produced a similar result to custom cabinetry at a fraction of the cost.

We’ll get to the nitty gritty but I have no patience and have been dying to post this!!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

And the money shot:

Jason’s side on the left, mine on the right 🙂 It’s probably easier to picture now why the radiator needed to be moved back. The left-most closet door still doesn’t open all the way (which meant Jason could not have the big wide drawers like I do because they wouldn’t be able to slide out) but, typical Jason, he made it work and used two dividers to be able to still get drawers in there.

One of my favorite parts is the lights on sensors on the top of each shell, so when you open the door, your clothes are bathed in a warm glow. Ahhhh. This is particularly pretty on my side behind the mirrored door because of the glass shelves:

Beginning of insert install:

Don’t you love those moments where you learn something that you’ve never really wondered about, but now that you know, it makes perfect sense?

My sister was visiting last weekend and at one point I commented that her shirt was cute. She goes, “Oh, thanks, but look…it has these tiny holes in it.” And pulled near the bottom of the hem to show me:

(Note: this is not her actual shirt but the result of my google image search to show likeness.)

I said, “Oh yeah, look at that. I’ve had shirts with those teeny holes too!” and before I could speculate on their origin, she goes, “Ben thinks they are moths.”

Now JUST HOLD ON HERE. I’ve never seen a moth in my closet. Why would they hang out there and eat clothes? Those cotton fibers must be yummy? But then, my thoughts kept marinating: “Well, people do have cedar closets, and why else would moth balls exist??”

Mind = blown.

It made perfect sense. I just kept repeating, “Huh, well what do you know” to myself as I processed all this. It was one of those mysteries that I never considered a mystery because I thought I could say where the holes came from if asked. Like from those security tags in the store or something.

Why am I blogging about this. Because this morning, I opened my (new!) closet to get dressed, put on my black sweater, and saw this on my sleeve: