A Digital Kind of Christmas

There was a very unexpected package sitting under our Christmas tree this year. Or, rather, hiding upstairs until Brad "discovered" it near the end of our gift opening. Unbeknownst to me, he and both our parents came together and bought me a digital SLR- the camera I have been lusting after for over a year now. The gift I had planned on for Christmas this year, until we had a baby on the way and there were more important things to be purchased. So definitely an unexpected- and very appreciated- package underneath our tree.

I have only begun to scratch the surface of it's capabilities. I know Julie got the same one for Christmas this year, too- I told Brad we'll have to convince her to come down and we can learn how to use them together. 

There are not enough words to describe how blessed I feel to have such a loving, thoughtful family. So I will just say, I am blessed beyond words, and leave it at that. 

....And down again.

It's been a rough week for me, pregnancy wise. I had my 30/31 week appointment last Wednesday and my blood pressure was up. I related it to the fact that Savannah was uncharacteristically fussy at my appointment, and was actually sitting on my lap screaming the first time they took my pressure. We went back to the exam room and waited for around 20 minutes for the Nurse Practicioner to to come in, and she wanted to do a pressure re-check. Which is all well and good, except the entire time we were waiting, Savannah was pleading with me to "go outside" and "go car chair." It was not exactly a peaceful 20 minutes, so again I wasn't surprised my pressure was a bit elevated (136/90) The CNP took my chart to one of the OB's and she decided to have me do a 24 hour urine collection (yuck) and come back Thursday to do some blood work. Great.

So I left the office in tears, called Brad and he promised that he would go to my appointment with me on Thursday, to watch Savannah. I spent the rest of Wednesday freaking out. Thursday afternoon rolled around and I swear, my hands were shaking on the drive over to the office. Brad met me there, and when I went back I had no idea what to expect. All they did was collect 2 vials of blood, to check my kidney and liver functions and make sure they were doing their jobs correctly. It took all of 5 minutes. So poor Brad had left work early to drive 30 minutes and hold Savannah for 5 minutes. Fantastic.

When I left the office, they had me schedule my next visit for a week out, which was this coming Thursday.

Yesterday I was in the kitchen fixing my lunch when the phone rang- it was my doctor's office. The nurse who called told me that Dr Reimer had received my blood work, and that he wanted to see me ASAP- could I come in that afternoon? I said of course; it was 1:20, she asked if I could be there at 2. I got off the phone and called Brad immediately, and broke down. I was so scared, and he told me to calm down, that he would meet me over there. It takes me at least 30 minutes to get to the office, so I rushed around like a mad woman getting things organized to leave the house. So much for eating lunch!

We got to the office and it was such a relief to see Brad. The whole way to the office I just prayed over and over, "Please God let the baby be okay. I can deal with anything as long as the baby is okay."

We got called back and they checked my pressure again (136/82) and I am surprised it wasn't higher than that because I could literally feel my heart trying to beat it's way out of my chest, I was so nervous! We then went back into an exam room and waited for Dr Reimer, one of the group's doctors whom I hadn't met before.

Dr Reimer came in and immediately put me at ease. He was very apologetic about getting me in a fuss, it was his fault that he wanted to see me so soon, but when my lab results had come back and he needed to sign off on them, he said he felt he didn't want to sign off on something for a patient he'd never met, so he wanted me to come in. He was very easy going and light hearted, not the Super Scary Doctor who is here to be the bearer of bad news.

Basically what he told me is, I have Pregnancy Induced Hypertension, or am very borderline. Because of my elevated blood pressure, and the fact that I'd had an "adequate" level of protein in my urine, he was going to treat me as a PIH patient. Erring on the side of caution, I guess, which is a good thing. He told me that I need to watch out for swelling (which I've had none of this time, so far, compared to this point with Savannah) for headaches and blurred vision. They now want to see me weekly, instead of every other week, at least- which leads me to believe that at some point I might be going in twice weekly. He asked if I worked outside the home and I said no, to which he replied that if I did work he would take me off work, effective immediately. I am not on bed rest as of right now, but am on strict orders to take it easy. A good rule of thumb- if I am standing, I should ask myself "Could I sit down right now?" If I am sitting down, I should ask myself, "Could I be laying down right now?" He went ahead and had my chart sent over to St Joseph's hospital, in case I should come in and have an elevated pressure and they want to send me over for monitoring, that was they have my chart. Which really puts things into perspective.

I came home feeling better than I had on my way over there. I am glad to have a conservative office, because of what could happen if they ignored it. Even if nothing comes of it, it's not going to kill me to relax. I've put myself on a different time table- my goal is to take it week by week, and get to full term. Which is 5 weeks from now. After I am full term, if my pressure goes up the chances are pretty good that I will be sent in for an induction, which I am totally fine with. As nice as it would be to have the experience of going into labor on my own, it would actually make life easier [as far as Savannah is concerned] to know that I am being induced and that we can call our mom's and say, You need to come take Savannah for us, we are having a baby!

I am turning this completely over to God. I have prayed so much in the past week, I am sure He is sick of hearing the same thing over and over again. But if this is His will for me, to take it easy the next weeks, I will do anything to make sure this baby is healthy and full grown. Anything.

21 Months

Dear Savannah,

I am actually having a hard time believing I am writing to you, at 21 months old. How is it possible that you have grown so much? It really seems like just yesterday we were still waiting for you to be born- and now here we are, almost 2 years and another baby later! You are truly the joy of my life and let me tell you, you amaze me each and every single day.

The last 3 months have brought so much growth. You really are getting taller and growing up, but you are growing in so many other ways, too. Your vocabulary blows me away on a daily basis. You came up to me one night with a plastic number 4, handed it to me and said "Four!" I still can't figure out where you heard that one. You did the same with the number 8. You don't like to watch Sesame Street, so I know it's not that. Just one of those mysteries, I guess. I tried to sit down and update your baby book with all your new words and phrases- because now that you figured out how to string words together you don't want to stop- but I cannot even keep track of it all! You have called me MaMa for months now.... I didn't know whether to be sad or proud when you switched and started calling me Mommy. It makes you sound so grown up!

You have this incredible sense of humor. You find the smallest things to be hilarious, and love letting everyone know something was "funny". You have so many different laughs- from a deep, rolling from your tummy laugh when something tickles you, to a short chuckle when you are faking it. Somewhere in between those, every once in a while, you actually snort when you are laughing, which makes me laugh, which makes you laugh even more. Yesterday you were sitting in the tub, laying on your tummy "swimming" and I was tired of sitting in there with you. Daddy came in to help get you out, and pulled the plug on the drain. You sat up and watched the water level slowly taper off, and then when it was all gone you laid back down on your tummy, only to find there was no water, and proceeded to laugh hysterically. Like there was nothing funnier than you trying to swim in an empty tub.

We got through the Fall and your obsession with pumpkins- or Punko's as you called them. I am not kidding about the obsession. We couldn't walk out the front door without you wanting to grab and hug the pumpkins I had set up outside. Lucky for you these were our fall harvest decorations, not just Halloween, so you got to enjoy them for 2 months. When we were packing everything up to make room for Christmas decorations, you kept pulling the pumpkins out of the plastic storage containers, hoping we wouldn't notice that they were missing. We did. They are now safe and secure in the attic until next year.

But now Christmas has arrived and your pumpkins have quickly been forgotten, and replaced with an obsession of everything Christmas. You LOVE Santa Claus [Sa caus] and snowmen [samany] and our Christmas tree {kwis-kwis tree]. You love the lights you see everywhere... but especially your reindeer. Never has a child been more in love with any animal as you are with our lighted, animated reindeer in the front yard. All day and night you ask to go outside and see the reindeer. Even if we have just gotten back inside from seeing them. You want to pat them, and hug them, and give them kisses. Only you don't ever actually touch them. You will stand a foot away and spread your arms out, and say Mmmm as you "hug" them. Or a smacking "mwah" as you give them air kisses. You will actually bend at the waist and lean in to kiss them, then smack your lips as you are inches away from their noses.

On Black Friday your Mama had the brilliant revelation to Daddy that we should sell our big screen tv, buy and electric fireplace and hang a plasma screen above it. This was said in a one day sort of tone... except by the following Monday (i.e. 3 days later) we had a new fireplace, a new tv, and an old tv and stand sitting in the dining room. Which is fine, because I was quickly becoming depressed at not having anywhere to hang out stockings. And with the flick of a switch you have the beautiful glow of a fire- without dealing with wood and smoke and ash- and with the flick of another switch if puts off heat. Not bad! And you love, love, love the fireplace. For the first week you would ask me every day for the fireplace to be turned on [firey?] and stand there, amazed at the "flames." This might be the best kind of fireplace for a house with inquisitive little fingers- even when the heater is turned on it doesn't actually get hot to the touch!

You truly are the light of my life, Miss Savannah [or Nana, or Nany, as you call yourself- occasionally we will hear Sanany] You make me laugh, you make me cry tears of joy. You have reaffirmed everything I ever believed in. I cannot wait to see where the next months and years will take us, as we journey through your life together. Just promise me you won't grow up too fast, because I have seen how fast the last 21 months have passed us by.

All my love,
Mommy