October 2006

This has been a very LONG month. I have been having extreme nausea and my blood pressure continues to bottom out at random times. I spent the day Monday at the hospital getting IV fluids. The doctors say I have inferior vena cava syndrome. This is caused by the baby laying on the inferior vena cava and cutting off blood flow to my brain. At random moments, I start seeing spots and then either almost pass out or get nausea. We have found it is worse when I am in a sitting position (ie. in the car). There is really nothing I can do about it nor can they. If I feel it coming on, I am suppose to immediately lay down on my left side. Dr. Clary did move forward and schedule the delivery by C-section and my tubal for November 17th.

Ella is really active and moving a lot. She likes for me to lay on my left side only. If I lay on the right, she immediately lets me know. I am carrying Ella very very very LOW and have significant lower abdominal pain in the evenings. They continue having trouble getting Ella on baby heart monitors. She moves too fast for them. I forget how much time I spent in the bathroom at this point in my pregnancy with Mary Catherine. It is at least every 30 minutes now. Guess that is why I can't retain any fluids... and keep getting dehydrated.

We got the bedding for the nursery. It is by Maddie Boo and is sooooo pretty. I love the P. Kaufman (cotton tail) fabric. It looks gorgeous. We painted the room a light lime green. Ms. Chrystie Crowley came and spent a week at our house painting the nursery, the armoire (which belonged to my great-grand mother Anderson) and the dressing screen (Daddy and I invented). Gaga bought you a chest of drawers which will double as a changing table. So far, the nursery looks gorgeous. We still have to find just the right artwork for the room and get the nursery rocking chair covered. I am having a hard time finding just the right fabric to cover the chair in. Daddy and I are still looking and will hopefully get that done in the next week.

We got all of the baby stuff out of the attic. Mary Catherine helped us go through everything and she "thinks" she remembers using everything. Together,we picked out the items we could use in the new nursery and then we washed and cleaned all of it. There were some items that were just worn out so we threw them out or sold them at the yard sale. I had no idea how much baby STUFF we had! There were some items we had monogrammed or were special to Mary Catherine and we put them in a special box for her to keep and have when she gets older. She liked that idea.

We bought a new carseat cover it is too cute. It is pink and white toile mixed with pink minky dot. Mary Catherine and I went and bought curtains, diapers, wipes, nipples, bottles and other items we needed in the nursery. We had so much fun picking out baby stuff for little Ella. Every thing was and I quote Mary Catherine "So Cute & Sweet"! Mary Catherine was such a BIG help!!! HA! She wanted to try out the pacifiers...NOT!!! She did talk us into letting her test the crib to make sure it would work for Ella(photos above).

We are excited and can't wait for you to be here on the 17th!!!!