I Want a Boring Life!

Life has been anything but peaceful or calm since Nana, Michael and the kids moved to Tacoma. They seem to be settling in well, for the most part. Jamie and Renna aren't so angry with me anymore. At first, Jamie wouldn't talk to me or about me or even stay in the room if others talked about me or if I was talking to them over the phone or via video chat. I tried to hide my struggles with their absence from Mama, but when discussing Jamie's anger I just couldn't keep from crying. So Mama told Jamie about it and that I was sad, too. He didn't want to hear it, but seemed to think about it. A few hours later he led Mama to Michael's (and eventually my) bedroom. Mama told him it was our bedroom and that I would sleep there when I came to Tacoma. He looked around and said quietly, "But Mama's not here, yet." So they talked about it some more briefly, and when I called to video chat that night he stayed to talk to me. Since then he and Renna have gone back and forth between wanting to talk and being upset that I'm on a screen instead of with them. But overall they're both adjusting to the separation. Renna is having the harder time with it, I think. She's happy to play with me during our video chats (Peek-a-boo, Got Your Nose, giving me "food" she's made), but she wants me there. Jamie is getting to the point where he's can take it for granted that he can call me anytime and see me. He loves reading what I type on the chat box and types in smiley faces to me. I've sent them candy, Starburst for Jamie and Tootsie Rolls for Renna, with flash cards for them to learn and show me when we're together again. And they're using the countdown calendar and Jamie even remembers how many are left (40, like Lent).

I was hospitalized a week ago last Thursday until the following Monday (a week ago today). The pain and burning at the tube site had become really bad and was preventing me from sleeping and the vicodin wasn't helping dull it anymore. So after crying on the phone to the nurse at the urologist's office, I was instructed to go to the ER. Bridget and I spent all day there, and finally she had her mom have her dad call the ER doc in charge for that day who was a personal family friend. He was awesome and hilarious. He came in announcing he was there because Pat M called him. And he handed my care to a doc he trained and told him that I wasn't their standard patient. He said I was "a pleasant young lady. She's an astrophysics grad student finishing her Ph.D. She conceived within the bonds of matrimony. And she wants to continue the pregnancy. I know. We don't get many patients like her. She's not your typical drug addicted MC Hammer wannabe crackho girlfriend. I know. You're welcome." This hilarity occurred after proper drugs had been administered so I was well enough to laugh. The tube was clogged for the 3rd time after only 2 and a half weeks. And the kidney was massively infected. Surprise! Surprise! I don't get a fever with infection unless it's strep. And I knew I had to have an infection but no one listened (because I didn't have a fever) until the urinalysis at the prenatal appointment showed nitrites which indicated infection. And so I had been on Macrobid since the week before because of a UTI, but after testing for sensitivities this bacteria, pseudomonas aeruginosa, it was found that was totally ineffective against it. So now I'm on Cipro, which it is sensitive to, until Sean is born. I had numerous NSTs as well, and apparently my uterus is "irritable", meaning I have tons of small contractions all the time. I knew that. Sometimes they're frequent and quite intense, other times they're totally unnoticeable. Either way Sean doesn't seem to care and they don't seem to be productive so it's not an issue. They measured Sean as being 3lbs 1oz plus or minus 3oz at 27w6d. The 28 week fetal development stats say he should be around 2lb 4oz. Yeah right. At the prenatal, the OB predicted he'd be 8 pounds something. He asked if I had big babies and I said no and told him Jamie's and Renna's birth weights (7lb15oz, and 8lb6oz, respectively). He laughed and said those were big babies. We joked about not wanting a 10lb baby and he joked that if he still seemed big in a few weeks I could start a pack a day smoking regimen. Anyway, it was nice to get a few photos of Sean and to get an estimate of his weight then. Of course he's bigger now. It makes me feel better that he's so big because if he were born now, he should do really well. But thankfully that's not anything we're worried about right now. :)

Well, since being released I started feeling better. Then not better. The kidney pain started again. Enough pain that I couldn't sleep last night. So I called IR and will have the tube changed again tomorrow. It's only been a week and a half. The nurse said that if you have any sediment then the tube can clog at any time. Since starting the new antibiotics I hadn't noticed any sediment until Friday when the urine started to be bloody randomly and now it's pretty consistently bloody. And the sediment is strange. It's red and is in long thin strands, filamentary in nature. And on Friday I started having hot flashes and chills, which could be signs of infection, but I'm on an antibiotic that supposedly works for this bacteria. So maybe it's debris from the bacteria as the colony is dying and being washed out. But it could also be pregnancy. But I've never really had hot flashes where I nearly passed out before. Usually I just run a bit hot. So hopefully this will help and if it doesn't, I'll become one of those patients who bugs docs all the time until they figure out what's wrong. I'm not going to wait until it gets bad anymore. I'm not going to assume that the pain I'm feeling is "normal". I've caught this tube early and will get it fixed and that should help. I know what a clogged tube feels like and this is it. I've probably got 3-4 days until the pain gets bad, but I'm not waiting that long.

Oh, and because I was in the hospital I missed meeting Sharon from Three Irish Girls. Bridget and I were going to go to her trunk show at Windy Knitty in Chicago. Ah, well. We'll have to go to another show so we can meet her.

Anyway, I really want a boring life. I want to be able to just stay home and snuggle my babies with the most exciting being what we're going to have for dinner or waiting to see if Jamie and Renna will both nap that day. Wouldn't that be lovely?