Pregnancy Update and Our Unexpected Bump

As of today I am 25 weeks!!!

Our baby girl kicks like crazy there is no doubt she will be an awesome soccer player!

She is also very opinionated already. Most nights I toss and turn trying to find comfortable positions for myself. Well, I also have to find a comfortable position for her too. I'll lay on one side, usually my left, and she'll start kicking down where I'm laying. And this she'll kick, again, and again, and hit ... until I finally move to a different position!

She also let's me know whenever I need to each something by kicking rather hard. It's fun and crazy being able to see my stomach move ... sometimes a lot! ... from her kicking and hitting or whatever it is she's doing!

She likes when daddy talks to her, when I sing, and when I sit in our glider.

I also feel like I am carrying her very low. I guess I think that because of how often I need to go to the bathroom, and most of the time she moves I can feel it really low down. I don't mind as long as she doesn't try and knock on that door to early to come out!

Here is the latest picture we've taken of me at 24 weeks.

Our unexpected bump consisted of two trips to the hospital in a one week period. Everything is good now. The baby is healthy, I'm healthy. We just momentarily had a few concerns. On the night of July 23rd I started feeling really uncomfortable, and had a lot of pain in my lower back and felt like I needed to go to the bathroom constantly! We had been asleep about an hour when it started to get worse so we called my doctor and both thought it was likely a UTI so he sent us to the Women's center at the hospital to get it checked out. My test came back negative bu while we waited they were monitoring me and I was having small contractions. The resident check things out and everything looked okay. So basically they said I probably got so dehydrated my body was trying to figure out ways to cope with it. At home and with a priesthood blessing from Mitch, I got a little bit of sleep.

On Thursday I was in excruciating pain with my back but had no other symptoms other than no appetite. I instantly threw up any medicine I tried to take. So I called my doctor again, after hours of course, and she told me to come into the office in the morning, but in the mean time to take a bath. The bath helped so much! Until I got out. I was able to eat a few crackers, but that was it. And I spent another sleepless night in pain.

Friday I felt a little better, even had some grapes for breakfast, and things seemed fine at the doctor. They decided the pain was just round ligament pain. But they gave me an antibiotic for a UTI anyway, just in case I guess. One my drive home, I threw up, driving. It was terrifying!! Thankfully I was able to say a quick prayer that I would at least be able to get off the highway! I did and although it was probably one of the most unpleasant experiences ever, I was okay. Later that night I started developing a fever. Nothing terribly high though.

Saturday I still had no appetite, my fever was coming and going, and things in my back were not getting any better. Mitch decided we should call my doctor again. On Facebook that week I had seen that there was a recall on Nectarines from Costco for Listeria. We had finished a box a week earlier and being me I couldn't get past the fact that maybe I had listeria. I mentioned it to the doctor on the phone and he told us to go right to the Emergency Room.

At the hospital I got sent different places, no one really knowing what to do with me, until they finally figured out how to test for Listeria and I was admitted Saturday night. Staying in the High Risk Perinatal unit I was able to get great pain medication (Finally some relief!!!) and they put me on an antibiotic through IV just in case the blood test for listeria came back positive. They did a few other blood tests while I was there and nothing seemed wrong.

Sunday morning I got an ultrasound on my kidneys and bladder and the radiologist found a kidney stone. Ta da!! An explanation for the excruciating pain I had been in! I continued the day impatiently waiting for each time I was allowed to have my pain medication. Tylenol, which helped some, and PercoceT, which was AMAZING! Sunday was a really long day, and before I went to bed had another priesthood blessing from Mitch and our home teacher.

After another rough night and morning. I decided to take a shower, felt a little sick and fell back asleep. Then miraculously around 11am I just started to feel way better. My pain medication was wearing off but I didn't feel like I needed anymore. After three and a half days of eating practically nothing I was finally hungry enough to have food! And that made baby girl much happier. My doctor came in and said my tests would be coming back and they were probably negative so I would be discharged that afternoon. It was such a blessing from Heavenly Father that I was able to pass the stone while still in the hospital so that I would feel much better going home. The only reason I was allowed to stay in the hospital was because of the listeria test, not the kidney stone.

Ultimately, I did get very dehydrated. And it sent my body into a frenzy. I'm not sure if the stone was related to that or if it would have happened anyway, but it made the whole experience extra unpleasant.

Lesson learned!!! I'm being much better at keeping my water bottle with me ... AND DRINKING IT!! It took me a few days to get my strength back, but I'm feeling great now. Our baby girl clearly feels much better too. She isn't kicking quite so hard. I'm so thankful that I'm not in pain anymore, and I don't need to stress about possibly have listeria, but mostly I'm grateful that I have such a strong priesthood holder as a husband. Mitch was so wonderful and supportive through all of this. I love you Mitch!