Our crazy happenings!

Well, I have had a very eventful past few days! 

Wednesday evening we were at the hospital attending a breastfeeding class.  We learned a ton and had a good time together.  It made us so anxious for Eleanor to get here! 

We get home from our class and I started feeling funny.  It felt like I was getting a UTI.  I knew those are common in pregnant women, so I wasn’t surprised.  Well, as the hours passed it became more than just UTI symptoms.  I started feeling extreme pain in my lower back.  I actually didn’t think it was labor pains…..but thought it was kidney pain.  (I have had a kidney stone in the past and it felt the exact same.)  I tried so hard to just endure the pain, but it got almost unbearable.  Tim put his foot down and said we were going to the hospital.  We weren't sure if we should go to the ER or Labor & Delivery.  Tim ran in the ER to ask, and they told us to go to L&D.  We got checked in and they started to see what they could find out.  My urine showed no signs of a UTI or infection.  They checked Eleanor to make sure she was ok.  And thankfully her heartbeat was just as steady as ever!  They gave me a pain pill (which only took the edge off) and had me drink a ton of water.  They thought if it was a kidney stone that it would take care of it.  Well, the pain wouldn’t go away so they wanted to do an IVP x-ray to check out my kidneys.  In order to do this x-ray you have to lay completely still on a table for over an hour…..so they gave me morphine.  This was my first time having morphine…..and it was awesome! haha!  My pain was gone, at least for a few hours anyway.  (I was so nervous about having morphine with Eleanor, but I trusted the doctors and nurses.)  During the IVP they didn’t find anything wrong with my kidneys.  So, they sent us on home.  It was about 9am now.  We had been there since 2am!!!! 

I felt decent on the drive home.  Tim stopped to get me a plain biscuit to munch on to see if that would help me feel even better.  By the time we got home I started feeling bad again.  Tim and I tried to lay down and finally get some sleep.  But things didn’t work out quite so well for me.  I began to have excruciating pain in my lower back again!!!!  I felt so helpless since the IVP didn’t find anything and my urine didn’t show anything.  I thought I was just going to have to endure this awful pain.  I tried everything at home to help the pain.  I started to go a little crazy since I was also sleep deprived!  It was nutso. 

Tim woke up and said we were going to the hospital again.  I didn’t want to go and spend anymore money since they didn’t find anything the first time!   L&D said if we came back to the hospital we would have to go the the ER next time since Eleanor checked out ok.  We get there and they said it would be a 4 1/2 hour wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Words cannot describe!!!  I was balling and Tim was fuming mad.  He was trying to control himself and not lash out at the front desk people.  But he was not about to let me sit in the ER that long in such pain.  We sat there awhile and I was so embarrassed at how I looked and that I was crying uncontrollably.  I could feel people looking at me.  To make a long story short, my mom was able to pull a few strings since she knows some “high up people” at the hospital.  They were able to get me in very quick.  Thank you momma!!!! 

At the ER they gave me some more morphine (yay!) and started doing more tests.  They did an ultrasound on my kidneys and found out that I actually did have some sort of an obstruction in my right kidney.  They also found I had some blood in my urine, an infection and my white blood cell count was low.  Well, after all that, they said they were going to have to admit me to the hospital for the night because I was pregnant.   They wanted to monitor Eleanor, help me control the pain and then figure out what the obstruction was in my kidney. 

I had never stayed the night in the hospital before, so I was a little nervous.  And mostly I just worried about Eleanor the whole time.  I didn’t care what happened to me…..I just continually wanted to know if she was safe.  They got me into a room on the  L&D floor.  Then they sent a kidney doctor to come talk to us.  He said I had two options.  The first was to do surgery the next morning so he could find out exactly what was wrong with my kidney.  The second was to send me home with pain meds and hope I get over whatever was wrong.  The doctor said that either option there was a risk of going into early labor.  I was so scared about that.  Tim and I talked and prayed about our options and we decided to do the surgery. 

The next morning they came to get me for surgery around 11 am.  Everything went ok.  The doctor found that I had a matrix stone in my right kidney and some sort of obstruction.  He put a stint in to help with the obstruction.  Eleanor did awesome through the surgery!  They kept me there just a little longer after surgery to monitor Eleanor.  I was so proud of her…..she was a champ through everything. 

I finally got to go home Friday evening…..PAIN FREE!!!!!  (well, for the most part!)  I have to go back in two weeks and they will take the stint out.  They gave me meds for my recovery time. 

Saturday I rested all day in hopes that I would feel good enough for our maternity pictures.  Thankfully I did and we got to keep our appointment!  However, I didn’t get to plan out our outfits like I had hoped! haha!  But I think I like what we ended up going with. 

Sunday, my pain was not so good.  I’m not sure why.  Maybe it’s all just catching up with me.  I have heard that stints can be uncomfortable too. 

I’m just hoping and praying that me and Eleanor will continue to recover good…..and that she stays in there for a few more weeks!!!!! haha! 

This did give me quite the scare about her coming early!  Tim and I decided that we are going to pack our hospital bags this week!!!!! :)

I have got the BEST husband in the world!!!!!!  He has taken such great care of me.  I am so thankful for him and love him more than I can say! 

I hope our maternity pictures turn out ok!  Tim and I are so silly and are not the most natural in front of cameras!!! haha!  But we had an amazing photographer….so I’m looking forward to seeing what she does with our silliness. 

I guess to wrap up this reallllly long story…….

WHAT ESSENTIALS SHOULD WE PACK IN OUR HOSPITAL BAG???

WHAT SHOULD WE LEAVE HOME?

IS THERE SOMETHING YOU WISH YOU WOULD HAVE HAD OR KNOWN ABOUT BRINGING? 

Thank you for all your advice! 

Lots of Love!

Amanda