Friday, March 26, 2010

17 Teeth and Counting...

Leah has had a few middle of the night wake-ups lately. And this morning she was up at 6:45 (a bit earlier than normal for her) and complaining that her tongue hurt. I figured maybe she bit it - either this morning or before her midnight or 4 a.m. wake-ups last night. But then when we were out and about this morning she had a finger in her mouth and was whining. I took a look and saw a bulging spot on her lower right gums - a molar on it's way in.

Then this afternoon she woke up from her nap just screaming and holding her mouth. She took an hour and a half nap, so I don't think the teething woke her up, but obviously she did wake up in pain. I got her some ice water...and asked her if I could take a look in her mouth. She obliged - and sure enough the first of her 2-year molars had emerged. It's actually about 2/3 visible - so I imagine the remainder of the top of it will break through fairly soon. Once it's all broken through it shouldn't be painful anymore. So now we'll just wait to see when her remaining 3 baby teeth decide to make their appearances - no sign of them so far.

But a little teething pain did not dampen her spirits most of the morning. We had a very fun trip to the Transit Museum with lots of friends.

The kids were very into holding hands today - here are Malia and Avery with Leah - all squealing - but at least it was a big open area to run around - not a traditional museum:
Leah was very amused as she tickled Theo:
Leah and Theo were quite happy together today...maybe she's got a new boyfriend:
She wasn't really the only girl today - just the only one in the attempt at a group shot - Piper and Malia were off and running - pictured here are Cooper, Avery, Leah, Theo, and Asher:
But at the end of the day, Leah's heart still belongs to Avery:

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Early contractions

I had an eventful morning today. I woke up at 4:30 in the morning with contractions. I got up and had some water. I tried walking around a bit. I am exactly 32 weeks today - too early to have a baby! So I tried what I could to calm down and see if the contractions would stop. After about an hour and a half, I called my OB. The on-call doctor called me back about 3 minutes after I left a message with the answering service. She told me to come right to the hospital.

I woke Shafi to tell him what was going on but that he should stay home with Leah. I brushed my teeth and washed my face, got dressed, put a book and other necessities in a tote bag and headed out to get a cab. I was at NYU hospital before 6:30. The doctor called ahead so that they knew to expect me.

They put me in a Labor & Delivery Triage Room and hooked me up to a monitor for the baby's heartbeat and for my contractions. The baby's heartbeat was pretty steady around 150, which is normal. My contractions were irregular but between 1.5 and 5 minutes apart.

They checked my cervix and it was long and closed - so the contractions are not having any effect - definitely a good thing. They checked my urine - not dehydrated and no UTIs. They did a test called the FFN, which tests for a protein present before labor starts. Luckily it was negative, which means there is a 95% likelihood that I will not go in to labor in the next 2 weeks.

After ruling out the easy known causes and my contractions continuing they decided to give me terbutaline. They can give up to 3 injections, 20 minutes apart. The first one seemed to slow things down and they decided to give me a second. That one did successfully stop my contractions. But I had an unpleasant reaction to it. My heart raced and blood pressure dropped and I felt generally miserable. It was a common reaction and it went away after a few minutes on oxygen.

After monitoring me for another hour or so, they decided I could go home. These contractions could continue but still not really be labor - or they could stop. I was able to nap for about an hour and a half when I got home, but I woke up with contractions around 1 p.m. I've been having periodic contractions all afternoon, but not with the frequency I was having this morning. The contractions are fairly mild - uncomfortable but not painful.

So we're crossing our fingers that my uterus calms down. In the meantime I am taking it easy. Shafi stayed home to take care of Leah today, but if all is well, I can take her to the playground and such tomorrow. I'll just try to lift her as little as possible and stay fairly close to home.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Everybody Poops!

If you haven't been following my Facebook posts then you may not be aware that Leah had her first poop in the potty on March 6. It was more about the timing than the intent. We've been putting her on the potty in the morning. Usually she pees if we sit there long enough - and we read her books to keep her there. But that day she said she needed to poop - and she did! We made a big deal about it, clapping and praising. And we started a star chart. Leah still gets a butterfly tattoo when she pees on the potty. And now she gets a star on the chart when she poops on the potty. After 10 stars she will get to pick out a toy at the toy store.

She seems to be excited about the prospect of peeing and pooping in the potty regularly - so for additional incentive we also bought "big girl panties." We had an exciting trip to K-Mart on Monday - where we bought some training pants, some waterproof pants, and some Elmo and Dora undies. I also picked up some Pull-Ups today. Lots of carrots to dangle now - and it seems to be working.

As she was finishing lunch today, Leah made a bit of a grunting sound - I asked her what she was doing - and it seemed to strike a chord - she said, "Mommy, I want to poop on the potty." I quickly wiped her hands and face and rushed her to the bathroom. We pulled the pants down and the diaper off and got her onto the toilet - as she likes to call it, "the big potty" - using a seat that fits on top of the regular seat. She asked me to read a book and I read "Have you seen my potty?" - twice. Turns out we didn't need to rush. It took a few minutes to get things moving, but she was right - she needed to poop. And while she was there she peed too.

Once again I made a really big deal about it. She got a butterfly tattoo on her hand and a star on the chart. Next time we're going to be home for a little while without plans to rush off to a class or meet friends or something - we're going to try out some training pants - we'll see if the wetness will help Leah pay more attention to when she needs to pee too. And for my sake we'll be putting the waterproof pants on top of them!