Here goes nothin'

So I got my first pregnancy Remicade today, which went quite uneventfully, thank you very much. I think I had all of the poor nurses freaked out though - nothing like a pregnant lady waddling in to get an IV infusion to set folks on edge! Got my tylenol & benadryl, then the Remicade and took a nice 3 hour nap. My nurse said she kept coming in and checking on me and I was sound asleep until the pump beeped and I was out of juice. I'm in "negotiations" with my GI right now as to the schedule of treatments....when a person first starts this medicine, you have what's called an induction phase where you go once, then go two weeks later, then four weeks after that, then every eight weeks. I contend that I didn't have to do that when I came back on it from being pregnant with Carrie (a lapse of 10 months), but current GI thinks it's been too long and I have to go through the entire induction phase again. Hopefully once the PA relays the info to him that I've already been down this road once and came back on it after a 10 month hiatus I won't have to do that, but we'll see. It would only mean one extra treatment than what I was already expecting, but still...only want to have to to do this the absolute minimum number of times! Baby's still kicking around in there, so that's a good sign. The plus side of these treatments is definitely the built in nap during the day though. Nothing like it :)

Also, I was able to eat my very first meal with NO stomach cramping AT ALL for the first time in about 2-3 months (mmmmm.....Moe's). Coincidence? Placebo effect? Perhaps. I choose to believe the meds are already kicking in, though.

On a fun note, one of my very good friends from my college days is making her way down to visit as I type. It should be lots of fun! Nothing exciting planned for this evening, but I've got a babysitter coming tomorrow to hang with Carrie while we go out to dinner and a movie. Not sure what we'll go see, but I told her I didn't care as long as I got some movie-theater popcorn :)

Quick Update!

So I just called in to the infusion center to make sure they received the faxed results of my TB test I had done years ago at UF (you have to have this done prior to getting a Remicade infusion), and was met with good news - not only has she received the results, but has already cleared it with my insurance company and did I want to come in this afternoon?? Okay, that was a bit fast for me, so I asked if I could just come in tomorrow, so I'm heading in tomorrow morning for my first infusion since November. I probably just should have taken the approach I did in New Zealand with skydiving and just did it this afternoon to not give myself too much time to think about it. Oh well. I promise to try not to dissolve into tears when they hook me up to the IV. :) I just have to keep reminding myself I am doing the best I can for both me and my child by having this done. I have to believe that three separate doctors would not tell me to do this if it wasn't going to be okay. I hate having to rely on others' information....I'm not good with giving up control, if anyone's noticed!

On a happier note, a previous babysitter of Carrie's took some AMAZING pictures of her this past weekend, and I have uploaded them all on our Picasa site. She's just graduated from UVA and is trying to get her business going. Take a look at her site here. Although still young, I think she did a wonderful job with a toddler that was constantly on the move throughout the entire time she was there snapping pics. Keep in mind these are all un-retouched. I still have to go through them and pick and choose which ones I'd like in black/white, sepia, etc. The ones that are already in B/W are ones she initially took last summer while babysitting. I freaked out when she showed them to me and immediately requested that she come take more photos this past weekend! I also told her that, with another little one on the way, she should probably just block out an hour or so each time she comes to visit her parents to come take pictures of my family. Enjoy :)

Struggling

I'm really struggling right now with this whole Crohn's thing. I'm not having a flare up right now, thanks to the prednisone. However, the prednisone is the problem. It's not good to be on it long term at any point in one's life, but it can cause a myriad of problems in pregnancy....gestational diabetes and cleft lip, just to name two fun ones. I'm sure if I googled "prednisone and pregnancy" I'd find all kinds of scary stuff, but one thing I learned when diagnosed with Crohn's - only go to WebMD or the CDC for any medical related information on the internet!

I went to see my GI yesterday and he's on board with me starting back up with the Remicade that I stopped as soon as I found out I was pregnant. The last infusion I had was the day before we went to China, so it's been awhile. I asked my GI to call my OB so they could chat and make sure everyone was on the same page about Remicade (the last time I talked to the nurse for my OB she said in a lighthearted voice "Dr. Linfoot's perfectly fine with you going ahead with the Remicade! Do you have a prescription for it currently?" "Um....no....it's not something you just go pick up at the pharmacy. And on that note, I really need her to talk to my GI, cause that SCARES me that she knows so little about it.")

Fast forward to today. GI has talked to OB and I get the call from GI's physician's assistant today to tell me the good news that everyone's on board and the GI has already put in the order at the infusion place and they should be calling me to schedule my next infusion in the next day or so. Great, right? I immediately get off the phone and start crying. I know intellectually that I pretty much have to do this - going into a full blown Crohn's flare could prove disasterous. I know this. I've talked to my absolute favorite doctor in the world, my GI from UF, and he's always said he believes Remicade is safe in pregnancy, much safer than the mother flaring up. He wanted me to stay on it while pregnant with Carrie, but by some miracle I felt completely Crohn's free for the entire pregnancy. But for some reason it just scares the hell out of me. Maybe it's the fact that it means being hooked up to an IV for three hours? Maybe it's the hormones? I have no clue. None of it makes sense to me. I know it will make me feel better. I know it will prevent me from getting those stomach cramps after eating. I know it's safer for me and baby to get the medicine twice while pregnant than to stay on the steroids. But it still scares me. But I'm going to do it, hopefully later this week or first thing next week. I go see the OB tomorrow AM, so I'm sure we'll chat about it as well.

Wish me (or us, rather, since it's me and #2) good luck.

Good grief

So you know that "to do list" I talked about in an earlier post? Yeah, well, there's one thing that was NOT on my list that I ended up doing today....going to the ER with a toddler...by myself...and I was the patient. Geez.

I feel like SUCH a klutz. I don't know if the belly's got me off kilter or what. We were standing in the post office today when Carrie decided to bolt. I took off after her, and managed to have my feet come out from under me just as I got to her and landed square on my butt and my right hand. Good lord, seriously? I think the poor post office employees thought I was going to sue the government (as if they have anything to pay me off with!). It freaked Carrie out a bit because she just sort of stood there sucking her thumb like "Uh oh...I'm thinking maybe I had something to do with this, and maybe it wasn't a good idea to bolt away from Mommy." I got up and, other than my butt and hand hurting, I really felt fine. I wasn't too concerned since I didn't land on my belly.

So I mail my package, load Carrie up in the car, and head over to Target. I decided to call the OB on call service just to be sure I wasn't being stupid in thinking everything was okay. Well, as soon as I told them I fell it didn't seem to matter how I fell or what I landed on, they wanted me to come in. Keep in mind my hospital is about 40 minutes away. So I loaded up Carrie in the car and headed to Savannah. By the time I got there I was convinced something was wrong. And get this - I had to sit in the ER so I could be evaluated from a trauma standpoint before being sent up to Labor & Delivery to make sure my baby was okay. This did not sit well with me. I think the nurse that triaged me could tell and they sent me back quickly and got the doppler out. Once I heard that whoosh whoosh of the baby's heartbeat I immediately calmed down. However, Carrie did not. She didn't like the doc or nurse doing anything to Mommy. I guess it freaked her out, so those were the only times she was a real handful at the ER. Since I landed on my hand they wanted to do an x-ray of my wrist to make sure I didn't break it (um, pretty sure I didn't since I can move it around, but whatever). Once that was cleared, I was sent up to L&D to be monitored. More upsetness from Carrie when they wanted me to get into the bed with the monitors, so Carrie and I were snuggled up on one of those tiny little hospital beds. She did seem to like listening to the heartbeat at least. After about 2.5 hours in L&D I was finally released, deemed in fine health, although my ego bruised a bit and my poor toddler napless, and we headed home. We were there a total of about 5 hours. Carrie got up this morning around 7am, had no nap at all during the day and she and I split apple juice and a 100 calorie Cheez-It pack for lunch. Needless to say as soon as we got home we filled our bellies and she put up zero fight to go to bed. I don't think I'm too far behind her.

It's a darn good thing I had my dream pregnancy with Carrie. I'm not sure I would have been so eager to have another had this pregnancy been my first. I feel like such a bad mommy to this child already - I've been to the ER twice, had to get a shot of morphine b/c of my Crohn's, had to get an x-ray of my busted hand, have been on prednisone for about 6 weeks so far, and will probably have to go back on Remicade before this child pops out because of the Crohn's. I know I need to do what I need to do to stay healthy for the baby, but really? Gggggrrrrr.....

Over halfway there

I can't believe I'm 22 weeks pregnant with #2 today. It literally seems like just yesterday that I was staring at those two lines on the test and thinking "huh?????" I'm pretty sure Jerry had the same reaction when I came bounding up to him, still in bed, woke him up and said something to the effect of "LOOK AT THIS!" Sometimes I'm still in a bit of shock/denial about it, but then get quickly snapped out of it when I can hardly catch my breath to keep up with Carrie and am finding it increasingly more difficult to find a comfy way to carry her when she wants to "hold you." (that's what she says when she wants someone to carry her).

I know I need to update this with photos from the big 2nd birthday party. It's on the "list" for this weekend. We'll see how far I get. I seem to have these grand plans on Fridays of what to do on the weekends while Carrie's napping....but when it comes right down to it and she goes down for a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon, I start thinking that sounds like a darn good idea for myself.

I did accomplish one big item on the to do list last night, and that was ordering Carrie's big girl bedroom furniture. I did this with a mixture of excitment and sadness. I'm excited because I know she's ready for it, and also the practical reason of the incoming child will obviously need a place to crash, but a little sad that she won't be in her crib anymore. She really is growing up (as if I didn't know that from the attitude she throws every now and then, but still...) I just can't quite picture her sleeping in a double bed!! I did manage to forget to order the guard rails for the darn bed, though. Guess it's one more thing to add to my list.