Victory. 28

So it's again few days late but I figured since I had a doctor's appointment today, I would wait to update.

I'll start with the weekend. This past weekend Justin was sick again, as I mentioned on the last update, so he didn't work Friday or Saturday. But I worked Saturday and didn't get to bed until 4 Am. Yuck. But needless to say, we woke up early Sunday morning, as it was Easter, and headed to my parents house for breakfast. There my mom gave me some more stuff that she made for the baby, like Thomas the Train shorts, Mickey Mouse shorts, and another stuffed book (Humpty Dumpty this time). After breakfast, we headed off to Churchville to go to church with Justin's parents. They were becomming members of their church that day hence the reason why we skipped the Easter service at Abbott. After church we went back to their house, where some more of the family later joined us for Easter dinner that Justin's dad cooked. While the family played games, I slept on the couch (being 28 weeks pregnant and ONLY sleeping 3 hours does not go together well). We got some more goodies for Jackson there, like some bowls, Jackson's first Saw (It's actually a book but it's shaped like a saw... Justin's dad has been doing a lot of woodshopping lately which is the significance of the book), some disposable bags for diapers, Justin's old book of Peter Rabbit, and of course Justin's Christening outfit that jackson will wear if it fits. Jackson also got a bunny that dances when you press his ear. His collection of toys is definitely growing. We ended the night by taking Justin's grandmother home and coming home to our boys to get some much needed sleep! I was hoping that Jackson would be very active on Easter so both sides of the family could feel him, but I guess because of my lack of sleep, he was also pretty sleepy, so he didn't move once while we were at my parents. But, once we got to church he was on a roll, so Justin's grandmother got to feel one kick.. and just one before he got shy again! Maybe everyone will just have to come to church to feel him for now on. h a ha.

On Monday I had clinical again. My patient was a very big 3 1/2 month old with big eyes. He is definitely very cute and eats A LOT. He was pretty easy to take care of, as not too much was going on, but I did get to see something new. Some babies develop with the intestines and sometimes other organs not forming inside of their abdominal cavity. So when they're born, their intestines are outside of their body. This requires surgery to put the organs back in place and to cover the area over. Well, my patient was born with this condition and I assume he had the surgery pretty early on. But on his stomach he had a huge lump that was pretty much healed, but where his intestines were still too large to fit. I read that when the intestines are exposed to amniotic fluid for so long, they swell and don't always fit perfectly back in the abdomen. Eventually with growth his intestines will probably go back in and you won't be able to notice it much, but it was definitely pretty neat to see.

Also on Monday we heard the news that our friends Laura and Bert had their little girl, Delaney Mae Rode. They were expecting to be induced later in the week (I think today) but Delaney decided to come on her own. Unfortunately Delaney has had a little trouble adjusting to the outside world, so she's been in the NICU since shortly after she was born. Bert and Laura expect her to stay there a few more days, but they update their blog frequently and it seems as though little Maeby is coming along very well. I plan to stop by tomorrow to drop some food off to Bert, Laura, and big sister Mackenzie, but we all are anxiously waiting until we can meet the new little addition to their family. We are definitely keeping her and the rest of our family in our prayers.

Tuesday was just another Tuesday... which for me is a long day of school, but it marked me officially at 28 weeks. On Wednesday I had clinical and took care of the same patient. This time he was a little more irritable than before and he managed to christen me with my first large poop from one of my patients. It was definitely very gross, but I managed. I was also given my first opportunity to give a patient a vaccine injection. It was in her thigh, and it was pretty easy to give, but she definitely was not a happy baby afterwards. Later that night Justin and i worked the Black label society/Sevendust show at Ramshead. We got off work around 2 Am and decided to go out for food with some of the other bartenders at Sip N' Bite in Canton. It was pretty crowded for being a small place and we had to wait a while. But we finally got to eat and had a good time. Jackson even decided to be social and one of the bartenders, Krysta, got to feel him. It's so cute how excited she is for us. She said she goes into baby sections all the time now! ha ha. And if anyone remembers, she bought us a very cute, soft baby blanket pretty early on so I'm glad Jackson finally said thank you! Anyhow, the food was very tasty, but man was it late. It was probably 4:30 before I actually went to bed. Yikes!!! We won't be doing that too much!

Today was my day off from school, but I had a doctor's appointment this morning. Once again they didn't say anything about my glucose test, so I'm still assuming I passed. One big thing that happened though had to do with the scale. :( I stepped on and didn't like what I saw too much... and the sad part is, neither did the doctor. Apparantly I gained more than I should have this month and he didn't seem too happy about it. So he told me to watch what I eat and limit my salt. The funny thing is I don't really eat THAT much. I'm really thinking that maybe jackson's gonna be a big baby. I sure hope that's the reason for the weight gain, ha ha. But anyhow, I'll be watching what I eat for now on. Despite that, everything else was fine. The heartbeat was fine, my blood pressure was great! and I assume I'm measuring right on. For now on, thought, I'll be seeing the doctor every two weeks until 36 weeks I think, and then I see him every week. That's crazy for me because it means everything is getting so close. Two weeks tends to fly by A LOT faster than 4 weeks so I know the last 2 1/2 months are going to seem pretty quick. The Doctor also gave me a paper about when to call and when to go to Labor and Delivery. Most of the paper talks about signs of pre-term labor but there's a small part that talks about when to call in the last month and about counting kicks and contractions and what not. This is difficult for me actually because I don't always feel him. In fact I don't feel him more than I do feel him. I think it has to do with my placenta still, but he's just not a regularly active baby. Or he is and I can't tell. So they say if I'm not feeling him, I should try eating and that after eating or right before bed I should feel him ten times in one hour. I don't know that I ever feel him that much, except when we're in church (apparantly he LOVES church) so I really don't know what to do here. I think, just because of all this, I'm going to go ahead and hang onto our doppler heart monitor just to be on the safe side. I go back to the doctor on the 30th I believe, and later that day Justin and I go to meet with the Pediatrician, which I'm kind of excited about because I've heard lots of good things about the practice. Apparantly Rob and Sharon take Lucas there and if I remember correctly, it was recommended to them by our other friends Stacie and Dustin (they take their son Ian there). Jackson won't have the same primary pediatrician that they use, but it will be in the same practice and location. Tomorrow I'm going to try to set up for Justin and I to take an infant care class at St. Joe's and I'd also like to try to hop on a tour of GBMC just in case we have to go there. Anyway.. we ended our night with a huge making of lasagna which was wonderfully delicious and now I have a paper to write :(

It's been a pretty busy week so far and it will continue on that way. Justin has to work tomorrow and I'll be doing school stuff and stuff with my mom. On Saturday we're heading to Cecil County to celebrate my niece's 13th birthday ( which is actually pretty frightening that she's 13 already) and we'll end the weekend with church on Sunday and maybe work for me.

Monday will kick off a busy couple of weeks with the first of my last three projects/papers due. Then I have two weeks of back to back presentations and exams. UGH. School ends in mid may for me (which will be here before I know it) and my sister graduates on May 16th from her grad program at Frostburg (which Justin and I will be making the trip for). She graduated from Frostburg last year with her undergrad degree in Biology and she immediately started her master's program for a degree in education. So pretty soon she'll be teaching. The next day is her graduation party. Then I get about a week or so off before I start my practicum: I have to follow a nurse around for 80 hours (so roughly 2-3 weeks). I'm really hoping I'll get a pediatric or labor and delivery rotation and I'm hoping even more than that that I will be at St. Joe's just in case Jackson tries to come early. Then we get to celebrate our little one the first week in June with our baby shower at my brother's house. And maybe a week or so later I will start my summer class online (which should be a breeze). And then FINALLY, before we know it, it will be Jackson's turn to make his debut and our family will be complete (for a good 2 to 3 years). I really can't wait, and while I want things to slow down a little, I'm also ready to fast forward everything.

Anyhow. here are my 28 week pictures with my new wonderful camera. Just 12 more weeks to go!!!

The two scars on the next picture are the enter and exit holes of my belly button piercing that I got a few years ago. I haven't worn it in forever because the hole didn't heal well, but it definitely didn't mind stretching.

Oh, and this finaly picture is my ever disappearing belly button. I used to have a very deep belly button but NOT anymore. I have a feeling that very soon I may have an outtie!