Sunday, May 31, 2015

Pregnant with a Fever = Overnight stay at the Hospital

Baby Boy 25 weeks
I'm now 27 weeks along. The picture to the right is from 25 weeks. I just have been too busy to post anything. We still have not seen his face. Hopefully at my next appointment we will.  Overall this pregnancy has gone great. I've felt good overall and the baby has been growing well and everything has been very normal. 

Wednesday night around bedtime, my throat started getting sore. I rarely get sick so this was a little concerning. I gargled with hydrogen peroxide before bed. In the morning it felt worse. My right middle finger was also in pain from a hangnail. Throughout the day I felt worse and worse. I did all of the natural remedies I could. Gargled with salt water, gargled with salt water and sage, ate some raw garlic cloves, drank apple cider vinegar, made a smoothie, and blended 3 cups of water with a lemon and some strawberries. But nothing was really helping. I rarely go to a doctor because of a sore throat or a hangnail problem but something didn't feel right. I called my family practitioner and they didn't have any openings on Thursday. I decided to try CVS's minute clinic once my husband got home. I figured they could confirm whether or not I had strep throat and if my finger was infected. By the way, the Minute Clinic was great! Easy to get into, not a lot of sick people around, etc. 

Once my husband got home, I had him drive me over there. I didn't want to take the kids to the doctor alone. Anyone with small kids knows taking little kids to the doctor is only asking for trouble. I had been having chills and low energy most of the afternoon. The nurse practitioner at the minute clinic checked for my temperature and it was 101.9. She also checked for strep, no strep, and said my finger was infected but enough to cause a fever like I had. She said since I was pregnant I needed to go to the hospital or an emergency clinic so they could put 2 liters of fluids in me and figure out where the infection was coming from. I wanted to cry. So off to the maternal ward at the hospital we went. With all of the pregnancy issues I've had, I know to just go to the maternal ward if there's ever a problem. 

The nurse checked me in and took my temperature. They hooked me up to some monitors. My heart rate and my baby's was very high. This was most likely due to my fever. Sure enough they put an IV in me and started fluids. They took 3 vials of blood and were able to check my blood count, strep throat, mono (just in case it was that), my thyroid levels, and anything else. Thankfully everything came back fine. However, I was having mild contractions and with a fever they could not send me home so they kept me overnight. They said I would need to stay until my fever went away so I didn't go into preterm labor. The hospital is not very restful as they needed to come in and check on me every few hours. I also had the tight baby monitors around my big belly, which around 1am, I was able to have them taken off for a few hours. I also had the painful IV in my hand. However, I would rather make sure everything is fine than go home and things go bad. I was sad to spend the night away from my family, as I have never spent the night away from Princess but sometimes we have to do what we have to do. 

My husband did great with the kids. I told him before I knew I was going to stay the night to head home with the kids to get them to bed. My dad said he could take me home from the hospital when they released me that evening before I knew I was staying. They gave me three rounds of antibiotics through the IV, 3 liters of fluids, two doses of pain pills, and things looked up. Thankfully I was able to go home Friday around 11. 

We told a handful of people and my husband was able to find someone to watch our kids Friday morning. Thank you, Micah! I was able to pick them up after lunch, although I still needed to rest. I also knew Princess would need a nap. I'm just so glad the baby and me are doing good. We are still not sure what caused my temperature to go up so high but now I know to call my OB for anything, even a sore throat and to get care from her when pregnant. I love my doctor and am glad she's always willing to go the extra mile for me and my baby. I'm still not 100% better but I feel a lot better than I did. I'm just thankful to God that it wasn't something more serious. 

Thursday, May 14, 2015

This Year's Mother's Day

Ever since I lost my mom, Mother's Day has always been a hard holiday for me. I had a really incredible mother and life has not been the same since she passed away. It's also a day I miss my grandmother who was an amazing woman. Thankfully I am blessed with some wiser women who have been great mentors to me over the years. I wish my mother-in-law lived nearby so we could shower her with love. My dad took our family out to dinner Saturday night and we saw my step-mother, paternal grandmother, aunt, uncle, cousin, and my siblings which was nice.

Since having children, Mother's Day has become a little easier as my husband and children shower me with lots of love on Mother's Day. Not to mention, that I really love being a mom so this day is extra special. I also love watching my friends who are mothers. This year was no exception as my husband had some fun things planned. Blue Rock made me breakfast Saturday morning--since it's hard to get out the door on Sunday mornings. They bought me flowers and Blue Rock made me a sweet card with his favorite things about me. We ate at a new Thai restaurant for lunch and spent a lovely day together as a family. Saturday I set up a craft for the kids that I wanted them to do. Paint ended up all over them, the table, chairs, and the wall! It was messy! However, I'm really happy with the picture they made for me. This was Princess's first time to really paint. She actually wasn't too messy. Sadly, I think it was her big brother who got a little crazy with the paint. ;) Thankfully we have some paint to fix the wall. I also got my haircut! I'm looking forward to becoming a mom of 3! 2 years ago, I was finally content having one child. This year I'm expecting my 3rd in 3 months! God has blessed us.


Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Easy and Delicious Green Smoothie!

This is my go to green smoothie. I make it 3-4 times a week. I have a lovely backyard garden where I grow my spinach and kale. The other two ingredients I get from the store.

Easy Green Smoothie

Ingredients

- 1 large orange, peel removed, or 1 cup of orange juice
- 2 cups of spinach, kale, or a mix of both
- 1 banana
- 4-5 ice cups, optional

Directions

Place everything in your blender and blend until smooth. A few years ago, my husband gave me a Vitamix. We absolutely love it! The Vitamix does a marvelous job making smoothies and many other things. This green smoothie recipe makes a little over two cups.  My 5 year old prefers this with just spinach. I sometimes will add strawberries and other fruits to his to make it a bit sweeter. Enjoy!


Easy!

My source of greens

Texas Spring Backyard Garden

We enjoy gardening and growing organic foods in our backyard. Most of Spring, Summer, and Fall, we do not have to buy any greens. We just go to our backyard and harvest what we need. One day we hope to grow most of the food we eat. We drink lots of smoothies and juice periodically so this saves us quite a bit. Not to mention our salads are delicious! There is nothing better than farm to table.

In April we planted our Spring/Summer garden. It is growing great! This year we are growing lots of different fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Two years ago, we bought a Garden Tower, which is perfect for greens, herbs, strawberries, and tomatoes. We also have a square foot garden and a few containers. 

In the awesome tower, we are growing three kinds of lettuce, two kinds of spinach, and one kind of kale. We also have lots of herbs, strawberries, onions, and tomatoes. In the past we have grown broccoli and Chinese cabbage. In the square foot garden we have onions, peppers, garlic, three kinds of peas, okra, tomatoes, two kinds of poblano peppers, cucumbers, garlic, and two kinds of carrots. We decided not to grow any beets although those grow really well in our area too. Our blueberry bush is fully of little blueberries. There are lots of peaches on our peach tree. Our generous neighbor gave our son a banana tree so we're hoping it produces some bananas, although we don't necessarily live in the right climate but you never know. We have catnip and marigold to ward off mosquitoes and they have worked really well for us. We're hoping to add another square foot garden to grow some various melons and later in July plant some pumpkin seeds. For now, here are some pictures of our little backyard city garden. 

Garden Tower

Lettuce, spinach, and kale

More of our salad greens

White Princess Peach Tree

Blueberry bush, we're hoping to plant it in the ground after this season

Tomatoes and mosquito repealing plants

Square foot garden

Mosquito repelling plant

Banana Tree

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