Cutting That Cord

Ok, so today is a big day for me. Last night, as I was sitting at a cafe with a sleeping baby, and chatting to my husband on the phone discussing the night's dinner menu, I had the idea that maybe Jake could go with his daddy today to Derry to see his grandmother. I need to stay at home because, well, our 1 year anniversary is only 2 weeks away and I STILL have thank you notes to finish... which must be done before Heather gets here tomorrow or they just won't get done in time. Plus, the house is a bit of a mess (surprise!!) and I need to do laundry and get Heather's room ready (oh and much more, but we'll see how much actually gets done, I'm still a lazy bones!).

So, I pumped and pumped and got 2 1/2 feed out last night and this morning (only pumped twice so I'm chuffed, as I haven't pumped in a while). And while that won't last Jake an entire day, he can supplement with formula as needs be.

Now here I am in an empty apartment, not sure how I'm feeling. Ok, ok, I know it's good to let these kind of things happen, but I'm just not USED to have an ENTIRE day with no baby. I put a song on and then almost turned it down thinking it was too loud... then realized there was no sleeping baby in the house. Little things like that keep happening.

And of course I'm the biggest worrier out there. At the moment I'm all worried about the following:
1. Someone on the bus being sick and giving it to Jake
2. Someone in Derry or the bus passing swine flu on to Jake (I told Rob to be a jerk and insist that people wash their hands before the get to cuddle him, especially as some of those people might be health care workers who go from house to house)
3. Mary dropping the baby (I KNOW Rob will be right there watching, but I still worry)
4. Rob forgetting to put the brake on the stroller and Jake rolling down the big, long hills of Derry.

Well, those are the biggest ones. But I figure, if I worry about them, then they won't happen (here's hoping)! At least I have an understanding husband who lets me be a bit neurotic around him about my anxieties.

So there it is. Jake is off with Rob on the way to Derry and I've my day to myself. This is going to take some getting used to...

Bloodsucking Fiends

Hello from the Coombe Maternity Hospital in Dublin!

No, I haven't had the baby yet, I've been admitted to the hospital for a blood sugar series. Basically, they take a vial of blood once before and after each meal for 24. I also have to do a finger prick to test my blood sugar eat time as well and keep track in a glucose diary. This will help the endocrinologist decide if I need insulin and if so, how much. I'm assuming I'll have to have insulin as the diabetic chief midwife lady, Ethna, has already handed me loads of information on insulin... and these people generally know before the doctors do!

So far, I've been stuck 6 times in a vein in my left arm. Two of those sticks didn't work, but just added to the track marks being left. Apparently, my veins are superficial... which is fine by me as long as the rest of me is not!

I've decided, as an homage to my stay here, that I'm going to wild release a Christopher Moore book, 'Bloodsucking Fiends' somewhere in the hospital sometime tomorrow. A kind of good humored nod to my stay here. Hmm, maybe it's poetic that I chose to bring with me the Twilight series number three book 'Eclipse' to read while here?? I still have one more vial of blood to go tonight, and then two in the morning!

But, all's not THAT bad. I ended up with a PRIVATE room (loving my health insurance right now). I've heard the public ward can be a bit difficult to deal with and that it's hard to get any sleep. So I'm quite chuffed to have a room all to myself where I don't have to worry about leaving my purse unattended while I go to the bathroom. Also, I got to hear baby's heartbeat today. They strapped me to the baby heartbeat monitoring machine, so I got a nice 20 minutes of locomotive sounding beats to lull me into a trance. Midwife Rosanne said it looked good.

My blood pressure was up, though, but I am attributing this to being in hospital, a bit weary and nervous for what they'll say tomorrow. It probably didn't help that I was listening to baby's heartbeat, which is much faster. My second BP was lower, and my last one was MUCH better, 128/86...though I don't like the 86, that's still higher than usual for me.

Rob came for a visit and I send him off about 45 minutes ago to go home and get some food. I'm hoping to be out by about noon tomorrow, but I'm now not holding my breath. From what I understand, they want to also do a scan to check baby's weight, and then if Dr. Endocrinologist decides I need insulin, I may have to stay another night to make sure I react fine to it.

So that's the story at the moment! At least I have nice new comfy clothes from Motherhood to wear (thanks to Tara's mum for bringing them to me!).