Samantha: 34 Months, Week 4 {Sickness in the Family, Planting a Garden, Another ER Visit}

After a busy weekend of having my parents visiting from Chicago and Ben being out of town for a few days, I certainly felt the effects of that once Monday morning rolled around.  I woke up feeling very sick with diarrhea and nausea.  As soon as I got out of bed, I felt like I had to just climb right back in.  So, I went back to sleep, and luckily Ben was able to stay home to take care of Samantha, taking her to gymnastics so that I could rest.  I got up around 10:30, took a bath, and tried to eat some food, but nothing sounded or tasted good.  When Ben got back with Samantha from gymnastics, we discussed how we thought my symptoms might be early labor symptoms.  A lot of those things can happen at the beginning of labor, at least according to everything we looked up on the internet, so we were bracing ourselves for the possible birth of Aedan sometime soon.  However, I just continued to feel crummy the rest of the day.  I cancelled my piano lessons for the afternoon so that I could sleep and rest.  Ben went to campus just for class, so I put Samantha to bed for her nap, and that was about all I could handle.  I had no energy and felt really cold, like I had the chills.  Luckily, Samantha was equally exhausted from our weekend and actually fell asleep with me in the room, so then I was able to go right back to bed and nap myself.  Daddy got back a little after Samantha woke up at 3:25, and he lovingly made a grocery list and took Samantha shopping while I went back upstairs to sleep.  Then, he even took her out to Chipotle for dinner to give me more time to myself, especially because I still wasn't interested in eating much of anything.  I have a wonderful, caring, sensitive husband, and I am so lucky that his schedule is flexible enough to allow him to stay home with our daughter for the day.

We had a meeting scheduled with our doula, Kate, that night, and it was great to get together with her again.  We discussed comfort measures to use during labor, as well as the possibility that I could be experiencing early labor symptoms.  Kate encouraged me to make sure I am packed just in case this is the beginning, and we have to head to the hospital soon.  So, even though I still didn't feel well, I stayed up finishing up my typed directions for people that help take care of Samantha while we are in the hospital, finished up my hospital paper work, and packed my hospital bag, just in case.

I went to bed Monday night not sure what I thought.  I had developed a fever throughout the night and wasn't sure if I was up for watching Sadie on Tuesday.  I felt a little bit ready for Aedan's arrival, but still had some things on my to do list that hadn't been checked off.  I have to admit, if he had decided to arrive that early, it would have caught me off guard a bit.

I woke up feeling a little better in the morning.  I did not feel nauseous anymore, just pretty lethargic and tired still, but I decided that I was still up for watching Sadie, especially because I only had two days left with her.  However, Ben woke up not feeling well, so we were then wondering if it was a virus that I had passed on to him, especially since I had developed a fever.  Samantha, Sadie, and I followed our normal routine of going to the library while Ben slept in that morning.  He went to campus for a little while to get some work done, but came home early, not feeling well himself.  

Samantha did not take a nap that afternoon, but I didn't care too much and ended up just turning off the monitor so that I could take a nap myself.  It's been kind of freeing lately because Ben and I talked about these nap time issues, making a couple decisions to help with how we deal with Samantha's nap time.  Our first decision was that we are not going to take blankie away at nap time anymore.  We decided to save blankie just for use at nighttime, so that it is special then, and not linking it to whether or not she takes a nap.  She was playing with it too much at nap time, but we were tired of playing the game with her of taking it away when she played.  Our other decision was about whether or not nap time should be replaced with quiet time and an earlier bedtime because it had been taking a lot longer for her to fall asleep at night lately.  We decided we would continue to put her down for a nap like normal, not telling her that it's quiet time because then she instantly would get out of bed and play.  We will still sit in her room for about five minutes after reading to her, singing and praying with her, but then we will leave and what happens, happens.  If she's being abnormally loud or disrespectful, we will go back up and remind her to lay down and take a nap, but after that we will just let it go.  The reason I say this is freeing is because I'm no longer worried about trying to force her to nap.  I no longer feel like I have to go up there and threaten to take her blankie away or get upset about her not napping.  If she doesn't nap, I just know that she will go to bed earlier that night, and that's okay with me.  I feel a lot less pressure on me, and that's good.  I think we are coming to a good place with Samantha and nap time before Aedan arrives, and I'm pleased.

Here's another funny story from Tuesday.  Samantha was going to the restroom, and we started talking about how Aedan would arrive soon.  Samantha asked, "How will he get out, like through a tunnel or something?"  It's funny to hear the way she is thinking about Aedan's birth and the way her mind is attempting to understand the process.

Tuesday night, since she took a long time to fall asleep on Monday night and didn't take a nap on Tuesday, she was pretty cranky.  Daddy still wasn't feeling well, so he laid down in bed while I gave Samantha a bath and tried to get her in bed early.  She was very tired and went to sleep much better than normal, falling asleep by 8:15, 10 minutes after I left her room.  That's the one benefit of her not taking an afternoon nap, she goes to sleep much faster at night.

Wednesday I was feeling pretty much back to normal, and it was my last day watching Sadie.  Samantha was being really cute with Sadie, helped me feed her snacks, played with her, made her laugh, and wanted me to show her how to change her doll's diaper just like I change Sadie's diaper.  It was kind of surreal that this was our last day with Sadie.  She has just been such a natural part of our routine, a highlight of Samantha's week, and she will be missed.

Again, Samantha did not take a nap that afternoon, but she was really quiet in her room for two hours, making me think even more about this being the actual transition to no napping.  She wasn't cranky at all and did a much better job going to sleep for us that night, especially since she had been taking a long time to fall asleep lately, like sometimes after 9 or close to 10, which is much too late for a little girl that wakes up like clockwork at 7:00 every morning.

After Daddy got home Wednesday night and had dinner with us, he decided he really wasn't feeling well, and that it wasn't really a virus like what I had, but rather pain in his lower abdomen, like another diverticulitis attack again.  So, he headed out quickly to the walk-in clinic where a doctor checked him and ran blood work, prescribing antibiotics and sending him on his way.  We were really hoping to avoid any more attacks because he has been doing so well for such a long time.  He had the small flare up after our trip to New Orleans for the conference, but the antibiotics nipped it in the bud fairly quickly, and he hasn't had any trouble or pain since then.  We were hoping this episode would be similar, that we had caught it quickly enough that Ben could recover quickly. 

As soon as Ben was done at the doctor's, he was put in charge of Samantha so that I could go out with my friends, Andrea and Michelle, to get pedicures.  It was a nice, relaxing evening with friends, and it was especially nice to have my feet pampered when I have reached the stage where I can't see my feet, let alone reach them.

Thursday we had a pretty fun day.  We had REST Stop in the morning, and Samantha got a real treat, she got a big bag of dress up clothes from a fellow mom with two little girls that outgrew all their clothes.  Samantha was SO excited and couldn't wait to get home, look through the bag, and try them all on.  Her favorites were a Snow White dress and a purple dress that looked like it would be fit for Rapunzel.  As you can tell from this picture and the mess she made in her play area, she was having quite the fun morning of play!

In fact, at nap time Samantha fell asleep around 2:00 with me sitting in the room with her.  I guess that's what you get when she goes two days in a row with no nap.  I'll take that, even if she naps on again, off again.  We were particularly excited about her napping because the weather was beautiful, and Daddy wanted to take Samantha to play outside while I gave my piano lessons.

Friday was the beginning of a couple really fun days of family activities.  Ben seemed to be feeling much better.  I had my doctor's appointment in the morning, which went well.  I am now at 38 weeks, Aedan's heartbeat is strong, and he is still head down in the correct position.  We talked a little bit with my doctor about wanting to avoid having my water broken, to avoid being induced, and anything else of that sort that is not medically necessary.  He seemed open to whatever I wanted to do, which I appreciated.

The rest of Friday we spent hanging out together as a family.  We walked around campus, enjoying the beautiful weather.  Samantha wanted her picture taken by the "doughnut" as we call it.  She even found a toad asleep in the mud underneath it!

The fountain was turned back on again, she found a daffodil on the ground, the sun was shining, and the weather was warm.  What could be better?

When we got back home, Samantha helped me clean some toys for Aedan.  She was a wonderful helper, carefully swishing around the water, wiping each one clean, and then laying them on the towel to dry.  I thought about just doing this job on my own after she was asleep because I wasn't sure how helpful she would actually be, but I'm glad I gave her a chance.  She really enjoys cleaning things and she really enjoys doing helpful jobs as well, especially when they involve getting to play in soapy water. :)

Samantha took another good nap that afternoon, which made me laugh because just when I was assuming nap time was a thing of the past, she took two days in a row of good naps, without fighting or much work on our part.  When she woke up from her nap, we made the most of our day of gorgeous weather, hitting up a local park before coming home for dinner.

Reading has always been a favorite activity for Samantha and lately, there are some books, particularly this Rapunzel book, that she knows by heart.  She knows every word in the whole book and can read it pretty much all by herself.  Here is a video of Samantha reading her book.  It's pretty cute and is one step closer to her actually reading on her own some day.

On Saturday we had another fun day planned.  Upland Grandpa and Grandma came down to Bloomington a little after 10:00 so that they could hang out with Samantha for the day while Ben and I went out for an early birthday celebration.  We decided to drive up to Greenwood, since it's in my one hour cone of traveling distance, and go out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory.  Who knows the next time we will be able to go out to a nice restaurant together without children, and who knows what will be going on on Ben's actual birthday, so it was a nice excuse to get away for awhile for a date together.

While we were gone, Grandpa and Grandma took Samantha to a couple stores to get the supplies to build her/us a little garden back behind our apartment.  They even let her pick out her own shovel and watering can.  She chose ones that were pink Minnie Mouse.  Ben and I got home mid-afternoon while Samantha was still napping.  Grandpa had already built the wooden frame for the garden, and Grandma was digging out the grass so that the frame could be filled with dirt and ready for Samantha to plant her seeds when she woke up.

It was a beautiful day outside, with weather in the upper 70s.  After a light dinner of Samantha's favorite salad, pecan crusted chicken salad with mandarin oranges and Craisins, Samantha went outside to see her garden and dig in the dirt.  I thought it was hilarious that she was digging in the dirt with a pink frilly skirt, a pink princess shirt, pink Crocs, and her pink Minnie Mouse shovel.  I think that's about the girliest you can get while digging in the dirt. :)

She loved playing in the dirt though, getting dirty did not bother her one bit.  In fact, we had to keep reminding her not to fling the dirt up into the air and to try to keep it in the garden.

Once Grandma had the dirt prepared and dug out a row for planting the seeds, Samantha was able to choose which seeds to plant.  We had radish seeds, carrot seeds, lettuce seeds, and one other kind that I can't remember at the moment.  Like most little kids, the idea of spreading seeds out along the entire row is difficult, so most of Samantha's seeds got plopped in one place, but then we would help her spread them out down the row.

She also enjoyed picking out the popsicle sticks to mark where the seeds were that we planted and which seed was what kind.  We started off with just this one row, and then come the middle of May, Grandma said that we can plant more plants once we know for sure that the cold weather and possible frost is over.  Samantha was so excited and so proud of her little garden.  She can't wait to help water it with her little Minnie Mouse watering can, and she will be ecstatic once the first plants start to grow up from beneath the dirt.  Now, if I can just do a good job of helping her take care of the plants.  I am not the best at keeping plants alive.  I never seem to know how much to water things and am always overwatering or underwatering, leading to their ultimate demise.  This can be a learning process for both Samantha and me!

Grandpa and Grandma left on Saturday night, and Sunday was another day with wonderful weather.  Monday was forecasted to be rainy and temperatures were going to fall throughout the day, so we knew we had to take advantage of the beautiful weather.  We had church and our ACG in the morning, went out to lunch at Fazoli's, and then Ben went out to an IU baseball game with some friends from the political science department.  Samantha and I came back home, and I put her down for a nap.  She fell asleep shortly after I left the room, without me having to go back in and say anything to her, thus being four days in a row that she has taken a nap.  

When Daddy got back home, he started to not feel very well again, like his diverticulitis pain was flaring back up again.  He tried to rest, but didn't feel much like eating.  Samantha and I just had a quick dinner, and then we decided to go play at a park for the remainder of the evening, until it was bath time and bed time.  Daddy decided to come with us to the park, even though he wasn't feeling very well.  We went to the Lower Cascades Park, which I think is Samantha's favorite park in Bloomington.  She enjoyed climbing up and going down the tall, twisty slides.  She enjoyed the smaller playground that is designed more for kids her age.  They also have plenty of smaller swings that she can get on by herself, as well as a little pretend house.  Here are some cute pictures and a video of our time at the park:

After returning home from the park, Daddy really was not feeling well, so he went to lay down while I gave Samantha a bath and put her to bed.  I was getting very concerned about him, especially since he had been on antibiotics since Wednesday night, and if anything, he felt worse than he did on Wednesday.  He came downstairs shortly after I got Samantha into bed, but he could hardly sit, let alone walk around without being in severe pain, so he decided that he should probably go to the ER to get things checked out.  We are very cautious about this severe pain because we don't want something to rupture and cause him to have emergency surgery.  Obviously, we'd like to avoid that whole process.  Ben was just going to drive himself, but he was in so much pain, that I didn't think he could/should do it.  However, Samantha was asleep, and we weren't about to wake her up, to drag her in the car to the hospital.  So, I decided that I would just take Ben to the ER really quick and come right back.  The hospital is literally five minutes down the road, so I was only gone for about ten minutes total, and Samantha was quietly tucked into her bed.  I didn't really want to leave Ben at the hospital alone, but I had to get back home to be with Samantha.  I told him to text me with any updates about how he was feeling or what the doctor said to him.  At about 10:00, he was back in a room, but he said they were really busy so it would probably be awhile before a doctor would see him.  Around 11:10 they ordered a CT scan, so we knew it would be a late night.  I let Ben's parents know what was going on with him, and they offered to come down to be with me and help us out, but I told them it was probably okay, that I was fine, unless for some reason they found perforation that they would have to deal with or if they had to do emergency surgery or something like that.  I have to admit though, it was a bit worrisome to have my husband in the ER, my daughter sleeping, and to be home alone while I was 38 1/2 weeks pregnant.

I finally went to sleep around midnight, with my phone by my bed for when I heard anything from Ben.  Around 1:00 they finally gave him some pain medicine, and he said he would be going to the scan soon.  Sometimes it seems like the ER takes forever, going three hours from when they order a scan to when it was actually completed.  Then, at 3:50 am he called me saying he was discharged and I could come pick him up.  The CT scan basically confirmed this inflammation of the diverticulum, but as far as they could tell, they weren't perforated at all, which is good, because that is what we were afraid happened due to the severe pain he was experiencing.  They basically said it's just one of those things that he is always going to have to deal with, and when something irritates his colon, it's going to be way worse for him due to his previous experience with diverticulitis.  They prescribed him some pain medication, but really couldn't do anything else for him except for encourage him to continue taking his antibiotics and to try contacting his doctor to see if they want to see him at all due to the severity of this attack.  I will write more on this as we continue into the next week's post, but I just want him to feel better soon.  I hate seeing Ben in pain, and I hate seeing how much diverticulitis wipes him out for several days a time.  Especially with Aedan arriving soon, we all need to be in as good of health as possible.  I pray for a quick recovery for Ben, and that he will be able to avoid another diverticulitis attack for a long time.