week 30: bruises, filleting fish, and contractions.

week 30 was a pretty excellent week, filled with gym time, maternity pictures, and spending time with travis. oh, and then there was that little stunt at the end of the week where we rushed to labor and delivery because of bleeding and contractions, which i'll get to in a minute.

one of my favs from the day.

like i said, we did maternity pictures this week. maternity pictures are probably my favorite type to take, you know, of other people. i hate being the subject and i pity anyone who takes my picture, because the whole time i'm backseat camera-ing. plus, taking a picture of me that i will actually like and approve of how i look, that takes some talent and patience. add the extra poundage and a big belly, and i'm liking my appearance less and less. so props to reed and my mom for making them so beautiful.

spring started showing its pretty face! check out these crocuses in trav's parents' flower beds. also, how nice is it that the sun is still up at 6pm?

okay, well it's not completely spring yet. travis went ice fishing for his first time this week with a guy from the fire station. he came home with a sack full of beauties and my dad was thrilled when travis wanted a filleting lesson.

this was a particularly gnarly bruise from hydration. but instead of my whole arm being covered, it's just one! (on that side.) i have been going less (which is probably going to change, but again, i'll get to that in a sec.) so the arms aren't quite as hammered anymore.

we went on a double date with my parents saturday night, to the new (ish) city creek mall downtown slc. here we are, petting a goat in a very expensive clothing store. also, travis made a new friend, an older gentleman who seemed quite taken with travis. i always enjoy watching travis get hit on, by males or females, because let's be honest, travis is a fine specimen of man flesh.

speaking of travis, check out this beautiful loaf of bread he baked sunday morning. not much sexier than a man who bakes, eh?

also featured in week 30, but without an accompanying picture:

• went to the gym a whopping three times and upped my hand weights and cardio time.
•  finally had another pregnancy craving of green beans, drizzled with seasame oil and soy sauce! thanks to my mama for making them every day. (cooking still makin' me sick.) 
• did a photo shoot for an outgoing missionary. feels so great to be working a tiny bit again! 
• enjoyed feeling remington moving. those little jabs i thought were so powerful and strong a month ago? yeah long gone. now i can feel actual body parts scraping up against my belly. if you watch, you'll see waves of remington rippling up and down. so crazy!

week 30 was shaping up to be quite the week, minimal nausea, everything normal at the doctor appointment, etc. etc. etc. 

then sunday night got a teensy bit exciting. 

we did the usual routine, go to my parents' for dinner and then spend time with both sides of our family for the evening. we were having such a good time at trav's parents' that we didn't end up getting home until around 10pm. like always, i headed straight to the bathroom to pee and there i made a startling discovery, blood in my underwear. 

hmmm. haven't seen that in a while. 

wait blood. blood in your underwear isn't good during pregnancy, right? 

said my brain, stupidly. 

then when i wiped, (yes wiped, we all wipe when we pee, or at least the ladies do and men, it's not a terrible idea.) there was more blood on the toilet paper. 

"uh travis?" i called. "so i'm bleeding in here." 

we stared at my bloody underwear, not like dripping-with-blood bloody, but the amount of blood i usually see on the first day of my period. enough that we were concerned. "we should call the doctor?" we decided. and called the on call doctor at the labor and delivery unit. 

then this. 

"hey, yeah so i just noticed that i'm bleeding, yes i'm almost 31 weeks. yeah, cramping and some sharp pains down near my uh... vagina... area. like inside shooting up there. well i don't really know what contractions feel like exactly... but my uterus has been tightening up on and off? oh really? well, okay." 

i hang up the phone and travis asks, "okay what do they want us to do?" 

"the doctor says that we should just watch the bleeding, see if it gets worse, and go into the office tomorrow morning to get checked." i answer, feeling confused and seeing that confusion echoed on travis's face. 

"call your mom." travis suggested. 

my mom was alarmed to hear that i was bleeding and told us we should just go in, to H with that doctor's advice. 

travis sealed it for me with, "you have been working hard on this pregnancy for 30 weeks now. i say we just go in." 

our confidence in doctors is pretty much shot by now.

so we call the doctor back, tell him we are uncomfortable with the amount of blood and are coming in, and walk downstairs and get into the car. 

what if next time we come home, i'm not pregnant anymore? i think, while saying to travis, "it's fine, i'm sure it's nothing, we are going to feel silly, everything is fine." and he asks, "is remington moving much?" and i realize i haven't felt him in a while and then i start getting a little panicked and picturing all the terrible things you pray will never happen to you and then trying not to picture them in case me picturing them makes them come true. 

travis speeds to the hospital and i'm reminded of just over ten weeks ago, him speeding us to the hospital and me comatose on the passenger side. i take comfort in the fact that this time i'm conscious and able to handle whatever is coming. 

we get to the hospital and i'm checked into the triage room, where a nurse takes my vitals and a history. she straps me up to a belt that monitors remy's heartbeat, which we are relived to hear is strong, and then she informs me that i'm having contractions. she points to the monitor, the squiggly line moving up and down, and asks if i can feel them. i tell her i feel cramping. travis asks her what could be causing the bleeding and she asks us if we have had sex in the last 48 hours. we look at each other and laugh. (because we barely remember what sex is anymore.) "uh nope." 

then the really fun parts. she starts an iv to give me fluids, tells me she's going to need to insert a catheter to take my urine sample, and that she'll need to check my cervix. the catheter. hurt. so much. so much, that having her check my cervix wasn't even a big deal. 

same old drill.

"and relax. okay this is you relaxed?" 

then a concerned look on her face. 

"your cervix is moderate, but i can't fit my finger through the back opening, so that's good." 

yeah, you know the catheter was painful if i could handle this person sticking her hand up into my cervix. good grief, why did i have to be born a woman?

(apparently your cervix needs to be nice and squishy soft to squeeze out a baby. on friday at the doctor's appointment, my cervix had been classified as very hard, so this new development was a tad alarming.) 

then the nurse starts talking about giving me a shot to help remy's lungs develop in case he is really coming. at this point travis and i are pretty freaked out. "wait, am i having a baby right now?" i asked her. she looked at my contractions on the monitor. "let's just see what we can do about getting these contractions stopped." she replied. 

she left the room with my urine sample and we waited. and waited. then came back in and gave me a shot to stop the contractions. and we waited some more. after a half hour, thankfully, the contractions had mostly stopped and they let us go home around three am. 

i know, really anticlimactic ending. 

i did almost pass out in the car coming down from the drug they gave me. 

the next morning, travis let me sleep and he called the doctor's office, to be told that my urine sample revealed dehydration, big shocker, and that could be what caused everything. yesterday i started bleeding again, so my mom and i went in, (travis was busy being a firefighter or something.) and the nurse wondered if maybe part of my plancenta has detached and is causing the bleeding, which causes irritation to the uterus, and then causes contractions. 

yeah, no one knows what's going on. the first nurse told me i probably have a kidney stone, which is causing all the irritation. then the doctor told her the blood in my urine sample was probably from the trauma of the catheter and that i don't have a kidney stone. okay guys, stop guessing in front of me and freaking me out! all i know is i finally felt well enough to start living a life and now i'm back on the couch, watching desperate housewives. not that i'm complaining, because this is way easier than laying on the couch puking and wishing for death.

oh remington, stay in there please? at least for six more weeks? 

probably he'll end up coming late. because everything about this pregnancy has to be ridiculous.  

except for the whole, travis and i being closer and more in love than ever before thing. and being so crazy about the little guy we teamed up to create.

(let's be honest, i did most of the work.) 

this whole clip is fabulous, but if you only care about relating to what i just said about how i did most of the work, skip to 3:20 and prepare to laugh. 

use protection unless you are ready to surrender your body and life!

xo.