Oi Vey.

Here we are, almost a week following my last blog post and soo much has happened.
Last week actually went pretty well, for the most part. I still had a few days that started out a little rough, so being able to take my mornings in slow-motion was invaluable! Perhaps this part-time gig ain't so bad after all. ;)
I picked up the sweet girls after lunch/before nap and would spend the afternoons with them, and they seem to be adjusting to preschool pretty well. Of course there are/were tears involved in drop off, and oddly enough, in pick-up as well.. but we always got great reports from their teacher, and they always seemed excited to "tell me" about their days. It was actually kind of rewarding to see them in their classrooms, not nearly as emotional as I had anticipated. They are such big girls now. It just amazed me each day to see them in their room with the other toddlers and remember the little 4 and 5 pound miracles they started out as. *tear*
However, come Friday afternoon, things started looking troublesome again. Not with the girls, but with my own self. The meds they had me on had been working very well all week long, and I didn't change up the routine at all on Friday. In fact, my day was basically planned around these doses spaced out every 3 hours. Pick Up Girls, Nap Time, Medicine, Snack Time, Play Time, Medicine, Drive home, Dinner, Medicine. Never skipped a pill.. and wouldn't dare to!
But for some reason, come about 2pm Friday, they seemed to just STOP working. Out of nowhere. Woke up feeling decent, was able to eat breakfast, picked up the girls, laid them down for nap... and oh man, it hit me like a ton of bricks. From then on, there wasn't a span of 15 minutes that could go by that without me running to the bathroom. I.was.so.sick. Again.
By about 430, when things were not improving and I had done a swell job of scaring the daylights out of both girls, I called the mama for some reinforcements. I just could not stay all evening, like was planned.
She came home and let me leave and I had to pull over twice on my way back home. Not pretty. [This is my apology to all the 5 o'clock traffic drivers on Lakeline Blvd Friday evening, I'm sure you didn't appreciate some crazy woman practically swerving off the road to throw up in the grass. I am sorry you had to see that!]
Of course I crawled right into bed when I got home, and spent the majority of the night back and forth to the bathroom.
Same situation Saturday.
Same situation Saturday night.. but worse.
By Sunday morning I knew I was getting (or already was) dehydrated again, and couldn't keep the meds down. Called the after hours nurse, who paged the on call dr, who told us to go back to Labor & Delivery. Again.
By 10am Sunday morning I had been wheeled into my room (yes, this time I so weak I had to be wheeled in) and an IV had been started with fluids and meds.
I just couldn't believe that we were there again. I was so emotional about the whole ordeal, and this time, very concerned.
We met with the on-call doctor that afternoon (who we both loved, BTW) and he seemed very concerned with this "relapse" as well as the fact that I hadn't had a BM in well over 2 weeks. Weeks.
He made the decision to keep us overnight. UGH.
The way he explained it was this: Its a vicious cycle, this hyperemesis crap. You get nausea - prolonged vomitting - dehydration - your body starts breaking down muscle instead of fat - you begin producing ketones - ketones make you nauseous - start all over again.
His theory was the one bag of fluids I received the first time I was admitted made me feel a little better, but didn't flush out the ketones, so it was only a matter of time before they built up and "attacked" again. Which is what happened Friday. He wanted us to stay overnight so that we could really pump me full of fluids, flush out the ketones, and break the cycle. He said it would be easier to "maintain" once we were able to start fresh, than it would be to try and "catch up" all the time. I wouldn't be allowed to go home until 2 conditions were met: a BM, and being 100% ketone free.
So we stayed the night.
The good news, though, was that all the IV drugs they gave me all day allowed me to eat a REAL meal for dinner. Real food! As in, not buttered toast, not plain rice, not applesauce. I had egg drop soup and a spring roll. It was fantastic. AND I kept it down. HOORAY!
Poor A had to sleep on this tiny little fold-out-chair (though they promised the Dads' Beds were better in the actual L&D rooms) and I don't think he slept all that well. I know I didn't sleep well.. but that was because I had a huge IV in my elbow and couldn't get comfortable, and if I did manage to doze off, it wasn't long before a nurse would come in to start a new bag, or give me more meds, or take my temp/BP. I really should have accepted their Ambien offer. But oh well.

We woke up the next morning super early so A could head to work for a few hours. I tried to get some more rest when he left, but was unable to fall asleep. My mom came up to bring
me breakfast (second consecutive meal that I kept down, hooray again!) and to keep me company while A was gone. About 8am there was a knock on my door, and a kind old lady wheeled in this giant machine. Um, what is that? An ultrasound machine! An ultrasound machine!!! Yay!!! We were getting a peek at our little babe!!! Finally!!!! I was sooo excited. Breakfast and an ultrasound?? This is the best day EVER!
I called A and told him to haul booty back up here before 830.. and he did. He got there just in time.
The ultrasound was amazing.
She found the little bean right away, and we could immediately see little Poppy's heart just flickering away! Incredible. And he was a wiggly little thing. He sure likes to shake his little baby bum! The ultrasound lasted a good half hour, she spent a lot of time looking at my ovaries (and discovered a corpus luteum cyst on the right side.. which is common and resolves itself). But she spent a lot of time on the baby as well. His little heart was a strong 177 bpm and he measured (on average, wiggly thing) 2.02 cm. Tiny. But we were able to see feet (buds) and hands (buds) and a little backbone. It was just amazing. My mom got all teary-eyed (as usual) but A and I just sat there in awe.. grinning ear to ear at the screen, then each other, then the screen again. I loved every minute of it. And the most reassuring news was that he was measuring right.on.time for when I ovulated, 8w2d. Perfect. We have a perfect little babe growing in there. And that is wonderful news.

The rest of the day was typical for being laid up in a hospital bed. Lots of IV fluids (still), nurse check-ins, a few family visitors, lots of sudoku, time on the internet (yay free wifi!), trash TV, etc. They decided to phase me off the IV meds and see how I handle the tablets.. and I did well. I prefer the IV doses as they work better and quicker.. but I can't wheel around an IV cart for the next 4 weeks, so I know I need to just get used to the tablets. My dr visited around lunch time and said as soon as I return a clean lab we can go home.. so that was my mission.
Mission accomplished about 330 pm! It only took 6 liters (LITERS) of IV fluids to rehydrate and flush my system.. plus the ice chips and water I was eating/drinking. 6 liters. In 29 hours. Insane! But it worked. I was ketone-free.
Yay!!!
I was so glad to be getting out of that bed, and back into my own. And so glad to walk out of there knowing our little Poppy was safe and healthy. :)

Today was supposed to be my 1st OB appt, and we are still going in as scheduled, even though it's really like the 6th time we're seeing her since we got our BFP. The appt today is more of a follow-up from the hospital, but I'm sure we'll have the typical 1st appt Q&A time. Everything else you'd expect to happen at that appt has already been done.. labs, PG confirmed, exam, ultrasound. Check, check, check, and check.
But we will be getting another peek at Poppy, and I can't wait. My dr wants to take a look with the higher quality equipment at her office, to make sure Poppy dated correctly, and to print us some pictures!! Apparently the floating u/s techs aren't allowed to print pictures, and my dr understands how sentimental those first u/s pictures can be! I love her! :)

So sometime this evening I will try to post some pics of our sweet little Poppy.
And I hope he cuts Mommy some slack from here on out... if going through all this hell hasn't proved to Poppy how much I love him, I don't know what will!!!

8w3d