Stressed out

We have been having a hard time.  We went to visit my family in Colorado for a few days (my mom got a 56 gallon tank, and didn't know what to do with it, which was more than enough to lure me out).  Ended up staying a bit longer than planned because Mark got sick, high fever and headache.  Setting up the tank was lots of fun, but we were sleeping on the fold out in the basement, and Elspeth decided she was afraid of the basement, so not much rest was to be had.  When we got home on Monday Elspeth's schedule was all off.  She was mostly on by Wednesday, but then she had diarrhia and diaper rash.  That's about when I discovered that she had cut two more molars too, explaining why she'd been so dang cranky.  Then on Friday Mark decided we HAD to have a better stand for the shrimp tank (the one we made is an Abomination), and so he got one that would hold the 10 gal for the shrimp plus and additional 20H... yay!  But just when we had the shrimp tank settled in place, Elspeth wonked her head on it and cracked the glass from top to bottom.  It's ironic that the tank took so much damage as Elsepth doesn't even have a bruise, but if I had to choose I would indeed pick the broken tank.  So we were at Petsmart as soon as they opened to get a new tank, which I spent the rest of the morning moving my shrimp into.  The worst part is I'd just had a hatch in there, and I don't think any of the milimeters long babies made it into the new tank.  I TRIED, I really did, but they are just too tiny to find!  It looks like we'll have more eggs within the week though, so everybody pray for my shrimp tank... we don't have many shrimp left, and I don't think I can handle anything else dying on me right now.

In good news, while we were at the LFS in Orem looking for plants, we discovered that they currently have red claw shrimp... and one was pregnant!  I totally had to buy her, so I moved all the fish into the new 20 gal so she gets our original 10 all to herself.  She's gorgeous too, a good three inches long with very nice markings, and very active.  So, hopefully I will have baby macros soon too!  But in the mean time I'm changing water like crazy, because the nitrate levels in that tank are much too high for babies!  Maybe I'm being paranoid, but it's giving me something to do, and at this phase in my life, that's a very good thing.

Pictures!

All clean!
Originally uploaded by Driggs family.

I uploaded like a bazillion pictures today... pretty much every picture we've taken since just before Christmas. I told you pregnancy is distracting. >^.^<

Blogger has gone all screwy

It's not wrapping the lines correctly.  I've done my best to make it legible, and Mark is working on fixing it, so sorry if it looks funny and please be patient.

Back from the doctor

I've been pronounced healthy and sound again, and all the blood tests came back normal, so at least I have the comfort of knowing that my body didn't somehow kill my baby.  The pathologist's report was fairly useless, as it could find no probable cause of death other than probable chromisomal abnormalities, and possible cord accident.  We did learn however that it wasn't a boy, it was a girl.  I think I've come to terms with that, though... if you can name a girl Madisen, you can name a girl Emersen.  She'll just have to be Emersen Pauline, I suppose.  The best news though is that this will have no forseeable effect on any future pregnancies, as it was just bad luck - I had been having irrational terror of being
 labeled "high risk" for the rest of my reproductive career, and am feeling quite relieved.

I have, unfortunately, developed an irrational terror of my obstetrician's waiting 
room and the hospital, but with luck I should be able to work through that... in 
addition, I can go back to the midwife for the next one, hopefully deliver at 
home, and if nothing else, I'm sure I can find another backup doctor.  It's not that 
Dr. Broadbent is bad, he is a wonderful doctor and I'd recomend him to anyone, it's just a little hard to warm up to the guy who told 
you your baby is dead.

So, we have some closure, and I'm feeling much better, and trying to get back to work.  Wish me luck and sanity, folks, 'cause I'm going to need it.

Sad news...

Well, for anyone who hasn't heard already, we lost the baby.  We found out he was gone last Monday at the ultrasound, we saw the o.b. on Tuesday, he induced me and the baby was stillborn in the wee small hours of Wednesday, April 25.  It was a boy, and we named him Emersen Paul.

We're slowly pulling back together, but having a rather rough time, as can be expected.  I'm doing well, health-wise.  We will going back to the doctor on Wednesday for our follow up appointment, at which we'll get the pathologist's report, and maybe find out what happened.  As things stand, they're saying cord accident (the cord was around his neck) and probable chromisomal abnormalities.  The doctor doesn't think that having the cord around his neck just once like it was would have caused any harm (a third of the babies he delivers have the cord around their neck, and no problems) unless there were underlaying problems that would have killed him anyway.  So what it boils down to is, there's nothing anyone could have done.  We'll also be getting the last of the blood tests in -- they are testing for abnormal clotting factors in me, which could have cut off blood to the placenta, but the tests are normal so far so that is unlikely.  If it was clotting factors, they can give me medicine next time to keep it from happening again though, so we have to make certain that wasn't the case.  Wait and see, I suppose.

You know, I had forgotten I had a blog...

Yeah, that's about the size of it.  I find being pregnant to be incredibly distracting, there are days I'm surprised I don't forget more.  We're doing the finals thing just now as well, and I'm learning about what it's like to be a single parent, as Mark is at school from early morning until late at night.  It REALLY sucks.  Oddly enough though, I seem to be getting more done than usual... I'm calling it "early nesting," as the key manifestation has been an overwhelming urge to vacuum.  Of course, we do also have a nifty new vacuum... and you know, you have to pick up before you can vacuum.  Elspeth probably thinks I've gone nuts.

For those who have asked, we don't know if it's a boy or girl yet... we were supposed to get the ultrasound this last Monday, but the ultrasound guy got sick or something, so we've been rescheduled to THIS Monday.  Hopefully the little guy cooperates, she hasn't cooperated for anything else this pregnancy.  The midwife looking for her heartbeat takes for freaking forever, we think my placenta is on the front so the baby is hiding behind it, but we shall see.  So, expect emails regarding the gender of our new one in the next couple of days, either way.

SURPRISE!

We're having another baby! We're due August 28, and are very excited. And nautious. Well, actually I'm the only nautious one, but I'm not nearly as bad as I was at this point with Elspeth. Big relief, that. Elspeth is still breastfeeding, so I'm HUNGRY, ALL THE TIME, but it's not such a big sacrifice to eat more. I like food, and while I'm getting sick of having to find more every two hours or so, I have an excuse to eat more of my favorite nourishing comfort foods. Like baked potatoes. Mmm, potatoes...

In less exciting news, the cherry shrimp I ordered arrived today, and seem to be doing well. They are swimming a lot, which worries me (usually they only swim when they're stressed out, or looking for some action), but it's probably just because they're in a new tank. More than half are hiding, too, so enough should survive to start a nice breeding colony.