Day 20

5 days until 32 weeks

19 days until 34 weeks

33 days until 36 weeks

Currently: 31 2/7 weeks

Well, it had been a quiet weekend here at Hotel Sanford until this afternoon. I've been trying to go to sleep for about half an hour, but needed to vent some frustrations. I had one of my favorite nurses on Friday and Saturday. She must have gotten to stay home today because she wasn't here. Let me tell you, not too impressed with my nurse today. I'm normally very tolerant of many things, but today was frustrating. Thankfully, my mom was around so she could help me out with things, because for some reason, everyone must have thought Sunday was slack day around here.

As many of you know, this dependence on other people is killing me. It's so hard for me not to do things for myself. About the only thing I can do for myself is go to the bathroom, take a shower and get ready. The lack of independence is tough. It would be for anyone (I'm assuming) but I'm also not a person who wants to bother people with piddly things. While I am not as high risk as some patients that are here, I still can't do anything for myself. Things have been relatively quiet, so I have been dubbed the "boring" patient. (In the medical world, boring is good...to the rest of the world, it may be insulting, but to be "boring" is a good thing for me!). But boring doesn't mean ignore! One thing I can't do is get my own water...it is literally across the hall from me, but I can't get water myself. Yesterday, I saw my patient care tech (fancy title for nurse aide) ONE time! And that was to get my vitals at 7:30...nothing like waking up our entire family to get vitals, when I requested waiting until we wake up. Jon and Jack left around 10, so I was by myself the entire day. Not once did this girl come and ask if I needed anything. I'm not one to want to bother and call someone to ask for a glass of water, so I usually wait until someone comes in to check on me. Needless to say, yesterday AND today, I never saw this girl!! Yesterday was ok...my nurse popped in a few times and would get me a refill (she's wonderful...really wish I had her today!). Today, I had a slack aide AND a slack nurse...who rolled her eyes when I asked for more water. This aide must not be too keen about her job because I simply asked if she could wash my water bottle (since it had crystal light in it). One would think that by asking to wash it, it meant filling it up with water as well. I mean, I can't get my own water, so wouldn't that be the logical thing?!? Nope, got an empty water bottle back, and rolled eyes for asking her to fill it. Great start to the day...it's not like I ask for much...simply to fill my water bottle.

So that was a bit frustrating but then to top it off, I had a nurse who wouldn't listen today! I've had her once before and she's just ho-hum...not really the listening type about concerns or questions. Like I've said before, I'm not exactly an exciting patient, but I still have things I need...like my meds on time. Needless to say, I lost track of time today (in a crochet project...go figure) and didn't realize until 4:30 that I needed my dose of Procardia. This med is fairly important, so I called to ask for it..."Oh yeah, I guess you need that" was the response. So I mentioned to her that I was feeling some tightness for the past hour or so (not uncommon when I need my dose) so she said, "It may just be baby moving around a lot or maybe a few contractions...it'll stop in a while after your meds kick in" Well, kinda important to figure out which is which...before I even had the chance to ask to be put on the monitor, she was gone. You'd figure that if your patient mentions something like this, you'd check and see if things changed after the medication, but nope...nothing. Didn't see anyone again until my night nurse came on at 7:30. Maybe it was because Jack and my mom came up, but still...no reason not to pop your head in and check. I seriously saw the lady three times in 12 hours...not exactly excellent patient care if you ask me! It's not like they are crazy busy and don't have time to stop in for a minute and check. I don't know what my contractions actually feel like, so am never 100% sure that's what truly is happening. My night nurse came on and so I mentioned it to her that I had been having this random tightness for a few hours. She immediately puts me on the monitor and, yup, contractions about every 5-6 minutes. So she gave me my procardia dose early and that seemed to slow things down for now. We'll see how the night goes, but so far the contractions have slowed down. So I'm a bit frustrated that I had a nurse aide who couldn't manage to do her job today AND a nurse who blew me off. I'm not typically an assertive person per say, so I know that I should have just called her and asked to be put on the monitor, but at the same time, what kind of nurse doesn't check in at least a few times during a 12 hour shift. I know that HROB isn't exactly the most exciting place to be when you work labor and delivery, but still...kind of important to keep this baby inside and not have labor progress!

So thank you for letting me vent...I'm hoping that things quiet down tonight and my contractions will slow down and stop. My nurse tonight debated checking me to see if I've had any cervical changes, but decided that since they slowed down, to wait until morning and see what Dr. VanEerden thinks. Checking too often can start labor and we definitely don't want that!! Hopefully these contractions don't keep me up tonight (although, the fact that I can't tell the difference leads me to think that I'd sleep through them anyway...they're not painful, just a nuisance, but also not reassuring since I could have them every often enough to cause cervical changes and I wouldn't have any idea) and aren't doing anything crazy!

Other than today, things have been good. My mom got here early this morning so Jon could play in a golf tournament. He didn't play as well as he wanted to, but was glad to get the chance to go out. Jack had a fun day...we finger painted this morning, he and Oma played outside after his nap and then they came back for supper tonight. Hopefully this week is nice and quiet and home on Friday is still the plan! Here's to hoping for a better staff tomorrow!!