Friday, July 23, 2010

Just One More Day

Well, until the due date anyway. ;-) Not sure when the kumquat is going to make his or her arrival, but the waiting sure gets harder the closer (and bigger!) you get to the EDD.

I've been having contractions off and on pretty much daily, and today I'm having extra back pain. I'm REALLY hoping this means that labor is imminent, but don't want to get too excited. It's odd that I'm hoping for pain as everyone says that will be a sure sign of labor.

Please keep us in your prayers as we await the arrival of our first little one and we will try to keep the blog updated! :)

Monday, July 12, 2010

Another Great Weekend!

On Saturday Jason, Jonnie and I went to Denver to see the grandma. The car ride was rough, but I was able to keep my feet up on the dash for as much of it as I wanted to, so that made it better. We made sure to have the car seat and our hospital bag with us, as well as the location of the nearest Catholic Health Initiatives hospital, just in case; but, alas, we didn't need those precautions. The grandma is not doing very well, health wise, and is now in a hospital bed and on hospice. She and Bob have decided to stop much of her medication, aside from blood thinners (which is good, because that'll help keep down those TIAs and keep more blood clots from forming) and a couple other things for comfort. She's pretty much lost all use of the left side, and wears out easily on the right. :( Bob is taking good care of her and the hospice nurses and long-term care givers are really helping out! We would appreciate any prayers that could be spared for her during this time.

After visiting for a while, I told Jason I was starving...but he made me walk a mile around a mall first! :-O OK, OK, he just forgot by the time we got to the mall, and I said we should wander first. Then we went for a yummy lunch at Mimi's Cafe. We found various other things to do in town and then went to Our Lady of Fatima for Confession. :) Then we headed home, through Colorado Springs and Pueblo. Jason and Jonnie got ice cream while I snacked on hot wings! Yummy!!! I was able to not be too tempted at Cold Stone because I had my wings with me...but if we'd gone to Cold Stone first...well, I just don't know! ;-)

We stopped at WalMart in La Junta and Jason got another guitar for our Band Hero/Guitar Hero game on the Wii and now we're ready to totally jam! :) Well, he is...I'm not so good, but I think while he's at work I'll practice so I can beat him! ;-) While playing last night, the kumquat was kicking the guitar away, so it was hard to tell if he/she is a critic of my musical abilities (highly likely) or that he/she was really getting into it!

Still pregnant and still waiting...I'm getting huger by the day, and we're hoping for anytime now!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Counting Down

37 weeks and 4 days...but who's counting anyway? ;-) Well, at our appointment last week we had the first non-stress test that the kumquat and I passed wonderfully. The little one's heartrate goes up when it should and down when it should, so that is a good thing. They left my chart in the room, and Jason peaked at my urine test results...looks like I was dropping trace amounts of protein, so we're REALLY hoping that it doesn't increase. It is a serious indicator of pre-eclampsia and that would surely send us into labor very shortly. I'd kind of worried about it as my swelling is getting nearly unbearable, but I'm not gaining an excessive amount of weight and my blood pressure has been staying pretty regular, so please keep praying that this isn't the case! We see the doc again tomorrow.

I felt so sure that labor was imminent this weekend, there were tons of contractions that were getting bad/painful towards the end of the days, but it came to nothing. Well, I'm SURE it's doing something, but not sending me into actual labor. :( I'm horribly uncomfortable and pretty sure I'm as big as a house by now! My maternity shirts don't cover my belly anymore unless I have my skirt pulled up really high, which digs in and is painful. So, we went and bought some 2XL and 3XL men's t-shirts...and they don't even look that sloppy on me! :-o

I had a dream last night that I had the babIES! :-o There was a second baby hiding in there...in my dream both were boys but one was 7lb and the other was this gigantic kid, but supposedly only 10lb. That's still a lot of baby! Well, labor was easy in my dream, I'm not even sure I was in the room for it! ;-) I don't expect THAT part to happen!

And, so, the countdown continues...please pray for a good labor and delivery and for a healthy baby Spano! :)

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Happy Independence Day!!



Jeanine and I just got back from the Las Animas / Bent County Fireworks show!  It wasn't the best show the LA/BC FPD has put on, but it was a good show!  We had to wait for the torrential downpour to finish, but after the rain stopped, the show started.

Here is a link to some low-resolution copies of some of the pictures I took while there.  I haven't edited any of these yet, but will work on them some other time.

Enjoy!

http://www.spanocomputers.com/misc/FireworksSmall/index.htm

Friday, July 2, 2010

One Flew Over the Giant

As most of you know, I love riding my bicycle.  I have two nice bicycles made by the company "Giant".  In the past, I used to think of myself as invincible while on my bicycle.  I have been run over multiple times by cars and have always come out unscathed.  I have been known to update my status on Facebook, tweet about interesting topics on Twitter, send SMS (text) messages back and forth with Jeanine, all while riding on my bicycle, and most of this with no hands on the handlebar.

Wednesday evening at about 5:30pm when I left work, I hit the road for home like I always do.  I was riding by the park going around 20 - 25 MPH when my phone rang. I picked it up with my right hand and noticed it was a reminder.  I saw that I needed to stop up ahead, and instead of putting the phone back and using both hands, I decided to stop one-handed (with my left hand) instead.  For those of you that ride a bike, you'll know that the left brake is for the front tire.  So here I am pedaling along at 20-some miles per hour with a 205 pound payload (I need to lay off the donuts), and for whatever strange reason, I decided to grip the brake hard, which locked up the front wheel and threw me over the front of the bike. I got some road rash on my left side including a nice bump above my left eye.  A lady up ahead who witnessed this, rolled down her window and said "You really need to be more careful.".  I said "yes ma'am" and then she drove off.

When I biffed it, I had dropped my phone and lost the battery cover and battery.  I had to search around for a while, but eventually found all the parts and got my phone working again.  I did a quick look at the bike, and everything seemed OK.  I started to ride home and felt pain in both knees and my left shoulder.  Other then that, though... I felt fine.  I got home and told Jeanine about it, then ate some dinner.  While eating, my right arm started to stiffen up, and I couldn't extend it all the way.  Jeanine palpated it, but I didn't have any sharp pain.  A little later, I couldn't rotate my wrist, so Jeanine decided we should go in and get it looked at.  PMC has a "Convenient Care Clinic" that is open after hours and keeps you from having to go to the ER.  Unfortunately, they couldn't do much for me and scheduled an X-Ray for the next morning.

Thursday morning I go to work early, and the X-Ray tech brutally contorted my poor arm into the most painful configurations I could imagine! After finishing up, it was determined that I had a radial-head fracture.  I was referred to an Orthopedic specialist, but had to wait until the following morning to get looked at.

This morning (Friday), Jeanine and I traveled to Colorado Springs, and after being looked at, I was told I had a 'good' fracture.  I don't need surgery or a cast. I will continue to use the sling, but I need to move my joint around to keep it from locking up on me.

I have learned to never use my phone again while riding my bicycle.  I had several people say "I told you so".  Hopefully I don't slip back into old habits...

Here is one X-Ray showing the non-displaced radial head fracture.  See if you can find it. ;-)

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="779" caption="Ouch!"][/caption]