Still Home

The past week...
On Friday night my parents and the Balsams came over for dinner. I use the words "came over" loosely since they also prepared all the food, brought it, cleaned the kitchen, set the table, served the food, cleaned up after dinner and washed the dishes. THANKS! My mom also spent a while here in the afternoon cleaning the kitchen and washing the floor and possibly folding laundry(don't worry Bubs, you still have dibs on the laundry room). We had a nice dinner even though I was really tired and out of it.
Shabbat morning my Mom came over early so Josh could go to shul and she would watch the kids. Then everyone returned for lunch. Again, I was very tired, but the meal was nice. After lunch they took Danya and Jordy back to their house and Josh and I napped. They brought the kids back after they fed them dinner.
The rest of this week had been pretty much the same. The kids go to camp and end up at Lisa's/my parents. They usually either go somewhere or stay there and eat dinner. The kids return at night exhausted and then we start again the next day! Some nights the kids sleep there and sometimes we get a call to pick up Jordy becasue he is having a meltdown(that one was for you Ari).
On Wednesday I went to my weekly doctors appointment very apprehensive since each time I have seen him the past month he has either sent me or threatened to send me to the hospital. I was very happy when he told me he was happy to send me home. I told him I was even happier! I did have to go back this morning to spend my weekly half hour on the fetal monitor but all is well for now. He also told me he would completely take me off of bed rest at 34 weeks which is August 28th, so there is a light at the end of the tunnel! I am very proud to say that as of today I have spent 6 weeks on strict bed rest and haven't completely lost my mind! I did think it was kind of funny that between going out last night to the doctors for about 2 hours and then again this morning for an hour I was so exhausted that I came home and had to nap for 4 hours(yes, that is why I didn't answer the phone). Anyhow, that is the update for now!

Another Day, Another Hospital

On Sunday I went for another ultrasound and the technician said I needed to see a doctor right away. I told her that my doctor wasn't there and that I had an appointment Tuesday, can it wait until then? She said no, that i needed to see whichever doctor was in the office. I would like to now explain how appointments work at my doctors office. Outside the doctors door there is a list with the time slots and the name of the patient who has that time slot. You sit outside the door and wait until the door opens. When it opens, and if nobody else is waiting, you just walk in. If there are people waiting you have to all ask what time your appointment is and the person with the earliest appointment goes in next(rather than the doctor calling the next patient). IF everyone waiting there has an appointment, this system can work. IF you don't have an appointment, like myself this particular day, and you just need to show the doctor results you have 2 options. 1)Tell a nurse that you need to see the doctor and hope she will escort you in (I usually take this option since I have a hard time being rude in Hebrew) or 2) Be rude and push your way through. So this time I went to the nurse(which by the way everyone in the doctors office knows me and they are pretty nice to me) but she was busy so she told me to just go see the doctor. The doctor was running late and there were 4 women waiting for their appointments so I was a little worried about pushing my way in but also knew that if I didn't I would sit waiting for hours. So when the door opened I shoved in front of a yelling Israeli and I told her I was just showing him results and I closed the door in her face. I felt really bad about doing it(even worse when I spent a half hour in his office) but I have had it done to me so many times that I was also kind of proud of myself for being so Israeli(Lib, if you are reading this you will appreciate that "being Israeli" is translated to having a backbone). So then I spent a half hour in his office while he got my history, called some friends at some hospitals, and then printed out a form for me to go to the hospital. He told me that Hadassah hospital was full and that I should go to Shaare Tzedek this time. I called Josh to tell him to pack the kids up and called Lisa to warn her that she would be having 2 little house guests for the night(since it was already 6pm) and headed home. Luckily my bag was still mostly packed from last time so we spent about 15 minutes gathering our stuff up and headed out.
The nice part is that Shaare Tzedek is a lot closer to our house than Hadassah, however we usually go to Hadassah so we had no idea where to go or what the protocol was.
I was sent to the labor and delivery triage where they put me on a baby monitor for a while. They kicked Josh out of the triage room because there were other women there and since it is a religious hospital, they told him it wasn't tznius(modest). At one point he called me from his cell phone and I asked him if he felt like it was 1950 and were there men out there passing out cigars? Then they took all my history and information which took a while. I was finally admitted at around 11pm. When we got to the nurses station at the high risk department the nurse told us what room to go to and that was it. So we found the room(3 beds but luckily no roommates) but it felt a little spooky. The beds and pillows were a little on the thin side but what can you do? I settled in and Josh headed home.
Monday morning I got a roommate at 5:45am which was fine because I was having a hard time sleeping there, so it wasn't as if she woke me. They did bring the meals to my bed here, as opposed to Hadassah where we had to go to a dining room, so I pretty much stayed in my bed. The doctor came on rounds and told me I would have another ultra sound and if it was stable they would send me home. Of course I had no such luck and it had gotten worse, so they told me to get comfortable. I had a few roommates come and go along the way.
On Tuesday my parents arrived in Israel and came to visit me in the afternoon(and thankfully they brought me a sandwich since I was starving!). Josh came a little later with the kids who were more excited to see Saba and Savta than me by far! Josh and the kids didn't stay too long since they needed to get back for dinner but it was nice to see them all.
On Wednesday I was told that I would have another ultra sound and if it was stable that I could go home if I wanted as long as I would really stay in bed. I told them I would but didn't have such high hopes that it would be stable(as history has told me). I went to get my ultrasound after lunch time and was really excited when things had gotten better!! I showed the nurse who brought it to the doctor. I was told I would be sent home but to go back to my room and they would let me know when the doctor discharged me. So I called Josh and waited....and waited....an hour later I asked the nurse how much longer it would be. She told me it would be soon. An hour and 45 minutes later I asked again and was told that the doctor was doing a c-section so it would be a while. Finally the doctor came and discharged me!!! I then called Josh to tell him to come and get me but he was working so my Dad came. I was happy to get out of there!!! I got home around 6:45pm and Josh had just ordered pizzas and everyone(meaning Saba and Savta and the Balsams) were coming to eat at our house so I didn't go upstairs yet, I ate with them. After dinner I headed back to my room where I was happily reunited with my pillows and bed. I also was happy to have my internet connection and my TV!
I was so tired from not getting any rest at the hospital that aside from Jordy coming to our room asking for breakfast and Josh waking me up at one point to ask a question about what to buy for the chulent, I slept until 1!!! The rest of the day was what has become typical for me, TV, computer, reading. I started watching a new TV show(how sad is it that this is the excitement in my day!) called The Big Bang Theory that I am enjoying and will probably watch the whole season by tomorrow. Jordy went to Lisa's after camp and ate dinner there. Danya went to a friends and both kids returned in time to go to bed, so I hardly saw them today.

Back Home Again

Monday was a typical day for me...stay and bed, watch TV and surf the internet. The kids went to camp and I can't remember if there were play dates or a visit to the pool...pretty typical day.
On Tuesday morning I went to the doctor(yes, my big exciting outing of the week). The doctor told me that he wasn't happy with the results of the ultrasound I had done and he was sending me back to the hospital. I tried to talk him out of it telling him that last time they pretty much told me to rest, but didn't actually give me medication or do anything to make it better. He insisted that this time they would give me medication and he gave me his cell phone number and said if they don't do anything either I or the doctor should call him. So I headed home, ate lunch, packed up a billion books and movies and Josh and I headed to Yerusahliam to the hospital. It took a bit of time going through registration and getting someone to see me. They put me on a monitor to see if I was having contractions(which I told them I was not but they didn't believe me). When the doctor came in and took all my information he said he was sending me home. Josh and I looked at each other surprised. I was happy to be going home but wanted to make sure my doctor wouldn't yell at me tomorrow when I told him I was sent home. So I had the doctor at the hospital call my doctor. Apparently the drugs my doctor wanted me to have at the hospital are drugs that the head of the department doesn't believe in so it is their protocol not to give them. That said, it is oral medication that I can take at home. We were basically told that while my doctor wanted me monitored I could either stay at the hospital(not so restful) or go home and rest there PLUS take the medicine. I was told very specifically that with the exception of bathroom privileges(who knew it was such a privilege??) I was to remain in bed. So...after 4 hours of doing nothing, Josh and I got back in the car and headed home. We picked the kids up(who we had arranged play dates for) and came home. It was already Jordy's bed time by the time we got back so he went right to bed and Danya followed soon after.
Today Danya went to a new friends house after camp and stayed there for dinner. Jordy came home and joined me for our daily viewing of Power Rangers-he is obsessed with Power Rangers!
For those of you who are curious what I do all day(and to prove to Josh that I am running out of things to do on the world wide web), today I visited this website and spent 10 minutes looking at the options and voting for the Americas Best Restroom Award(think there is a correlation between that and my bathroom privileges???). I also checked the baby poll to see how many people put in their guess about what the gender of the baby is and when it will be born. Sending a shout out to Lanie, Ari and Gila and Avi for actually humoring me and guessing! For the rest of you, you can click on this box below and take your guess. If anyone has any suggestions of good websites or TV shows I should be watching...PLEASE share!!!

Shabbat at Home

Friday morning there was no camp. Josh went out in the morning to run a few errands while Jordy and I hung out watching TV and playing cards. When he returned, Josh got Jordy ready and then the two of them went to pick up Danya and Daniella and they headed to falafel and then the pool. They returned close to Shabbat and then got ready for Shabbat. I went downstairs to light candles and stayed down there for dinner. While Josh was at shul Danya asked me if I wanted a girl or boy baby. I told her it didn't matter to me, I just wanted a healthy baby. I asked her what she wanted and she said that she wanted a girl baby. I asked her what would happen if it is a boy? She responded "well sometimes boy babies come out cute too". Friday night the kids ate dinner with us and then went to bed pretty quickly.
Shabbat morning Josh went to shul(but stopped in every once in while to check on us) while Danya and Jordy played nicely(for the most part). I went down for lunch and we had a nice lunch. The kids continued to play all afternoon while I dozed on the couch and Josh took a short nap. Later in the afternoon a few friends stopped by to see me(Danya thought it was funny that I was having a "play date"). Danya and Jordy went out in search of Meira and Moshe and returned a while later with the Balsam family in tow. My friends all went home and the Balsam family stayed until it as time for Maariv. After Josh made Havdallah the kids went to bed.
On Sunday Josh took the kids to camp in the morning. I went back to sleep as I didn't sleep so well last night and I woke up at noon(what else am I doing?). The kids came home and Josh served dinner and got the kids organized for bed. Josh then gave them strict instructions about how Danya is in charge and he went out to a well deserved baseball game. Danya and Jordy hung out with me and we watched TV and played cards. Then it was time for Jordy to go to bed. That is when things stopped going so smoothly. Danya wanted to go down to the kitchen but the light wasn't working and she was scared because she heard noises(the windows were open and the neighbors were in their backyard), Jordy needed some help in the bathroom, Danya wanted a cookie...and on and on. Danya went to sleep nicely at least. The good part was that Josh had a nice time(if he hadn't it wouldn't have been worthwhile).


I came across a website today and set up a pool on what gender the baby will be and when it will be born. If you are as bored as me(or bored at all....I doubt you are as bored as me) you should click on the link below and place your guess.

Back into the Routine

Tuesday morning Danya and Jordy started camp. Camp takes place at the school and gan and starts at 8am, so there really isn't much a difference in the morning routine. The one noticable difference is we don't have to send Aruchat Esser(the 10 O'Clock snack). So one less thing for Josh to do in the morning. Camp ends at 1pm but when I went into the hospital we decided it would be a good idea to sign them up for afternoon programs. So they each get picked up from camp and go to a house of a high school student who runs a afternoon program. They recieve lunch and are entertained until 4pm. Danya came home from the first day and said she hates camp but loves the afternoon program. Jordy seemed happy with both and didn't share too many details. In the mean time I went to the doctors in the morning. The doctor was threatning to send me back to the hospital but I fought with him. He told me I should return in the afternoon for another ultrasound and to meet with another doctor and then that doctor will decide. My doctor also told me that as of now I will probably be on bed rest until 32 weeks(only 6 weeks away!), but we will reasses each week when I see him. I went back in the afternoon for my next appointment where the mean ultrasound technician yelled at me saying I already had an ultrasound today. I don't know why she finds the need to yell at me each time, clearly I am not there for fun! The afternoon doctor said I can continue bed rest at home and saw no reason to return to the hospital, THANK G-D!!! In the afternoon Danya went to Meira's to play and Moshe came here and he and Jordy played and watched Power Rangers. Josh took Jordy and Moshe back to the Balsams and Lisa gave all the kids dinner(thanks!).
On Wednesday morning I had to wake up at the crack of dawn(6:30am) to drink the gross drink for the glucose test. I then had to be at the doctors office at 7:45am to have my blood drawn. I then arrived home and went to sleep for the rest of the morning. Josh took the kids to camp and then headed to the pool for a short swim. After the kids got back from camp Josh took them to the pool(we are really trying to make those pool memberships worthwhile!). The kids came home and went right to bed.
Thursday was pretty much the same...kids to camp. Danya went to Daniella's after camp and ended up sleeping over there(although I am not sure how much sleeping they got done). Jordy hung out with me, watching TV and playing cards with me. When Josh was done working he and Jordy played a video game for a while and then Jordy headed to bed as well.