Lesson 39 - New bedrooms are better if you help build them yourself

We began the process of preparing Liam's new bedroom over the summer months, as Lily will be taking over his old nursery. Liam has been involved in every step of the construction process.

We decided to move our laundry room and expand an office area to create a nice sized bedroom. The laundry area had a sloping floor, so we had to even out the floor to get it ready for carpet. Liam helped clean up the area as we prepared to pour a new floor.

We also had to remove the old door to the laundry room and Sheetrock over the hole it left. Liam loved using the crowbar to help tear out the old door frame. It has become one of his favorite toys.

The old laundry room shared a wall with a bathroom, so we decided to create a door from Liam's new bedroom into the bathroom. Liam was fine with the pint-sized door, but we thought a full-size door would be prudent.

We built a set of bookshelves and cabinets into a wall space that allows for easy access to our main sewer clean out. Liam saw me use the screwdriver to attach the bookshelves, and still goes to the bookshelves anytime he is given a screwdriver to play with. This is also when the headlamp became a necessary item for any "work" he does.

Still wearing the headlamp as he cuts trim with he great-great-great-grandfather's mitre box. This mitre box has been used to cut trim for at least six generations, and was likely used to help build the church where he was baptized.

Happy boy with his headlamp still working on the bookshelves.

Liam has become very cognizant of what is needed for a project. I was working on putting the light fixture in his closet, and he brought me a handful of wire nuts without prompting. He must have seen me use them in other electrical projects.

Finishing up the trim on the built-in bookshelves/cabinets. There are a few extra dents in the trim. His fine motor skills have become very good, as he can now hit a nail repeatedly.

Liam has even become an accomplished painter. The little brush is the type you would use for watercolors. He would dip his brush very gingerly into the paint can and just paint away.

Part of the finished product. Annie bought the little workbench on the right at a garage sale. He loves it. It allows him to keep working on the room he has been helping build over the past few months. The transition to the new room was smooth and without any complaints from Liam. When asked, "Where is baby Lily's room?," he points to his old nursery. New bedrooms are better when you get to help build them yourself.

Lesson 38- The Greatest Wealth Is Our Health

On Monday, August 20th, I was teaching my block 4 English 11 AP students, when I felt a sudden and quick beating of my heart.  It's a cliche, but I felt like my heart was pounding out of my chest.  I took a few deep breaths, went to the bathroom and practiced some yoga breathing, drank a glass of water, but nothing seemed to help.  An assessment from the school nurse showed my heart rate was 160 and steady at 160.  I rested in her office until Ryan picked me up for our appointment with my OB.  The entire time I was in the backroom of Nurse Wanda's room, I was thinking to myself, please let the baby be okay.  I couldn't sleep because when I would rest on the horrible student cot, I could feel my heartbeat in every part of my body... it was a very strange feeling.  My heart was pounding in my ear, on the side of my face and hip, all the way down to my feet.  God knows I haven't worked out in months, but it was that same feeling after you do sprints or stairmaster or boxing.  But it didn't stop. 

At Dr. Carriker's office, now two hours after I first felt the elevated heart rate, the physician's assistant took my pulse with her cute little white Swatch watch.  Her eyes widened and after she was finished and I asked her what it was, she simply replied, "Yes, it's high," and quickly left the room to find the doctor. 

Now I was scared. 

So I turned to Ryan."Will you take my pulse to see what it is now?"

He smiled from across the room and said, "I have been; I've been watching your boobs move with every heartbeat." 

I looked down and sure enough, my clothing was "bouncing" with every one of the beats.  It was kind of funny.  I giggled at first, and then I became more scared. 

And, like it always does, my mind began to play tricks on me.  I had felt Lily moving and kicking all around during the morning, but couldn't remember feeling her in the last hour or so.  Had I been thinking rationally at the time, I would have realized that I never really felt her much at this time of the day.  But I thought something had gone wrong.

Just then, Dr. Carriker walked in and said that the next step was whether she should send me to Labor and Delivery or the Emergency Room.  My heart rate was now 180.

"Are we already at that step?" I asked incredulously.  I think I thought she could just do something in her office to fix this. 

"Yes, definitely," she said.  And it was decided that Labor and Delivery was more appropriate (more on that later).  I began crying quietly and they suggested that we use the back door of the office to leave by and that I walk very slowly. 

At Labor and Delivery, I became very tired.  It had been several hours at a steady 180 heart rate, so it seemed natural that I would be fatigued.  Ryan spent the next few minutes calling Hailey, the nanny watching Liam for only the second time, and calling my mom.  He told Mimi that she need not come to the hospital until he knew more and then would let her know.  Next, they put me in a wheelchair and rolled me into a room where the nurse, a lovely woman from Texas named "Fonda", said she hoped there was a heart monitor.  I changed into a lovely green-patterned hospital gown and settled into the bed when she discovered that room didn't have the right equipment.  She wheeled me down to another room, hooked me up to the heart monitors and then put the belt around my belly that would monitor Lily's heart rate as well. 

That was when I heard the most beautiful sound.  The deep thumping of Lily's heart, holding steady at a baby's mellow 140 heart rate.  She was fine.  So I had to cry some more.

Just then, Fonda told us that my parents were waiting outside and would like to come in.  It had to have been less than 30 minutes since Ryan had called Mom, but you can't stop my folks when they are worried and I was so glad to see them.  Sometimes, you just need your mom there, you know?

The next hour or so included monitoring my heart and Lily's, trying to rest, calling Becky to watch Liam (which of course she graciously got in her car and drove from St. Joe to do), and just praying that this wouldn't last much longer.   Fonda expressed concern that we weren't sent to the emergency room, but soon told us that Dr. Carriker had asked for a cardiac consult.  It sounded impressive and scary.  It turned out to be both.

Not long after, a group of people hustled into the room and introduced themselves as "The Heart Team."  Talk about an entrance.  There were four of them and they worked fast.  Things were hooked up to me and the cardiologist, Dr. Moray, tried several techniques to slow my heart down.  She pressed my ankles in weird places, she massaged the left side of my neck, she asked me to cough- but none of them worked.

She diagnosed me with "Supra Ventricular Tachycardia"- a consistent elevated heart rate that is seen sometimes in pregnant women.  The echo cardiogram showed nothing unusual about my heart, and with no history of heart trouble, she concluded this was just one of those fluky kind of things with pregnancy.  Worried it might have been the one caffeine drink I allow myself each day, I asked about that.  She said no, that wasn't it.  That we would probably never know what brought it on.  Next, she told me that they would be doing a "chemical conversion" on my heart.  She described it as the chemical way of shocking the heart back to a normal rhythm.  Suddenly Fonda looked worried and asked Dr. Moray if she thought this was the best place for this procedure.  After a minute of "discussing" it in front of me, Fonda asked to speak to the doctor outside.  It was weird.  And still scary.  I think Fonda was just concerned about liability.  But they worked it out and the conversion commenced.

They put in an IV and told me that I would feel a bit of "discomfort"for a few seconds.  The nurse held my hand, Ryan and Mom were at my side, and I was surrounded by the "Heart Team."  Next thing I knew it felt like someone was squeezing my heart as tight as they could and I guess that I grabbed the nurse's scrub pants in pain (I apologized later).  Apparently my eyes grew pretty wide and just when I was going to tell someone that I think I needed the paddles, I heard Ryan say, "See, it already worked."

My heart rate dropped to 107.

After that, things continued to move quickly.  The Heart Team told me that it shouldn't happen again, but if it did I should report to the emergency room and tell them my history.  Then Dr. Moray told me I could be discharged in the next half hour, after I walked a few laps without passing out.  I passed the test and was home within an hour, with Ryan at my side as he had been all day.  He was a rock and I felt so much better with him there.

Tuesday was spent sleeping off what felt like a marathon hangover while Mimi and Becky watched Liam, and I was back to school on Wednesday.

This pregnancy has been so different from Liam's.  I was scared frequently with Liam because I spotted about 6 times.  But nothing compares to this heart scare.  I am very happy to report that a week and a half later I have not have any more episodes.  But I haven't had a sip of caffeine since, just in case.

The greatest wealth in this world is our health.  Lesson well learned.