The bad and the good...

The last couple weeks of this pregnancy have been less than pleasant, of course not taking into account our awesome baby shower that Ros's mom threw for us last Sunday.

It all started out last Thursday when I came down with a GI bug. I know I caught it at work as my trips to the bathroom smelled the same as a patients diarrhea diaper that I had taken care of on Tuesday. I wash my hands like a freak when I'm at work, but there must have been one little bacteria that was left behind which caused me to feel like death for the next few days. This bug also led to my first vomiting episode of this pregnancy. Good thing Ros talked me out of going into work that day, it wouldn't have been pretty. I tried to at least stay on top of the fluids for the next few days, but I think I fell short leading me to my next issue.

Who knew being dehydrated could lead to your parotid gland becoming infected? I'm a nurse and I surely didn't. This issue started Wednesday when Ros and I were at Ikea, innocently enjoying their delicious swedish meatballs. For some reason the right side of my jaw had these shooting pains everytime I would chew. I blew that off, but when we left and I looked in the mirror I noticed some swelling in the area that was painful. No big deal right, sure, until we had dinner later that night. This time when I ate, the area became extremely swollen and painful to the point that I could barely even close my jaw on the right side due to swelling. The side of my face and ear were red. It was torture, but I figured I had to eat something, I had to feed the baby. Over the course of the night, the swelling slowly went down, and by the time I woke up the next day it was gone. I thought I had a parotid gland stone and maybe I had passed it during the night. I quickly realized that wasn't the case when I ate cereal and my face blew up even more than it had the night before, and honestly the pain was excruciating. I made an appointment with my doctor who in turn gave me a referral to an ENT doctor who was thankfully able to see me that day. He said due to my previous dehydration I had developed an infection in my parotid gland and to take antibiotics. It's been 2 days and I am back to my old self, eating everything in sight. Augmentin is a miracle drug.

On a better note, we had our midwife appointment yesterday, Nugget is measuring right on target, and due to my GI distress and painful eating, I only gained 1/2 pound over the past few weeks. The only good to come out of all of that badness. The midwife let Ros feel Nuggets body parts, a foot, a butt, and her head, which is sitting snugly in my pelvis right where she should be.

On an even better note, we had our first baby shower on Sunday. It was our friends and family shower organized by Ros's mom. We had it at our house so we didn't have to lug presents all around. It was nice throwing it there as my aunt and my grandmother haven't seen our house yet. It was so wonderful to have everyone together to celebrate this little person. It was especially priceless to see my grandmother have such a great time, especially considering her health a few months ago was so poor that I never thought she'd be able to enjoy this day with us. I'm talking trying to drink the gravy out of the gravy boat on Christmas and wearing Depends to now walking around and talking like her old self again. Thank you lowered Dilantin dose, don't know why noone thought of that sooner. Anyways, we ate some yummy snacks, played some pregger games, and opened presents, an all around great day.