Oh, boy

Yes, we had our 20 week ultrasound today and we discovered that our little tadpole is a boy, despite his best efforts to hide from us. He sat Indian-style most of the appointment and refused to move, making it impossible for the sonogram tech to find his bladder, feet, or sex organs. But he finally gave in and stretched out enough for her to get what she needed. Mark couldn't stop grinning. Of course, we couldn't finish the ultrasound without my mom coming in to see (I had no idea she was coming). In any case, we are both very excited.

It was a day of mixed emotions, however. My grandfather has been in the hospital since last Tuesday because he aspirated. He's been on and off the ventilator, but over the weekend they had him on oxygen only. Today, however, they had to put him on a bi-pap (I know I'm spelling that wrong, all you medical professionals, but I'm too lazy to look up the correct spelling) machine. For those not in the medical field or don't have the good fortune to already know what that is, essentially it is a machine that forces the patient to breathe. Essentially, it is life support. In other words, he's not doing well. I went to see him at the hospital after my appointment to tell him that he was having another grandson, and despite my best efforts, ended up crying in front of him. His only words to me (and I pray they are not his last) were "God bless you and your son". I can't even type that without tearing up. He has meant so much to me over the years, and it is incredibly hard to see him in such a condition. While it doesn't look good, I know God can do amazing things, so I'm not giving up just yet. Ah. Yeah. Moving on.

Something worthy of note. I came home today to find Mark working in the bedroom, which was a good thing. What I didn't expect was to find out that the exterior wall was just sort of tacked on, which means that the room was at one time not enclosed. I guess it makes sense, seeing as there is not a fireplace in that room and the floors are different. Basically, the people who built the house were poor and doing with what they could. I guess that makes it perfect for us. We have our work cut out for us. And by us, I mean Mark.

Heart to Heart

So about three weeks ago, my heart palpitations got really bad. For those of you who didn't know, I've had a periodic ventricular fibrillation since I was about 19. I was on beta blockers for it until I got pregnant, but then, like everything else, I had to stop. So, my OBGYN referred me to a cardiologist. The news is mostly good. The echo/sono showed no physical defect of my heart, which is wonderful news. But the fact remains that I still have an extra beat every now and then. A halter monitor revealed this - which is what I've been trying to get a doctor to believe for almost a decade (apparently people my age don't EVER have heart problems...) So since I can't take my meds still, we're trying a few other methods of control. First off is diet, which I was already practicing for the most part. Low sodium, no extra salt, bladahbladah. It's harder than you think. Just take a look at the sodium content of the things you buy that the grocery store, and then consider that I am only allowed 1600 mgs a day (which is not an unreasonable request for a healthy person.) I'm also walking again, five days a week at least. I had been doing that before I got pregnant, but the lack of energy sort of squashed that. I'm also on a potassium and magnesium supplement, which sparked a rather annoying argument with a pharmacy tech who thought I should know that MagOx was OTC and not prescription with no prior knowledge of the blasted thing whatsoever, and then refused to help me find it. And inevitably I found out the hard way that you aren't supposed to take that stuff on an empty stomach. Running through the church foyer to ensure that you don't lose what little breakfast you did eat all over the sanctuary is not a good way to start the morning. Then again, neither is blogging while you're supposed to be recording service.