It looks like we may have a future rider on our hands!  Hubby let the little one sit on the bike with him today (yes it is a rat bike now, no I don’t care), and she loved it.  She already stops whatever she’s doing to listen whenever she hears a bike go by the house.  I think she may just grow up loving them as much as we do!

Yes I totally disappeared, and yes it’s because I did end up as a long term (9 day) resident at the hospital when I told you I was going to the ER to be monitored for a few hours.  Thursday I checked in to be monitored around 7pm.  It didn’t take long for the nurses to realize I was going to be there awhile.  The doctor arrived around 10pm and let me know I”d be staying until Saturday morning so they could run a 24 hour urine test on me. 

The next day things started looking even worse.  After being on bed rest all night and morning my bp was only getting worse.  I was started on magnesium sulfate to keep me from convulsing and/or going into a coma, and I was being given labatelol by iv every so often, but it wasn’t helping.  My bp was dangerously high, so I was sent for an ultrasound at 10am to make sure the baby seemed to be developed enough for delivery.  Within a couple hours the doctor was in my room explaining why he had to induce me immediately, and at 6pm they started the pitocin.  Anyone who knows me knows my birth plan said absolutely no pitocin unless absolutely necessary, and in this case it was.  It came down to delivering her or seriously harming both of us.  Honestly everything was so far off of my birth plan that it never came out of my bag.

I labored all night, and by noon the next day I still hadn’t dilated beyond 3 1/2cm, so the decision was made that I needed an emergency c-section.  I would have refused if the situation had been normal, but my bp was well beyond 200/115 at that point.

At 12:11pm Elliana was born.  She gave 2 little cries before quietly surveying what was going on around her.  They held up this teeny tiny little thing in front of my face, and I cried at how small she was.  She weighed in at 4lbs 5oz and measured 17 1/2 inches long.  She showed up 5 weeks early, but other than being small she is 100% perfectly healthy!  She was given the normal amount of oxygen the hospital gives to any baby delivered by c-section, but she didn’t need any “extra”.  Her apgar score at birth was an 8, and at 5 minutes was a 9!  She does have a sacral dimple, but it’s being checked.

Unfortunately her delivery didn’t solve all our problems.  Even though she was perfectly healthy I wasn’t.  My bp didn’t return to normal after delivery like it normally does with preeclampsia.  Instead I ended up in the hospital until October 31st while the team of doctors tried to control my bp.  I also ended up losing a lot of blood, so I was given a transfusion and pumped full of potassium.  I was finally released after my bp came down enough that I was out of the danger zone for seizures, but I’m still hypertensive. 

Needless to say it’s definitely be wild around here lately, and I’m just really happy to be home.  But hey…now I have a beautiful baby girl, and I can once again ride!

What do you think about this custom bike that was brought to my attention via Helmet Hair Motorcycle Blog?  I can’t figure out if I like it or not, but I know it’s definitely unusual.  Hubby totally loved it, but we often tend to have varying tastes when it comes to custom bikes.

I like the fender, but I’m not so sure I dig how bright the green is on the rims.  I do feel a whole Ninja Turtle vibe, though!

Well this is going to be an interesting week. Hubby just lined up a job interview in Easley on Friday. The pay isn’t great, but it’s a job which is better than nothing at all right now. Now our only issue is getting him to this interview and hopefully to the job!

When I said he really needs a bike tire I wasn’t fibbing at all. I finally got around to taking a photo of it today. I’ve honestly never seen a bike tire showing threads this bad. He was already showing threads when he took it down the road to test the fix for the coolant leak. He only rode about a mile, and this is what it now looks like. You better believe I’d have been furious if I had been around when he rode it like that at all!

Yeah if I catch any of my peoples riding on a tire like this I’ll save them the misery of wrecking and threaten to strangle them myself! Ya’ll know I love ya, but please don’t be an idiot like Hubby was and risk riding on such a dangerous tire even for a mile.

The truck tires are too shot to drive back and forth to Easley, and if he gets this job he’s going to need to ride the bike just to afford the commute right now. That means I’m busting tail to get my yard sale going.   I decided to hold off on the payday loan if I can help it.  Hopefully the furniture I have will help me make enough to cover a new tire. I’ve been busy today making signs, and I had to take a break from coloring big letters spelling out “FURNITURE” because my hand kept cramping up.

Yeah yeah I know then what am I doing typing? It doesn’t hurt the same besides sitting in the floor was putting mucho pressure on my back. Pregnancy and back pains may go hand in hand but I don’t have to make it worse.  I’m going to try to color a couple more signs for “CDs” and “BOOKS”, but I might break down and print them out. I didn’t want to do that because I’m trying to reserve my ink for as long as I can. God only knows when I’ll have the cash to buy that again!