April 16 2010- Graduation was yesterday and I was walking quite a bit that day. I didn't really think anything of it but today when I woke up I was bleeding a little. Nothing bad but I was still worried. I went to work but it was really bothering me. It seemed like a really long wait from 8 to 9AM but as soon as 9 rolled around I called my doctors office. The nurse told me it was completely normal but if I was worried and if I'd feel better I should go home and rest. the office was really dead that day, so I decided to go home and rest just to make sure. April 17, 2010- On Sat it got worse and I started to panic a little so I called my doctor. She told me that Everything sounds normal but she wanted to see me Monday just to make sure everything was ok. I tried to remain calm the rest of the weekend and just rest and enjoy myself. April 19, 2010- Monday I called in to work and took the day off. My appointment was at 11:00, my doctor told me that mild cramping and bleeding was normal in pregnancy's. It's just basically your body growing and adjusting to accommodate the baby; so we did an ultra sound and sure enough everything looked fine. the baby had gotten bigger and the heartbeat sounded great. I walked away from the doctors office feeling very relieved and happy and I couldn't wait to show James the ultrasound so he could see how much our little bean had grown. April 21, 2010- The bleeding has gotten to the point where I actually have to wear pads now. I'm not flowing heavily or anything but I do need to wear them so it doesn't get on my garments. I'm not to worried because Julia said this may happen, I'm just going to keep track of it and see what happens.
April 26, 2010- The bleeding has gotten a lot worse. I go through about 4 pads a day if not more, today is Monday and I took the day off so that I could get into Julia's office and see what's going on. But it sounds like I wont be able to get in till Tomorrow (Tuesday) at 11. So I am going to stay home today and just rest and hopefully the bleeding will stop. April 27, 2010- Well I didn't make it to my Dr.'s appointment with Julia. Actually I fell asleep on the couch last night and after I woke up around 5:00AM to go upstairs to my bed I had the feeling I needed to go to the bathroom. No big deal. I went to the bathroom and started getting some nasty pain, it got so bad that I started to sweat and the bleeding was horrible. I called for James when I could feel myself starting to blackout. He came rushing in and I was able to rest my head on his shoulder he said that when he came in that my face was all sweaty and that I was really white. I don't know how long it was till I was actually able to get up and climb back into bed. I was trying to fall back asleep but the pain was to much I couldn't. Just when I thought it was gone and I could go back to sleep it would surprise me and come back. Finally sometimes around or after 5:30 James said that we should just go to the Emergency Room. At first I said no but after awhile I agreed. We checked into the ER around 6:00 After filling out some paperwork they lead us back to a room. I changed into a gown and sat on the bed. The nurse came in and asked me to sit back, then she started me on an IV (which hurt so bad...I really hate needles) in my left hand and then put this thing on my finger to monitor my heart beat, then she added a blood pressure cuff on my right arm then stuck some oxygen tubes up my nose. then she asked if I wanted some pain killers. I said yes, so after leaving for awhile she came back and injected some into my IV. It was a little scary and exhausting and I was in a lot of pain. After awhile I started to fell really sleepy, James said it was probably because of the pain killers and told me to just lay back and relax and sleep. it was hard to fight to stay awake. I guess I slept for awhile I felt bad for James. Besides answering the phone from friends and family asking how things were he didn't have anything else to do really. After I was able to wake up and stay awake we waited and talked. We were waiting for me to give the signal that my bladder was full so they could do an ultrasound. I went through a couple liters of water through my IV and was ready. The nurse came in and stopped the flow and said that the people in the ultrasound would come and get me as soon as they could...about a half an hour later ( I think, it could have been longer) a lady showed up unhooked me from my many machines and wheeled me down to the ultrasound room. She did a lot cheeking and I was trying so hard to read James face. At one point he gave me a look that said "I think every things ok but I cant tell." I didn't get my hopes up. After all the looks with the ultrasound (which again was painful, my doctor is a lot gentler than that.) I was able to go to the bathroom finally. Then the nurse wheeled me back to my room. my other nurse came back in and said I didn't need the oxygen and everything that the ultrasound nurse put back on me. She asked if I wanted to clean up and I jumped at the chance. She had been off and on nice and not so nice all day. But this time she was nice she said "ok hun let me get you some rags and stuff." I asked if I could get some pads too. After awhile she said the bathroom that was I could access from my room had been recked by another patient and she was really sorry. She found me some "underwear" brought me some pads, cloths to clean up with and some powder. She was rally nice. Not having the IV tube following me ever where it was a lot easier maneuvering than it was in the bathroom in the ultrasound dept. I didn't get to clean up like I wanted but It was good enough. After that again we waited and watched some TV to try and pass the time. After awhile the doctor came in and informed us that we had miscarried. He was so nice and not like the usual ER doctors that seem so numb, we could tell that he really hated to give us this news and was really concerned and seemed to really care. He told us that Julia (my doctor) wanted to see us and that he would get the nurse to take the IV out and give us some paperwork so we could go. I was trying to hold it in but as soon as he left I broke down I cried for a long time, I cant even explain all the emotions that were running thorough me, I think the biggest one is that I was just devastated. After awhile of crying the nurse still hadn't come back and I just wanted to get out of there. so James helped me get dressed and then we just waited. I tried to go numb by watching TV but it didn't really work. After what seemed like an hour or more the nurse finally came in, gave us some papers with instructions on it and then asked if we wanted to keep the IV in for Julia. I didn't know what to say. I think I said I guess so, but I cant remember. We left the hospital and James called Julia, I guess the ladies at the front who make the appointments and things weren't aware that Julia wanted to see me. So they scheduled an appointment for Friday at 4:00. But I still had the problem of that ugly stupid IV sticking out of my hand. Because of James' EMT experience I thought he might be able to take it out. So we got home and he tried but they had taped it up so much that it was just to hard. James said it had about 5 pieces of tape on it including some plastic stuff. So by this time I was exhausted and frustrated and upset and James was the same. We went over to the Circle of Life women's center (my Dr's office) and asked if there was a nurse who could take it out. The lady at the desk had a shocked look on her face and said absolutely...why would they leave that in your hand." She called back to the nurses then told us the nurses were at lunch, I was nervous that James was going to explode he was almost to the breaking point. Then she said she was going to try the lab, she got back on the phone and then said a lab tech was coming up to get us. the lab tech was shocked too, and sympathetic after she heard why we were at the ER. She had me sit down and she started working on the IV but was having troubles she had another tech come over and look at it and she said had the same shocked bewildered reaction on her face as to why they left it in my hand. After about 10 min of trying to get it out. I could feel a cold sweat on my face and though I probably looked white again, my vision was starting to get blurry too. Finally the tech said she was going to go find a nurse. A nice nurse came in and again...same reaction but she was a little more vocal about it. She got it out quick though, thank goodness my vision was blurry ( I think I took off my glasses at this point) cause she was holding up the needle and showing it to me. I could see it was long but not exactly how long. the nurse gave me a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder and then left. I asked the tech if I could just sit for awhile and she said of course and asked if I wanted anything. I asked for water...it didn't help. after awhile I was still feeling queasy but I really just didn't want to be there anymore I wanted to go home. James helped me out to the truck and took me home he started to vent a little about the ER and everything (his way of releasing frustration) and I told him I just couldn't deal with it and asked if he could call Mom or Nikki, so he called them and stepped outside and I just fell asleep. The rest of the night is a blur of crying, watching shows with James and sleeping. April 28-29,2010- trying to cope with this miscarriage has been hard I haven't gone back to work yet and I think I might not for awhile. on Wed the 28th we went up to Mom and Dad's I just didn't want to be in the house. I was able to send out a quick e-mail and do a very short post on our blog. I got a big hug and kiss from Mom and she asked me how I was doing. most of the night I just sat or laid on the couch, watching movies and shows with James and Dad. Mom's leg and tooth has been bothering her for awhile so she spends most of her time in her bed resting when she's home. After awhile James called my parents in Ecuador through Skype. They couldn't see me but I was there too listening. I just didn't want to see or talk to anyone beside Mom and Dad Armstrong. James has had some time so he has been able to stay with me which has been Super nice, I've just been so depressed lately if I'm not staring off with this glazed look in my eyes then I'm crying. I have so many emotions that I cant sort through them so I just try and go numb...which hasn't worked out to well. Basically I am just trying to cope with this. April 30, 2010- I had my doctors appointment today with Julia. James had to go to work so he couldn't be there but it was ok. Julia was really sad for us, we had just gone to see her a couple months before we found out we were pregnant for infertility. So she was really excited for us when she found out too...I think almost as excited as we were. Anyway we talked about reasons why it may have happened, she said that most likely there might have been to much or to little of a chromosome or something else that was making the baby overdevelop or making it underdeveloped which could have caused this. She did an ultra sound to look and said that the tissue hasn't passed,(so basically the baby was still in me) so they were going to have to do a D&C which is a procedure that cleans out the uterus. She said she wanted to give it the weekend to try and get it to pass on it's own and then she wanted to see me on Monday at 9 to see where we stand. I kinda hope it passes on it's own so I don't have to do the d&c, but at this point I just want the pain and bleeding to go away.
May 3, 2010- Today I had my appointment with Julia I thought I was going in for the D&C today but nope just a check. She said that it has moved and looked like it was about to pass but she wanted to get it out as soon as possible, so she wanted to do the D&C the next day. she told me that if it passes to give them a call other wise I needed to go down to mindful medical (downstairs) and schedule a time with them. So we went down and scheduled it for 12:00 (noon) the next day. Ever since the miscarriage I haven't wanted to be alone so when James left for work today I called up Nikki to see if I could come hang out with her. I stayed at her house for awhile then headed home. May 4, 2010-
Today is Heathers Birthday. Heather is a loving mother to 4 great kids, she is currently finishing up school and is excited to be done. She loves creating new things, baking and hanging out with friends and family. Here's to you Heather on your day.
Today is my nephew in law...Craig's birthday. Craig is a loving husband and father who works hard to provide for his family. He loves basketball and watching football and playing video games. He loves spending time with his wife and playing with his son.
Today is my nephew Jeremy's birthday. Jeremy is an active young man who loves sports. He is currently on a football team and is really loving it. He also loves to spend time with his family and visit his cousins in Salt Lake. He is a sweet boy with a heart of gold.
Buying the tree
Today we get to celebrate two birthdays,the first one is my brother Byron. Byron is a loving father of 4 girls and a grandfather of 3 soon to be 4. Byron loves spending time with his family and going on trips. He is very outdoorsy and loves to try new things. he enjoys going boating and fishing as well as camping,backpacking and kayaking. He's the perfect definition of work hard play hard. :)
The next one is my sister Shelly. Shelly was born a few years later on Byron's birthday. :) Shelly loves her little boy and twin girls. She to is very outdoorsy, she loves to go hiking, swimming, motorcycling, 4-wheeling and rock crawling. She also loves camping, boating and fishing and spending time with family. She outgoing and fun loving.
Adam! His birthday was on the 2nd. Adam is a great kid who loves school, girls, video games and hanging out with friends. 
Brittany! She got to share her birthday with mothers day this year on the 9th. Brittany loves dance. She's on the Drill team in school. She also loves hanging out with family and friends, joking around and just plain having fun.
