Making Ready, With Hope

I am 35 weeks pregnant today, which means I am just one week away from a big, huge pregnancy milestone! At 36 weeks, baby Henry has an excellent chance of skipping the NICU, and considering he is already over 6 pounds, I think he'll be just fine. My OB will officially continue to try to stop labor before 37 weeks, but I only to a point.

We have diapers and wipes.

All of Henry's clothes, blankets, sheets, and burp cloths have been washed and put away into his drawers. The sweet smell of Dreft fills his nursery - which still needs to be painted but is otherwise all set up.

We have a vehicle big enough to hold everyone now (did I mention we had to replace our truck in a panic my first week on bed rest?) and his car seat is sitting by the door, ready to install.

We have different pacifiers to try out, knowing full well that - being an in utero thumb sucker and our family's history of thumb suckers - he'll probably eventually end up preferring his thumb. We have bottles, and thanks to Diapers.com I'll have all my breastfeeding and pumping supplies by Wednesday.

Thanks to Drugstore.com, I have Depends and other postpartum mommy supplies already.

If I get a day or two off bed rest before he's born, I'll refill our freezer with some casseroles and muffins.

And most of all, we are all so excited and ready to meet this new member of our family! These last few weeks of pregnancy, uncomfortable as they may be, are one of my most favorite times in life. There is just nothing like waiting to meet a new baby!

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
Romans 5:5

Baby Henry Update

I've been at doctors' offices all morning and need to catch up on work work, so this will be brief. I spent another night in L&D getting terbutaline to stop contractions last night. I had my OB appointment today, and got an ultrasound to check on the little guy. Turns out, he's not so little! He has a chubby, round tummy and very chubby, round cheeks. She estimated his weight at over 6 lbs. He was so cute, I bawled my eyes out. Here are a couple of pictures - the first a profile, the second with him looking at the "camera"





Everything looked healthy and great! I'm still on bed rest, though, and my doctor will keep stopping labor until I'm past 37 weeks - that's 2.5 more weeks. It seems to close, and yet so far away. I want Henry to stay put until 38 weeks, I don't mind waiting 3, 4, 5, 6+ weeks to meet him if it means he'll be healthy and ready to be born... but physically I am exhausted. I feel like I have already been through labor several times, and I'm ready for the contractions to be OVER.

In other news, Amelia had her 3 year old appointment this morning and she's also doing great. Right on track with everything, healthy, and in the 50th percentile for height and the 75th percentile for weight. I love my round-bellied babies :)

Happy Birthday Amelia

My sweet Babykins three years ago



and now



I wasn't sure what my situation would be when Amelia's birthday rolled around, so we had the ultimate unplanned, low-key birthday party yesterday. I just called up a couple of my friends whose children are Amelia's friends, and asked them to come over to our house. I ordered my first ever store-bought cake (chocolate horse cake, at Amelia's request). I asked my dad to run to the store for balloons and juice boxes. And - we had a party!















and it was good!

A Quick Catch Up Post

More tomorrow about this little stinker's birthday



but I feel bad that I haven't blogged all week and thought I'd do a quick recap...

-My OB appointment this week was very non-eventful (and I even got to keep my pants on!) but next week I get an ultrasound (and I have to take my pants off) so I'll have more to report. Otherwise, things are going okay. Baby Henry is doing great, I am having lots of contractions and feeling worn out by them, I am excited that as of yesterday I've made it past the 34 week mark. That's a biggie!

-My dad came to visit this weekend. Friday night he made sloppy joes for us and I (are you ready?) ate 4.5 of them! First of all, I have not gained any weight the past few OB appointments, mostly because sitting/laying around all the time, I work up no appetite. But mostly, my dad's sloppy joes are the best. I could post the recipe, but it would do no good, because they're only awesome when he makes them :)

-Amelia has been on antibiotics for eight days, and she seems to have fully recovered from her pneumonia. The only lingering effect is that her pants are all falling off and her appetite hasn't returned. Except for when it comes to birthday cake.

-I can't remember if I posted before about our laundry room... but our old washer leaked and destroyed the floor. I begged our contractor to get me a functioning laundry room before the baby was born. This week he re-tiled the floor and re-built some of the ruined cabinets, and today the painters came. We have a new washer and next week the room should be done and ready for use. Thank goodness - can you imagine having a newborn and no laundry room?! I would guess that most of the people on this earth can imagine, but I'm fortunate enough that I don't have to.

-Sophia figured out today that she's right handed... she was sitting on the couch next to me and she said something about her "good hand." I asked her what she was talking about and she said "my right hand is just better at drawing than my left hand." So we talked about handedness, and she was very happy to know that everyone has a "good hand" and a "bad hand." I still don't understand why she has a "favorite leg."

-Amelia's birthday is tomorrow. We had a party this afternoon, which was going to just be a couple of her friends but actually ended up being insanely chaotic, since I had nothing planned - I just ordered a cake (my first ever store-bought cake) and let a few hundred kids run around the house for two hours. It was a blast and Amelia loved it.

Hope you had a great week!

Blue!

I spent much of the weekend sorting through baby boy clothes - unisex clothes from the girls (I love newborns all in white, so I had a few things), things I have bought, and things given to us by friends and family.

Look how tiny!



I made a big pile of preemie, newborn, and 0-3 month clothes for Davis to wash in Dreft (there is some sort of mommy pheromone they put in that stuff - it just sets my heart a-flutter!!) and as I looked over at the pile, I saw it.... blue! Blue everywhere! It's starting to sink it, that things are going to change a lot at our house :)

This morning the girls were playing baby - Amelia was the baby crawling around and making mewling sounds, while Sophia dressed her up and put blankets on her and named her Pinkie Pie. When I asked Sophia what they were doing, she said "we're playing baby. But I'm about ready to have a real baby in this house!"

We're about ready too... the nursery still needs to be painted, but it's otherwise all put together (I know that's backwards, but since I am stuck in bed I have no power to enforce my logic!) We have a car seat, diapers, Dreft-smelling drawers of baby clothes. Now I am very content to sit and wait for weeks - hopefully at least 3 weeks, though 6 would be even better!

Showered!

Yesterday my sweet friends from work threw me a baby shower! They even moved it to my living room so that I could attend :)

They brought yummy, yummy food - this is about half of it



I got so, so many sweet and adorable gifts. Plus lots of useful stuff like diapers and wipes and Aquaphor (am I the only one who uses this on everything from diaper rashes to cuts and scrapes to chapped lips?)





And aren't these BabyLegs just the cutest?!? I loved them for the girls - especially when they were crawling age and when they were potty training and wearing dresses (much easier to deal with than tights!)



But even more so than the food or the gifts, it was SO great to have a roomful of friends to visit with! It was a blast and totally lifted me up!



When Sophia came home later, she surveyed everything



My friend Jennifer brought a huge basket of gifts, including several things for the girls, which they were very excited about. Sophia was also excited about all the things for baby Henry - she's been doing more to prepare for his arrival than any of us! In fact, today she pestered her daddy into working on the nursery (with her help of course) - yay!!

As for this little girl



she has pneumonia.

Sophia came down with a little cold on Monday, and by Thursday mid-day she was pretty much totally over it. Amelia started getting sick Tuesday, and by Thursday night was feeling really bad. She just couldn't stop coughing, to the point of throwing up. I made her some warm tea with honey and lemon and tried to get her settled back down. Well, she continued to cough and not breathe well, until I noticed the areas around her mouth and her fingertips were turning blue. When I lifted her shirt, I noticed she was retracting when she took a breath. So I packed her up and sent her and her daddy off to the emergency room. It is SO, so hard for me to delegate this medical stuff to him - I wrote out her allergies and symptoms and everything on a notecard for him to take, but I just knew this was one area where I normally take charge for a reason. Well, sure enough, after five hours in the ER, despite one doctor being concerned, another doctor decided that Amelia just had a virus and sent them home. The next morning the ER nurse called back to let us know a radiologist had looked at her chest x-ray and she actually has pneumonia. UGH, that makes me so mad! So I sent her and Davis to her pediatrician yesterday afternoon and she's now being treated with the medicines she needs and hopefully will be feeling better soon!

That's the latest in our family medical drama land.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful long weekend! The weather has warmed up so much here, although it's dreary and rainy - not that I'm going anywhere anyway ha!

My Oma and Meeting Our Insurance Deductibles

Tuesday after my OB appointment, my dad called me from Florida to tell me that my grandmother had passed away. He was visiting her there last week when she got sick, and it became clear pretty quickly that she wasn't going to recover. Oma was 89 years old (we were planning a big family reunion party for her 90th this summer) and lived a very full life, but we will miss her. She is finally with my Opa, who we have been missing for ten years, and Ma - her mother - who we have been missing for twenty years. I wish I could be there for my dad. I am now planning a reunion in Wisconsin this summer with his side of the family to celebrate her life. I have been wanting to scan in some pictures of her to share, but that will have to wait until I get my scanner hooked up (and since that involves moving the printer/fax/scanner across the house, Davis will have to do it for me, and I am trying to limit is honey do list - he is having to do way too much already!)

At my OB appointment Tuesday, my sweet doctor walked in and asked how I was doing and I opened my mouth and said "I'm tired" and promptly burst into tears. I'd been having contractions for three days straight. Then my blood pressure was up and she decided to run some labs to make sure I wasn't getting preeclampsia, and then she told me that I just earned myself twice a week appointments with her.

Thankfully my appointment today was much better. My contractions finally settled down last night and have been very sporatic today, so I felt like I got a little break. My blood pressure was down and my labs came back normal. And my cervix hasn't changed. And tomorrow I'm 33 weeks - just one week from the coveted 34 weeks! My next appointment is Tuesday, hopefully another quick and uneventful one with no tears.

But it's hard not to get a little spooked by the beginning of this year. We are two weeks into 2010 and
-my father-in-law was hospitalized with sepsis (he is okay),
-his mother broke her wrist (she is okay),
-I have been put on bed rest for preterm labor,
-I have a kidney stone,
-Amelia was diagnosed with an astigmatism yesterday and will probably need glasses,
-my grandmother got pneumonia and died,
-Sophia got her very first ear infection,
-and tonight Amelia is in the Emergency Room with her daddy because she is having trouble breathing.*

I keep telling myself we're just getting it all out of the way and meeting our deductibles (my dad also totaled his car and a pipe burst and flooded his whole house while he was in Florida) at the beginning of the year.

I promised some pictures, so here's all I have to share - this afternoon this is what was on either side of me as I worked from bed



*Amelia has unfortunately inherited my asthma. The girls both have had a fever virus with a cough this week, but tonight Amelia just couldn't stop coughing. At first she just coughed until she threw up. I gave her some cough medicine and fixed her some warm chamomile tea with lemon and lots of honey. She kept coughing and coughing and coughing. Then her little fingers and mouth started turning blue and when I lifted her shirt she was retracting - that was enough for me to send her packing. I'm sure she'll get a breathing treatment and be okay.

All of my troubles seem so small as the images from Haiti flow through my mind. I wanted to share a few ways I know of to help...

-Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999 this goes to the Red Cross and shows up on your next phone bill. I did this, but sometimes during these times the Red Cross gets so many donations, they cannot get them out fast enough. So here are some other charities that I love.

-Architecture for Humanity uses skilled architects (my mother is an architect and for her birthday I usually give to this charity in her name) and other experts to help rebuild in areas like Haiti, and they are making plans to do so already. You can find out more and donate at http://www.architectureforhumanity.org/

-God's Littlest Angels is an awesome orphanage in Haiti that I have grown to love over the past five years. I first discovered them when I was trying to find a place to donate all the formula samples I got while pregnant with Sophia. Although they were thankfully not directly affected by the quake, I am sure they will feel the effects in the coming weeks and months, unfortunately. You can find out more and donate here http://glahaiti.org/

Another Trip to L&D

I hate hospitals. When the girls were born, I begged to go home pretty much as soon as they cut the cord, and was out of there less than 24 hours later. I've spent my fair share of time "sleeping" in hospitals with the girls when they were hospitalized, and I pretty much will do whatever I can to stay away from them now. But baby Henry seems to like it at the hospital - he keeps sending me there, and he's always extra active when they have him on the monitor. Silly boy.

Sunday evening I started having runs of somewhat regular, but light, contractions. They lasted all of Sunday night and most of Monday, but they would get irregular again and I would decide not to go in. By the afternoon I was starting to get a little more worried, and thinking I shouldn't ignore the "more than 5 in an hour" rule and just go get checked out. I was also starting to worry about Henry. I called a perinatologist I work with, and he answered some questions I had, which made me feel better even though what he told me wasn't that great - although 32 week preemies almost always do well compared to younger preemies, they cannot breathe or eat on their own. He said there was no telling what level of breathing support the baby would need, but he would almost certainly need some. He told me that babies can't suck/swallow until 34-35 weeks at the earliest, so he would need a feeding tube for a couple of weeks before we could start trying to nurse. Anyway, it was good to get the information and just know what we might have to deal with, and also once again to set my goal on making it to term - but at the very least to 34 weeks.

At around 7:30 p.m. my contractions were 5-8 minutes apart, though still not painful. I went in to L&D and was disappointed to discover that my OB wasn't on call. I love my OB, but I don't love her partners. They checked me and thankfully I had not dilated any more. They gave me fluids and then the doctor decided to send me home, although by that point (around 10 p.m .) my contractions were 4-5 minutes apart, very regular, and starting to get painful. When I got home, I guess from the brief walking I did, my contractions suddenly went into overdrive. For the next three hours I had basically a repeat of early active labor with Amelia - very painful, but hopefully unproductive (I can't know for sure until I get checked again, but usually I have some bleeding when I really start dilating more quickly) contractions 2 minutes apart. I tried to be good and lay in bed, but honestly it was just too painful. So I took a shower until I ran out of hot water and rocked in a rocking chair. Finally I was able to deal with the pain a little better and laid back down on my side, and around 2 a.m. the contractions let up enough that I was able to doze off. This morning the contractions continue - they are irregular and very weak, but my uterus is just worn out so they hurt (like doing sit ups when you're sore from your last work out).

I have an appointment with OB this afternoon. Hopefully she will tell me that my cervix has not changed and that Henry is doing great (so far, whenever I've been hooked up to monitors, he has tolerated these episodes very well). I hope too that, maybe, we can talk about what's going on with me. I am being very good about bed rest, I am staying hydrated like crazy (when I give them urine samples it looks like I just filled the jar with water!), and yet every few days my body totally wears itself out with these contractions. Honestly, it's hard to think about continuing like this for four or five more weeks. But the drugs they give me to stop contractions make me feel horrible too, and they aren't without risks. So for now, I will just have to hang in there and hope that Henry doesn't like hospitals so much that he makes his entrance too soon - because if he were born today, we would face 4-8 weeks in the NICU and the rest of us hate hospitals!

P.S. My blog is sad looking - it's my goal this week to get some pictures of the girls, even if it's just them sitting in my bed!

Happy Things

Remember my Swaff post? This is how I feel today - my discontent and restlessness from yesterday has been replaced with peace and gratitude.

Yes, I might be stuck in this house in my bed or on the couch, but I am still pregnant! After 18 months of difficulty and heartache, we were blessed with this little miracle. After a rocky first few weeks and a few scares that he might arrive way too early, our baby boy is still happily inside of me doing well. Even when I was in preterm labor last week and getting drugs to stop the contractions, Henry tolerated everything very well. He's an active little guy, which is so reassuring. We've passed the 32-week milestone and are hopefully looking toward 34 weeks!

I have a husband who has willingly and very ably taken over all the duties around the house - laundry, bathing the children, grocery shopping, everything. When we discovered earlier this week that the infant car seat didn't actually fit in my truck with the two monster car seats we already have, and I had a little meltdown at the thought of joining the mini van cult or the hassle of car shopping (not to mention that I couldn't leave the house!), he went out that very same day and bought me a bigger SUV with captain's seats that comfortable seats all three of our children (plus a couple of stray ones we might pick up from time to time). When he comes home after keeping the children out of my hair all day, he's never quite sure what he'll come home to - some days I'm just so happy to see him and the kids, other days I'm hurting and crabby, other days I've been bored and become obsessed with moving to Wisconsin or buying a new couch, or something. He's been incredibly patient.

I have amazing friends, who have just swooped in and cared for us in every way. Within an hour of me finding out I was being put on bed rest, I had more phone calls from friends than I can count - all offering to help. When I was stuck at home without my family for six days, not a day went by that someone didn't stop by to bring me movies, magazines, books, decaf peppermint mochas, and food. Every day last week, we ate healthy and delicious meals, thanks to my friends. And I've been so blessed by their phone calls, emails, and visits too! Last weekend, when I was alone, my friend Ashley shuttled me to L&D and back, emptied my dishwasher and trash, and went to Walmart to pick up the car seat I had ordered - and then sat with me while I talked her ear off (I was a little starved for human attention by that point!) My friend Elizabeth brought me a giant pile of magazines, which have kept me entertained when I haven't had the attention span for anything else, and a cozy pair of flannel pajamas. Thursday evening, my friend Gretchan came with her three little boys - her oldest is in Sophia's class and her middle son is in Amelia's class (she talks about him almost every day!) with the most amazing (huge!) dinner. Those boys are so sweet and make me totally excited about having a boy. It was SO fun to have them here and totally banished my cabin fever! Other friends have dropped off books, DVDs, dinners. My friend Karla, who lives in Southern California, even mailed me a box of oranges because she knew I craved them like crazy! I have two lunch dates with friends this week - in my bed of course - that I'm looking forward to.

My church has been bringing communion to me on Sundays. My friend Joanna from church has called or emailed me almost every day to check on me. They have prayed for me daily, and along with everyone else's prayers, I feel SO uplifted! Yesterday when I really thought I might go crazy if I couldn't GO SOMEWHERE, I prayed before I feel asleep last night for the patience to stay on bed rest. I woke up completely calm today, content to lay here and overcome with all the happy things I have to be thankful for!

No News Is Good News

Well, not much to blog about lately - life on bed rest isn't very exciting. And that's just the way I like it right now!

I have developed a kidney stone, which makes all this laying and sitting around more uncomfortable. I hope it passes soon! Today was a bit of a hard day for me, emotionally. My grandmother in Florida is dying, my father is down there with her, and I so wish I could be there for them. The girls had two birthday parties to attend, which I would have loved to go to. And just generally, I'm suffering from cabin fever. I spent most of morning just napping away my restlessness. But then my cousin called and we talked for an hour an a half, and then a friend called and we talked for another hour, and before I knew it, my family was back home and the day was over.

I am so happy and thankful to have made it to 32 weeks - that's a big milestone for the baby's well-being. The next goal is 34 weeks, then 36 weeks. That seems awfully far away, so I'm going to focus on just one day... enjoying another day of feeling a healthy, happy Baby Henry doing flips in my belly (yes, he's still flipping!) and the girls giving me belly rubs and kisses. And tomorrow the girls and Davis will be home all day, which means lots of reading Curious George and Angelina Ballerina. My church is sending someone by to pray with me and give me communion in the morning. And so, tomorrow I will enjoy a day of rest.

Purple Fly Monster

One of Sophia's favorite pastimes is to play with MS Paint on the computer. Almost every day, we find a new creature that she's created. I wonder if we'll have a cartoonist in the family some day?

Snow Days!

I have been waiting to blog about it until they got back, just because I didn't want to announce to the world that I was home alone... Davis and the girls went to visit my in-laws in Northern Arkansas on Thursday. We were all supposed to go for the long weekend, but because they live about three hours from the nearest NICU, I wasn't allowed to go. The plan was for them to come back yesterday, but because of weather, they didn't make it back until today. This is the longest I've been away from the girls, and it was so hard! I missed them like crazy!!

But they had the best time at Grandma and Grandpa's house



They had another Christmas - and Sophia got the Kewpie doll she's been wanting. Grandma has an old one, and Sophia has been wanting her very own for a while



And best of all, the girls got to see some snow! The night that Sophia called to say "Mom, it's SNOWING!" I could just hear the huge smile on her face. They had the best time



I love it up at my in-laws' during winter, and I'm thankful that Davis brought back some pictures for me



When it was too cold to go outside, the girls got into Grandma's closet and played dress up



and it looks like they were pretty worn out at the end of the day!



I'm so glad they had a fun visit and got to see some snow. But more than anything, I am SO happy to have them back home!! As soon as they got home, I had to go see my doctor, so Sophia came with me. It was all good news - baby Henry sounded good and there was no more change in my cervix since Saturday. So other than staying on bed rest and weekly OB visits, things will hopefully be pretty uneventful on the baby front for a while!

A Happy Monday

Just a quick post to check in from my bed... or, actually, couch

Henry and I had a wonderful day today! Almost no contractions since last night. I go back to see my OB tomorrow afternoon, and I'm glad I'll have good news for her. Today I was truly able to be JOYFUL IN HOPE!

Today was also my first day of working from home, and it went well. There are just too many major things going on at work for me to just be able to leave without preparation. I've been trying to get caught up so that I can go on maternity leave, but I wasn't in a position to be gone just yet. So for now I'm working on my computer at home - I'm even having some meetings in my living room! Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up until Mr. Henry makes his appearance, so that I can take a few weeks off completely to enjoy our brand new baby.

We got some SNOW today! Watching it out my window made me really happy. I'll post more about that tomorrow... there's a Lifetime movie calling my name right now ha!

*PS I had to make my picture black and white, because Davis took the camera to his parents' house and so I used PhotoBooth, which turns my skin GREEN!

One More Massive Recap

Thank you all so much for your prayers - they are such a blessing to me! It is hard to describe the peace that just fills me knowing that we are being prayed for, but I can tell you I feel it day and night. I have continued to have sporadic contractions this past 24 hours, but nothing regular. So for now I am staying put and waiting to see how things look at my appointment on Tuesday. I continue to be incredibly blessed with friends bringing food, decaf peppermint mochas (ohmygoodness so so yum!), and visiting me. This morning, a lady from my church brought me communion. She prayed with me and read some of the scripture from the service this morning, and was just a wonderful blessing in my day. I also remembered that our sermons are on podcasts through the church's website, so I plan on listening to those. Not being able to go to church was one of the things that made me sad about being on bed rest - how awesome is it that my church is coming to me?!

So that's what's going on with me at the moment. BUT back to our regularly scheduled programming... I wanted to finish catching up on some of the things we've been up to since I took a little blogging break in October.

Are you ready? LOTS of pictures coming right up!

On one of my ultrasounds back in October, we caught Henry sucking his thumb - how cute is he?!



I took two trips to D.C. for work and got to spend time with some good friends in Maryland - but somehow didn't take any pictures. Well, my friend Julie took one picture of me, but I'm not posting it ha!!

Then the girls and I took a trip down to Louisiana to visit my dad - the girls had a blast, especially on his trampoline!





Sophia in hot dog heaven - this girl has a serious love for hot dogs (so much so that I basically can't keep them in the house)



Back in Arkansas, we went to the pumpkin patch



With one of Sophia's best friends - Taylor and one my best friends, her mama, Ashley (who also took me to two plays... they are about to move away to Northwest Arkansas and I'm trying not to think about it, I'm so sad. But at least I'll have a great excuse to visit up there more often!)



Look at this little stinker's face!





I made some cute little chocolate critters for the girls' school Halloween party



and the girls and I took a long walk to gather leaves, which we waxed (thanks for the awesome idea, Sarah!)





And for Halloween, Amelia was Wilbur the pig and Sophia was Charlotte the spider







We cheered on the Hogs



helped Daddy work in the yard



and Ashley and I got to meet The Pioneer Woman and get our cook books signed!!! Ree was every bit as charming and funny in person as she is on her blog - this was after a long day at work and TWO HOURS of standing in line, but I'm still glad I got the picture



The girls made fun crafts at school





and climbed trees



Davis refinished the floors in our bedroom, so the girls and I spent a week living with another friend of mine and her daughter Zoe, who is Sophia's best friend



I discovered wearing a scarf is a great distraction from my growing... everything. Well, as soon as I put it on, Sophia ran and put hers on too



I love that girl!

And that, my friends, is what we've been up to!