Back to Blogging!

First of all, thank you to all of you who sent me emails while my blog was "closed" - it was such a blessing to hear from each of you! I'm sorry that I disappeared without an explanation. Back in October, I got an email that spooked me and made me concerned about privacy, and I decided to close my blog and delete my Twitter account to protect myself and my family. I needed to spend some time thinking about what was best for us, and until today, I needed a break from blogging, and I just felt safer without our lives "out there."

However, today things changed. And aside from NEEDING this blog as an outlet, NEEDING all of my bloggy friends now, and NEEDING a way to keep my friends and family updated on things... I just feel like it's okay to open back up. I think I am pretty careful about not giving out too much personal information, and you might find me being slightly more careful from here on out.

SO, with that long introduction, let me tell you what's going on...

As of today, I am on bed rest. I am not quite 31 weeks pregnant with baby boy, who we've named Henry Miles. I have had lots on contractions for several weeks, and my blood pressure was also up a little with some protein in my urine last week. When I went in to my appointment this morning, I was dilated to 2 (so much for not sharing personal information ha!) A week ago I was still closed but starting to soften and thin, and my OB told me to take it easy. I thought I was taking it easy, but after today's appointment it was clear that I wasn't taking it easy enough. So, this will be my home for the foreseeable future

Hopefully for a long time, because I don't like the alternatives - hospital bed rest or labor and delivery and the NICU! I love my bedroom. The other half of the room is all built in book shelves covered in books. It is dark and cozy and very quiet in here. It used to be an office, then it was a nursery, and now it is our bedroom. We decided to give the girls the master bedroom when we moved them from toddler beds to a bunk bed, and give Henry the small bedroom that the girls used to share. And we got the old study, which is in the very back of the house with an attached bathroom and wood siding - something I never thought I would like in a room, but back here it makes it a cozy little cave for laying in and gestating!

Speaking of gestating, here's what I look like these days

I got a shot today to help mature Henry's lungs, and I'll get another one tomorrow. And unless I start contracting again, I will just follow up weekly with my OB to see how things are going. I haven't been calling when I have contractions, because I can always get them to stop, but from now on I am supposed to call anytime I have any contractions. This is hard... for example, right now I am having some cramping. It's not something I would ever normally call about unless it got worse or didn't go away, but I want to do the right thing and be cautious too.

When I opened my blog back up, I couldn't believe it had been since the beginning of October that I blogged! I have SO much to catch up on - I want to share what we've been up to the past couple of months. So, because I now have all the time in the world, I am going to spend the next few days posting updates with pictures of what we've been doing. I'm also going to be visiting my blog friends, who I've missed so much, to see what you've been up to!

It's good to be back :)