"Velcome to Baby Land"

This week I watched Father of the Bride Part II and laughed my head off. Franck cracks me up! Last time I watched F of B Part II, I cried my eyes out. It was on television, and it was probably right after a big fat negative. Shaun came in the room and caught me with tears running down my face. He always seemed to walk in when I was watching some baby program (deliver me, baby story) and crying. He would always say, "Courtney, you have got to stop doing this to yourself!"--and then he would make me change the channel. But instead of getting on to me with F of B II, he sat down and watched it with me. I guess he realized that I needed to cry it out. One of my favorite parts is when Franck shows George the baby suite, and he says "Velcome to Baby Land." Well thanks to my sweet husband's very hard work last weekend, we now have our very own baby land. It is missing all of the final touches like curtains, accessories, and wall hangings but still we have a nursery! Here is a sneak peak...the pictures make the walls look like they have a lavender undertone but I promise it is straight up light blue.







And here was the last picture taken of me out and about..right before the big scare and bedrest...27 week bump.

And here we are celebrating 29 weeks! Wednesday is our official new week day, and we have decided to celebrate every Wednesday. I put on a cute shirt and my Henry necklace (Bridget gave to me as my Mother's Day gift--very special to me) before Shaun got home. Shaun brought home some nutty buddy ice cream cones, and we took a picture. I ended up changing my shirt before the pic because I didn't want to get any food on my shirt.



Oh and here is the blue glow that I get to enjoy from my couch...


This post would not be complete without a big thank you to my Mom! She got here last Thursday night, left a few hours ago to go back home, and she worked like crazy the entire time she was here! My kitchen cabinets and pantry are completely re-organized, bathrooms are clean, and a freezer full of yummy casseroles and soups are ready for us to eat. It was so great to have her here! I really enjoyed her company. Thanks Mom! Love You!

Bedrest: Day 7

Almost a week down!! It really wasn't that bad. I'm starting to get adjusted to the horizontal life. I haven't really accomplished anything this week...just lots of movies, tv, Internet surfing, and some reading. My mom arrived on Thursday night, and it makes a huge difference to have her here. Speaking of Thursday night, I spent another couple hours in labor and delivery. Shaun was on his way back from picking up my mom, and I was all alone at the house. All of a sudden I started having severe lower back pain and very strong lower pain/pressure. I of course completely freaked out and called my OB on his cell phone, and he told me to come in to the hospital. This was the first time during all of this that I was actually feeling pretty significant pain, and I thought we were in big trouble! I knew I couldn't drive myself so I called my friend that lives the closest to me to come pick me up. Poor thing, I think I really scared her! Of course we got behind the slowest person who was hardly even paying attention to the road. I started to get really emotional, but I held it together. Once we got to the hospital and through admissions, the nurse hooked me up to all of the monitors and also swabbed me for a fetal fibronectin (fFN) test. I was feeling so much pressure, but they weren't picking up very many contractions (lots of irritability but no big ones). Long story short...it was a false alarm. My back started feeling a lot better before I even got in bed from walking around...I now know that the lower back pain was just a symptom of two days of bedrest ;) because my back hurts all of the time now. And the pressure...how do I put this in a nice way?...apparently I was full of a ton of gas!! so tmi and I will spare you more details...but that is what it was! Procardia gives me constipation, gas, and hot flashes/flushing. It almost feels like taking clomid around the clock lol. But I'm not complaining! I've heard the other meds have much worse side effects so I'm hoping we can stick with procardia. The ffn test came back negative so that tells us that I only have a 3% chance of delivering in the next two weeks, which really put my mind at ease. Obviously we are not out of the woods yet, but I'm still sticking to my goal of making it all the way. Actually I've kinda adjusted my goal to 36 weeks, but I would still love to make it to August! As far as contractions go...I'm still having them. Last night was the worst I've had since last week, but today I've had what I affectionally call my "procardia jelly belly." You can tell the muscles are completely relaxed, which is what I want. My friend Andrea was here last night, and she felt a contraction and then felt again when it was a jelly belly...it completely freaked her out lol. In other news...I can't seem to get enough food. I'm eating like a cow! I really thought I wouldn't have a big appetite since I'm not moving around, but it is exactly the opposite. I want to make sure Henry is a big boy so I guess I'm just eating to make sure he gets chunky. We also have a nursery now! It is not an empty room anymore! Shaun painted the nursery blue this weekend and setup all of the furniture. Now it just needs cute curtains, wall hangings and accessories, but it feels so good to have a room for him now. From my couch I can see a little blue glow from his nursery, and it warms my heart. I will have to take a pic during one of my bathroom breaks and post some soon. Well sorry for such a rambling post...just had a lot of random bedrest thoughts.

Pre-term Labor & Bedrest

It is hard to even know where to begin with this post! The past couple of weeks I might have mentioned on my blog that I've been having tons of braxton hicks contractions. I tried to not let them concern me because they weren't painful, pretty irregular and "normal" for this time in pregnancy, but part of me was starting to feel like something wasn't right. It is so hard to know what is normal in pregnancy, but I felt like the frequency was starting to increase daily, and I had a hard time believing that women walked around with as many braxtons as I did. But I'm so tired of being "that" patient. I have not made it from one appointment to the next without having to come in this entire pregnancy (except from my 7wk to 11wk appt...but I think I called several times lol). Well Monday afternoon/evening I started to notice a significant increase in contractions. I figured I was just dehydrated or something so I started drinking tons of water. And I started timing them...they were one minute long, three minutes apart. I know at this point all of you are probably going to kill me for not going into L&D, but I didn't understand how they could be that close together and still not very painful if it was true labor. I decided that I had stressed myself out and that was causing the contractions so I just stopped timing and went to bed. When I got up yesterday morning...they were still there and still three minutes apart. I knew I needed to at least call and of course they wanted me to come in right away. They first did a trans vag u/s to check on the cervix, and they were happy with the length (think it was approx 2.8 cm (peaked at screen :)...down from 3.75 cm at 21 weeks), and I'm assuming that they didn't see any funneling or they would have mentioned it. At this point I'm thinking that once again I can't just deal with normal pregnancy sypmptoms and that I'm that super annoying patient. We did the usual urine and blood pressure and then they put me on the monitors. Well of course I felt nothing...it was like those bands had super powers :)...I had a couple but NOTHING like what I had the night before or that morning or even on the way to the doctor's. Several contractions or activity still showed up on the monitor so it was enough for my OB to decide to check my cervix. I saw his face, and I knew it wasn't good. I was just waiting for him to say that I'm like 3 cm dilated or something. It turns out I was only a fingertip dilated, but I shouldn't have ANY dilation at just 28 weeks with my "first" pregnancy (I always hate saying that but they are just speaking in terms that this is my first pregnancy to progress past first tri). So I was sent over to L&D for monitoring, and I again didn't have nearly as many contractions as I did at home. But I did have enough that they gave me one shot of terbutaline. I started seeing some really weird spots in my vision but fortunately it didn't last long and I also had a racing heartbeat (which is normal side effect from the shot). We thought one was going to knock it out...but activity started again so they gave me a procardia pill. At this point I need to mention how amazing my friends are...seriously they are the best. Shaun couldn't get out of work because he had an important all day conference call (of course he could have left if it got really bad!..he was just a phone call away). Claire and Bridget both knew that I would not ask for them to come up there so they just came, and it was so great having them there. They kept me VERY entertained. I loved how they asked a million questions so for once I didn't have to be "that" patient, and they were watching the monitor closely to look for contractions. Andrea and Jessica were texting me to check on me, and they were also just a phone call away. It makes a huge difference to face something like this with friends by your side. It really looked like the contractions were gone until right before my OB came to check on me...I had several more. They gave me another shot of terbutaline and later another procardia. This seemed to do the trick, and we were discharged around 8 PM with a prescription for procardia every 6 hours and strict bedrest until further notice. OB said we can re-evaluate the bedrest in 3 weeks if I don't have any episodes and no more changes to my cervix. As I'm typing this in bed right now, I'm still having some contractions so I'm not feeling very confident that this will just be a 3 week bedrest. Shaun is meeting my Dad to pick up my Mom tomorrow night so I will be very grateful to have her here. I know it might not be realistic, but I'm keeping my eyes set on 12 more weeks...that would put me at my due date of August 12th! I will lay here for 12 weeks if that is what it takes. We are very encouraged that Henry is looking great on the ultrasound and is still measuring a little over a week ahead. He also did really well on the monitors yesterday, which makes me happy. They did give me a steroid shot for his lungs to develop at the hospital yesterday, and I will get another dose at my ob's office today around 3. I know I'm leaving out info so please feel free to ask questions! I will update (maybe even via mobile--wow fancy) if I have to go into the hospital again or if anything changes this afternoon.

But after such a scary post...let me leave you with some 4D pics of sweet Henry. I know I'm partial, but he is a cutie! We had the 4D the Friday before Mother's Day, and we caught him yawning several times and playing with his toes. He is such a blessing, and he is just precious.







Caught in a yawn!

Thinking of all of you today

Today is the first Mother's day that I thought I wouldn't have tears running down my face, but I still do. This time...it is happy tears. Two years ago on Mother's Day, I took a pregnancy test and cried my eyes out. Last Mother's Day, I walked around church with a lump in my throat and hardly made it through. This Mother's Day, I cry again as my little boy wakes me up with his kicks. To say that I'm blessed to have our sweet Henry really doesn't put into words how I'm feeling today. I'm thinking of all of you today, and praying for God to surround you with His comforting arms today.