Sorry it's been so long since I have updated our blog. You would think that I would have plenty of time to do so on bed rest but I just haven't updated it. We have had a lot going on since the last update. We reached 25 weeks yesterday which is great for baby and every day means he has a better chance. My doctor's appointment last Wednesday the 22nd went about as well as we could have hoped for. The high risk doctor, Dr. Campbell, was happy that the baby was doing really well and appears to be very healthy. Everything on the ultrasound looked really good and he is very active. Praise God for that. Dr. Campbell was a bit worried though because I had a lot of contractions on Monday and Tuesday at work and my cervix had thinned from a 4 to a 3 from the last time he had done the ultrasound (the day they let me out of the hospital). So after just two days of work it had thinned considerably. He upped my dosage of medicine that I can take and said that he would leave the final decision up to my regular OB Dr. Steele as to what I could do but he was going to recommend limited activities. After I met with him I met with Dr. Steele and she was pleased that my cervix was up from 1.7, which was the lowest they measured it at the day they admitted me to the hospital, but was concerned just like Dr. Campbell. So, she said that I would be able to do a combination of light activities and bed rest. We were happy that it was not strict bed rest and that I would be allowed to do a few things. This took a lot of stress off Jonathan because he didn't want to leave me alone at all while I was on strict bed rest. He thought I needed to have a sitter the whole time. So, I have been taken off work until I reach 34 weeks; which means I can go back to work June 29th. The last couple of days haven't been too bad. I have been resting and doing a few things around the house. Jonathan and I went to Walmart and Lowe's this weekend, never thought Walmart would be so exciting but it was because I got to get out of the house. And we were able to go to Sunday school yesterday. It was really nice to see everyone and get some fresh air. I had some contractions while there so we didn't stay for church but as Jonathan said "baby steps", maybe next week. Jonathan stayed very busy this weekend staining the rest of our shelves in the living room and painting Ryan's room. I was able to help out a little with painting the baby's room but he did most of the work. It looks pretty good and I can't wait to get the crib set up now. I will take some pictures as soon as I can get my camera to work. That is about it for now. Here are a the ultra sound pics we have had taken since the last update.

Here is a picture of the baby's face at 23 weeks. It's the only picture we have been able to get because he always has his hands around his face. The picture isn't as good as the other ultra sound pictures we have had taken because this one came from Dr. Steele's office. The others have been from Dr. Campbell's office where they have better equipment.

Here are the pictures we had taken Wednesday at 24 weeks. They estimate the baby weighs about 1 pound 10 ounces.

Another picture of his foot, they just love our little guy's feet.

I will hopefully have pictures of the baby's room and crib next week that I will try to put up.

Update

The last two days have been quit interesting and I wanted to give everyone an update on what is going on. Yesterday morning I had some slight bleeding so I called the doctor. They fit me in for an ultrasound and exam to make sure everything was ok as a precaution. And its a good thing that I did go in. I was apparently having contractions and not feeling them. The ultrasound showed the baby was doing just fine; however, my cervix had thinned out too much. When we first went back to talk to our doctor she did not seem worried at all and had mentioned possible bed rest for a few days. After examining me she told us that she wanted to admit me to the hospital overnight for observation. Jonathan and I were both very shocked. We weren't expecting that at all. We just figured it was something simple and nothing to worry about since I wasn't feeling any cramps going along with the bleeding. Well, we were wrong. She explained what was going on and that we needed to stop the contractions. So off to the hospital we went. I have never spent any time in the hospital or the ER so this was a very different experience for me to be the patient. Once we were checked in we just waited around. I was hooked up to some monitors to check for contractions. Our doctor stopped in around 6 and said that I was still having a few contractions, that I was still not feeling, so they hooked me up to an IV to see if fluids would help. We had to move rooms after this because the labor floor was getting busy and since we were there for "observation" only they moved me to another floor. The night was pretty uneventful; however, I didn't sleep much. I have never been one who is able to sleep in strange places and in an uncomfortable bed, add that with a monitor and an IV in and it made for an uncomfortable night. At about 6 am I started having contractions again and these I could actually feel. They lasted for about an hour or so but were very close together. At one point the nurse came in and said that I had 6 with in 10 minutes. After consulting with my doctor they gave me a shot to help stop the contractions and it worked. Great news for me. I got a little more rest and then the high risk doctor came in to see me. We had another ultrasound done and got good news. My cervix had thicken and everything was looking good. He said he had no problem letting me go home today. Yes! We had to wait around for my regular doctor to discharge me and give me further instructions though. She showed up at a little before 1 and said that I could go home but was ordered to be on strict bed rest until Monday. Then they want me to resume my normal routine for Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday they want me to go back in to re-evaluate. I will have to see both the high risk doctor, who will do another ultrasound, and my regular doctor. If everything is looking good then I can resume back to normalcy; however, if my cervix has thinned out again then I will have to go on bed rest until 36 weeks. That would mean another 12 weeks of bed rest. Yuck, that would not be fun so lets hope and pray that is not the case. The high risk doctor seemed to think that I would be fine. But no one had any explanation as to why all this occurred; which is really frustrating Jonathan. I suppose I need to slow down a bit and relax more. My regular doctor does not want to take any risks since I had the abnormal AFP results that put me in a high risk for pre-term labor. As far as I am concerned, I will do whatever is necessary to keep the baby healthy and safe. Jonathan has been great and by my side throughout this whole ordeal. I don't think I could have kept it together without him. But I have been calmer than I thought I would. I feel as if God has given me a peace about the whole situation and is telling me everything will be just fine. Plus, Ryan has been moving around a lot and his heartbeat is still strong and normal. We would appreciate every one's prayers though as we are still not out of the woods. Right now, I will try to enjoy relaxing and making Jonathan do all the work until Monday.

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter weekend. The week was busy as usual. Our crib came in and we were able to pick it up on Friday. After much debate with the people at JcPenney and some maneuvering on our part we were able to fit it in the car. Once we got home we did take it out of the box, although we haven't put it together. I wanted to make sure there weren't any scratches in the wood and that we had all the parts to it. I am very pleased with the color of the wood and happy there weren't any scratches at all in the wood from shipping. Hopefully we can get the bedding in some time this week so we can start painting the room. I don't know how a crib arrived from Texas in 5 days and a bedding set from Walmart shipping from North Carolina that was ordered the same day is still not here. I would like to get the baby's room painted before we put the crib up. We will have to see if I have the patience to do that, I really want to see what the crib looks like put together. On Friday we also went to BabiesR'Us and registered. I enjoyed it. Jonathan pretended to for a little bit and then you could tell he got bored. It seemed like we registered for a lot of stuff but I am sure we still missed a lot of things. I did some work on our Walmart registry online as well. I tried doing it in store but the entire kiosk in the Nicholasville Walmart was gone. I don't know if they will be bring it back or not. Hopefully they do so people can use the Walmart registry. Anyway, I know there are a lot of items babies require I just hope I got most of them put on the registries. One very exciting event this week that accured, Jonathan was able to feel Ryan kick. He was able to feel him kick once on a few seperate occasions and then Sunday during church Ryan was kicking like crazy so Jonathan got to feel several kicks in a row. It was nice to be able to share that together since Jonathan thought Ryan was avoiding him because every time Jonathan would try to feel the kicks he would stop kicking. I am feeling very pregnant and I know its going to just get worse. I realized this week that I am not able to do as much as I used to. After cleaning out the rest of the baby's room, a closet, grocery shopping, registring and cooking Easter dinner for 10 people this weekend I was exhausted. I felt like I needed another day off just to relax. My back hurt and my feet hurt but I feel much better today. The only thing today that is bugging me is that I can feel the muscles and skin stretching in my stomach. Its been rather painful for the last few days but I guess that is all part of it. We spent Easter with Jonathan's family and had a good time. We watched his two nephews find eggs and talked about how next year we would have a little one. Ryan won't be old enough to understand what is going on but we will still take him around the yard to find eggs. All in all it was a very good week. We were both glad to be back to our normal work schedule and have 3 days off. This week is my birthday (on Thursday) so we are still debating about earning some extra over time on Friday. If things go right I will talk Jonathan in to not working Friday and staying home to paint Ryan's room. Hopefully next week I will have pictures of that.

Another week

We were really busy this past week. We worked some overtime at work in order to earn more time for when the baby gets here. With driving time we put in over 60 hours making for a very long week. But it will be worth it once the baby gets here and we get to spend more time at home with him. We got to have some good quality time with Rebecca's family Friday night. Her twin brother Chris stopped on his way to Georgia and was able to visit. We got to see her older brother Kenny and his family as well. It was nice to have us all together. We ordered the crib and bedding set this week. We decided to go with the ABC 123 set. Thanks to all those who voted! We felt we could do more with this set as far as colors go (blues, reds, greens, etc.). We have cleared out the guest room that is going to be the baby's room and hopefully will get to paint it very soon. We are waiting to get the bedding set in before buying the paint to make sure the paint matches the light blue on the bedding set. Rebecca has also been working on getting our registry started, which has turned into quit a task in itself. Besides that, nothing much has been going on. Rebecca is feeling well and putting on weight. We don't have another doctor's appointment until the 24th. We will keep everyone posted.

Here is a picture of the crib we ordered. It's not the exact one we wanted but we do like it a lot. We think this one will be very sturdy and will last a long time. It's a convertible crib that has 3 different stages to it.

And here is an updated picture of Rebecca at 22 weeks.