Another good week!

Last week was another good week for us. I am feeling better and having fewer real contractions. The medicine hasn't been needed nearly as much; which is great news. I am getting bigger and the baby is moving all the time. Ryan's movements have gotten much stronger even though I thought that was impossible. I can tell knees from feet and elbows from fists. And I can tell we are going to have one active little guy. Jonathan gets quit a kick out of feeling Ryan's knees roll over my stomach. I took it pretty easy at the beginning of the week. I did have lunch with a friend, Erin, on Wednesday. It was nice to see her and catch up. She is just a couple of weeks behind me and is having a little girl. Then I went to my niece's birthday party on Thursday night. We were suppose to go to a child care class; however, it wasn't one you had to register for so we decided we would take it at a later date so I could go to my niece's party. My niece, Jessica, turned 15; very hard to believe. I still remember her being just a little thing with these big blond curls and always wanting to sit real close to me when I was down to visit. I had a great time at her party and it was so nice to see my family. It had been awhile since I had been able to visit them with everything going on and my activities being limited.

On Friday I had two doctors appointments. I met with my regular OB in the morning for my glucose screening test that checks for gestational diabetes and a regular check up. Everything went well with the check up. But I did have abnormal results on the screening test. I have to go back next week for a longer test. The first screening test was pretty easy but this one is longer, I have to fast for 8 hours before and during the test and they will draw my blood four times (once every hour). I am really not worried about the fasting but I am kind of nervous about going almost 12 hours with no water. Being dehydrated can cause contractions. Plus, this test causes a lot of women to get sick since you have nothing in your stomach but the high concentrated sugar drink they have you drink and if you throw up you have to do it all over on another day. Anyway, I am sure everything will go just fine. My level was just a little high and I have never had a problem with sugar.

My second doctor's appointment was with my high risk doctor; where we got to have another ultrasound. Everything from it turned out great. The baby is getting big and growing fast. They estimate he weighs in at 3lbs 3oz right now. The doctor said that was a little on the high side but not abnormal. But since the baby seems to be taking after Jonathan on size that doesn't seem to surprise me. Jonathan's mom said all three of her boys weighed over 9lbs. I am just hoping Ryan doesn't get too big for me to deliver him. The brain, heart and lungs all seem to be still growing and developing well. Plus, my cervix is still thick. The doctor was very happy with that but I asked if I could increase my activity level and was told no. He said to keep doing what I am doing since it is working. At this appointment we got to have a couple of 4D pictures taken. These are amazing and show so much detail. It was so nice to be able to see these pictures of his face since we hadn't gotten very good pictures of his face yet.

Saturday I was able to have lunch with my friend Heather. I really enjoyed seeing her and visiting; once again, it has been several weeks since I have been able to see her. Sunday we were able to go to Sunday school and church service. I haven't been able to sit through both since I started having problems 6 weeks ago. Jonathan has made us leave every time I have started having contractions, no contractions this week! Great progress! We were even able to go over to his mom's for lunch after church. But I did sit with my feet up and reclined while we were there. I have been pretty tired from all the activity that I did do over the last couple of days so I am taking it easy for the next couple of days. We start our child birthing classes this Thursday (which we won't be missing) and I am excited about getting those started. And then on Saturday is my family/friend baby shower. I am very excited for my shower and can't wait to see everyone!!

Here are the ultrasound pictures we had taken on Friday. This first one is a regular 3D picture. If you compare this picture with some of the previous ones you can tell he is getting bigger (the picture isn't any closer up then the others).

Here is the first 4D picture. All of them are of his face. He still has his right arm up by his head and you can see some of his fingers in the pictures. You can also see he is moving his mouth.

28 Weeks

Not much has changed within the last week. I am now 28 weeks; which puts me in the third and final trimester. I am still feeling pretty good. I do think I am getting bigger every day though. We have another doctor's appointment on Friday. I will have to do the glucose screening test then. And we will have an appointment with the high risk doctor that day as well so we will have another ultrasound done. I don't think anything has changed and I have a feeling they will just tell me to keep doing what I am doing (which is almost nothing). I have realized that about 3 hours of light activity every other day is about as much as I can handle without having too many contractions. This past weekend Jonathan put together the glider and dresser. I am pleased with both and really excited that the room is finally coming together. We still need to decorate but that will wait since I can't decide what I want to do with it or the arrangement of furniture. Poor Jonathan spent almost 5 hours putting together the dresser because there were tons of parts to it and the directions were horrible. He said he realized that this was just the beginning of putting things together though and that he is looking forward to the many years to come of putting toys and stuff together for Ryan. Thursday we start our round of classes we are going to take. This one is just a basic child care class. Then the following Thursday we start the child birthing classes. We did meet with a pediatrician's office on Wednesday. They have a free orientation that they do and give a tour of their office. We really liked them so we will probably use them, its nice to have that crossed off the list. Everything is starting to come together and now that we are in the final trimester we can actually start thinking about the baby being here instead of in my stomach.

Here is a picture of our glider. Its a bit small; which is fine for me but Jonathan does look funny sitting in it. I find it comfortable; which is good since I will be spending plenty of time there.

Here is the dresser. I like the over all look of it. I hope it has enough room for all of Ryan's clothes as he grows.

A picture of the dresser and crib together.

And here is a picture of me at 28 weeks. I thought it would be neat to put on the same shirt I was wearing at 20 weeks to see the difference. I could barely fit in it.

27 Weeks!

Yeah, we made it another week and things seem to be going well. I had a doctor's appointment on Thursday and my doctor was very pleased with how I was doing. I am down to taking my medicine once a day; much better than the last couple of weeks where I was taking it two and three times a day. I am gaining weight right on schedule now. And he is still doing well. He has grown a lot in the last couple of weeks. I can now feel him kicking my ribs, honestly not a very pleasant feeling. This week was as busy a week as someone on limited activity/bed rest will probably have. Jonathan was not happy with everything I did and I honestly probably did over do it. But I don't know until I try. Wednesday Jonathan worked a half day at work so he could drive me to Frankfort. While he worked I checked out a couple of day cares, visited my Grandmother and had lunch with some of my co-workers. All in all in was a really good day, I was happy to get out of the house and see everyone. Jonathan went to the last day care with me after he got off work and we really liked that one. We are now on the waiting list and are hoping we get a spot before I have to go back to work. Saturday I went to the St. Joseph Maternity Fair at my hospital. Once again, it was nice to get out of the house. My friend Amanda went with me. We sat through a couple lectures, walked around all the vendor booths set up and of course signed up for all the prize give aways there. I ended up winning a picture package. I am very excited about that. It includes a maternity session that we will do in a couple of weeks. I have a feeling even though we won a package we will still end up spending a ton on pictures (Jonathan is very worried about me going over board on this and I can completely understand why). Our glider and crib mattress came in yesterday; however, we are still waiting on the dresser. Hopefully it will come in some time this week so Jonathan can put those together this weekend. I think that's about it. Since I was so busy last week I am trying to rest up this week. We are going to an orientation tomorrow at a pediatrician's office to hopefully find a doctor for our little guy; which is the only thing I have scheduled for this week. Hopefully next week I will have some pictures of the dresser and glider put together and in the room.

26 weeks

Yea! We made it to 26 weeks yesterday! It's hard to believe that it has been this long. After trying for almost a year to have a baby we are so excited that we only have 14 weeks or less to go. Week 25, this past week, was a pretty good week overall. We had a little scare on Tuesday and had to make a trip to the hospital. I started having contractions around 7:30 and took my medicine. The contractions stopped shortly after; however, they came back a little before 9. I went ahead and took another pill because the contractions were coming about 8 minutes apart. After that they stopped for about a half hour and then started back up again and were consistently 8 minutes apart. That has never happened before so we were a little nervous. I had been instructed by my doctor that if my contractions hadn't stopped after taking two pills or if I had more than 6 in an hour to go to the hospital and since I had both of those we went. Once at the hospital they hooked me up to the monitor and I had a few more contractions and then they stopped for no apparent reason. They did a fetal fibronectin test; which predicts if you will go into labor within the next two weeks based fluids, my test came back negative so they let me go home. Since then I have been doing very well. I haven't had to take my medication but a few times; which is much better than last week where I was having to take it two to three times a day. We are very hopeful that what ever it was that was causing the contractions has worked itself out of my system. I have taken it pretty easy all week and have done very well.

My big activity for the week was to go visit Jonathan's grandparents on Saturday. We drove down to Russell Springs with Jonathan's mom and had a nice visit with his grandparents, who got to see the ultra sound pictures of their new great-grand baby for the first time. My body handled the car trip pretty well but I did have a few contractions that night; however, the medicine did its job and they stopped. Ryan has been kicking and stretching like crazy lately. I think he is going to be a very long baby or maybe it just feels that way because there is not much room in there for him to stretch. He has been pushing at my sides and stomach trying to make more room. And you would think that he would like it when I eat so that he could get some food as well; however, he does not because then there is even less room in there for him. But its an amazing feeling to get to feel him move around and see him move as well.

Jonathan put together the crib and a bookcase this weekend. I was very excited to get those put in the room. It is actually starting to look like a nursery. We are now just waiting for the dresser and glider to come in to get those set up. Well, that is about it for now. This week will hopefully be a good week. I am going to work on finding a day care for our little guy and lets hope we can find one that is not only affordable but also safe and clean. Here are a few pictures I took this week of our progress.

Our crib in the room!

The crib with the comforter.

The bookcase we got for Ryan's room.

The nursery as it is now. Still waiting on the last two pieces of furniture and more decorations but it is starting to come together.

And an updated pictured of me at 26 weeks. I am getting bigger and bigger every week.

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.