In The Hospital, On Bedrest

On Wednesday, I went to my regular OB visit. I had an ultrasound done where we got to see the Mister hide his face with his fist. When prodded, he only raised the other arm in defiance. He did not want his picture taken :-)

I then proceeded to get another (weekly) P-17 injection (to prevent preterm labor) and dropped off a urine sample. My urine contained protein in it so my doctor sent me home with a couple of jugs to collect my urine for 24 hours. On Thursday, I returned my sample to the lab where they also drew blood.

On Friday, I returned back to the doctor for a follow up visit and to check on my blood pressure. My doctor was worried that because of the protein levels in my urine that it could lead to pre-eclampsia. So checking on my BP was just a precaution. A couple of days before it was 120/80 so I wasn't the least bit concerned. Apparently my doctor knows what she's talking about because when I went in for the follow up visit, my blood pressure was up to 140/93, my urine still contained elevated levels of protein and I had gained 8 pounds in a matter of 2 days- that's insane! I haven't been swollen or puffy in the least so I don't know where all the hidden weight is.

Immediately my doctor made me go home and pack my bags and sent me to L&D. Usually Mr. H goes with me to all my appointments but on Friday morning he had taken his Dad to a Senior Retreat at the YMCA- something they do every Friday. I tried calling him but couldn't get a hold of him. I ended up leaving a message on his phone in which I was sobbing uncontrollably, so I sent him a text as well. At the time of my message, he was swimming with his Dad but once he got it he came rushing to me immediately and met me at the hospital for check-in. He's been by my side as well as my family and friends.

I got here yesterday at 1pm. They've taken my blood a couple times, put in a locked IV, are currently running another 24-urine culture, taken my temp, checked my blood pressure and are constantly monitoring Mister's heart rate and activity. He is doing great! It's me they're worried about. At the u/s on Wednesday he was measuring at 4 lbs. 1 oz. which I thought was just fabulous. However, now that I know he will be born early, I worry that he's too small to enter this world. My doctor suspects he'll be born around 34 weeks gestation, which is a week and a half away! Until then, I will remain on bedrest until further notice. There is no set date on which he will be here, we'll just continue to take it day by day and if he starts to go in distress, then he'll be delivered.

I've heard many success stories about babies being born at this gestation. I know having the steroid injections to strengthen his lungs is a plus and being here in this safe place is the best thing for us. It just hurts my heart to know that he'll have to spend time in the NICU. I don't worry for myself, I worry for him. I just feel like my body has failed my children again. This is not the birth story I dreamt of, but I suppose what matters most is that he's healthy, viable, safe, thriving and ALIVE. Nothing else really matters, nor does it ever go the way we plan them.

Please know that I'm not complaining, I'm just worried and I feel unprepared for all of this. Our induction date wasn't scheduled until September 14th at 11:45am and in a matter of moments the tables have turned and I'm feeling a little anxious. I thank God everyday for this miracle baby and I know how lucky and blessed I am (we are) to even have made it this far in the pregnancy. Right now all I can do is trust that "this is exactly where we are meant to be" even if I don't understand or like it.

Thank you for reading and for being here for me,

~Monica

Wordless Wednesday- On The List

Baby Shower

We had a baby shower this past Saturday. I've been too tired to write about it til now, and all my free time has been spent with family that's been in town, so I'm just now getting to it. It was a wonderful day though, and we were thoroughly blessed by our family and friends with gifts and treasures for our little guy. It was a day we waited for for a long time. It was one of those occasions that you hope will one day exist in your life, but that's all it is- a hope and a dream. But this past weekend it happened and it was very surreal.

The shower was hosted by my mother and my mother-in-law and took place at my in-laws house since they have a great room, with lots of space and great light.

Here is the buffet table. Everything was homemade with the exception of the chocolate cake. The menu consisted of stuff I had cravings for. My MIL made sausage balls and fresh pineapple kabobs, ham and asparagus roll-ups filled with Boursin cheese, limeade punch, and home grown salted and toasted pecans. My mom made deviled eggs, fresh strawberries with romanoff sauce, the veggie tray with Ranch dressing and provided the mints. I made a vanilla bean Bundt cake as well as mini cheesecakes. Some were plain with lemon curd and berries and the others were cookies and cream.

You can click on the picture above to make it larger, but I also painted some wooden frames and put copies of sonogram pictures of "Mister" in them, from the gestational age 10 weeks til 28 weeks. He's grown quite a bit since then!

The flowers on the buffet table were arranged by my MIL's neighbor and the pennant banner was purchased from Hobby Lobby.

This is the best cake EVER! It was purchased from a local bakery and is the family cake of choice- Chocolate Italian Cream. It's a moist chocolate cake filled with pecans and coconut and iced with chocolate cream cheese frosting. It's just heavenly. I made the vanilla Bundt above because there were people there with allergies and I wanted them to be able to eat cake too.

I found these adorable napkins at a local hardware store. I thought they were so stinkin' cute and loved that they stood up on their own as table decorations.

Here's another project that kept me busy for the shower. I wrapped Hershey miniatures in strips of coordinating scrapbook paper and secured them with a piece of Scotch tape.

We opened all the generous and thoughtful gifts, then Autumn played in the middle of all the tissue paper. Of course, this was all after she slept in the middle of the room snoring, and after she begged a few people for cubes of cheese :-)

We played a few shower games:

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  Never Say Baby- Everyone got a clothespin to wear. If someone said "baby", they got to take your pin away. At the end of the shower the person with the most pins won. My sister played mute and won that game. She had about 7 pins toward the end of the shower.


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  Guess the Baby Food- Attendants were able to smell and look at baby food jars and pass them around the room, trying to guess the mystery ingredient. Only one person guessed all 5 jars correctly. My grandpa said the chicken jar smelled like "burnt tires". ha!


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  Baby Songs- Guests had to list as many songs as they could within 5 minutes that contained the name "baby" in title.


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  Baby Word Scramble- There were 24 common baby words that were scrambled up and the the guests had 5 minutes to unscramble them. Some of the words were "poopy diapers" and "bassinet" but were spelled "oyopp sperdia" and "nestasib".


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  How Many?- We passed a glass baby bottle filled with colorful jelly beans. People had to guess how many jelly beans were in the bottle. The person closest without going over won a prize.

Mr. H, baby and I posing next to some gorgeous orange roses my friend brought by. At this point I was 29 weeks, 3 days.

To say "thank you" I made powdered sugar covered pecan butter balls for favors. I wrapped them up in blue craft bags and put custom labels on them and a pretty blue ribbon. I had big plans for decorated elephant sugar cookies, but at the last minute a friend of mine wasn't able to make them. Which turned out to be okay, because these were melt-in-your-mouth delicious.

All in all, it was a wonderful day!

On Wednesday, I celebrated a birthday and "Mister" turned 28 weeks! My belly looks huge in this picture, but that only means he's growing. According to his measurements, he's in the 55th percentile for growth and weighs about 2 lbs. 11 oz.

I also had my glucose test done this week and the doctor just called to tell me that I failed it. I'm not sure how they come up with their numbers but she said I scored a 137 and my doctor's cut off number is 134. So now I have to do the 3-hour glucose test on Wednesday. I was told to bring something to do because "there's no sleeping" in the waiting room and I have to stay there the entire time. Anyone want to play "Words With Friends" with me to keep me entertained for 3 hours? Anyone? I have a feeling this experience is going to be like the 13-week scan. A big scare and fuss, then it will turn out to be fine. I'm hoping anyway.

For my birthday, I went to the doctor for a couple hours, saw my beautiful baby boy, then we went to lunch where it turned out to be free! Then went to Anthropologie for window shopping. I've never been in there before but I left wanting one of everything. Then I went to Macy's to use a birthday coupon, that I couldn't use because my purchase didn't qualify but I bought myself a dress. Y'all I haven't worn a dress since I got married in 2005! Crazy right? I have a couple options, but I might wear that to my baby shower next Saturday. Holy crap, that's only 8 days away!

Later on for dinner, we went to Cheesecake Factory with my in-laws, Mr. H and my siblings. My mom couldn't make it because she was sick but we had a good time. They seriously have the best orange chicken ever. And the pina colada cheesecake wasn't too bad either. By bedtime, I was exhausted. Mr. H came to my side of the bed for "snuggies" wrapped his arm around my belly and felt baby kick for the first time. He only kicked once then we all fell asleep. It was the perfect end to a perfect day.