Yet another day...

Well, our baby girl has grown one day older in my womb (Dr Robinette reminded me this morning). Thankfully, things are going well and still homeward bound tomorrow. Last night was an interesting one. An NICU nurse practitioner came by and greeted us and explained some of the stuff they have going on. It was very nice, I thought. Ben thought it was nice that she came by to talk, but when I explained that the OB probably put a consult in to them, he didn't like it at all. She left about 8:30 and about 9pm I started contracting every 5 mins. When I met my magic 6 within an hour, I called the nurse for some tylenol and zofran (I had gotten all worked up and upset) since I knew she would be calling the doctor soon. After speaking to the dr on call, she came and collected a magnesium level to make sure it was theraputic, gave me tylenol, and IV phenergan (bad idea). I am very sensitve to meds and my breathing went to less than ideal. I had to be put on the pulse oximeter and Ben and the nurse would wake me up a couple of times to get me to breath deeper until it started clearing my system some. Well, needless to say I slept last night and Ben did too. The contractions did stop with the phenergan, so that was good.

This morning after Ben got a bath to get ready for work, we sat me on the side of the tub and I got a sponge bath. It was GREAT! It made me feel so much better. He has been so wonderful. He told me this morning as he was basically carrying me to the bathroom that he wished we had the camcorder at the hospital bc I looked so fun trying to walk. Anyone who has ever been on mag will understand, your muscles just don't function as well.

After bathtime, I got my second dose of celastone, yay for getting big girl lungs. The dr came in and saw me about 730. We decreased my mag to 1gm and started oral terbutaline. He said we are still planning on leaving tomorrow and that they were contacted Matria, the company that will supply the terbutaline pump that I will go home on to keep contractions away (or at least not regular). Miss Aubrey went on the monitor for about 30mins and looked just great as always. These contractions have not bothered her, thank goodness. Last night, I guess they were bothering her, bc when I would start contracting, she would kick my uterus. I thought it was amusing.

After all that, Ben and I enjoyed a quite breakfast together before he left for work. It was nice. He wasn't at the hospital when the dr came by, bc the security alarms at work were going off at 7am and he had to go meet the police there. When he came back, he was pretty upset. One of his coworkers was at the office when he got there and asked how I was. I guess it was the first time he had been asked and he said he lost it. He just doesn't know what is going on and it scares him. If you know Ben, you know he likes to have a plan. Plus, between my body doing crazy things in response to these meds scared him too.

Please continue to pray for us. Pray for strength as Ben is not going to get to stay at home with me during the day, and I don't think he likes being so far away. (not that he is far, he is just not with me and Aubrey). Pray most of all that God protects Aubrey and me and that my body will keep her in until she is big and strong enough to survive outside of the NICU.

Thank you everyone for your prayers and keeping our family in your thoughts. This is not going to be easy, we know, but God is in control. We put our faith in him in the beginning and he has not failed us yet. We know that God will give us no more than we can handle.

Talk to you later!!!!

Not exactly the vacation I was wanting

So for those of you that don't know, I am in the hospital at 25 weeks with preterm contractions. This weekend I was having a lot of pressure off and on and after being ordered by a coworker to go to the hospital, I gingerly called the doc on call but then waited until after work to turn into L & D for what EVERYONE thought was going to be a 1 hour triage and then off to the house.

Well, not so much. They put me on the monitor and low and behold I was having a lot of uterine irritability and contracting. Okay, big deal a shot of brethine and out the door in a couple hours when we are sure they have stopped.

Think again! An hour and 1/2 later, I am contracting. blah. Okay big deal there is not a lot of them, so I started taking Procardia every 6 hours to stop them. I would still have like one or two an hour, but they told me that they weren't worried unless I had more than 6 an hour.

Alright, good. We just got bought a room for the night but who cares. Aubrey is in, we are good.

At about midnight they took me off the monitor to help me sleep, yeah right. At 4:08 I go back on the monitor. By 4:36, I am in tears I had just had my sixth contraction while on the monitor. The nurse comes in and tells me if I have one more she is calling the dr. At 4:50 she returns to tell me what the dr has ordered since I had had 11. After shot of brethine, ouch. Let's check your cervix....yay. I had dilated to about 1cm. (More tears) I have just earned selestone (steriods) for Aubrey's lungs and the dreaded Magnesium Sulfate drip.

I don't care how miserable I am or look. Aubrey is being great. She is not requiring continuous monitoring, just like every 5 hours. Yesterday everyone kept asking if my dates were correct bc Aubrey has been acting like such a big girl.

So the plan now is to try to wean my Mag tomorrow, (I am still contracting like once an hour) and see how I do. I receive the 2nd steriod shot in the morning. If all goes well, I go home Wednesday. On bedrest until I see my doctor on Monday when he returns. I will either go home on a terbutaline pump or procardia.

I will try my best to keep everyone updated, I mean really, what else can I do.

Please keep me and Aubrey in your prayers. I love her so much and I do not want to see her little body laying in the NICU. Thank you.

22.5 week appointment

Well my belly is definitely blossoming and our sweet baby girl is perfecting river dance on my bladder. Last Friday, the day before I was 22 wks, Ben felt Aubrey move for the first time. He is completely in love now. It is so cute. He told me not to go down the stairs that had snow on it Saturday while we were taking snow pics because he didn't want me to fall while I was carry HIS baby girl. It was so sweet. To all the people that have asked if I am having twins, which by the way does not offend me, I love my new tummy, I measured 23 weeks. Right on target. Next month is the dreaded glucose tolerance test...blah. But after that on MLK day we are having our 4D ultrasound...how exciting!!! We can't wait to see Aubrey again. On another note, my friend just had her baby at an estimated 25 weeks. Please keep Miss Isabella in your prayers. She is doing better already, but has a long road ahead of her. Alright, more to follow soon, and quite possibly a new tummy pic.

Bye!!!

Pictures of our sweet Aubrey

These clearly are not the best pictures in the world but we love staring at them, minus the one of me. Her name is Aubrey Kate. We are debating whether to call her Aubrey or Aubrey Kate. The second is a bit of a mouth full. These pics were all from today. I am 18w 4d. I am thinking I may be quite large in Mar/Apr, oh well, I don't care. I am still floating on cloud 9.

I hope everyone has a wonderful end to the week and a safe weekend!!!

Truly Blessed!!!

We had our doctor's appointment this morning and everything went great. We were so excited to see our sweet baby again. We are happy to anounce that we will be welcoming a sweet baby girl in April. We were very surprised, but so excited. The doc said she looked perfect, now I can breathe. When we got home from the dr Ben anounced to our spoiled little Max that he would be having a little sister, Max replied with a cheerful squeak of the ball. I cannot currently get the pics to scan to the computer, so I will keep working at that or have Ben come help me. Those will follow, I promise this time.

We had Bunko last night, and I had a blast. I can't wait until next month to play again.

Talk to you guys later!!!

Tomorrow is the big day!!!

Tomorrow morning bright and early we will find out if we will be welcoming a son or daughter in April. We are so excited to see how much the baby has grown and hopefully see that the baby is healthy. Working in the NICU at Children's has me terrified of awful things that could happen. Either way, we love this baby so much and nothing will change that. So our prediction is we are having a boy. Everyone in our family thinks that, except for one lonely soul and that is my SIL, Jessica. I think she just wants Harper to have a girl to play with. We'll just have to see. Alright, so tomorrow I will post about the doc's appointment and my first belly shot.
Tonight I am hosting Bunko, so that will be fun. We started a group in October, but this will be our first month playing. I'll let you know how that goes.
Please pray that everything goes well at the doc tomorrow and I will talk to you guys later!!!!

My Craziness....Max

I promise I will get the photo up of our little one, I just have not felt like fighting with my scanner yet. On another note, my silly little Max is just as crazy as ever, and I have to share this. So to refresh you, this is our spunky little black dog who is king of the (dog) castle. I think I posted before about his love for his squeaky balls that we have purchased probably 7 of to date. Well, about a week ago, he and I were playing ball and the red ball (his favorite) went over the back fence into the woods. Big surprise as this is why we have bought so many of these things. Well, it was muddy and Ben decided to get the ball later when it dries out and everything dies and we can just collect all the balls. This was not going to be the worst thing in the world for this little guy because he still had his green ball. Even though he had his green ball he was still obsessed with the spot at the fence where the ball went over. I figured, he's a dog, he'll forget soon. Not so much. Yesterday I was at work, so Ben was going to watch the game at a friend's house. When he pulled out of the garage he saw Max coming towards him from the front yard with his ball. Ben stopped the car, called Max who dropped his ball and barked at Ben. This is rather unusual for him, when he gets out, I am usually the one in the car, Max always runs up to jump in. So Ben gets out, grabs the ball, and Max follows the ball into the fence. Hearing this story, I am like great, now he is leaving with his ball, this is not good, because that is his favorite thing. Well, when I get home, Ben had the little stink tied up until we could fix the fence where he had escaped, and I see the ball, the RED ball. The kiddo got out of the fence, went into the woods, and retrieved his red ball. He was so happy. He would not stop squeaking it all night. I guess he decided that we were taking far too long and he wanted his red ball. This little guy never seizes to amaze me with his stunts. Another quick story about Max, Walmart has these 50"x60" fleece throws on sale for $4. I got one for the dog house since it is cooling down. I put it in their house, it started raining, and all the dogs met their new blankie. I think Maxie loved the blanket because when it stopped raining, I had to go feed the dogs, as Bruno was ringing the dinner bell continuously, I opened the cross fence to let the dogs in our yard and Max turns around, runs in the house (I'm thinking to get the ball, bc it does go in when it rains), no, he has the blanket balled up galloping through the mud puddles carrying all over the yard with him. Needless to say, I had to take the blanket away, but this lets you see my crazy butt's personality. It is going to be tough when Baby comes. These babies are the center of my world, I just hope the accept Baby.
I am going to try to get the Baby's pics this afternoon. Until then, talk to you guys later.

Amy