We made it to the big 3-0!! Weeks, that is

Today we are 30 weeks pregnant! We've been worried about whether we'd ever see this number in any pregnancy, and here we are! We had our 30 week ultrasound today, and everything was measured and scrutinized, and baby looks fabulous :) He is estimated to be 3 lbs, 6 oz which means he's growing steadily. If he keeps this up, when he comes around 37 weeks, he'll be over 6 pounds, a respectable newborn weight for 3 weeks early! Our NST went well today and although I'm still contracting, things seem to be holding up well. My cervix is a little shorter so they did another fFN test today to see if I'm at risk for pre-term labor. Fingers crossed its negative tomorrow! Here are his latest pictures...his hands were all over his face, so we only got two good pictures, but I'll take them!!

Here's his profile again

Here's more of a front shot, but because he was moving around, it's a bit stretched out looking, but his cheeks are coming in nicely, don't you think? And he almost looks like he's smiling :)

In the mood to gripe

So, I don't normally consider myself a complainer, but, you know, little things have been building this week that just make me want to scream! And the weird thing is, I barely get to leave the house now that I'm on bedrest...one thing I SHOULD be griping about, but am so far suprisingly ok with most days.

Yesterday we had an appointment for another NST and to get my Progesterone shot and on the way there, which is about 8 minutes away, we got to witness all that is bad about drivers who are really too old to be on the road. As we were driving under an overpass, an old man, with a little old lady in the passenger seat, in the left turn lane decided he actually needed to go straight. Without noticing the 3 previous signs that warned of the left-turn-only lane, and the big sign on the median that showed how his lane ended, he drove straight, right toward the median, never slowing down, never touching his breaks. Right as he was about to smash into the curb and sign, he pulls a hard right, directly into a little red car, right in front of us, to get into the lane. The little red car had to pull a hard right into the lane over, and nearly hit an SUV. THEN the old man turned left into a doctor's office parking lot, maybe 10 feet from where he pulled his little stunt, gets out, and goes on into the building like nothing happened. HELLO! Well, that 10 seconds kind of freaked us out, and it unfortunately started my contractions every minute and 45 seconds apart, and I've been fighting them ever since. And there was a storm last night which I'm sure contributed to them, what with the drop in pressure. Grrr. It's like my medicine stopped working!

Also, I had to have 2 shots yesterday, both of which normally don't hurt too badly, but were AWFUL. The weekly Progesterone shot got put in right by a big bruise from the one 2 weeks ago, and boy, getting a shot in a bruise HURTS! Especially when you're on blood thinners and they take months to heal. Yowza! And then my Lovenox shot for the evening...the day before it got injected into a vein by accident, yes another lovely bruise, and last night's was on the other hip, but went in wrong, at a funky angle and tore up my skin, OW again! And the stinging lasted forever. And contractions every 2 minutes.

And this morning, after a 30 minute warm shower, trying to calm my uterus to stop contracting, Nich goes into the garage, which we leave a few inches open for Belle, the outdoor kitty, only to find some wonderful neighborhood stray cat, not Belle - she has much better manners, left us a wonderful gift by the door. Poop. POOP! What kind of cat doesn't use dirt?!? We know of at least 3 other cats that hang out in there and share food with Belle, who seems to be the cat equivalent of Ellen DeGeneres - every cat LOVES her. But, really, and the poop was so close to the door that Nich's not sure how the cat managed to do that...Belle leaves us lovely gifts like parts of a rabbit in our front yard, that's happened twice, and although we appreciate the gesture, that's still gross, but not as gross as almost stepping in cat feces first thing in the morning. Gross.

And my last gripe today, is my fault. I have found a position where I haven't had a contraction in about an hour (yay!) but every part of me that is touching the couch is numb. And, Daisy has decided that since I am mostly molded onto the furniture, the spot in the curl of my legs is the perfect place to nap. She's not tiny and is right up against my legs with her head rested on my thigh-hip area. Everytime I move my legs out of the way, she scoots back to be in the same spot. I would normally throw her off, but she's so cute and I'm tired of sitting here by myself. But my body is about to scream :( Yes, my fault, but she's too cute and apparently I'm not yet in enough pain to disturb her nap...

Ok, nice things this week to balance out the bad...we found out Baby gained 1 pound! I gained 2, and am glad one of them is his :) Wonderful people from our church have been bringing us dinner twice a week so Nich has one less thing to worry about those days! I have been able to keep up with Hollywood news with the great, several months supply of "trashy" magazines Heather and Raquel have brought over - love it! Great entertainment for sure!! Sarah brought over a suprise dinner one day, such sweet people here! Matt and Raquel cooked us dinner on Sunday, and then Raquel cleaned and painted my toes! Now THAT'S a real friend who will clean out your toe jam that you can't reach anymore around a giant belly!! Nich found time to mow the yard, only about 4 months late, but hey, our weeds are now all the same size :) He also started nightly watering of the yard and grass looks like it's actually trying to green up now. Nich only has one more week until STEP I, the first part of medical boards, so soon I'll have him to myself for 10 whole days before rotations start! And, thank goodness for all the medications and skilled doctors that are keeping my body able to support this baby! Only seven and a half more weeks!

69 Degrees with the fan on, and it's still too hot...

We have had quite an exciting time!! A few scary moments and some funny little things going on in this pregnancy...

It started on May 28 at our second non-stress test (NST - monitering the baby's heartrate, movement, my heartrate, and uterus movement) where the nurses noticed that my uterus was contracting slightly, but rhythmically, and was termed an "irritated uterus." I wasn't feeling any cramping, but they decided to check things anyway and did an fFN test (fetal fibronectin) where they are looking for a certain protein that is present when labor is beginning, then they did an ultrasound of my cervix to see if it was starting to shorten. My cervix was still a good 4 cm long and closed, but was starting to funnell, meaning it looked like it was starting to try and open up. That evening my fFN test came back negative for the protein and not likely to go into labor for 10-14 days, so I went on home, relaxed. Until that night...I started feeling contractions, here and there, some uncomfortable, others just tight but not travelling all the way up my uterus. So I went to bed hoping things would calm down. 6 AM and still contracting, and now about every few minutes. Some lasted just a few seconds, other's over a minute and by 8:00, they were pretty strong and every 1 1/2 minutes. So in we went for an emergency NST.

Indeed, contractions were there and I was put on a 48 hour medication to stop them and sent on home and told to stay off my feet. I did as told, and although things calmed way down, I still felt "tight" and had occasional contractions that would start down low and work their way up, warping my uterus into a baby shape on the right, and a bulge on the left.

Saturday night, Nich was at a gig at the lake, and two sweet friends in his class, Laura and Lisa, were at the house hanging out and making sure everything was ok. At 5:00 PM I had gotten the familiar tightness and called Labor and Delivery where I was told to drink a liter of water and give it an hour. I did better :) I drank all I could, kept my bladder empty, and layed around until 9 when it was clear it wasn't going away. Another phone call and Laura, Lisa, and I went to the hospital. Sure enough, contractions! By the time Nich got to the hospital around midnight, I was admitted and had a cozy room for 23 hours.

23 hours turned into 4 days, 3 medications, 8 NSTs, 2 super painful steroid shots to help develop the baby's lungs in case he decided to come early, lots of blood drawn, a cervix that was funnelling on and off, and several ultrasounds to check amniotic fluid. And now, I'm HOME! This medication is working quite nicely and I only have a few contractions a day! It is sooo nice to not feel a constant tightness, and so nice to sleep more than 30-45 minutes at a time! I was getting my 9 hours of sleep over a 24 hour period, and now I'm getting 9 in about 10 hours during the actual NIGHT. How awesome!! Of course, I am on "modified bedrest" which means I don't have to be horizontal, but have to be leaned back at least, and I have bathroom privileges. But my whole life is on the couch, and poor Nich has to do EVERYTHING. He's studying for Step I about 12 hours a day while having to feed me every hour and a half (my blood sugar has to stay up all day now), take care of 3 dogs, run errands, do cooking, cleaning, water plants, laundry, all that fun stuff. I can't carry anything heavier than a water bottle, so he's in charge of moving all my stuff from bedroom to living room twice a day too.

BUT, baby's doing GREAT! If all goes to plan, we only have 9 weeks more, and it's totally worth it :) If only my dreams would stop being so scary these days...that would be nice - I'm sure it has NOTHING to do with the added stress...ha ha ha!

Here's our little angel who just has to stay happy and healthy in there for a few more weeks. This is from one of the ultrasounds checking the fluid, which was always a good amount:

So, on a side note, I'm one hot chick. Ha ha ha! We're convinced it's my medication, but I am HOT. Hotter than a regular pregnant lady hot. I used to be wrapped in a blanket at 73 degrees, and now that I'm back from the hospital, I'm dying at 69 degrees with the fan blowing on me. I can't even sleep under sheets, and I am constantly flushed. That must be the infamous "glow"... We refuse to turn the air down more, since it'll already cost a fortune to keep this house at 69 all day, in June and July! Also, I've noticed my butt...it has shrunk! Ha ha ha! I think it melted off.