Making a list...

My list for this week had nothing to do with Christmas presents and everything to do with keeping myself busy and getting stuff done!  I have checked off nearly everything and still have a day and a half left.  Got a lot done for work so that my last three weeks before Winter break can be as relaxing as possible and I can work ahead for January and a lot done around home so we're ready in case Baby B decides to make a 2014 appearance.  I'll spare you guys details from work, but here's a smattering of items checked off:

Finish the scarf that I started while on bedrest and make the accompanying hat for Baby B:

Those are turtles at the bottom of the scarf if you can't tell

Finish the four baby blankets that I started making when we moved to CALIFORNIA.  I got frustrated and threw them in the closet, thinking I'd finish them in another month or so once I had cooled down.  Little did I know that my job was about to suck up my life and spit me out two years later.  At the time, I had a niece and a god daughter imminently arriving (although I didn't know the goddaughter was a girl, so the blue/green was for her), and a niece and a good friend's baby on the way in March, so the thought was the blankets would go to them (there are two of each design).  Now, depending on the balance of the genders (the only friends/family I have who know what they're having are all having boys, so if the surprises don't turn out to be girls I'm not sure where the flowers will end up), it looks like the siblings of 3 of these babies might be receiving a blanket and one will go to our son.  These blankets are the most imperfect blankets you can imagine, and one stipulation of receiving them is that you never EVER show them to anyone who knows how to sew, or allow one to be examined close up by anyone with eyes.  The blankets are finished with the exception of their final wash, and putting away the sewing machine felt REALLY good.  This task took way more time than I expected.  "Finish blankets" has actually been on my to do list since August, and I knocked it out in probably a total of 12 hours this week.

The combination of really soft one side with really silky other side + trim meant that mistakes were easily made and fabric buckled, slipped around, etc.  My grandma showed me an easier way to make blankets and if I ever go back, it will be to those. I would NEVER show these up close to my grandma.

Finish decorating the baby's room by buying frames for B's animal paintings and hanging those and the embroidery hoops that I made.  Please note that B actually did everything, really on my to do list it should have said "ask B to hang stuff."  He also re-organized everything; every couple weeks we have to completely start over because I just throw things we get in the mail into the room, and we've been in receipt of some awesome gifts.  B painted all of these animals; they're mostly Western animals with the exception of the penguin which I claim as my spirit animal.  They're each animals we've had fun interactions with on our travels.  The dresser is from B's parents' house; we cleaned them out over the summer collecting furniture and other odds and ends for the room.

Nanaa is ready for her diaper change!

Nanaa has shown us that she is capable of going floor to crib, completely clearing the side of the crib.  Not great news for the baby, but great news that Nanaa is almost 9 and still has it.

At this point, I should mention that the quilt hanging over the side of the crib is from my very talented grandma, who is currently expecting 7 great grandchildren from now until May.  And she just got a new one a few weeks ago.  So far she has over 20 and each great grandchild has received his or her very own quilt.  She also made the cushion for the rocking chair, which matches the fabric from the quilt that I made (hanging over the rocking chair) and also the fabric of the embroidery hoops.  The rocking chair itself came from B's grandma's house.  Credit goes to B for sketching all the embroidery hoop animals for me, and for the cow painting in the right of the above picture.  It's from a photo he took on our honeymoon on the first night of our trek to Machu Picchu.

Our toy chest, which is a bench/chest that we found on Craigslist, is already 1/3 full!

Last on my list was to decorate for Christmas.  My dad is going to join us this year for Christmas; he thought he was going to see me uber pregnant, but he might just get to meet his grandson depending on how things go in the next few weeks.  Really hoping to still be pregnant, but if we have a baby, then that will be a blessing too. ANYWAY, we decorated last night and broke out the amazing moose mugs that we got from my brother and sister in law a couple Christmases ago.  I decided to pose in front of the tree...33 weeks and 2 days today.  Every day counts!

This is not eggnog, but milk.  B pours me a glass a day and makes me drink it, "for baby."  That's one of our birth class instructor's favorite phrases.  I make that face or a worse one every time I drink it.

Amazing how a slight change in perspective changes things.

I am so thankful to have a job where I get time off for Thanksgiving.  B also got Friday off, so we've been enjoying this long weekend together.  It has been gorgeous weather so he has gone biking, and I've taken my small strolls.  Now I finally have no more excuses, I need to head to the coffee shop and check "grade optimization projects" off my list.  Bummer, but it's the last work-related thing I need to do!  I always save grading for last because it is the least enjoyable.

Giving Thanks

Today we hit the 33 week mark for Baby B. For that, we are both extremely thankful. We were also thankful to not be spending Thanksgiving in the hospital. We spent a few hours in the hospital last night after I had some more contractions and consulted with my doctor who asked us to come in. They picked up the contractions on the monitor, but an ultrasound showed that my cervix hadn't changed much since my last one on Nov 10, and it was still in the safety zone of above 2.5 cm. The ultrasound also showed our baby's skull on the other side of the cervix, which is a good sign that he's head down. The doctor still thinks I should go to work and live life as normal. That was good for both of us to hear.

We got to spend Thanksgiving at my great aunt's house with two of her children (my mom's cousins) and their families. We weren't allowed to bring any dishes but ate like kings.  It was delicious and it was great to spend time with family, and we were sent home with a wide selection of leftovers. We definitely missed our immediate families though. We got to Skype tonight with B's family. Our niece and nephew look so much older than they did last time we saw them, and we miss them so much. Nanaa was compliant and sat on my lap during the call, and our niece kept asking to see her. It was cute.

We hope that you all had a great holiday with your families. We are thankful for each other and for all of you.

Rounding up to 31

Tomorrow will be 31 weeks for the baby and my first day back at work after an 8 day hiatus.

My app tells me that our baby's irises can now dilate and respond to changes in light, which is very exciting because eyesight can be a big problem for premature babies, I was told.  His skin has changed to a pinker color from red, and this week he'll be adding a lot of fat.  He'll mostly be getting fatter rather than longer from here on out. If he stays in for the full 40 weeks, he should at least double his weight between now and birth. His lungs and digestive track are still working on maturing.

My mom left today.  Somehow in the midst of a 3 day snow event (not a storm...it was never really coming down hard), her flight took off right on time.  The bus to get to the airport, however, was not even close to on time, so I ended up driving her there.  So thankful that we got the Subaru a little bit early; the past couple of days would have been pretty sketchy in the Honda!

Got home and had a package waiting...some of B's family sent us two Lou Malnati's deep dish pizzas! OMG I am so excited about these!  They were frozen in dry ice (not necessary given the outside temps) and when it comes time to make them, we'll pop them in the oven and then be transported back to Chicago!  Baby B will have his first Chicago style pizza experience in utero! We are so grateful for this and the many other lovely things people have sent our way.  We feel so loved and supported and know Baby B will be really lucky to be loved by all of you.

I was a little worried when I saw the pizzas though, because our freezer is pretty full.  My mom prepared 14 (I counted) meals for us (we're talking 14 2-serving meals) in addition to cooking for us while she was here.  Our freezer is so full that we have a few meals in the fridge that we have to eat first.  But I managed to slide the pizzas in!  I'd like to point out that the ice cream in the freezer is from over 2 weeks ago when we had guests and I bought ice cream for apple crisp.  Sometimes at the end of the day I realize I haven't had enough dairy and just need to supplement. :)  Also, there's food in the freezer door.  It was so helpful to have my mom here and key to my peace of mind...I'm not one who does well sitting at home alone!

We'll see how Nanaa does tomorrow all alone.  She's been a little weirded out by my being home all the time.  Our love/hate relationship has deteriorated from 90/10 to 75/25 I'd say.  She doesn't like being told she can't sit on my belly.

Hairy baby, stable mama

Had my appointment today with my doctor.  Started out with an ultrasound and then met with the doctor.  My mom is still here and was able to take me there and got to see the little guy on the ultrasound, which was cool.

We saw that he has hair!  It looked like a little mullet, we could see wispies at the end of his neck floating in the amniotic fluid.  You can also get a view of it in this one on top of his head.  We also got a real straight on look at his face, which was equal parts cool and strange...so skeletal.  His foot was right next to his face right before this picture, but then he kicked (I felt it) and it disappeared. So far on each ultrasound he's either had his hands or his legs right next to his face. The nub next to his cheek a weird cross section of his arm.

The additional great news, other than that the baby is doing well, is that I've stabilized and haven't progressed any further.  My doctor happily wrote my note that I need in order to go back to work; I'm going to head back on Thursday after my mom (hopefully) flies home on Wednesday.  Right now we're expecting to get some snow on Tuesday and Wednesday, so we'll see about her flight.

It was winter in Colorado today for the first time, really; it was 70 degrees and sunny yesterday and today it snowed all day starting around 10 am.  Not too much of it stuck, but I think tomorrow's snow is supposed to be quite a bit more.

30 + 1

Well, I've been home since Monday with very little to show for myself. My mom and aunt got here on Wednesday; my aunt flew back Thursday and my mom will stay through next Wednesday.

It has been so nice to have people here. The nursery went from a bunch of boxes and stacks of unwashed clothes to a place a baby can call home. Our nephew is about a year older than our baby will be, so we have an abundance of clothes, jammies, hats, etc in newborn and 0-3 month sizes.

Food is getting cooked, laundry done, and I'm not doing any of it. I'm very thankful! I have been able to write lesson plans, record video lessons, and keep up with my students, which has been nice. Technology is amazing!

I'm also thankful for each Thursday. Yesterday was 30 weeks and each Thursday feels like an accomplishment.

I started a scarf yesterday for the baby. If all goes as planned, it will have a turtle on it. I haven't knitted in 10 years but it seems somewhat akin to riding a bike. Thanks to janet and Hannah for the yarn and the book!

And some more news

It was bound to come out eventually...we had too many ultrasounds and one ultrasound tech slipped up while talking to herself...we found out that we're going to be welcoming a baby boy into the world, whenever it's time for him to come.  We are very surprised and excited and now know we have a little less uncertainty in our lives.

Nanaa was happy to welcome her favorite cuddle buddy home, though we're still working on the you-can't-sit-on-mom's-belly idea.  So far she's gotten around that by sitting on my chest, but B was able to redirect her to cuddle next to me while I took my nap.

Sharing the news

After a couple phone calls, I had to take a nap.

Home!

I got released from the hospital this afternoon.  It feels great to be home on the couch in the care of B instead of in an uncomfortable hospital bed, albeit in the care of some great nurses.

We had some really good news today.  The ultrasound showed that the baby is weighing in at 3 lbs 2 oz.  It was a full anatomy ultrasound again (like the one we had done at 21 weeks) because I was going to be seeing the high risk specialist and they like to have their own people do the ultrasound.  So we went through the 4 chamber heart (beating at a steady rate), all the organs, and the bones and stuff.  It took so long and I was really groggy from the medication that I almost fell asleep!  But I didn't.  At one point I got to see the baby's hand move and feel it punch me at the same time.  That was pretty cool!

After the ultrasound, I met with the doctor who reviewed my chart.  She had only good news.  My cervix was actually looking better than it had been on Friday, which she said was not unusual, since on Friday the baby might have been putting more pressure on it.  She thought that I am just having a stair step like delivery, where contractions come on but abate regularly until it's time for the baby to come.  She said that after a couple weeks at home, she recommends that I go back to work as long as I don't overexert myself physically.  I can actually sit in the back on my classroom with an ipad and have it project on the screen, so that will probably be my plan once I go back. (if I do).  This doctor said that if the baby is going to come, it's going to come, and I shouldn't worry that I'm actually going to cause the labor (within reasonable limits).  She said that the baby looks healthy and big enough and since we were able to get the shots for the lungs in there, that she won't be worried if I came in tomorrow to deliver.  Of course it's better the longer I can go, and the fewer complications and less time in the hospital, the better, but she made me feel very assured that our baby will be fine.

My regular doctor met with her and came up with the game plan, which is to be on "modified" bed rest this week, meaning I can get up and shower and do some light cooking, and by the weekend go on a 10-15 minute walk per day.  I have an appointment for Monday of next week to go back in for an ultrasound and a check up, and if things still look good at that time, they'll recommend me ramping up my activity next week with the plan to get back to work the week after.

B came to get me, and on our way out we waited for the elevator.  Getting off the elevator was a team of airlifters who were coming for a baby; the nurse who was taking us out said "are you here for the neonatal blah blah blah" and they said yes and she told them where to go.  She said that the baby who had been born was even earlier than ours is now, and very touch and go.  It made us feel really lucky.

During my stay, I got to visit with Sasha and with my mom's cousin Faith, who both came to see me in the past 24 hours.  Sasha brought me California Pizza Kitchen and Faith brought me a chocolate milkshake.  Both were very much appreciated, and it was so nice to just visit with them and help pass the time that way.  Again, all the support has been very much appreciated and reassuring.  Thanks to you all so much!

29+3 PM

Brett here. Quick update that Kari hasn't had any contractions in about 6 hours, since going on the indomethacin. See image below. Also, she got to go outside in a wheelchair, and now has shower privileges, in addition to bathroom privileges.

Sunday afternoon

My contractions have slowed more but are still happening; had four in an hour last hour.  My doctor decided to add a second medication, indomethacin, which they can only try until 32 weeks.  It's a 2 day course, then I'll be back to just the Procardia.  One of the side effects of indomethacin is reduced amount of amniotic fluid, so I'm hydrating like crazy and thankful that on my Friday ultrasound, baby B had plenty of amniotic fluid.  It should build back up after I'm finished with the course.

They've decided to keep me another day for observation to see how the new drug does.  Tomorrow, some high risk specialists will be here from the University Hospital and will see me.  They will also conduct another ultrasound to check on my cervix and the amniotic fluid.  The doctor is hopeful that I'll be able to go home tomorrow evening.

I get to take a shower this afternoon, and a wheelchair ride to go outside and get some fresh air is supposedly in the works.  I haven't left the room since Friday afternoon, so I'm very excited about this.  B is going to make a run home soon to get me a change of clothes and to check on Nanaa.  He's going to go to work tomorrow morning at least.  He'll probably work from home Tuesday and Wednesday, and then my mom is coming on Thursday to stay with us and help me out for awhile.

If anyone has read any good books lately, I'd love recommendations.  Also, any recommendations for Netflix movies or tv shows, or tv shows on Hulu would be great!  Love to you all.

29+3, AM

29 weeks, 3 days, morning update:

B writing here.

Everyone slept really well last night with the time change, except the overnight nurse, whose 12-hour shift became 13 hours, then became indefinite because she got called into a labor delivery right as she was getting out.  Big thanks to all our hard-working nurse and doctor friends out there.

The monitor showed that K had a few contractions overnight, but not enough to alert the Doctor.  K has still yet to feel any of them herself.

Then in the past hour she had 6. That is more than the Dr is comfortable with, but they're blaming it on being the end of that medicine dose.  The contraction-slowing pill is called Procardia, which is also a blood pressure med I guess.  She just got the next dose right and went 15min without a contraction, and that's where we're at now. They've decided to give her "bathroom privileges." So we'll see how she does walking around a little bit. There was talk of possibly sending her home today, but it will depend on how she does this afternoon.

K is excited to get out of bed for the first time since Friday afternoon, but I think she'd take issue with telling a pregnant woman it's a "privilege" to make all those bathroom trips on her own again. :)

Thanks for all the well-wishes everyone. Makes family and friends seem close, even if physically far away.

BB + KB + bB

A Halloween Fright

Hi all.  It has been a busy 24 hours in Bridgelandia.

I had a routine OB appointment yesterday afternoon, where I mentioned a few things that worried the doctor.  After an exam, an ultrasound, and a fetal fibronectin test, it was determined that I was at risk for pre-term labor. I'm currently at 29 weeks (and 2 days).  The ultrasound also showed that the baby has plenty of amniotic fluid and doesn't appear to be in distress.  Although it was a scary circumstance, I felt lucky for the chance to see the baby again -- got to see the brain hemispheres really closely and got a good look at the face.

I was admitted to the hospital and B got here from work within 5 minutes of me.  I was immediately hooked up to two monitors; one checking the baby and one monitoring my uterus for signs of contractions.  I was given a shot of steroids for the baby's lungs and got my second shot two hours ago.  At first, the baby sounded great and my uterus wasn't doing anything...until I sat up to eat dinner.  Then, even though I couldn't feel it, my uterus started contracting.  The monitor showed regular contractions, at their height about 6 minutes apart.  Anything more than 4 in an hour is bad news at this stage.  The nurse came in immediately and hooked me up to an IV with fluids because sometimes just being hydrated helps slow contractions.  They got closer together though so the doctor started me on magnesium sulfate to stop contractions.

Luckily, between getting the IV started and the magnesium going, B ran home to grab some stuff for staying overnight.  The first 15 minutes on magnesium were really rough and I'm glad he wasn't here for that; I felt like I was on fire and couldn't get comfortable.  The nurses here helped immensely with my symptoms and my doctor went to get cold washcloths because the nurses were so busy.  When B got back I was finally situated and comfortable, though nauseous.  We stayed up until maybe 11 and then slept, there is a sleeper sofa in our room so B could stay with me...it was a long night with a bad spell in the middle, but B and the nurse helped me through it, and my contractions halted and they were able to reduce my dosage of magnesium which made me feel much better.  After 24 hours of little to no uterine activity, and my dosage of magnesium sulfate stepping down, they've taken me off the meds entirely and now we're just waiting to see if the contractions will remain stopped.  I haven't been allowed to stand up since 6 pm yesterday; they make sure of that by putting in a catheter.  At first, I was grateful to not have to get up to go to the bathroom, but now I'd give anything to take a spin around the hallway.

Since going off the magnesium, I had a few contractions, so now I'm on a pill that will hopefully keep things calm.  We both forgot the name of it.  I'll take it until 32 weeks.  Tomorrow morning the goal is to take the catheter out and let me walk around a bit to see if that changes uterine activity.

Assuming this medication works and we're not meeting our very tiny baby (if it's on schedule, it's the size of a butternut squash and weighs 2.5 pounds) in the next few days, I'm definitely going to be on bed rest for the next week, and likely longer.  We won't be traveling home as planned for Thanksgiving.  We'll take this all one day at a time, knowing that each day inside is a big bonus for the baby's development, particularly the lungs, putting on fat for warmth, and brain development.  I'm sorry that we haven't been able to reach everyone individually to tell them personally, but stay tuned for updates and know that we are touched by your support.  We feel very fortunate to have all of your in our lives and especially to have each other.  Every day an adventure.

Spirits were high when we first arrived

Needy Nanaa when B got home to grab stuff

Last night after getting connected to everything

Also, B thinks the baby pic is especially fitting for Halloween if you look at it vertically.  Do you see a lady? (probably a witch)  Happy Halloween!