The Coolest Surprise Ever

QUICK UPDATE ON THE BABY AND I: Things are going quite well with us these days... and by that, I mainly mean that I'm still pregnant! Tomorrow marks my 34th week, and I'm getting more relieved day by day, and more excited, as I gain more confidence that he'll be more ready to enter the world when he decides to do so. I did go to the hospital again last week, but thankfully they let me come home (barely)! They upped my medication a bit, and ordered me to be on strict bed rest (rather than the 'modified' that I've been on). It's made a big difference in keeping the contractions under control!

Last week, my incredible sister, and her husband and little boy, drove up from Arizona to surprise me. They stayed with our Mom for about 5 days. While here, they made freezer meals, helped with some baby prep stuff, and took Mya out on some awesome outings. I still can't believe that she did that for me! It was the best.

Not only did my Mom and sister make freezer meals, but they catered them to my present needs. Most of the meals are already cooked, and are portioned individually--ready to just be popped into the microwave and enjoyed! Our kitchen is upstairs, which I can't really do; and my Dad and sister just barely bought us a chest freezer for downstairs. SO, with the fridge and microwave we already have down here, now I can actually take care of Mya and I when Alex isn't here!

Kara helped put together some shelves that I've been wanting to put together before the baby comes. One thing that's tough about being on bed rest is that I'M STILL PREGNANT.... meaning, I still have little cravings for things that I can't go get for myself, and I'm still nesting (in my head). My dear big sis helped get some of the nesting things ready for me! (And of course, Mya loved to help her Aunt Kara!)

I just loved this picture too much not to share it. And I know, I cheated a bit on the 'strict' part of the bed rest orders.

One day, Kara and Jared took the kiddos to Hogel Zoo. Obviously, it was a WONDERFUL day!

Aunt Kara, her adorable little boy Liam, and Mya

Again, too cute not to share--they didn't pose her or anything!

Here are the kids playing together at the park

Cheating again (by not laying down). We haven't been great about taking 'pregnancy pictures' at the different stages. So here's me at 33 weeks!

My nephew Liam turns 2 next week, and Mya turns 3 on June 5th. So while they were in town, they planned a little birthday party for the kids! This train cake turned out so completely awesome--and of course, the kids LOVED it!!!

Presents!

My beautiful, amazing sister and I

Fun family time : )

As usual, there's a million pictures--sorry about that! There was just too much fun over the past 5 days not to share. I can't thank my sister enough for taking the time, and making the effort to come up and be with me. I really needed that time with her. On top of that, it was just great of her and her husband, Jared, to help so much with the food, baby preparations, and taking Mya out to have such a great time (and give me some extra rest time). I LOVE YOU SO MUCH KARA!!!

I Won't Complain About Bed Rest Anymore, I Promise

What a week. A lot has happened with our little unborn baby and myself these past several days. I am really grateful to say that at this point, the baby is still unborn and safe in my good ol' uterus. Almost two weeks ago I went to the hospital because of some really consistent contractions (see a couple posts below if you care about the details of that ordeal). Since then, I've been on modified bed rest and have been taking some medication, nifedipine, as needed to stop contractions. Well, this past Sunday afternoon, I started having quite a few contractions again. I took as much of the nifedipine as I was allowed to, but unfortunately, things just still didn't seem right. I went to the hospital again, and it's a really good thing that I did.

I was feeling an occasional contraction, but was having a hard time actually telling what was a contraction and what wasn't--they weren't painful, so I didn't notice a lot of the 'sensations' in my lower back and abdomen. When they got me hooked up to monitors in triage however, I was contracting every 3 minutes or so--yikes. I hadn't dilated much further, thank goodness. I was at 1.5 cm/50% effaced. One of the biggest concerns though was a test they did called the fetal fibro nectin (FFN). This test can help determine the likelihood of me delivering the baby within the next 14 days. The test came back positive. This doesn't mean that he's for sure coming within 2 weeks, but it does up the chances to about 1 in 6. Also, the baby was pretty low in my pelvis, with a really soft cervix.

I was at 31 weeks when I went in. They went ahead and admitted me to a labor and delivery room and started all sorts of fun stuff. First they gave me a steroid shot (betamethasone) to help my baby's lung development (it was a big shot in my hip--I have so much extra fluff around my hips, and yet, they went for one of the less 'fluffy' areas--not a terribly pleasant shot, just to warn anyone that gets one in the future!). They had given me more nifedipine, which did nothing to stop the labor. So the doctor on call gave me some demerol (again,

an unpleasant hip shot) to try to relax my uterus. She was trying to avoid having to put me on magnesium sulfate, but alas, it was not meant to be...

The next couple days were a bit of a blur. My doctor came in first thing Monday morning and had them start me on a pretty aggressive dose of the magnesium. Anyone who's been on that stuff knows that it's pretty yucky. The way they explained it to me is that it's kind of the big guns when it comes to stopping labor--it's basically a big muscle relaxant. The goal is to relax the uterus and stop the contracting; some of the side effects are that it can relax other smooth muscles too much, such as the heart and lungs, so they had to monitor me pretty closely. And the super fun side effects that I got to experience were dizzy spells, hot flashes/sweating, vomiting, aching, blurred vision, and stuff like that. They had me on an IV with lots of magnesium for nearly 48 hours--maybe that's why those couple days were such a blur : ) ?

I think the worst part of those few days actually had to be the catheter. I won't go into too many of those details, but in short, I ended up having issues with the first one, so they had to pull it out and put in a second one....it was one of the more painful things I've ever experienced; it actually caused me to spasm so bad that it made me vomit. Yuck. Are catheters really supposed to be that bad?

Also, my veins weren't helping anything. I have at least 6 awesome bruises on my hands and arms from them struggling to get my IV in a good vein. Oh well, those look much worse than they actually are! At one point they thought my water broke; thankfully I just peed my bed (thus the need for the 2nd catheter, placed properly this time). Did I just say: "thankfully I just peed my bed"? At another point, they thought I had fluid in my lungs from the magnesium. Again, thankfully, it's just a cold.

Have I complained enough yet??? Sorry. I'm a BIG baby. A big baby with a low tolerance for pain and discomfort. So here's what the end result of my 6 day stay at the hospital: They were able to stop the labor (at least for the time being), as long as I make sure and take nifedipine every 4 hours. I am at home now, and am so grateful to be here! My bed rest is fairly strict for this week. I have my next appointment on Thursday, and depending on how that goes, I may or may not have to stay on as strict of bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy. To be completely honest, I have still been contracting a bit. Not tons, but enough to concern me, and enough to most likely necessitate that the strict bed rest continue. After the hellish time in the hospital though, I promise you won't hear me complaining anymore about being on bed rest at home!

I can't even begin to express how thankful I am right now. I have been overwhelmed with gratitude in so many ways. The medical technology that has more than likely saved my son's life, and the medical staff that were so incredible--my doctor is amazing, and every single nurse that helped me was wonderful. All of mine and Alex's family, our friends, and everyone in our ward have all been completely willing to help us in every way. We've needed help, and probably will for a little while....... and I have no idea what we'd do without our selfless, generous loved ones. Among the support they have all shown, I have felt the countless prayers on our behalf. THANK YOU--from the bottom of our hearts. Calling my husband incredible really doesn't even do him justice... he's really been a saint, and has been calm under pressure as he handles being both Mom and Dad to Mya, plus working, making arrangements for Mya, taking care of me, etc. I swear I love him more and more each day. And then there's Mya. If you were to spend time with her, you'd never know that things have been weird at home. She has been so very loving, understanding, and adaptable. She's an amazing little girl.