a hodge podge

First of all, I want to apologize to my non-mom friends - I know all that I’ve been writing about is pregnancy but that’s pretty much all I’ve been thinking about. I also know I’ve turned into one of “those friends” that doesn’t talk about much more than her kids. So sorry…I’d like to say it’ll get better in a month or so but then I’ll be so excited about my girls…. (Just wanted to let you know that I know I write about nothing else!)

So the nightmarish combo confession begins…

The last few days have been the most hormonal [weepy, emotional] that I’ve been in either pregnancy. This has been combined with having bursts of energy and then complete lulls on energy AND a literal insane drive to “nest” and get things ready. In all seriousness, I burst into tears after we spent the evening running errands trying to check things off our “list”, was not able to get any of it done and came home to a messy living room.

That was not to top yesterday’s outburst. I, also, had a weeping spell because we tried to rearrange the girls’ room, Daniel liked it and I didn’t. I was so upset because he “messed up” the one room that was perfect and ready. He calmly replied, “It can all be fixed in 30 seconds” (which it was).

As I am writing this I am laughing at myself. Daniel is handling this all pretty well since I openly admit that I am aware I am acting “crazy” and doing my best to not do so. But hopefully I’ll continue to receive grace since as Dr. Cox of Scrubs commented the other night, “Pregnancy is the one time a woman is allowed to act crazy!”

Another great appointment today. We are so thankful for our doctors. Everything is looking good, we’ll get more important test results back tomorrow to see if she will be born sooner than later. I was 35 weeks yesterday and what we did find out is that if I make it to 39 weeks (based on results) then I will be induced at 39 SO at the most we will have a new baby in four weeks!

My goal for this remaining time is to, of course, finish “getting ready” and mostly to enjoy and cherish this time with Emma. She is so wonderful and such a joy.

I was curious to see how my tummy was with Emma compared with Ba…don’t see much difference, but it’s still fun!

We had a yard sale over the weekend - it was sunny and we all got a bit of color (except Emma since she was repeatedly slathered in 50+ spf). A couple amusing things happened. The first is probably my favorite story…these two ladies walked in together, one asked if she could have a $3 item (a cool pair of cowgirl boots) for $2 - I agreed. She informed us she would be right back with her money and walked off, boots in hand. “Hmmm….” I wondered if she would come back. The other lady continued to shop, laid her treasures down by us also saying she had to go get her money.

She returned and I asked, “Is your friend coming back?”

“No” she replied

“Well, she took my boots!”

“Oh….I’ll got get her and see”

Daniel smoothly adds “I’ll walk out with you”

And then my mother in law fantastically remarks (sort of quietly) “Nothing like going to a garage sale to steal some stuff”. We were unaware but our other “customers” were watching this whole exhange and one cleverly said “I have no idea what you’re talking about” while shoving an item under his shirt!!! Our garage sale crew all laughed and got a kick out of the whole scenario. It was all very amusing to me. (And we did get our money!)

The second fun thing was we also had a “Help Us Name Our Baby Girl” Contest. Shoppers could put a dollar in the put, suggest a name and if we actually go with one of those names, we will split the “name pot” money with that person. Shoppers seemed to enjoy it. Here are some names we came up with: Anna (that was my contribution), Allison, Erica, Molly, Elizabeth, Laudra, Christianna, Melanie, Ba (my brother’s guess!), Sarah and some others. It was fun…and we’ll see

Thankfully, my protien count was back down to 2700 (not 5,000!) so I get to stay pregnant (and in turn have more time to come up with a name!) I am 32 weeks today, my next test results will be the beginning of next week. Even if it is high then, I don’t think they would induce for another week (to give the baby’s lungs time to develop more). I would then be 34 weeks. At that point, babies are usually breathing okay, and weigh enough to come home soon after the birth…it seems that we are in the clear. Still, I would like to stay pregnant as long as possible. Thank you for your prayers. We are believing God that she will be born at the right time (when she can come home when I leave the hospital), for peace and not fear and for Emma to have peace through all this. So…thanks again for your prayers! God is good.

We had an appointment this morning. My blood pressures have been perfect and my protien count was great too. My protien is the count they watch the closest - the indicator of when I’ll have the baby. When it reached “5000″ they induced me with Emma. Last week my count was 4300 but today it was just above 2000! The dr. said that if on Monday my count is 5,000 then I will start a series of two streiod shots to help speed up the growth of the baby’s lungs and then will be induced a week later. We, of course, are believing my protein counts will stay low. It was nice to at least know the “game plan” of our doctors, but we are not afraid. From now on I will see the docs every Monday and have an ultrasound every Thrusday to check the movement of the baby. We did have an ultrasound today to check her growth — she weighs 4 pounds already! This is perfect and right on track. And she is still a girl. We had a thought that maybe since we were having such a hard time finding a girl name that maybe it was really a boy — its a girl. I think this was our fourth ultrasound confirming this so we will be in for one big surpise if the baby is born a boy!!

I only have 11 weeks left in this pregnancy. As in my last pregnancy, I am being watched very closely for preeclampsia with symptoms of high blood pressure, swelling and some others. I had to be induced with Emma since my blood pressure and some other counts were “getting up there”. So it has been a faith battle both times around - last time against fear and the diagnosis and this time fear, my medical history and the doctors opinions. (I do love my doctors and am so thankful for them - they do a great job at taking care of me but they aren’t faith-speaking believers so I am always quite nervous for appointments to hear what they are going to say.)

This past week I’ve noticed an upward trend in my blood pressure. After some crying and praying and struggling God helped me come to peace. I was thinking I wanted the doctors to give me blood pressure medication to keep it low. I can keep believing God for a healing, and eventually come off the medication, but in the “mean time” we need to keep my pressures low. So going into today’s visit I was not nervous for any directions they would give me. I was expecting them and trusting God.

The doctor even brought in a guest resident to the appointment since my case is such an interesting one (We think it is because I have most of the symptoms but none of the problems! Praise God.) The doctor was very pleased at how the pregnancy is going and although my pressures are rising they are still “okay”. It seemed he couldn’t say enough how great this pregnancy was going (for me being “high risk”). They will continue to watch me closely and we will continue to believe.

The irony of all this is the one time I was not nervous to hear what the doctor had to say - all he had to say was good! I am so thankful that God is bringing healing to me and working faith in us.

So first… we got a new stove! Our other one barely worked so the management replaced it for us (gotta love renting in that aspect). But thats not what I wanted to blog about…with a new stove comes a REALLY big box. I requested that we keep it and it has now been transformed. My Mom and I spent a couple hours decorating and cutting into what has become “Emma’s Place”. It’s really great. And I think the third picture is incredibly awesome!