Why use a pillow ?
If this baby is showing me it’s personality already, I'm not sure I'm ready and would like to keep him inside a little bit longer!
I have had contractions for weeks now. I mostly notice them in the evening on my way home from work after a long day. Usually rest will help. I’ve mentioned them to the doctor at my appointments and he said I only need to call if I notice six or more an hour.
On our way home from my parent's on Memorial Day I ended up pulling over the car so Ryan could drive. I was having some pretty strong contractions and couldn’t focus on the road. I even started timing the contractions. I was having roughly six an hour so I went home and did all the things I knew they would tell me to do. I rested on my left side, drank LOTS of water and even tried taking a warm shower. No luck though they were still coming. I decided after 3.5 hours of having pretty steady contractions I should call. I knew they were going to want me to come in and I just wasn’t in the mood. But there I was just after dinner time driving back to Eau Claire to get checked out.
Ryan stayed home with the boys on stand by and my mom met me at the hospital. Things are different when you have two other kids to look after. They hooked me up to the monitors and started picking up my contractions. They did a bunch of lab work. Testing me for infection, dehydration and finally a fetal fibroctin test. I was infection free and beyond hydrated. The FF test is one that they can do to see if your body is releasing a protein that indicates labor could be coming. If it comes back positive it really means nothing but if it comes back negative it says that 99.5% chance you won't go into labor in the next two weeks. My test came back negative. So that paired with the fact that I wasn’t changing (meaning thinning or dilating) the doctor said it was ok for me to go home. She wanted me to go home on bed rest until I met with my OB on Thursday.
The boys went to daycare the rest of the week so I could try and lay low. I went into my appointment with my OB on Thursday fully expecting I would return to work the next week. Well that's not really what happened. I'm currently still on bed rest only not as restrictive. He was worried about the amount of contractions I had been having and the similar pattern to when I went into labor with Easton.
So I spend most of days hanging out on the bed searching the internet. It amazes me how one can waste a whole day. Of course it doesn't help that I think about all the things that need to get done around here or how I should be getting out things for when the new baby comes. I can tell when I try to do too much as the contractions start up and it's a sign that I need to lay down again.
The disapointing news is that this is taking up some of my FMLA time. We are allowed up to 12 weeks a year of FMLA. Normally I would work up until the day I deliver and then take all 12 weeks after the baby is here. My manager said that the time I use now will take away from the time I will get to spend home with the baby. This brought tears to my eyes as I can't imagine going back to work before 12 weeks. She did say I have a few options but nothing is guarentee right now. I'm still kind of hoping when I have my next appointment in a week that my doctor will let me return to work.
Weekly Update:
Memorial Day Weekend:
We spent part of the weekend at my parent's house. The boys played in the driveway while the dad's golfed.
Spencer painted these shirts in Cancun for Finley and him.
Fishing for the first time this year.
We finished the night with smores.
We took our first spin around the lake in Grandpa's new pontoon. With the growing family and the boys getting older, Grandpa traded in his old pontoon for a bigger/faster one. He can now pull the boys when they are ready to start water skiing.
Each boy has to take a turn driving with Grandpa.
You can tell how fast we are going by Easton's hair.
Monday was the Memorial Day Parade. Grandma is on the board at Bob's House For Dogs so she helped create their float. She even recruited the two cutest dalmations I've ever seen. Spencer and Finley did great riding and waving at all the people. Spencer can't wait to do it again.
Easton LOVED watching the parade. He enjoyed the bands and the candy.
With me being on bed rest we've had lots of people offer to help with the boys. Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Ron came up on Saturday to help entertain the boys and to make sure all was going well with Ryan and I. Spencer knew right away that Grandpa Ron would take him fishing and he was super excited. Thanks for coming up to visit!
Grandpa Ron has a way with calming fussy kids!
Thanks to everyone who has offered to help us or even bring us dinner. We are lucky to have the love and support of our family and friends!
The weeks biggest news: I’m an Auntie again!
We welcomed the 10th member into our family last week. Hadley Marie was born on Thursday, June 2nd at 2:50pm. Yay, we finally have a girl in the family to spoil. I'm so excited to finally be able to go into the girl section of stores and actually be able to buy things instead of telling the sales lady "No I'm just looking!" Hadley is as cute as can be and Spencer is already head over heals in love with her. He’s even offered to help change her poopy diapers.
So the elephant in the room... some are asking it, some are thinking it... Heather had a girl and I'm pregnant with Baby Boy #3, how do I feel about it?
I'm 33 weeks pregnant, I'm on bedrest with two toddlers, the length of my maternity leave is in question, our house is for sale, we have a house being built... did I mention I'm 33 weeks pregnant? Who wouldn't be emotional? Am I jealous? No! After hearing, It's a girl! did I have a moment of jealousy? For about 2 minutes - yes! I stepped out of the room, called a friend, cried for a second, sucked it up and guess what? I'm excited to be an Auntie - I can buy cute clothes, spoil her with girly things and when she's being a snob I'll send her home. I'm happy for Heather and Patrick, we are a close family and I can get my girl-fix anytime. I've never (not for one single moment) been disappointed that I'm having another boy - I never pictured my life to be any different, there is nothing better then my little boys. And when they all go to hockey camp together, I'll treat myself to a massage.
Here is a preview of our newest pictures. I decided to do something different for this baby and have some pregnancy photos taken. We also got a family picture that day. Here are a few that she posted.....
Since I started working on this post another week has gone by and some major things have changed. So instead of adding another post I thought I would just make this one really really long!
I continue to be on bed rest. I spent one day sitting on the couch at Caribou while we had our house cleaned. We had two showings at our house this week so the boys and I spent some time visiting Grandma so she could help with them. Mostly though I'm laying in bed watching boring daytime TV. My contractions have been acting up more towards the end of this week. I actually made a call to the OB (who happened to be my OB) on Saturday evening as my contractions were getting more intense and avg about 9-10 an hour for 3 hours. He wanted me to continue to ride them out and eventually they started to slow down. I have my check up this week so I'm curious to see what he has to say.
Playing at Grandma's.
Anytime Hadley is around Spencer wants to hold her. Easton get's to practice his "gentle touch" with her. Actually for how busy and rough he can be he's pretty gental with her.
Auntie and Grandma were nervous about me on Saturday so they drove up to watch me lay around and contract. It's nice to know I'm loved and cared about though. Spencer was beyond excited to see Hadley at his house when he got home.
He even wanted to make sure he introduced Hadley to hockey right away!
The boys went to Madison for Caden and Noah's birthday party. Spencer was excited to spend another weekend with Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Ron. They took the boys to the zoo on Saturday morning before the party. Spencer is still talking about all the animals he saw.
The animals aren't the only crazy thing you will see at the zoo. Check out that guys hair on the right.
You can see Ryan and Spencer, but do you see Easton in the lower right corner!
Later they went to Aunt Rachel's house for the party. Ryan said the boys had fun at the party and they were asleep in the car 10 minutes into the drive. The drive home was way smoother then the drive down. I guess on the way to Madison Easton was pretty fussy.
Spencer got to open a present from Aunt Renee.
House Update!
We've noticed some big changes around our new house. The first coat of paint is up on the walls and the cabinets, trim and doors have been delivered. They also poured the front porch and steps. This is the part of building I really enjoy because you can really start to see the big changes and see everything come together.
Update on our house: So idealy we would have liked to have sold our house by now and not worry about it anymore. Well, it seems like things just aren't going that way. The market just hasn't made the turn around we were hoping for.
An offer came through to do a rent to own situation with a couple. After meeting with them and really reviewing everything we've decided to move forward with it. So it maybe awhile before we are signing the closing papers but we won't be making two mortgage payments come August. It's a risk at this point we are willing to take. So as we are moving into our new house they will be moving into this house. Hopefully before we know it we will be signing those closing papers! This is a BIG thing to check off our list. Now comes the stress of packing and moving. If anyone is bored and looking for something to do we could use all the help we can get as I'm pretty sure packing isn't on the list of things I can do while on bed rest. Wish us luck in this new adventure!
