29 Weeks

I am officially 29 weeks! I have always counted on Fridays but there's actually a chance I am a little farther than  that because they've changed my due date a couple of times and I am still counting from the latest one, which was August 10th. But, we'll just say I'm only 29 for the sake of motivating me to keep going farther. If this were my Gabe pregnancy, my water would break this week when I got up to pee in the middle of the night. Let's hope that doesn't happen this time around!

Josh left for his 2-week trip this morning at about 6:30. Diane (his mom) has been here all day helping watch my kids for me and attempting to teach me how to crochet. I'm pretty sure she showed me at least 100 times but I am still moving at a snail's pace with this little burp cloth I am working on.

Right now, Diane and the boys are in Idaho Falls, picking up my mom at the airport. Then my mom will be here  until next Saturday. I wish Josh could just be home by then! But no... 8 days is not long enough to learn how to take care of a dog. So then the following week will be a little crazy, but with each passing week I am feeling a little bit more relaxed with the idea of having the baby. Not that I want to have it next week or anything, but at least I know at this point I am in familiar territory.

I went to the doctor on Tuesday again. My ultrasound showed that my cervix is about the same as it was last week - the length is 1.4 cm (normal length is 4cm) - which is a the whole reason for the concern/bedrest. At least it hasn't been getting worse! The baby weighed exactly 3 pounds, and she weighed 2 lbs 10 oz the week previous. So, they say a baby gains about 1/3 pound to a 1/2 pound per week at this point. I would really like to have at least a 5 pounder! So that would mean I need at least another 4 weeks. Preferably more of course, but... we'll see.

I told my doctor I would really like to have the cervical stitches taken out around 34 weeks and then go into labor naturally like a week or two later. What I do NOT want to happen is to start having contractions in the next few weeks, rush to the hospital, then have to worry about telling someone to remove the stitches while I am in labor and about to push a baby out! That does NOT sound fun. She seemed hesitant to take them out before 36 weeks though and gave me a prescription to take twice a day that's supposed to put off contractions. I was kind of like, "Well... I haven't had any contractions yet...so do you think I need this?" But   I think she's just doing anything that might possibly help. (My mom said, "She probably was just trying to settle you down. You better stop whining or she'll prescribe you Valium next time!") I had the steroid shots for the baby's lungs, I still do the weekly progesterone shots until 36 weeks, I have my cervix stitched shut, and for pete's sake my sister-in-law even "zoned" me (rubbed my feet a fancy way basically) to supposedly help close my cervix. If there's anything else left to try, I would do it, but I'm pretty sure I've done everything that's possibly out there to try. Bedrest is by far the hardest and least convenient thing, but probably the most important. So here I lay!

In other fun news though.... Gabe and Caleb are officially done with school! Gabe's last day of Kindergarten was Wednesday and Caleb's last day of preschool was Thursday. I can't believe little Gabe will never be a Kindergartner again! He had a little program on Tuesday night that Josh went to and videotaped. He read a little story he wrote and it was all about the playhouse his dad built for him and how he plays with his puppy by his playhouse. It was so cute. All the kids wrote their own little stories and read them and that's what he chose to write about. He also had a school assembly and he got chosen to go up on-stage and he came home with this big balloon hat and a cool yo-yo. He was pretty excited. Here is Gabe with his teacher, Mrs. Hill and the aide who helped him in his after-school reading club, Mrs. Snedaker. It was a great first year of school for him!

That's all the news for now!

Josh Rhodes: K-9 Officer, Rexburg PD

Well, that title pretty much sums it up. The End! Jk. Basically, to make a long story short, Josh has wanted to be a dog cop since the day he first applied as an officer in Wisconsin. We (or I specifically) did not realize it would happen this soon, but I just am trying to say, "Okay! Not the best timing in the world, but it's your dream!" It just happened kind of quickly because there were some changes in the department that filtered up to leaving two spots open for new K-9 officers. Josh is really excited because there were about seven guys that applied for it within the department and he and his friend were the two they picked.

BUT - here is the crazy part. It almost made us pull out his letter of intent a week ago because one of the job requirements is to attend a 2-week training with your dog in Tennessee! The dates for the training, which were already set in stone by the department because they had to pay for the class, are May 25th to June 10th. Yeah, that's in like... a week.

So, when I got put on bedrest Josh's immediate response was, "Well, I'm just not gonna do it. I'll tell them I can't be considered anymore." But he looked like a sad puppy when he said it and I knew he was majorly bummed. I even talked to his sergeant one night and asked him, "What is the likelihood of this K-9 spot opening up again in a year or two?" and I guess it's pretty slim. So we felt like, if he doesn't do this now, he might not get the chance again for years. So, it's crazy and horrible timing, but we're gonna make it work. My mom is going to come out for the first week he's gone and after that, we'll just see what we can do with neighbors and friends. I will be 30 weeks by the time my mom leaves so at least that's closer! Then I have to hang on 10 more days until Josh gets home. Any time after that, I will feel like I am kind of in the clear.

The new dog will be joining the family at the end of this week. It's a yellow lab, male, named Truck. I guess he is a sniffer dog only, not an attack dog, and he is very mild and well-trained (so they say!)
How we are going from just adding a baby girl to our family this year, to now 2 DOGS as well, I have no idea how that all happened. I told Josh if he so much as brings home a hamster in the next 3 years, he's moving into the playhouse, cause this house is FULL to capacity. And I mean it. Wish me luck in this crazy life we are living!

More bedrest rants... 27 weeks 5 days

Well, since I am finding it difficult to stay motivated to lay down all day and keep this baby in, I have decided to create a grading system for myself on this "Baby Growing" class I am enrolled in. I was always a good student so maybe this will somehow motivate me. The grading rubric is as follows:

Baby born at -
28 weeks: Fail                                 F
29 weeks: Needs Improvement        D
30 - 32 weeks: Satisfactory              C  (unless it is between
                                                             June 1st and June 10th-
                                                             more coming on that)

32 - 34 weeks: Good                        B
34 - 36 weeks: Very Good                A
36 + weeks: Excellent                      A+

So! It'll be interesting to see what grade I get in this class! Will someone send me a report card if I pass? :) jk.

Here's the weekly report:

I have spent since last Monday evening (May7th: The Turning Point Day) mostly laying in bed, occasionally on the couch, and twice in the reclining lawnchair outside attempting to not become albino. My kids have been juggled between two different neighbors, my mother-in-law, a couple college girls, and Josh in the past 4 days alone. At least 8 different families have brought us meals. (A silver lining! No cooking!!) I am up to 140 pounds. The weather outside has been 70-80 and sunny all week and it is killing me to watch it out my bedroom window! I haven't gotten bored enough to start reading a novel yet, mostly occupying myself with "How I Met Your Mother", "That 70's Show," the internet, and crafty nursery projects I can do in bed. I like feeling like I'm still getting stuff done, so working on a baby mobile, needlepointing a pillow, etc. are things I feel productive at. I made Josh stop at JoAnn's yesterday and get some supplies after my doctor's appt and I think he was at his max patience level.

Now about the appointment:

So last week I didn't get to see the doctor cause she was in delivery. I saw the ultrasound lady, who saw my "funneling" cervix, then the physician's assistant, who put me on bedrest and told me to come see Dr. Huggins in a week. Then she called me and said the doctor wanted me to get some steroid shots too, so I can beef up. jk. It is standard to give 2 steroid injections (in my butt) about 24 hours apart if they fear your baby may be born prematurely. This has been show to greatly improve the development of the baby's lungs quicky in utero, so they are born with a better chance in the NICU. They may still need oxygen and things but it's just supposed to help a lot. My neighbor, who had her little girl at 27.5 weeks, said she got the shots a day or two before she delivered and her baby's lungs were pretty good. She's now 2 and healthy. So that's encouraging.

My ultrasound still showed the "funneling." Whoohoo. But the stitches she did at 12 weeks are still holding so basically about half of the cervix or "baby tunnel" is unzipped and half is closed. It's hard to explain but basically the stitches at the bottom end of the tunnel are keeping my baby from falling out, even though the pressure is starting to build and the top is opening. My only fear is what if this growing pressure just causes the stitches to tear right out, like a seam ripping open on a dress before the doctor schedules them for removal at 36 weeks?  I asked her if that could happen and she replied, "It's not likely." I felt like Lloyd on Dumb and Dumber when I replied, "Sooo.... you're telling me there's a chance...." Is it bad of me as a mother to be more worried about my own possible pain and trauma than the baby's in the NICU? Maybe.... but she probably won't remember it. I would for sure remember the searing pain of my cervix ripping apart to shreads. (TMI? Sorry.)

Well that is all I will write about the bedrest right now. Caleb just woke up and wandered in here a few minutes ago so we put on The Backyardigans and he is content. Josh should be getting home from work any minute (he's on nights, M-TH). Caleb just leaned over to me and whispered, "I got a secret... come here..." Then leaned over in bed next to me and whispered (slowly, like he waas definitely not even sure what his secret was going to be yet, but just wanting to say something) "Um... Dad is at work right now.... fighting bad guys!" It was so cute. Now he randomly just said, "Know what my favorite jungle animal is? A giraffe." I never know what's going to come out of that kid's mouth next. It's crazy to think I laid in bed for him from 23 to 36 weeks, but he came out healthy and fine in the end. I guess I just have to remember it's a small price to pay for a healthy child in the grand scheme of things. I still want to throw my magazine when I see a nine month pregnant lady walk into the doctor's office able to still carry her 2 year old on her hip and her cute bag on the other shoulder, but I know I could compare myself to plenty of other women I know personally who have had struggles a lot worse than mine, trying to get babies into this world. I don't understand why Heavenly Father wants it this way for some and not others, but I guess I will ask him that someday! Until then, I'll try to stay optimistic and grateful for the two healthy kids I have.

Now onto a lighter post topic.... Dog #2 coming soon.... Save me.

Getting Comfy in Bed Again

Well this stinks. Just after I post my fabulous Summer list of everything I want to do with the boys before the baby is born, I go to the doctor for a routine check-up and ultrasound and find out that my stupid baby-making body is up to its usual tricks. Someone in church once said, "If you want to make God laugh, just tell him your plans." I agree.

Even though they did a preventative surgery this pregnancy at 12 weeks to sew my cervix shut - yes, that sounds pleasant, right? - it still wants to open and send the baby flying out into the world already! WHY!? I don't know. I thought it was behaving so well this time. When I had my ultrasound 4 weeks ago I was really nervous because I knew that I was put on bedrest with Caleb at 23 weeks because of the same cervix problem. But they said everything looked great and I kept on living my normal life this past month! Does this mean I was working out at the gym everyday? Of course not! (Anyone who knows me at all knows I would never do that... even not pregnant.) But I was taking the boys for walks with Zoe, running errands all day, grocery shopping, cleaning out the garage, etc. Well, apparently that was just too much for my weak little girly body and now my cervix is "funneling" again. This was a familiar word to me because they said it with Caleb too. It basically means that with the growing weight of the baby putting pressure on everything, the cervix starts to freak out and thinks it needs to dialate and shorten. This usually happens to regular women like, the week before you have your baby and then labor starts as usual, and you have your baby. For me, "funneling" started with Caleb at 19 weeks and then by 23 weeks it was like, open constantly to the point where my doctor was really freaked out and told me to go home and lay down and not move. But I still made it to 36 weeks! So that is reassuring. And I didn't even have the stiches in with Caleb, so.... hopefully that is comforting news that this will all still end okay.

When I was in the doctor's office waiting for her to come in and talk to me after the ultrasound (which, by the way is the worst 10 minutes ever... why don't they speed it up a little for situations like this?) I was reading this magazine article about bedrest and it said that at 26 weeks, a baby's chance of survival is 80 percent and they usually have a lot of problems in the NICU with brain bleeds, etc. But then by like 28 or 29 weeks the survivial rate is practically 98 percent and they can get by with having no lasting effects. So my first goal is to make it to 29 weeks, which is what Gabe was when he was born. Then the doctor said at 32 weeks, the baby's lungs start producing surfactant which is really important for their lungs.... so that is my next goal. Basically I can't have her before Caleb's birthday (I will be 30.5 wks pregnant by then) because A) It would be bad for the baby and B) Caleb has been knowing that the birthday order was Gabe's, then Dad's, then his for quite some time and I think he would be pretty ticked if she swooped in and had hers first. :)

So, no baby before June 6th. That's the way it has to be. The bad news is, that means I am probably looking at AT LEAST a month of bedrest ahead of me. Boo. And just as the weather is getting nice. I think Josh just went and bought me a reclining lawn chair today for my Mother's Day present so I can sit outside and watch the boys play. But my poor Summer Thrill Points list... it will have to earn a lot of stickers in the month of August maybe.

This next month is going to be a very delicate balance of babysitters and careful scheduling I think. The boys have the rest of this week and then 2 more full weeks of school left so the ride situation is a little hairy right now. Hopefuly we can make it all work! Everything I have read with the past two kids about baby's development between weeks 26 and 29 is so critical, so we have to try and at least get through these next 3 weeks! Wish us luck!

Summer Bucket List Adventure #1: Bear World

So... it officially isn't Summer until I think June 20th... but we are getting a head start. If I had to guess, I think our baby will be born sometime in the last third of July, so I am trying to cram in all our Summer fun a little early.

Gabe is officially done with school on May 23rd, which I think is super early. I think in Wisconsin we usually got done around June 6th, but they go back to school here on like, August 23 or 24th here too. So, the boys and I have been talking about all the things they wanted to do this Summer and we decided to make a list, inspired by this movie they saw about a girl that has a "Not-Bummer Summer" list where her and her friends compete for "Thrill Points" to have the best Summer ever. If we accomplish all the things on our list, we will have ended this Summer with 1000 Thrill points... and one exhausted mom I am sure.  Here is the list:

As you can see, the first item is "Bear World." This is a place that's about 5 miles south of Rexburg and we have never even been there! It has real bears - black and grizzly - and lots of deer, elk, wolves, and more. Those bigger animals are in this drive around area where you go really slowly in your cars with the windows up and hope they don't attack you. Luckily they didn't climb on our car, but I have heard stories that they have before! Then they also had a little petting zoo with goats and deer and stuff. They even had the hugest pig I have ever seen in my life. Then they had some little rides for the kids. Gabe has been wanting to go there forever, so we put it on our list and went yesterday when it was half price admission for locals because the season official opens next weekend. It was the type of place that was fun to go once but I don't know that I'd ever need to go again. So, that was Bear World! Thrill point total for the Summer so far: 20. :)

Getting ready for Baby

I have finally gotten around to taking a picture of myself with a belly. Josh has been working so much lately - including a week-long trip to New Mexico for training - that I actually made Caleb take a picture of me.  So this was taken about a week ago, at 25 weeks. I go to the doctor again tommorow for a 26 week check-up and ultrasound. I think everything is going well, as far as I know! I can feel the baby kicking as I type this and I think we have pretty much decided on the name Avery. No middle name for sure yet though.

I have been putting together her nursery already though and I LOVE it. I painted a tree mural on the wall and have her name in wooden letters hanging from the bottom branch of the tree. I still have a couple more little projects to finish though...

This pregnancy has been pretty good compared to the others. I haven't had to do bedrest yet! (Good thing too the way Josh has been gone...) The whole dog thing is keeping me a little busier than I would like, especially while Josh was gone for a week and I had to walk it and let it out all the time, but oh well. I guess we're dog people now. Josh thinks he's applying to be a K-9 officer at the police department here in Rexburg now too, which means we may even become a 2 dog family. Joy.

I said to him, "In January, I was just so excited about expanding our family this year by just one member. Now you keep wanting to bring DOGS into our family!? Why!?!" But I guess it makes him happy. I must be the best wife in the world. First I move to Idaho, now the dogs.  :)

Anyways, that's my little pregnancy and dog rant! Here is a picture of me (25 weeks) ... and the dog (about 4-5 months old...I think).