Ready for baby? That's a big NO...

The more I think about what I need to do to prepare for this babe I just get overwhelmed. So I try not to think about it. I wonder how much longer I can keep using that logic? I mean, we don't need a whole lot because I have "been there, done that" in terms of the whole parenting thing, but there are some things I need to do. I went through Char's old baby clothes last week and it seems I sold more of her stuff than I thought I did! We sold a lot of her stuff because we didn't know we were going to have another baby this soon and we just didn't have the storage space! Oh well.

I am 25 weeks as of today. I have a few months to get everything in order. Phew. There are a few books I'd like to look over before she gets here (breastfeeding books and baby sleep books and maybe a labor book or two). A few onesies need to be purchased. We need a carseat. I'd like to get a swing and a bouncy seat... Maybe a few more soft (pink!!) blankets... Some breast pump parts... Maybe a couple bottles (I'd like to try the Tommee Tippee kind! On a funny note, they really do look like a plastic boob, haha)... I need to figure out where this stinker is going to sleep (because, you know, babies do a lot of that :) ).. And the list goes on.

But!!! at least I have matching Big Sister/Little Sister shirts for the little princesses. I can check that off my list! :)

For Miss Vivian

For Miss Charlotte

In pregnancy news, everything has been fine lately. Contractions have gone away, or at least have just become the regular ole BH contractions. Nausea is *finally* gone, PRAISE JESUS. I haven't blown chunks in over 2 weeks, that is a very big milestone for me. :) Of course, it has been replaced with indigestion that makes me WANT to barf, but I mean, beggars can't be choosers I guess. My belly has popped out over the past couple weeks (again, finally!) and I'm actually starting to look like I have a bun in the oven instead of just a beer gut (and I don't even drink).

Next week, Charlotte starts a Mother's Morning Out type program at a local church. It lasts for 9 months and its only for 2 mornings a week (8:30am-noon) and I am pretty excited about it, for both of us! Every time she is around little ones her age she just has a blast and goes wild so I figure this can be a fun outlet for her. And hey, the wordless-chatterbox (ask me how that works)-child might even pick up a few words! Well, at least I hope they will be good and edifying words. :) And I might even be able to get some errands done, like... Grocery shopping sans toddler! Or go to the dentist! Or go to one of my million OB appointments! Or have some 1 on 1 time with the babe when she gets here. The possibilities are endless. I am excited. :)

Jan Brady Syndrome

Anyone ever afraid your baby will suffer from this? Let me explain.

A worry that I have that is COMPLETELY unfounded, dumb, stupid, illogical, and weird is that this baby will have the Jan Brady Syndrome. You know, Jan Brady from the Brady Bunch. The 2nd daughter who always compared herself to the Golden Child -- Marcia Brady. Marcia was beautiful, talented, and "perfect" in the eyes of Jan. Jan was just kind of a clutz most of the time and wasn't as cute as Marcia was, and well, was a little on the dorky side.

Charlotte is a cutie. What if Vivian isn't as beautiful as Charlotte? As smart and as funny and witty and, ahem, as well behaved? :) What if she is the ugly duckling, always comparing herself to her wonderful big sister? Of course, I will love her just the same no matter how she looks, acts, or how her personality turns out to be. But it is a real thing that kids deal with, especially girls (from what I've heard). Char is a cutie, but I don't take any credit for that -- the child looks not a thing like me! She was even a cute newborn, and let's be honest, not all newborns are cute. LOL But either way, even if Vivian isn't a cute baby... Just lie and tell me she is!!!!!!! :)

Anyways, so yeah, that is a fear of mine. Jan Brady Syndrome. I am not saying all this to be vain or to imply that beauty is the say all, end all in a female's life. I actually want to instill in my daughter's hearts that beauty is fleeting but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. In our society beauty is so valued and so esteemed. I've struggled with it myself, coming close to bouts with bulimia when I was in high school. I don't want my babies to go through that, I want them to know they are wonderfully and fearfully made by the hands of the One who hung the heavens in the sky. And that they will ALWAYS be the most beautiful ladies on the planet to me!! :)

Trying to steal a kiss... She always moves away from me! :)

I mean, isn't she glamorous? LOL

my interesting weekend

So this weekend started out great! :) Thomas and I had a date night at home with a movie, popcorn, and twizzlers. Saturday was fine, I got to sleep in and I tried to be as stress-free as possible all day because I had to work that night. So, I go to work and everything seems fine, I got a good patient group and it started out as a pretty simple night. I even got all my meds passed and my charting done (on 6 patients!) by 10pm. Usually I dont even sit down until around midnight, so it was a "good night." :)

About 10pm I sat down to chart and I thought to myself, "Hmm. My lower back really hurts..." It was the kind of hurt where I felt I needed counter-pressure to help it to feel better. Then I noticed that I was having some pretty painful lower abdominal cramps, kind of like bad menstrual cramps. I thought that was odd. I called Thomas and I told him what was going on and that I was pretty concerned. Of course, being the man he is, he kind of blew me off, haha, but I told him to Google "pre-term labor symptoms" for me. Lower back pain and abdominal cramps were 2 of the symptoms. GREAT! :) I remember reading before that if you are having cramps or pain to drink a lot of water and to rest. So I gulped down about 6 cups of water during the next hour... But the pain just seemed to get worse, and I think I even started having some light contractions. It was hard to tell if they were true contractions because of the cramping, it was just hard to distinguish. My co-workers saw me squirming in my seat because of my back pain so I told them what was going on. They thought I needed to go over to L&D to get checked out, but me and my stubborn self didn't want to... I mean, every pregnant woman has aches and pains, right? My pregnancy with Char was picture perfect (in terms of complications) so this one had to be the same way, in my mind. Well, the pain wouldn't go away so I did go down to L&D at about 11pm.

When I got there, they hooked me up to a monitor. For about an hour, I was just having a lot of back pain and really painful cramps. I felt contractions, but apparently they weren't showing up on the monitor. Around an hour after I got there, I started having painful contractions that showed up on the monitor. I think there were about 5-6 big ones. They hurt so bad I was nearly in tears and it was hard to move. Here I am, by myself in the hospital in the middle of the night, and I am having painful contractions at 23w 5d pregnant. Great!!!!

I was given a shot of terbutaline to stop the contractions. It worked. Thank you, Jesus. I was still cramping and had a lot of back pain still, so a couple hours later they gave me another terb shot. That didn't seem to help much, so they sent me home. The doctor said the cramps were due to my uterus contracting and that it was tired. Or something to that effect. They checked my urine and said I was not dehydrated, which I was kind of frustrated at... If I was dehydrated, that'd be an easy problem to fix, you know? I did get a liter of fluid, though. Extra fluid is always nice when you are pregnant! :) I was released at about 3:30am and drove home with my heart about to burst out my chest (thank you, terbutaline!!).

Sunday I was still pretty crampy and my back hurt. I was having contractions, though nor painful, all day long. They seemed to get more painful as the afternoon went on. Of course, not having dealt with this before, I was nervous so I called my doc and she told me to come in and get checked. To make a long story short, of course when I get there, my contractions stop. They gave me some Procardia to take at home for the cramps. We were released and I went home and slept all night.

Today I woke up feeling pretty normal. No cramps or pain or anything like that. Phew!!! I had a doctor's appointment and I had an ultrasound done and my cervix is nice and closed and long. Sorry if that is TMI for some of you folks, LOL. That was like music to my ears. As long as I am not dilating, everything is fine. My doctor just told me to take it easy, that I can still work (yay for extra money!!), and to just keep taking the Procardia when I'm going to be active, like at work or something.

As of right now... I feel... ok. Over the past few hours, I have had a bunch of contractions. I am trying not to be paranoid super freak pregnant woman, but I am trying to drink a lot of fluids to see if that helps. I still feel pretty crampy, but maybe that is normal. I dont know. I'm sure everything will be fine, we'll just take it day by day and pray to the One who has both mine and Vivian Grace's lives in His hands. I know that it is ALL under His control and He is good, all the time. Please pray for us. Hopefully this weekend was just a fluke and that all will be back to normal soon. Thank you SO MUCH to all of our friends and family that has prayed for us. God answers prayer, and I know that this is the reason why everything is fine so far!! So thank you. :)

Date Night!

Tonight Thomas and I went on a rare date night. I dont think we've had a REAL date night in.. well... 6 months? Very sad, I know. But we have found a great baby sitter that Charlotte seems to just love so we finally got a night out! :) We didn't too anything too exciting. It was nice to drive around outside at night!! Haha, don't get to do that much anymore with a little one.

We went to Sal & Mookies, a really nice pizza and ice cream parlor type restaurant. It was SO GOOD and we even got my meal free because they brought out something that I didn't order. I told them that it wasn't a problem and that we could pay for my meal, but the waiter insisted! Ok, fine then. :) Then we went to Borders Books and just hung around and read. Yes, we are very interesting. We were going to see a movie, but it didn't start in time so maybe we'll do that next date night. Here is a prego pic I took before we left, I am 23 weeks 1 day in this picture. :)