Birthday Celebrations

Since I went on bed rest the day after the 4th, I have not been able to post about our 4th or my dad's birthday celebration.  Noah also turned 3 on July 18, so I figured I would just have one big post about our July birthday celebrations.  

For the 4th of July, we had a quiet little celebration with just our little family.  We ran errands in the morning to Noah's favorite places (Home Depot and Trader Joe's) made blackberry jam and went in the pool and barbecued in the afternoon.  It was a nice relaxing day which was nice because the following day was pretty stressful.  

My dad's birthday is on July 6, the day after I got put on bed rest.  Unfortunately, I think that being put on bed rest overshadowed his birthday. We had a small celebration with pizza and an ice cream cake at our house, he seemed happy, but my dad is a really quiet guy who just wants everything to be okay with the babies.  Next year, we will have a huge bash with all the grandkids and lots of wine.

Noah's birthday was also a very simple event, because I was still on bed rest.  This was the first year that we did not take a trip for his birthday, which was kind of hard for me.  On his first birthday, we sang happy birthday to him on the beach in San Diego right at 6:39 PM when he turned one.  We spent his second birthday in the cool mountains of Durango at a cabin by Lake Purgatory.  However, he seemed happy just to spend the day with Daddy, Mommy, Nana and Pa.  I have to remember that he is three and nothing is better when you are three than having mommy and daddy spend the whole day just playing with you.

The doctor gave me permission to go see the Winnie the Pooh movie with him, if I sat in a wheelchair.  He was thrilled to be able to help push mommy at the movies and to see Piglet.  After the movies, he got to have his favorite food, Chick-Fil-A and he got his birthday gift for mommy and daddy, a real guitar so he can take guitar lessons.  John started teaching him basic cords and he has almost mastered the D cord.  Nana and Pa came over for dinner and we had cake and ice cream and opened gifts.  He got several garbage trucks, books and another membership to Great Play.  He had a wonderful day, I was so happy that I got to spend the day with him and be with him at the movies (I have to confess I spent most of the movie watching him).  He is the light of our lives and everyday I am thankful that I was blessed to be his mom.  Watching him learning and growing is an amazing and humbling experience that I will never forgot, I cherish him and everyday is a wonderful adventure.  Love and kisses to you my bear boy, mommy and daddy love you and think you are the coolest guitar player ever.

July 4, 2011: Daddy and Noah smiles! 

July 4, 2011: Bear smiles! 

July 4, 2011: Happy 4th of July! 

July 4, 2011: Homemade blackberry jam, yummy.   

July 4, 2011: Noah at one of his favorite places, Home Depot.  

July 6, 2011: Happy Birthday Pa! 

July 6, 2011: Noah and Pa on his birthday! 

July 18, 2011: Noah, Daddy and Nana at the Pooh movie.  

July 18, 2011: Noah eating his favorite lunch.  

July 18, 2011: Noah and his new guitar.  

July 18, 2011: Trying out the cake to make sure it good. 

July 18, 2011: Frosting thumbs up! 

July 18, 2011: Nana and Pa.   

July 18, 2011: Our little family.  

July 18, 2011: Noah and one of his new garbage trucks.  

36 Weeks and still going...

Well,  I was 36 weeks on Saturday and we are still going.  It feels like I have been pregnant for a very long time, I am only complaining a little bit because I have so much to be happy about.  On Thursday (July 21) the doctor took me off bed rest, mostly because it does not seem to be helping with the contractions and we are past 35 weeks.  He is my hero, bed rest was a very humbling experience and taught me a lot about how it feels to be dependent on other people.  I am hoping it will leave me a more compassionate, patient and understanding person.  Dr. Webb told me that I should act as if I have the flu, which I had to tartly reply, "So do I act like I have the flu or a normal person who is not a mom has the flu." My exasperated husband and OB both just sighed and my doctor said, "I have one of those at home, too." Ah, barely off bed rest and I was already failing to be a more patient person.  I am trying to take it easy, but I have to say the contractions have been keeping my activity in check more than anything, my body is very happy to let me know very loudly when I have over done my activities.  

I am also 50% effaced, so the doctor estimated that we will be having the baby within the next two weeks.  I will have to go into labor and then they will do an "emergency" c-section when I arrive at the hospital. This is because they can no longer schedule c-sections before 39 weeks, unless they are emergencies due to hospital and insurance policy.  I could go on about health care in America and how it is run by insurance companies who do not allow doctors to make medical decisions that they need to make, but I won't.  I am not thrilled about having to go into labor, but it's a life experience I never thought I would have so I am trying to think of it as a new adventure, a painful new adventure.  I am also taking this two week estimate with a large grain of salt, I have been told for so long that Grant could come any hour now that its starting to get really old.  It almost like the adults from the Peanuts cartoons are talking when I start hearing "oh, any day now".

Don't get me wrong, I am happy he has not come yet, it just become a little family joke, when will the babies arrive.  Mary Ann is 39 weeks and ready to pop and is very, very ready to have a baby.  Mason and Grant appear to be in a standoff.   They are waiting each other out.  I almost feel like I am in the movie the Good, the Bad and the Ugly in the graveyard scene with the music playing (you know the scene that goes on and on and on, FOREVER) waiting for them to draw.  We started playing the music from the movie the other day and had a good laugh.  It's a baby standoff, first one out wins.  Personally, I hope Mason is the first one to draw, I would like to give Grant a little bit more time.

So, I go to the doctor again tomorrow and we have a growth ultrasound to see how big our little gunslinger is.  The doctor said if he is less than 5 pounds, its hospital policy (sigh) to put babies in the neonatal unit, so we are hopefully for around 5 pounds tomorrow.  More stress tests and doctors appointments later in the week and hopefully no baby as my doctor is out of town until August 1.  Here is an ultrasound picture of baby Grant and some pictures of me at 36 weeks.

July 19, 2011: Grant 35 weeks and 3 days

July 25, 2011: Noah giving Baby Grant kisses.   

July 25, 2011: Noah giving his little brother a hug.  

July 25, 2011: Noah loving his brother.   

July 25, 2011: 36 weeks and 1 day.  

35 weeks!

Well, we made it to 35 weeks on Saturday (July 16) . I think everyone breathed a sigh of relief that we made this far. On Tuesday, we had another growth ultrasound and Grant weighed in at 3 pounds, 12 ounces and is now officially three weeks behind in his growth.  John and I were both very happy with his weight, we are almost to 4 pounds, which is exciting.  The stress tests on Tuesday and Friday, told us more of what I already knew, the contractions are getting stronger (and more tiring and sometimes more painful) but are still very irregular and do not seem to have a pattern, which is good.  The nurses told me if it gets too painful they can give me something to slow them down, but at this point they have almost become part of life and so unless they make me get the shots I am going to hold off, I don't think I can take going into the doctor anymore than I already do.  

We have three (yes three) doctors appointments next week, so that will be fun.  Hopefully, I will get some concrete answers from the doctor and we can figure out what the plan is going to be moving forward. I have not actually seen Dr. Webb since this all began just nurses, the ultrasound technician and the nurse practitioner, so it will be nice to see him and get some reassurance and questions answered before he goes on vacation (he is on vacation for the last week of July) .

Other than that our little guy seems unaffected by all this attention, he is kicking away and moving around and appears to be a healthy guy from all the tests done, just a little peanut.  He very much dislikes the stress tests and kicks the monitors very fervently, in his defense they are pretty tight and are annoying for me and I am sure he feels them.  Bed rest is going pretty good, we have amazing family and friends who are so helpful, supportive and loving, we are blessed. So we keep on keeping on and every night we say a prayer of thanks for yet another day.  Here are my 34 week pictures of Grant.

July 12, 2011: Mr. Grant at 34 weeks 3 days. 

A change of plans.

John and I went to our regular OB appointment on Tuesday, we had our fluid check (all good) our exam (all good) and talked to the doctor about setting the c-section date for August 19, 2011.  We all decided that date worked well for us and John and I happily tripped home talking of plans of getting to Flagstaff to see Mary Ann, Sean and baby Mason (when he comes), birthday plans for Noah, John getting off ER orientation before the baby comes, finishing up projects around the house and dinner dates and movies we wanted to see.  I even (secretly) thought I would ramp up my activity level a little more, take Noah more places, get out to see friends, go to play dates, take him to lunch, hey I am doing fine, the contractions are not bothering Grant, but why not try to do a little bit more everything seemed fine.  

So we went home had nice lunch out with Noah and a lovely afternoon in the pool.  I left my cell phone inside and when we came in, I had two missed calls from the doctor.  I didn't think anything of it, they were most likely trying to schedule the c-section date and wanted me to confirm before someone else took the date (it can get cut throat for those dates).  So I called back and received a very different message.  One of the swab test that they had taken during the exam for fetal fibronectin or ffn came back positive and I had to go on complete bed rest immediately.  Bed rest meaning I am in bed or on the couch, except when I have to go to the bathroom or shower, I get two trips up and down the stairs a day and I can go in the car to go to doctors visits and that is it.  They said they hoped they could get me to 35 weeks and I will have bi-weekly ultrasounds, stress tests, doctors visits and various other pokes, prods and other fun invasive experiences.  

Needless to say it was a shock.  That was last Tuesday and I was 33 weeks and 4 days and we have been doing this for almost a week now.  I consider every day a gift from God.  Yesterday, I was 34 weeks.   Someone told me that every day you can keep the baby inside equals four less days in the neonatal unit, so at the end of each day I say a thank you prayer to God and we keep on going. We are trying to keep things normal (as normal as we can) for Noah, John, my mom, dad, babysitters and friends have been amazing.  I have not told everyone yet as I am trying to always be upbeat with the message and I don't always feel upbeat.  We will just keep on taking it one day at a time and praying.  Our next visit to the doctor is Tuesday and we have a full growth ultrasound and stress test which will tell us how big Grant is. I am hoping for 3 pounds 8 oz, John is hoping for 4 pounds, any weight gain would be wonderful, we are hopeful for good news.  

We are trying to stay light hearted about the whole thing.  The new family joke is who is going to be born first Grant or Mason.  Mary Ann can go any day so we always joke that they are trying to race each other out so they can play.  Sometimes it helps to laugh about these things.  I know he will be fine if he is born early, I just want to give him as much time as my body will allow him, so he can be with us at home and not in the neonatal unit.  We stay hopeful and say lots of prayers and know that it is in God's hands and he will be with us and give us strength to do whatever we need to do.

June 27, 2011: A picture of Grant at 32 weeks 2 days.  

June 2011 Recap

June was a month of change, patience and waiting, waiting and more waiting.  I have blogged about our early June doctors appointments in previous posts.  We visited Dr. Webb on June 17, 2011 and he was happy with how the specialist appointment went and said that we need to come in every week for the rest of the pregnancy to do fluid checks.  He also stated that if the contractions become less than six minutes apart I should call him.  So we started our weekly visits to the doctor, which are nice because I get to see Grant every week, however, I do wish that Dr. Webb's office was closer.  As I write this on July 4, 2011, we only have seven more fluids checks / doctors visits which is not so bad.  We see the doctor tomorrow and hope to set the date for the c-section and hopefully get an appointment for another growth ultrasound next week.

As far as the contractions go, I always say I have good days and bad days.  On the bad days, I get my timer out on my phone and start counting.  The worst the contractions have gotten is seven minutes apart for about an hour or two which was a tense couple of hours, but everything turned out fine.  On good days, I don't have any contractions and I have energy and patience.  So we just take it one day at a time and now its July and I am 33 weeks which amazes me, only seven weeks to go.  

Through the whole month of June, Noah has been very accepting and understanding of mommy's limitations.  He is an amazing little guy who cant wait to meet Baby Grant.  He sings to his brother (Baby Mine from Dumbo the song I sing to him every night) and says he cant wait to show Baby Grant his garbage trucks, his new obsession.  After doctors appointments, he runs up to me and lifts up my shirt to make sure Baby Grant is still in mommy's tummy.  John, my mom and our wonderful babysitters Lindsey and Whitney have also been amazing, without them I know that I would not been able to do this.  We have been spending more time at home because if I don't have someone with me, I am afraid that I might not be able to control Noah, so we don't go out alone a lot, which has been a change for me.  

Noah in enrolled in art classes with the City of Tempe and at Great Play for the summer.  Noah loves Great Play and it has been great for him to have a place to run around and get his energy out. We did not do swim lessons this summer, it was just too much for me to handle, hopefully after Grant comes we can get Noah enrolled in swimming classes again.  Since we had a pretty mild May, our first swim of the summer was not until June 22, which was very late.  But we are really enjoying the pool now and swimming really helps the contractions and the swelling.  

June 1, 2011: Noah and his animals and garbage truck.  

June 7, 2011: One of Noah's favorite summer activities popcorn and tent making.  

June 7, 2011: Eating popcorn in the tent.  

June 8, 2011: Phoenix Children's Museum bikes.  

June 8, 2011: Lego's with daddy at the Phoenix Children's Museum.  

June 9, 2011: Noah and daddy doing cave painting in art class.  

June 9, 2011: Cave painting.  

June 9, 2011: Noah cave painting.  

June 9, 2011: Playing with fire trucks at the Tempe Historical Museum. 

June 9, 2011: Playing with the veggies.  

June 9, 2011: Fire trucks.

June 14, 2011: Playing trucks with daddy.  

June 14, 2011: Playing with daddy.  

June 15, 2011: Playing with daddy.  

June 26, 2011: Noah at Cars 2.   

June 26, 2011: Cars 2! 

June 28, 2011: Noah helping daddy clean out the garage.  

Late April and May 2011 Recap

Behind yet again on the blog I decided to just do a summary of late April and May and June.  My grandmother and Uncle John visited us from April 26 to May 2. During the visit we took a trip to the Arizona Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaurs, which was a short lived Noah obsession in late April and early May.  We also went up to Flagstaff for Mary Ann's baby shower, which I have no pictures of because I forgot my camera at home.  

During May, we had lots of what I like to call in-between weather.  Which means it is beautiful in the mornings and evenings, but hot during the day. The pool water is also too cold for swimming which can makes for long afternoons, but we figured out lots of fun in-between activities.  One of our favorite activities is to get breakfast at Dunkin Donuts (egg white turkey wrap and coffee and milk) and go to our neighborhood park Windmills West and have breakfast and play at the park while it is still cool out.  

At the end of May, Aunt Mary Ann and Uncle Sean came down from Flagstaff and helped us with some house projects.  While they were in town Noah got a pretty nasty gash on his head from dropping his keyboard on it, so Aunt Mary Ann got to take a trip to urgent care with us (it was good training for when Baby Mason comes). Thankfully, Noah didn't need stitches and only has a little bit of a scar.  The end of May also marked the start of my contractions and semi bed rest which I have mentioned in other posts.

April 27, 2011: Pa and Noah with the T-Rex.  

April 27, 2011: Smile!

April 27, 2011: Noah in awe of the dinosaur.  

April 27, 2011: Nana, Noah and Grandma.   

April 27, 2011: Sea life puzzle.  

April 27, 2011: Noah checking out the exhibit to make sure it was sturdy.  

May 3, 2011: Noah and Daddy on the train at the mall.   

May 3, 2011: Noah not so sure about the train ride.

May 3, 2011: Train ride with daddy.  

May 5, 2011: Mommy's favorite, mornings at the park.  

May 8, 2011: Being a ham at the grocery store.  

May 12, 2011: A rare occurrence, a Noah nap. 

May 14, 2011: Playing daddy, a fun in-between activity.  

May 14, 2011: Mini John.  

May 14, 2011: Let's have a listen to you.  

May 17, 2011: Playing kitchen while mommy cooks.  

May 17, 2011: Needs more pepper.  

May 17, 2011: Trains another in-between activity we enjoyed.  

May 21, 2011: Noah at urgent care, always smiling that one.  

May 23, 2011: A slumbering bear, a rare sight.