As Dorothy said "There's no place like home"

I have been LOVING every second of being at home with my family. My family especially Nick has been so helpful since I've been home. Me being home doesn't take a whole lot of the load off of him because I can only be so helpful laying/sitting down most of the day. I can read/snuggle/play with Makenna, and fold laundry. So I guess that's something. Yesterday Nick and Mitchell started to work on the nursery and I very much so enjoyed supervising from the couch. :o) We have three bedrooms in our home but I like my living room to much to give up the toy room so we decided to put both girls in the same room. We'll see how well it works out when it comes to sleeping when our new little one is big enough to sleep in the crib instead of the cradle by our bed. While they were putting things together and reorganized furniture I sorted and folded tiny baby clothes. I forgot how tiny and cute they are! It makes me so excited to get to reuse my favorite outfits Makenna wore.

I had my first outing today... to the doctors office. My "new" life is pretty exciting isn't it? I wore real clothes, make up and I blow dried and straightened my hair for the first time exactly 1 month! I felt like the old Reba again. It was great! After not doing literally anything for a month I was shocked to realize how weak I was and how tired my short trip to the doctor made me. I can't imagine how weak woman are who are on lay flat all day bed rest, and don't even get to walk to the bathroom would be after being down like that for days/weeks/months. At least I can sit up for a while each day, walk to the bathroom and take a shower. I have it pretty easy next to those woman for sure.

My doctors appointment went really well. I was so happy to see my doctor again. My doctors at UW were good but there is something to be said about the consistency of having just one doctor. Baby still sounds great. I will have weekly fetal monitoring and ultrasounds for the next few weeks. I will be seen more if needed but that's the plan for now. My next goal is to make it 11 more days until I am 35 weeks along so I can deliver in Ellensburg. We have a little hospital that doesn't have a NICU so we try to only deliver babies that are 35 weeks and over. Obviously there are some situations that we can't avoid delivering before then but more often than not the baby will be shipped after delivery to Yakima or Seattle where they have an adequate NICU if they are before 35 weeks. After I make it past 35 weeks we'll set a delivery date. No point in jinxing anything by scheduling a delivery date before then. Delivering in Ellensburg will mean that I will not get to have a VBAC and at this point, I could care less! I just want a healthy as close to full term baby as possible and I would love nothing more to deliver at the hospital here with my doctor, and all of my nurse friends around me. My doctor and the nurses I work with have been a part of this journey since the very beginning and it would be wonderful to have them there when it ends to.

I am going to keep doing what I've been doing for at LEAST the next 11 days and saying lots of prayers that I will not start bleeding again, go into labor and baby will continue to grow and be happy in the next at least 11 days. Please continue to send prayers and positive energy my way for those specific things. I can be bored and pregnant for at least 11 more days, and she will be SO worth it! I've done this for 30 days now, so what's another 11?

I'm HOME!!!

First of all I need to apologize about my little pity party I threw for myself yesterday. I was so frustrated with some of the circumstances from yesterday and I was overly emotional about it. I'm sorry you had to read about how sorry I felt for myself.

This morning I was VERY pleasantly surprised when the Dr's came in a told me they wanted to send me home today. I'm sure my jaw about hit the floor! After I picked up my jaw it amazed me how quickly all of my worries of coming home (insurance, amount of leave, money exc.) all went away. I know heavenly father will continue to provide for us like he has this whole time. All I could think of from the time I knew I was going home was about was how nice it would be to be at home with my family and to get to sleep in my own bed!

I am still on strict bed rest which is fine with me. I'm just glad I get to do it where I'm most comfortable. I now have to convince my placenta and uterus to behave for at least 2 more weeks when I'll be 35 weeks along so I can deliver here in Ellensburg. If something happens before then I'll have to be transferred out of town again and I really don't want that to happen! I'm sure all of my friends from work reading this are having heart palpation's knowing that me and my formally bleeding placenta are back in town but I PROMISE I will be a GOOD patient and remember bed rest means bed rest. I also have lots of family and my husband to supervise me to make sure I'm being good. :o)

Making my great escape!

We left UW about 1pm and stopped briefly in North Bend to grab lunch and then continued our way to Ellensburg. My wonderful brother Mitch spent the day making sure I came home to a clean house and even surprised me with flowers, chocolate and balloons. After being away from home for 4 weeks I don't think I would have cared whether I came home to a dirty house or not but it was sure nice to come home to a clean one. My wonderful sister in law also made us dinner tonight which was greatly appreciated as well! It was so nice for us to not have to worry about dinner our first night back at home. Along with Mitch, my parents and brother Garrett helped Nick unload the car and put everything away so he didn't have so much to do tonight. Nick was really grateful for their help. Nick told me that he feels like a huge weight has been lifted off his shoulders having me home. I feel the same way. It is so wonderful to be with my family again!

Finally HOME!!

When all of this started 4 weeks ago I never thought I would still be pregnant at now 33 weeks today, and I never thought I would be leaving the hospital until I had a baby in my arms or in the NICU. My nurse told me again today that they have never had a patient that has been on magnesium in preparation for delivery as many times as I have and not be delivered. My nurse said she could feel that there was a higher power watching over me. Because of that statement I know that your prayers and thoughts have helped immensely through out this journey! Please continue to send them our way, our journey isn't over just yet!

After things quieted down this evening Makenna climbed up on the couch next to me, grabbed my hand, cuddled up next to me and said "Mommy here!" :o) She must be happy I'm home to!

Still here...

I won't know more until the morning when my crew of doctors come back but it looks like I'll be here maybe another week. This morning when the doctors came in gave me a "kind of" plan and they said they would return right after my ultrasound with a more final plan but went home for the day before returning. One of the overnight doctors told me that from what she could see from the ultrasound report baby looks great. She is still measuring big. I am 33 weeks tomorrow and she is measuring around 34 weeks and 4 days and is about 5 and half pounds, give or take a pound. There wasn't anything mentioned in the report about the blood clot or the tear. It's been a little bit of a frustrating day. I wish they would have never told me I would be going home today, it just made me upset when I didn't get to go. Like I said yesterday it's not nice to promise an emotional pregnant lady something and not follow through. It really knocked my spirits down a notch. Rather than continue to rant about my day I am going to just say that I am grateful that I am still pregnant with a healthy baby and that I have kept her cooking for almost 4 weeks now. I am also grateful that my wonderful husband, amazing mother and my beautiful 2 year old were able to spend the day with me. I know things will all work out the way God intended them to, I just need to keep the faith.

WHAT?!?!?

I'm having a few mixed emotions today, this morning when my crew of doctors (UW is a teaching hospital so I always have literally a crew of doctors everyday) made rounds this morning, they told me depending on the results of my ultrasound tomorrow, I may get to go home. WHAT?!?!?!? I was just told last week that they wanted to deliver me at 34 weeks, and the week before that it was 35 weeks, and before that, it as 36-37 weeks and every time they made a new plan, they have stated I wouldn't be going home before I had a baby, period. Now I may be going home? I'm so confused! The only thing I have had a beef with being at this particular hospital is, every week I have new attending physician and every week I have a new plan. It really messes with an emotional pregnant lady's feelings when there is a new plan every week. I haven't had a significant bleed since last Monday, since it has been a whole week they think I may be stable enough to go home. They haven't specified if home is to the hospital in Ellensburg or home to my house but they did say I would continue to be on strict bed rest until I deliver. I would love to go home but at the same time I have some mixed emotions because I have been counting on not leaving here until I have a baby, and now I may be going home still pregnant. Also, I have now used up 3 1/2 weeks of 12 week maternity leave. If I go to full term (39-40 wks, I'm now 32 wks and 5 days) I will have 1 week of leave left. I can extend my leave but I would have to do it without pay and with out insurance paid for not to mention I would really like to be able to enjoy some of my leave with my baby... sigh! I almost wish they wouldn't have even planted this going home bug in my ear until it is really going to happen. I guess we'll see what the plan is tomorrow. I'll keep you posted....

Happy St Patrick's Day!!

I'm not going to say much other than I'm still pregnant and stable. I even got to go for another ride today and I even had a passenger. Enjoy the pictures!

"Wook Mommy!! The shishies!"

It was a great day! The End!

3 weeks...

After 3 weeks of seeing nothing but hospital rooms, back hospital hallways, and the inside of ambulances the doctors FINALLY agreed to let me take a wheelchair ride around the hospital! I even got to go OUTSIDE for a few minutes! I had to beg a little bit and remind them that it has been 3 days since I had any active bleeding and I have been sitting in a hospital bed for 3 weeks before they finally agreed to let me go on a quick ride.

Nick was my "tour guide" and pushed me around. I finally got to see the shishies (fishes) Makenna keeps telling me about.

It was grey, gloomy, raining, cold and breezy but it was glorious! To smell and feel anything but dry, stagnant, recycled hospital air was GLORIOUS!! After 3 weeks I think I would have found a tornado or tsunami just as glorious.

I got to see growing plants, because the hospital is on the University of Washington campus all of the flowers are of course purple and gold.

I got to see other parts of the hospital and see the cool art work.

I was a good girl and stuck to the doctors rule of only 30 minutes but it was a very fast, and much to short 30 minutes.

And came back to my home away from home.

After I got back I was greeted by my friend Stephanie and a little bit later these beautiful flowers arrived. Thank you Hutchinson family! They are beautiful and made my day even better!

I figured out how to make a flower and added it to the hat I made yesterday even cuter. I can't wait to make one for Makenna that matches.

Overall it has been a fantastic day! My trip outside was just what I needed to keep going a little bit longer. I was so happy that I even cried. I know it is pathetic but you might cry to after 3 weeks. Hopefully I will get to have another field trip again soon.

32 weeks

Made it to 32 weeks, completed my second hat and had another date night in my hospital room with Nick today. It was a good day! I'll post more tomorrow. :o)