Baby Shower! (lots of pics)

First, a short update on the labor. Contractions have picked back up again, but still don't seem to be doing much. I went to the doctor on Thursday and it looks like the baby's head is down and engaged now (at -2 cm), but I'm still not dilated more than a 1. In a couple more weeks I get another ultrasound and we'll start examining lightening up the bedrest a bit. As of tomorrow, I'll be 33 weeks (37 is considered full term).

Yesterday was my baby shower, and it was incredible. I honestly figured we'd be lucky to have 6 people come, since I know so few people in the area. But quite a few women (some I'd never met) came from church... in the end we had 17 people! We played some fun games and I got lots of great mommying advice. More than anything it was great to make new friends/get to know some of these women better. My friend Gayathri (the only friend from college now in Houston) didn't make it for the shower but came later in the afternoon and we had a nice chat. Definitely the most social interaction I've had in months.
Candace went ALL OUT. Honestly, I can't express my gratitude. Having a shower meant so much to me. She did such a good job- I loved the cake and the "diaper cake"-

Everything was done in my nursery colors of brown and blue.
I got tons of adorable little clothes and goodies:


and finally my nursery is feeling more complete (a matching diaper stacker is still on its way):


And, last but not least, I have some new belly pics.

I swear I feel like I've gone through a growth spurt- not sure if you can tell int he pcis. For comparison, here I am three weeks ago. By the way, my belly pics are of me in undershirts- I do not go wandering around in skin-tight shirts when 7 months pregnant:):


And, if you care, here's a new Lucy picture. The silly thing would rather sleep on Kenny's slippers than on the carpet:

Easter and updates

Happy Easter! I'm a little bummed that I wasn't able to do the easter egg hunt with Kenny this year (we have dyed eggs and hid them from each other for the last 2 years), but it would be hard to do from bed. So instead, Kenny bought some particularly pungent doggy treats, hid them in plastic eggs, and we watched Lucy sniff them out. (Can you tell we are so ready to have a REAL kid?) Oh, by the way, Lucy is now officially over a year old. And we are so in love with her, she's a great dog.
Well, contractions are still manageable, we've had no trips to L&D this week (yay!) and things are looking good. I am slowly losing my mind and would love nothing more than a walk in a park right now, but I think I'm doing well, all things considered. My husband takes great care of me.
This week was Kenny's spring break. I feel bad we couldn't do anything fun for it (aside from playing many MANY video games), but just spending time together was great. He was able to finish his big fatty essay and now there is nothing left to do but wait for his diploma in April. Woohoo!
Next weekend is my baby shower! I am so excited. I didn't think I'd be getting one since I don't know anyone in the area other than my sister-in-law Candace. Fortunately, Candace took it into her kind heart that I still needed a shower, so here we go! It'll be her, a college friend who happens to be in Houston, and any kind ladies from Church who decide to come.
While we do need baby things, if no one brought any gifts, I'd be so ok- just to have company and have someone (in person) make a big deal of this baby would make a huge difference to me. Becky was kind and went to Target yesterday and completed my registry (most of the practical stuff I'd want, you can't register for online. That, and Becky knows better than I do what a new baby really needs).
So yeah, the shower is the big excitement of the week. I have an ultrasound and OB appointment on Thursday to see how things are progressing, and I do look forward to that. I hit 32 weeks tomorrow. At 34 weeks, we'll start easing off the bedrest and see how my body does. At 35 weeks, we'll probably go off the bedrest entirely- if this baby wants to come at that point, I won't stop him. I am SO excited to be able to prepare my home a little for the baby and stuff before he comes.
So yeah... that's about it for now. Here, have a picture- Lucy and I meeting for the first time.

And our first kiss:

Broken Incubator

So a couple days ago, I woke up feeling very crampy and had some back pain. It lasted all day. I would have been more worried, except my contractions are still slowed (1 or 2 an hour). I called the OB around 11 am and left a message for her nurse. They never called back:(.
So around 11:30 pm, when I realized I wasn't going to be able to sleep because of this, I called my sister Becky, who recommended we go to L&D. Mind you, my poor husband is already exhausted and burnt out, so I don't want to get him out fo bed without good reason. We prayed and felt that yes, we should go to L&D. So we did, around midnight.
We get there and she confirms that my contractions aren't coming that frequently. My Doctor's associate who was on call never even came in to check. He just had the nurse monitor me for 3 hours then send me home. She did check my cervix- still dilated just under one centimeter (the same as three weeks ago).
So we get home around 4:00 am, meaning Kenny got one whole hour of sleep before getting up for work. The next day (yesterday) I had an appointment with my OB. I got an ultrasound, and the baby still looks healthy (if a little squished.) However, it looks like my cervix has shortened to 1.5 centimeters- it's supposed to be at 3. This means I'm starting to efface. So, we're continuing with the bedrest, I need to keep monitoring my contractions and take the awful Tributilin which makes me feel like I'm on crack.
The doctor didn't seem worried about much, nor was she able to give me the answers I wanted, so I'm a little frustrated. My sister Becky, though, the source of all reproductive knowledge, has been able to explain a few things for me. Looks like I'm still just starting the labor process, albeit very slowly. I'm starting to lose my plug because of the effacement. I'm still feeling crampy and my back still hurts (the doctor had nothing constructive to say on the matter, other than "not to worry about it if I'm not contracting").
Odds are pretty high that this baby isn't going to make it to the 37 weeks we were hoping for. My goal is still 34 weeks (I'm currently at 30)
On top of it, my poor husband is a zombie. He needs a break. It breaks my heart to not be able to help out at all. Fortunately, today starts spring break for him so hopefully he can relax some.
So yeah, please keep us and our baby in your prayers. It's been a rough week.

Pictures

There've been some requests for pictures, so here we go. First, the latest belly pic:

That's me at 30 weeks. By comparison, here's 25 weeks:

Yeah. Hardly a difference. My weight hasn't changed much either (I've had a net gain of 10 pounds since the start of this pregnancy), so I shouldn't complain. Still, I hope that baby is still growing properly!
Next, the car seat came! It's brown and... well, kind of seafoamy. I love the pattern and it has all the features we want (it's a Graco SnugRide in Milano)


That's Victor, my christmas build-a-bear turtle.
Here's our silly puppy. She likes to sleep under blankets and makes herself little "tents" whenever possible.

And lastly, here's me at my permanent post. I'm not looking my greatest, but I've also only left the house twice in two weeks. We're lucky I still shower and dress.

I wish I had something more exciting for you. Maybe next I'll post the lovely desk and wall I get to stare at 24/7.:)

Mr. Kunz

I should probably keep his blog more updated, but I just don't have much exciting to say right now. "I laid in bed today. That was fun." My contractions have slowed down to a very normal level, but I won't get any news from my OB on if I can get out of bed until next week's appt.
In more exciting news, I have an amazing husband.
Today concludes his first full week as a real teacher. He's teaching Algebra 1 (freshman), Algebra 2, and pre-calculus (juniors and seniors). When we left his old class (the one he was student teaching in) the students were quite sad and tried to convince him to stay. Quite a few students showed him how their grades had gone up while he was teaching them. A few students decided to skip their own third period classes to come hang out with Kenny during his prep period. One of his female students told him he has pretty eyes (it's a statement of fact, so I won't be jealous):). He's got some great outfits and ties now and looks so sharp every day. He's totally the teacher I would have a crush on (like good ol' Mr. Marshall, my high school history teacher). I love thinking of him as "Mr. Kunz".
All in all, it sounds like he's doing great.
The fun part is each night as he prepares his lesson plan. Now, I never was good at or enjoyed math. I took it through 9th grade geometry then was done (unless you count "principles of mathematics for life" which I took at clark college and was a complete joke). I don't remember ANYTHING from algebra. If you give me a a really simple algebra problem (say x+3=5) I can tell you the answer without any thought. If you ask me HOW I know it's 2 I have to think back to 7th grade and remember how much I always hated showing my work. That's an extreme example, but you get the picture.
Fortunately, this makes me a great candidate for Kenny to bounce ideas off of. He says if I were just a bit dumber I'd be perfect:). So each night he asks me to go through some of the equations he's going over tomorrow with his students, and think outloud as I go through the process so he can see into the mind of someone who isn't mathy.
In other words, I'm learning Algebra all over again. It's much more enjoyable this time. It's only fair, too- I correct Kenny's grammar all the time, why shouldn't he have me learn math?

Bedrest=not all that bad

Bedrest is better than I thought it would be. My inherent laziness helps, of course:). I managed to still work 36 hours this week- all in all I've only spent 8 hours of PTO for this whole thing, and that includes last week's stay in the hospital.
I'm still having contractions pretty frequently, but they aren't increasing or becoming more painful, so I'm choosing not to worry about them. The nurse gave me instructions of "when to worry", so I'm just watching out for those things.
I have noticed every time I get up to go potty or eat, I have a contraction right then, which has helped convince me the bedrest is necessary, since apparently standing up=contractions. Otherwise it's still a bit hard for me to feel like this has all been needed, but I think it's just because we were lucky with how everything worked out, I don't get to see how it COULD have been.
The biggest annoyance of the bedrest is how sore my back is all the time. I wish I could figure out a way to type while laying on my side!
Kenny has been GREAT. He just did all the laundry, vacuumed, and cleaned my desk (since it sits across from the bed and I was sick of staring at the clutter 24/7). Now my bed space is much cleaner and I can relax a bit more.
I did taxes this morning, so I feel productive and useful as well. We owe a significant amount in taxes, but I knew we would, because of us exercising our stock options. Still, there were a few tears this morning- I don't know how we are going to make it through this, financially. I saw what my insurance was billed for my stay at the hospital: over 10k! And I'll probably be paying about 20% of that. I only hope I understand how the out-of-pocket maximum works, because that's going to save us.
And thank heavens Kenny starts getting paid this week! He's out buying a car seat as we speak, since for some reason that's been weighing on my mind as the highest priority item (I hate thinking if I had the baby now we'd have no way to get him home, which is ridiculous- if the baby came NOW he wouldn't be coming home for a LONG time). Still, I'll feel better once we have that and a co-sleeper/bassinet thing. We're slowly working towards having our home ready for this little guy.
Oh, and I think we finally decided on a name we both really like. One we hadn't even really considered before popped into my head while we were in the hospital. We're keeping it relatively secret, though- not because I want to be spiteful or don't want everyone to know, but because I read too much into people's reactions and thats killed every name we've liked so far.
So, that's about it! I'm not going crazy at all and life goes on! My baby is getting bigger and stronger by the day and I can see how lucky we are every time I look around.