I'm Still Pregnant

So I decided to not go into preterm labor yet. Here's some things I decided to do instead:

Get fatter

Visit with the inlaws (Dave and Maya and Yolanda)

Finish my 1000 (998) piece puzzle of Fenway Park (Thanks Isaiah!

Eat ice cream

Make paper dolls

Paint castles (Thanks Dixie and Summer!)

Roll my eyes as my mom takes my profile picture and stares at my stomach, waiting for it to move

More crafts :)

Count down the days...

I'm really not that anxious to end this pregnancy because I know it's better for Baby Hudson to stay inside me right now, but I do look forward to being reunited with Isaiah and having our family together--all 3 of us! Today the doctor told me that I'm scheduled in the books for delivery on...October 9th. Hmm...not what I was expecting, but what's new? This whole pregnancy has been surprises. So don't die when you haven't heard any news on the 7th or the 8th. We'll let you know as soon as baby comes. Besides, the longer he bakes the darker he gets (I hope).

A Very Merry Unbirthday

September 25, 2012.

This is the day that could've been Baby Hudson's birthday if my contractions hadn't stopped. The monitor showed they were coming every 2-4 minutes but I couldn't feel them. Thankfully they did stop after about an hour and I made it to the next day.

September 26, 2012.

Again, I'm so grateful this day was not Baby Hudson's birthday either but it sure looked threatening at times. In the morning I had a new kind of pain so I got hooked up to the monitors right away and told to not eat breakfast "just in case." Contractions showed up on the monitor every 5-7 minutes. False alarm #2.

September 27, 2012

10 days (hopefully) until Baby Hudson's birthday but with all the little contractions I'm having I feel like a ticking time bomb set to explode at a moment's notice. The doctors are "sufficiently concerned" about my pain which makes them want to deliver on the earlier side of things. I'm totally ready to be done with hospital bed rest but I'm totally not ready to have a baby. I recently realized I don't know how to have a kid and in 10 days (or less) I'm going to have one. I've never been a mom before. I don't have much time to learn. Any advice? Seriously.

All My Friends

Every Thursday I go to a materni-"tea" party where all the antepartum patients get together to chat and bond. We all have different reasons for being hospitalized but we can all relate with how much it stinks to be here long term in the hospital. It's funny to listen to the new girls say, "I've been here ONE WEEK!" "I've been here EIGHT DAYS!"...and then they ask me how long I've been here.

"7 1/2 weeks"

"Oh...we'll stop complaining now."

For the past few weeks I've become friends with 2 ladies who have been here about a month now. Today we all arranged to go together to the "Making Memories" scrapbook group put on by the Family Support Group at the hospital. They provide memory books and all the scrapbook supplies you can imagine and they let you print out pictures. Obviously I don't have any pictures of Baby Hudson yet but I got an ultrasound picture of his face and put it onto his first scrapbook page today. The girls made fun of me because my pages were looking a little girly so I added some stickers of dirt and tractors to make it look a little more masculine.

We were also invited to a dinner for the parents of children who are patients at the hospital. We're sort of the exceptions to the rule since we're more of the patients than our children, but we felt like we deserved it too so we went. They served Mexican food and fruit and brownies and cookies. I think it tasted especially good because it was different than the weekly menu food and we especially enjoyed our time there because it was different than our hospital rooms. It's nice to make friends and do some relatively normal things again.

31 Weeks

Baby Hudson is kinda like a peanut in its shell. There's not that much we know about him right now. I do know that Baby Hudson's heart is always beating. He usually has beautiful rises and falls in his heart rate which the doctors love to see. Very rarely he has really low drops in his heart rate which make the doctors scared so they do extra monitoring to make sure he's stable. Sometimes his heart beats irregularly but the doctors know it's normal for him so they don't mind it so much. I also know that Baby Hudson is still growing. His 30 week ultrasound showed him in the 57th percentile overall. His estimated weight is 3 pounds 8 ounces. His head measured at something like 34 weeks but his ventricles have remained stable since surgery which is positive. I know Baby Hudson is still breech, but that doesn't matter too much since I'll deliver by c-section. His head is up by my ribs on the left side, his bum is down near my cervix, and his legs are up by my ribs on the right side. I feel him hiccuping in my lower abdomen at least 3 times a day. I know Baby Hudson's lower back is squished down near my pelvic bone so they haven't been able to get a good image of the skin closure at the surgery site. We just assume it's healing over well. Other than that we don't know much else about how Baby Hudson is doing. We just keep hoping he keeps growing for 21 more days! ETA: October 8, 2012.

Isaiah's Hospital Stay

I'm not the kind of girl who posts on Facebook about how she has the best husband ever and how much she loves him, so I post it here on my blog instead. Isaiah will probably hate this post, but let's be honest--I have the best husband in the whole world and I love him so much!

I haven't seen Isaiah since the week of my surgery 5 weeks ago, which is MUCH too long to go without seeing one's husband or wife. I've been fortunate to have visitors regularly but I think Isaiah has been a little lonely in Provo so it was good for him to spend some time with me this weekend.

Isaiah and I got married last year because we figured out that we're better together than we are apart. It's been really tough to be away from him for what seems like forever. First of all I'm grateful to know there's only 3 more weeks until we'll be together again. It's even better to know that when we're together again it will be all 3 of us. Most importantly, though, I'm grateful to know I'm married to Isaiah for eternity so even though we're experiencing a few tough weeks of physical separation we're going to have each other forever. And ever.

Evidence that Isaiah loves me:

He slept on the pull-out chair to the side of my bed for 4 nights.

He put up with the hospital food for 4 days.

He filled my water bottle regularly.

He pushed me to the 6th floor patio and let me catch snails.

He brought me a new puzzle.

He ordered me (us) pizza to accompany our football marathon on Saturday.

He just HAD to know how I've felt for the past 6 weeks

My nurse didn't seem to mind that we squished together on the bed

Me and my snail

Bed Rest Exercises

Bed rest exercises. You know--the kind of exercise you do when you can't do exercise. The kind of exercise people do when they get older and become less mobile. The kind of exercise where you move so little of your body that you can do it while you're laying (lying?) in bed. The kind of exercise I used to make fun of...

Until I woke up this morning sore from doing my bed rest exercises. I'm so lame.

Visitors

 Isaiah's family has been especially awesome to visit me regularly and make sure I have everything I need and want. They bring my favorite Subway sandwich, they take me out to the 6th floor patio, and Maya even pushes me in my wheelchair. What more could I ask for?

Isaiah taught Maya how to say "sky." He cracks up when she says it because it sounds like "shy!"

In regards to visitors I also have to give a shout out to the San Francisco Sunset Ward. Without being asked and without even knowing me they've sent sisters each day to spend time with me. Some of them have brought books, pastries, Jamba Juice, snacks, magazines, movies. I can't thank them enough for being so thoughtful!! I sometimes feel guilty to have so many visitors when I know other women at the hospital live far from home and don't have family or church support. I am so blessed!

Week with Aunt Rachel

Aunt Rachel (my mom's sister who, by the way, sings in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir) came out to spend time with me this last week. She was told by my husband that it's actually okay to leave me alone for a little while to have some fun of her own so she took advantage of that and went exploring in the city. I was concerned about her coming back each night. She had never been to San Francisco before and she didn't have a smart phone to GPS her way home if she got lost. Fortunately she always managed to return safely. She said she had a good time (although she felt badly telling me she had SO much fun while I sat in bed) and I think she actually learned some new things. Here's a summary:

What Aunt Rachel did in San Francisco:

• Chinatown
• Farmer's market
• Golden Gate Bridge
• Pier 39
• Fisherman's Wharf
• Public transportation (I won't mention the one time she took the right metro in the wrong direction...)
• Shopping downtown

What Aunt Rachel learned in San Francisco:

• Taking a shuttle with people who don't speak English can be fun 
• Sharing a bathroom with strange men who don't speak English can be even more fun
• Riding 84 mph in a taxi with a man who looks like a terrorist and speaks mumbled English into a little mouthpiece is the most fun of all
• Her new favorite food is...hospital food!
• Hospitals are not as sanitary as Aunt Rachel's house

Thanks for spending this week with me, Aunt Rachel! Not only did it ease my mother's conscience to know someone was here for me in case of emergency, but it also helped keep my mind off the fact that I've sat in the same hospital bed for 5 weeks straight. Thanks for doing my laundry, thanks for re-arranging my cards and flowers, thanks for letting me win Fill or Bust, thanks for wheeling me to the 6th floor and even to the 1st floor, thanks for buying me clothes that fit (even though I don't mind wearing Isaiah's clothes), thanks for painting my toenails "Giants" orange, thanks for the salted caramel chocolate cake and the tasty pizza, thanks for your support!

Aunt Rachel picked up some construction paper and helped me make a countdown until Baby Hudson's appearance. It doesn't look THAT long, does it?

Someone (who will remain unmentioned) painted my toes a "granny color" so Aunt Rachel gave me a fresh update

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How are you doing?
A: Fine.

Q: How long have you been here?
A: Almost 4 weeks

Q: What do you do all day?
A:

Coloring books and word searches (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Garrett)

Read letters from friends (Thanks Sister Mather, Sister Aalders, Lara & Co., Kyla and Krystal). This note is from one of my preschoolers; it says "You're the best teacher. I love you."

Puzzles (Thanks mom and Grandma Garrett)

Look at pictures of my cute husband as a baby (Thanks Yolanda)

Play handheld games (Thanks dad)

Rub my belly with essential oils and talk to my baby (Thanks Uncle Marc and Aunt Jen

Q: Are you bored?
A: Not yet

Q: Is it true your water broke?
A: Yes

Q: And you're still pregnant?
A: Obviously

Q: I thought if your water breaks it means you're going into labor...?
A: Nope. Crazy, huh?

Q: How is your baby doing?
A: He's remained stable for the past several weeks; steady heart beat, constant movements, growing, hiccuping, flipping (don't tell the doctors he's breech again)

Q: Do you have a name picked out?
A: Probably, but we're not going to tell you...even if you promise to not tell anyone else. 

Q: How far along are you?
A: 29 weeks!

Q: When is your due date?
A: November 18th, but the doctors won't have me deliver past 34 weeks which is October 7th

Q: Will you deliver vaginally or by C-section?
A: I will have a C-section because of how I was cut open during the fetal surgery. My uterus will not tolerate contractions so once I go into labor I will be delivered immediately. All subsequent pregnancies will be C-section as well.

Q: Do you miss you husband?
A: Very much! (Thank you Mariam for donating sky miles so he can come visit me in 11 days!)

Q: Is the food good?
A: It's a little tough that the meals repeat every week, but the food does taste good and I am grateful for room service with well-balanced meals that I wouldn't have otherwise.

Q: Does everybody ask you the same questions?
A: Yes :)