33 Weeks

30 Weeks in this picture at my Illinois Baby Shower

Wow, I haven't posted in awhile on here.  Well as most of you probably know, it's been a rough month.  2 hospital visits this past month, and I'm praying that I won't have any more scares until baby Owen is born at full-term. :)  I could definitely use some calm before motherhood officially begins.

So, as you know I was hospitalized at 29 weeks with preterm contractions.  Praise the Lord that the contractions weren't doing anything to my cervix.  It's normal to have contractions during the third trimester, but doctors urge you to call them if you have more than 4-6 in an hour.  I was having about 50-60 an hour (not normal at all), so they definitely wanted me to come in to get checked and to monitor me.  I found out I have an irritable uterus.  All the doctors and nurses told me that an irritable uterus (IU) is more common in smaller framed women b/c our bodies have a hard time carrying the weight of the growing uterus.  Over the past month I've learned that if I overdo it, my contractions will get set off or if I have any caffeine (even that in dark chocolate..I know, sad right?), they will also start up again about 1 minute apart. So, I've been taking it easy so I don't start having 1 minute apart contractions again.  I'm still working, but as soon as I get off work, I come home and lay down on the couch.  Thankfully, I have a job where I'm not on my feet too much. 

Some of you may or may not know that I was in a car accident last week (January 25).  It was raining, and my car hydroplaned into another car, which deployed my air bag.  I was fine minus a burn on my hand from the airbag, but I was extremely concerned about Owen.  Eric came and picked me up from the site of the wreck and took me to the hospital.  We thought we would only be there for 4 hours of monitoring, but my contractions were absolutely crazy, and they did blood work that came back a little abnormal so they were concerned about placental abruption from the accident.  When I heard this, I about lost it (okay I really did lose it).  I haven't even had this baby yet, but the love I have for him is so great already, and the concern that something could be wrong was extremely scary.  At that point, Eric and I were told that we then needed to stay for 24 hours for more monitoring of the baby.  My sweet mom drove down from southern IL and the waiting began.  They wanted to make sure that my body didn't show any signs of the placenta separating from the uterus (bleeding, baby in distress, etc).  It was a long night in the hospital as you don't get any sleep with the nurses coming in multiple times.  Little Owen HATED all the monitors on my belly and he would constantly kick the monitor so hard that the nurse would have to come in and fix it so that his heart beat would register.  I didn't mind his hard kicks one bit; the constant reminder that he was doing well and moving around made me extremely thankful.  Eric was a trooper in the middle of the night, helping me with my IV pole every time I had to get up to go to the restroom.  We both got a little taste of what life would be like in the hospital when Owen really does come.  We called it our practice round.  We know we need to bring more pillows, a soft egg crate to make Eric's bed more comfortable, and definitely some chapstick.  :)  The next afternoon, the doctors finally released us to go home.  Baby Owen did GREAT throughout the night.  He never showed signs of distress.  His name means "Young Warrior," and he truly is such a little fighter.  Nothing seems to be phasing him.  The past month makes me appreciate this baby boy so much more.  When it's actually time for him to come into this world, I know I'll look back at the past month, and it'll all be worth it.  I can't get over how much I love him already.  It's such an amazing feeling.  I'll sing songs to him when I'm driving in the car, and he'll start moving around like crazy.  (I hope that means he likes my singing :)

Well, there is the past month in a nutshell.  I also had my baby showers all this past month too.  I'll write another post including some pictures from that.  Owen is a lucky guy to have so many people who love him.

And I wanted to thank all of you who have been praying for us during all of this.  You have no idea how much your prayers mean to me.  As we all know, prayer is so so powerful, and I ask that you continue to pray that baby Owen stays inside til full-term.  Some of the nurses and I laugh and say, watch him go past 40 weeks since we've been so concerned with him coming early.  Oh well, better late than early, but hopefully he'll come right on time. 

Love you all!
Kristen