February 2nd Update

Today is Wednesday, and we are 32 weeks and 5 days today-Yay! I can't believe we have made it this far. I have been thinking of how I was just hoping to get to 28 weeks...then hoping for 30 weeks...etc. Wow! Baker really is Baking. It was my nephew Gage's 6th birthday yesterday. He is the only one in my family to share a Feburary Birthday with me and Alli and I am thinking we might get to add another member to the "February Birthday Club" soon. My doctors still haven't 100% said that they will deliver Baker at 34 weeks or if we will just keep baking. It really is a day-to-day thing. February 11th is still a date in the back of everyone's mind, so we will see how we are doing at that point. Little one has been doing very good and his heart rate dips haven't been as common-yay! Monday night I slept like an angel and so did Baker...hope we keep that up when he actually gets here.

I had an awesome visit from one of my little tennis students yesterday. Caroline and Carrie Hicks came by to visit and they brought me some yummy Menchies Frozen Yogurt. We had a lot to catch up on and she has been rocking on the tennis court. Can't wait to get back out there with her. :-) My friend, John Pullen came by to visit me this morning. He is so funny and he brought me some movies to watch-YES! I am about to finish "Pillars of the Earth", FINALLY, so I am very excited to jump into some new movies.

Our appointment on Monday went great, we are still holding steady at 6 cm of fluid-6.8 to be specific-hey every point counts, right?! :-) Baby is looking BIG and we got to see his cute foot, which thankfully does not look like mine. We were also able to tell on the ultrasound that he has a little bit of hair on his head. How adorable! It's getting so close and I am dying to see what he looks like. Since I have such low fluid, we have been unable to do those fun 3D pics, but the surprise is just as good! We have our regular Thursday appointment tomorrow, so I am looking forward to it. The good news is that the appointments are not as scary anymore and they are all saying that he looks great. I think the whole doctor's office is making bets on how far I'll go-I said that we should sell squares like they do for the Super Bowl. Any takers???

I have been blessed with some great visits these past few weeks. Linda and Barbara from my Mom's bible study came all the way down from Braselton to visit me at Piedmont. It was a great visit and they gave me a precious willowtree figurine of a little boy holding a balloon that says "HOPE". That could not be a more perfect symbol of our journey. The Lord has been so good to us and we know that he is watching out for our sweet son. Linda closed our visit with a beautiful prayer, what a great day. My dad came by on Monday to bring me lunch and we had a great visit. He really is doing great and looks fantastic. It is so nice to be able to see him weekly and I know he is excited about a new grandson nearby. My awesome In-Law's have been by several times and they recently just took their "Grandparenting Class" at Piedmont. They are ready! I was actually surprised that my Mom wasn't teaching the class. She is here visiting with me all of the time, so Piedmont should really take advantage of all of her MiMi Knowledge. :-)  Mommie actually hung out with me on Sunday afternoon and she helped clean up my "Dorm Room"  and was so helpful. She actually gave me a manicure and pedicure and it was so fun! I really needed that!

My best friends from ECU cannot go unnnoticed in my blog entry. I went to ECU and played tennis with the most amazing girls in the world. We have all been through so much together and they mean the world to me. Meredith, Kate, Mary, Paulina and Chi-Chi sent me the most amazing gift-Baker's Essentials. They knew that we needed a few "must-have's" and since I have been in the hospital they all pitched in to help. Bill called me to tell me that we had a pack-n-play, baby bjorn, bottles, tummy mat and car seat waiting for us at home. The gratitude that I have for them doing that can never be explained in words. It was so thoughtful and I can't thank them enough. Go Pirates!

We had the funniest thing happen over the weekend. Baker had a pretty big de-cel in his heart rate on Saturday night and my nurse, Renee, put me on oxygen. Well she kept the mask on me for the remainder of the night and little one seemed to respond well to that because he didn't have any more dips after that for the whole night. Well I didn't get a wink of sleep with that darn mask on, so on Sunday night, Renee suggested we try one of those oxygen nose tubes. I have only tried the nose tubes one other time and I was 6 years old at Scottish Rite and I remembered that they tickled and that I didn't like it very much. Well, now that I am much more mature, I was ready to try it again. So, she hooks me up and shows me how to take it off when I need to get up and begins to slowly turn the humidifier/oxygen meter on. Well...the next thing I knew, water is shooting up my nose and all over the room and #288 sounds like Grand Central Station. Bill said my eyes were the size of golf balls. I completely panicked and couldn't remember how to take the tubes off and I was snorting gallons of water. It turns out the meter next to my bed was...a little off, so they ended up replacing it. That made us laugh so hard and poor Renee thought that she had done something wrong, but it turned out to be a mechanical issue. It was Hilarious!

As I mentioned in my last post, Bill's cousin Austin Kirkland came down for a visit this past weekend. It was so great to see him and Bill is so lucky to have such awesome cousins! Friday night Chef Austin made me an amazing dinner and we got to have a dinner party at #288 with Jessica, Chris, Bill and Austin. What fun! Austin was the chef at our Rehearsal Dinner and Wedding Reception, he is AMAZING! The menu for our dinner party included panko-encrusted fried BBQ Chicken, home-made BBQ sauce, Gouda Mac n Cheese, Kirkland Collard Greens and Broccoli Cheese Cornbread. It was quite a change from the Piedmont "Regular Diet" Menu. :-) Thanks Austin, you are the best! I know Bill had a good time getting out of the Hospital for a bit.

One of my childhood besties, Leah Humphries, and my pal Meredith Repp came by this past Saturday. I had the best time sitting and chatting with them. Leah made some delicious Black Bean soup and cornbread and it was fantastic. Meredith brought a fun TJ's gift bag with fruit, games and snacks. My tulips are blooming, girls. They are beautiful! I am so lucky to have such great friends. My gals Becca Fiore and Ashley Case also dropped by to see me and it brightened my day to see them both. Becca brought me some Henri's and I was a very happy pregnant girl and Ashley brought some fun magazines and puzzles. I will be keeping myself busy for sure! Becca is getting married in April and Ashley is getting married in March, so it was so much fun to hear all of the fun wedding updates!! Yay for 2011 weddings!

Now...bedrest isn't all that bad, is it? I have the most amazing friends and family and it is because of them that these past 7 weeks have flown by! The visits, thoughts and prayers have really kept my spirits up and these things will never be forgotten. I will update on our ultrasound tomorrow. We won't be weighing him this week, but hope to have great news! Until then, keep on Baking Baker! You're doing a great job!!!