Been a while...

But sometimes I'm just not in a big writing mood :) I'm sure you understand.

Some important things have happened lately:

1.) We are now at 33 weeks. That's pretty safe, which is good. If I'm really really really really really really lucky and the doctor doesn't see anything changing next week at our 34 week appointment, there's a small chance that I could go on modified bed rest instead of strict bed rest. That would be wonderful. If not....five weeks to go.

2) Which brings us to point two: I have now completed 22 days on full bed rest. In some ways, they have been the longest of my life and in others, due to my now complete lack of comprehension of the passage of time, it seems pretty quick. Days just sort of bleed together with no real distinction, which is probably the blessing of this kind of situation. Again, if I'm really lucky, there's only about 9 more days of full bed rest; however, if we have to stick with this plan until our scheduled surgery, we're looking at at least five weeks (depending on when the surgery will take place). That would be more depressing.

3) I have read somewhere around a book a day; I have watched all of Mad Men; I have caught up on past Oscar winners and nominees that I haven't seen and meant to; I have knitted two blankets for Katie. I meant to do some photo and video projects as well, but those require more brain power than I seem capable of producing at this point in time.

4) I have passed the 40 day mark. The next time we hit one of those big day markers, it will be less than 30 (which, of course, means less than a month!). It's getting easier now that I can safely say that Jellybean could join us at any point now. She was measuring 4lbs last time we did a sonogram, and at this point she should be gaining about half a pound a week, so today she should be about 4.5lbs. Next week she should be at 5, which is typically the minimum for a baby to be able to leave the hospital (as long as breathing is ok and the baby can also regulate body temps), so we're hitting major milestones that mean she could be ok if she's born now.

Katie still doesn't understand what's going on or why I can't get up to play with her or go places with her. Her attitude has become very whiny and very angry - she gets upset at the drop of a hat (I think some of that is just simple "she's three years old" stuff, though). I'm hoping that even if I have to stay on full bed rest I can negotiate with the doctor to be able to go to her parent/teacher conference next week and to do some car-based trick or treating with her, but I'm not sure how she'll feel about that. I'm just going to cross my fingers and hope.

Tomorrow is my birthday and that has also been weird. I had hoped to spend this weekend at my parents' house as a kinda last weekend to travel before the baby was born. I was supposed to be able to travel freely up until 35 weeks, at which point it would be on a week-to-week basis. Funny how much has changed since I started planning that. It's kind of a bummer as well because my little brother is close to graduating from the police academy (Nov 4) and I REALLY wanted to be there for that (but, of course, that was already on the fence due to timing). It's all still worth it, but it is hard to miss these big events.

Contractions are not quite as constant as they were - I had a few days of almost complete quiet on Wednesday and Thursday, which was simply lovely. You know how when you're sick or you have a really bad headache for a few days and then you wake up one day and it's not there? That's a great day because you remember how badly the other days felt. That's how it is now - if I can go a day without contractions, it's a great day :) We'll be back at the doctor on Tuesday for another check-up, NST, and whatever else they feel is necessary on that given day. We ended up with another negative on our recent FFN test, so there's a 99% chance that I will NOT deliver in the next two weeks. This is really good because we know we're pretty safe (with the obvious exception of something strange happening - water breaking, placenta issues, etc), but it can be frustrating because if I get a lot of contractions, I know it's not worth going to L&D or the doctor because I have a negative on that test. I can safely say that I now know way more about preterm labor, tests, and medications than I ever wanted to know.

Anyway, I'm thankful that things have been pretty good and hopeful they will continue so I can get that modified bed rest. Whoever would think that a goal would be to get to go to the grocery store every now and then? ;)