Don't Worry About A Thing...

Today I write to you from my bed.  That's right – bed rest!  Luckily, it’s only temporary. And, it gives me a chance to catch up on the blog!  I went in yesterday to get the sharp, crippling, sporadic pains in my lower abdomen checked out.  They put me on 48 hours bed rest to make sure I don’t cause any stress to the baby and try to get the pain to subside.  The baby is fine – that’s the first thing they checked.  They also took a look at the borderline placenta previa that was discovered last week – more to come on this!  They gave me high dose Motrin to help with the pain/inflammation.  If they are labor pains, Motrin will help stop that also.  We are WAY too early to safely meet BabyO!  Feet up and no stress – doctor’s orders.  At this point, I’ll take it – a couple days to re-group and relax!

Let me catch you up on our GOOD news from last week!  We are still functioning 1 day at a time and 1 foot in front of the other.  All of the many prayers from all corners of the country were heard loud and clear and we felt the support of our warriors going into our 18 week structural/anatomy scan on Wednesday.  Of course, I was still nervous because of the uncertainty that surrounds our little family.  But, I had more hope for this day than I’ve had recently.  Maybe my addiction is getting the best of me.  You usually revert back to the very source when you’re at your weakest.  I keep going back to the hope I have for our baby, our family and our future. 

This past Wednesday we were back at Duke for the scan and we got some great news.  All the major structures they could make out looked normal – measured normal – worked properly.  All I could think is, “Is this real?  Where’s the fine print?”  But, it was very real.  Because of the baby’s position, the doc couldn’t tell if the inflow and outflow of blood to the heart was normal, but gut feeling told him it was likely fine.  This will also be checked at our fetal echo in a couple of weeks.  The baby is a mover and never sits still.  Legs are always kicking and every time we went to 3D he/she gave a thumbs up! This still gives me goosebumps.  It’s like our little one is reassuring us “Don’t worry about a thing, cause every little thing…gonna be alright”.  Have I mentioned how much I love the simplicity of that Bob Marley song?

On the flipside - they did discover that I have borderline placenta previa which will continue to be monitored.  Only a minor hiccup that was totally trumped by the amazing news that our baby is developing into a normal little babe.  Plus, it’s something that so many women experience, I don’t feel like I’ve fallen into another small percentage grouping.  This I can handle.  This I can face confidently.

We feel so blessed and so grateful that our prayers are being heard.  I’m not sure if there was something wrong with our babe and He is healing him or her in the womb. Or, was it a false alarm?  Or, did the little one simply need some time to develop and correct whatever it was on its own?  Either way, we know that a cystic hygroma should not be present and it was.  So something caused it and we may never know what.  And, I’m OK with that.  I’m just thankful that our little guy or gal is a fighter.  And, that he or she has hundreds, maybe thousands, of prayer warriors cheering him or her on.  And, that this child is in the most capable, loving hands. 

Thank you for the continued prayers and messages of support!  We are feeling more confident and more hopeful by the day.  Once we get past this next milestone – our fetal echo – we will be able to breathe a little easier. 

To add a little fun to the post – with the good news from Wednesday we decided we could actually start planning the nursery again and do a little celebrating.  We found our nursery bedding late last week.  It was a chore looking for gender neutral bedding that isn’t overly baby-motifed (is that a word?). But, we found something that we both really love so we went ahead and registered for it!  This past weekend we found our nursery furniture! Given my luck, the furniture collection we fell in love with has been discontinued.  We ended up buying the floor model dresser at a steal – those who know me know that I’m not shy about asking for additional discounts and it paid off this time!  Now, we have to figure out the crib…who knew cribs were so expensive?  I have a feeling we’ll end up just pulling the trigger on the matching crib – I did get them to come down from asking price. I’m just so stubborn when they won’t come down to what I WANT to spend…

I also felt the baby move for the first time last night.  I was absolutely sure of what I felt.   I’m pretty sure I’ve felt BabyO previously but I wasn’t really sure if it was just gas bubbles or baby kicks – crazy that you can confuse the two!  Last night was definite baby movement and it was so surreal.

Tomorrow we’ll be 19 weeks.  Crazy to think we are almost half way there.  I’ll leave you with these…

I don't think I've mentioned my obsession with donuts yet...breakfast in bed!

bed rest company = lots of snuggles