Baby Girl Drama

Hey all.  James and I decided this was not the kind of stuff we wanted to post on facebook for EVERYBODY and their dog to see, but for the few faithful of you who actually read my blog, it's a good way to update you on the latest goings in in my uterus...
So, for those of you who don't know, on Wednesday I went in to Labor and Delivery on the advice of my OB because I had been having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions, like more than is considered normal.  My belly also felt really tight often enough that I was starting to be uncertain of what was and wasn't a contraction, and I was starting to get worried about what was going on.  Charlotte very sweetly took Rigby for what ended up being a loooong day at the hospital for me.
Predictably, they put me on monitors for a non-stress test.  Baby Emme (because that's her name, folks, Emmeline Helene) had a higher heart rate than they wanted to see at first, but the nurse thought perhaps she was just really active right that moment and would calm down.  They put me on an IV to help baby if she needed it and monitored my contractions.  Turns out, I WAS having a lot of them! My nurse was an awesome lady named Kris who actually was there when Rigby was born (she even stayed late on her shift to see his arrival), so that was comforting.  The resident came in to check me out, and it seemed at present that the contractions weren't causing me to dialate yet, which is good.  They ran some blood tests, including a fetal fibralnectin test, which is used to predict the likelihood of me going into labor in the next 2 weeks.  Those came back (after 3 hours, mind you) negative, although my white blood cell count was a little high.  Also, they measured my amniotic fluid and found that I had a higher than normal amount.  My OB ended up coming in and telling me how the tests had come back, and that things were looking pretty good for the moment, but she was going to put me on a drug to slow down or stop contractions.  That way, I would know things were abnormal in the contraction department if i continued having them even though I had taken the drug. Then, out of the blue, she hit me with these dreaded words: strict bed rest.
Sound familiar?  look back to the two weeks preceding Rigby's birth.  Cautiously, I asked what that would entail.  She said the same as last time- only getting up to pee, no cleaning, no walking, no lifting or taking care of baby #1. 
Ugh!!! someone please tell me how you're supposed to raise a toddler on such restrictions?
Anyways, she told me she wanted me to come in on Friday (today) for another NST and to measure my amniotic fluid levels again.  All I had been told at that point was that higher than normal levels of fluid are sometimes associated with gestational diabetes.
So today I went in for my tests.  Thankfully, I didn't have any contractions this time, so that was great.  Normal fluid levels are between 10 and 26 and mine was at 26.1, just outside of "normal."  At this point, for the first time, I was informed that high levels of fluid can be associated with fetal death.  The thinking goes that with all that extra fluid to swim around in, cord accidents can be more likely.  This, of course, freaked me out.  My levels were lower than on Wed, but I will likely be monitored throughout the remainder of the pregnancy to see where they go from here, and i was told to be vigilant about kick counts to help make sure she's doing ok.
Next scary thing: the nurse told me that she wanted to see 2 accelerations of her heart rate in 20 minutes and they had only seen one because she was asleep.  So they buzzed my stomach.  Nurse #1 didn't think the variation was enough, so Nurse #2 came in to look at the NST results.  She immediately said, "she's only 27 weeks? Oh, well this is enough variation for her gestational age."  And she watched baby girl for a few more minutes and decided to send the results off as "normal." A perinatologist will look at the results and send them on to my OB.  At that time, they will decide if I need to be monitored more closely, or if they are satisfied with the results.
So, the bottom line is, everything went pretty well, except there are still some unknowns out there that leave a neurotic worrier like me plently to freak out about.  Since you are my near and dear ones, I'd just ask you to keep us in your thoughts and prayers.  My next appointment is Friday, I'm hoping my OB will tell me she's happy with the results and I can go back to picking up my 15-month old. 

Hairbows and tutus and ruffles, oh my!

It's official, people, Baby #2 i a GIRL!!! For the last few months, I've been telling myself that I really don't care either way.  But when I cried my eyes out at hearing the news, I realized, secretly, that this probably wasn't entirely true.  What I CAN say this time around is that I'm more excited knowing I'll have at least one of each, rather than being particularly invested in one sex or the other. Shopping will be a dangerous thing.  A very dangerous thing.
It makes me feel like my "mommy intuition" is pretty good, too.  I felt like Rigby was a boy and I felt like this one was a girl.  Being 2 for 2 is pretty darn good odds, if I do say so myself.  Baby girl has the cutest little upturned nose.  I hope she looks a lot like her brother, because Rigby remains the world's cutest baby in my eyes.  Someday soon, I'll start doing more posts with pictures, but for now I need a nap! Cooking a baby girl i hard work, guys!

Mother's Day

So, I have a secret.
For Mother's Day, James got me a beautiful lilac bush.  For a while, I'd been telling him that someday I wanted one.  I meant someday when we have a house with an actual yard, but he took me up on the offer a few years sooner.  It's beautiful.  And Rigby "got" me some chocolates and a huge card that he scribbled in.  It was awesome.
That's not my secret, though.
My secret is that honestly, in my heart of hearts, I feel a little guilty getting presents.  Because being a mom has brought the most joy and fulfillment into my heart that I have ever known.  Seems a little unfair that I should get a holiday and presents on top of that, don't you think?
But like I said, don't tell James.
I still like the presents :)

Tulips on Tuesday

So, James is selling cars at the downtown Hyundai dealerships, which means that he works all day every Saturday, but instead gets every Tuesday off.

This mostly sucks, because I can't hang out with anyone on Saturday, because clearly they are all spending time with their families, as they should be.  But it does mean that we get to hang out on Tuesday when there are less crowds at fun places? I'm trying to see the upside of this.

Well, this last Tuesday we spent our 'weekend' going to see the tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point.  I am from Washington, which means when I heard the words "tulip festival," this is what I envisioned:

Thaaaaaaat's not really what they have at Thanksgiving Point.  It's mostly like this:

So, not quite the visual impact of acres of tulips, but still pretty.  But the grounds are spectacular and look something like this:

So, basically, we wandered around for an hour and a half, taking in the sights and taking tons of photos, as we imagined ourselves to be highly artistic.  It was mainly a good opportunity to get some cute family pics like these:

So it turned out to be a fun day. 

Not a Saturday, but a fun day nonetheless.

October to Present

Oh dear.  It turns out I am quite a horrible blog correspondent.  In all fairness, rearing and increasingly mobile child does tend to take up all of one's time.  And  yet I have good friends with three times that many who manage to do a better job blogging consistently.  Oh well.  All I can do is hope this glut of pictures from Thanksgiving to present will somewhat make up for my poor communications.
For Halloween, Rigby was a dinosaur.  Well, actually, he was supposed to be Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback since James went as Hagrid and I went as Bellatrix to Winnie and Sarah's annual halloween party.  James wore dry wall stilts.  It was hilarious.  Between his ridiculous height and the ridiculously cute infant, we had the best costume contest in the bag.

Next, Nana and Poppa came up for Thanksgiving.

fun times had by all.  Particularly when the little boys had their first visit with Santa!

Before Nana and Poppa Norman left on their mission, Rigs got some quality time with them, too.

Then came Christmas in Washington!

Oh, by the way, on this trip to Leavenworth for a sled ride, our car broke down.  To this day, it waits in Washington to be fixed.

I know things happened in the rest of January, February and March.  I just apparently didn't want to make memories of those things and didn't take pictures.  There are pictures of Chase's wedding on facebook, etc. where you can see a little of that window of time.

THEN, just recently, was Rigby's first birthday!!!

He was a doll, there was cake involved.  All was well.  Plus, Nana came out for the party!  Hard to believe it's really been a year since I first started this blog and vented my misery from the NICU.  Rigby's a healthy, huge, and happy baby boy.  We're so blessed.

AAAAAAAAND, that just about catches us up.  Oh, wait, one more thing:

We're expecting this little bundle of trouble in October.  Sara thinks it's obscene to post sonograms, so I didn't put it on facebook, but I figure the only people who see this are my closest compatriots, anyways. FYI, it was a surprise to all involved, except Heavenly Father.

I'll try to be better about posting, but given that our load is about to literally double, I'm not making any promises!