the next steps

hi everyone.  happy friday.

don't know about you but i am happy that it is friday.  loads of exciting things are happening this weekend.  our second baby shower is tomorrow and i can't wait to see all of our friends.  a few close friends are throwing the shower/ bbq for boys and girls alike and i am so excited.  i promise to share more on that later.

also JD's mom is flying in tonight for the festivities this weekend.  so we will get to do some fun seattle stuff as well.

so after our visit to the hospital yesterday we have some more answers and plenty of questions.  the good news is that my high blood pressure hasn't developed into pre-eclampsia.  they cautioned that at some point it might but it hasn't yet and that buys us time.

so currently they are going to watch the bean and i closely.  we will be at the hospital 2 times a week for non-stress tests.  for those they hook us up to a monitor that monitors my heart beat and blood pressure, and the baby's heart beat, and movements.  from what they said yesterday he will let us know first thing if there is a problem.  they did a sonogram yesterday as well and everything looks good there... those too are going to become part of our weekly or bi-weekly routine until he is out here with us.

the news that was a bit harder to swallow is that we will be tracking my blood pressure week by week and will be making decisions based on how we are doing... which might mean induction as early as 37 weeks (umm yeah 2 weeks away) and no later than 39 weeks.  i figured i was going to at least make it to 40 weeks if not the full 42.

i'm sort of panicking.  i don't feel at all prepared... or ready.  i feel like i don't know what to do.. ahhhh. the time difference between 37 weeks and 42 is huge and i was counting on that time to somehow prepare.

anyway we will be filling the next few weeks with plenty of doctor's visits, preparations, and nesting.... seriously let the nesting begin.

i am so thankful that we are the lowest of the "high risk" patients.  i just pray i can maintain my blood pressure for at least the next two weeks... keep us in your thoughts.

happy weekend.
xoxo
wren

an unexpected turn

i don't know if i posted about it before but JD and i have been planning a home birth since we found out we were expecting this little man.

we decided on a home birth for many reasons (most of which i won't get into here because this post isn't about the hospital vs. home birth debate)... to some of you i imagine this sounds crazy but to us it was the most comforting and least scary of options.  we did our research, were well informed, and were looking forward to bringing our new little baby into this world in our home, where we feel most comfortable.  there was going to be no rushing to the hospital, no forms, no staff, and yes, no drugs.  we have been attending a home birth class with the mother of all doulas Penny Simkin and have been preparing for our chosen path.

that was until this week... my blood pressure is still up which puts us at a place where we are more than likely going to risk out of our home birth option... we will have to deliver in a hospital.  for us this is a major game changer and a dramatic switch to our thinking.  i have been pretty upset about it for the past few days and am trying to come to terms with this new picture in which our baby will be born.

we are headed to the hospital tomorrow morning for some more testing to see if we are dealing with anything more critical than hypertension.  i pray that all the tests come back negative and that we are only dealing with a minor health problem.  they will make sure that the little bean is doing well... (as i type right now he has the hiccups.!)

i know that home birth might not be "the option" for all of you.... and i am only happy to do anything that will keep my little boy safe and happy.  but i too need a bit of time to grieve for the labor and delivery we wanted to have and now won't.  i'm not good at radical changes so finding out that we will now be doing a hospital birth weeks in advance is probably for the best.  this way i'll be able to put my thoughts to how i want our hospital labor and birth to go.

i'll let you know how things go... in the mean time keep us in your thoughts.

xoxo,
wren

the 34th week of pregnancy

i am finding that with almost every week, or every two weeks in pregnancy something new comes up.  sometimes it is amazingly awesome, like feeling the baby move for the first time... other times not so much fun.

this week is more along the lines of not so much fun.  above and beyond feeling quite big and immobile, my blood pressure was high at my last mid-wife appointment.  (insert not good news here).  so they did a blood draw which came back fine but i now have to go have my blood pressure taken every 2-3 days.  they are worried about pre-eclampsia.... urgh.  so keep your fingers crossed... prayers are welcome.

i am just trying to stay relaxed and calm and not get stressed out.  (something i'm not very good at)  this weekend JD and i are just going to take it easy and hang out around the house.  i would like to take a drive, maybe up into the mountains to enjoy a little nature this 4th of July weekend, but we will see.

a cool thing that happened at the end of last week is the little bean started getting hiccups.  at first i thought he was just moving at a very constant rhythm... but nope hiccups.  how cute huh?  i guess he is practicing for the big first breath he will take in a little while.

i'm not good with the pictures lately huh?  oh well.  happy 4th everyone.  hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend.

xoxo
wren

2 day weekends

so this week we reach the 34 week mark... which means that we only have 3 more weeks till the baby is considered full term and 6 weeks until our due date.

this weekend i realized that 2 day weekend just aren't long enough for me to recharge after a long work week.  friday night i basically had a melt down from just being too tired.  JD is the best, doing everything he can to make sure we are ok.  all of my anxieties bubbled to the surface and boom, breakdown.

saturday and sunday JD worked incredibly hard on finishing up the boxes for the living room.  we finished them last night (and by we i mean JD).  tonight i will get to load them and put our living room back in some assemblance of order. they look fantastic and will do wonders for storage in our house and organization.

other weekend highlights included setting up a bit more of the nursery.   we now have the crib mattress and i even put sheets on it.  the room is starting to look so cute.  we need some color along the black wallpaper wall.  i think a mobile over the crib will help and i was thinking of making a super colorful bunting to hang along the wall. 

i have been super hungry for smores, but since we have put a stop to our camping expeditions this year i haven't had the opportunity to enjoy one in quite some time.  so this weekend after a great bite to eat out we came home and i improvised.  i broke up a chocolate bar and put it in the bottom of a oven proof dish... then added ripped up marshmallows and tossed it in the broiler.  (watch closely... the marshmallows can get brown pretty fast).  we then enjoyed the yummy goodness of smores out of the dish spooned onto gram crackers... yum.

other than that i went to my second prenatal yoga class then promptly came home to nap.  it doesn't take much these days to make me tired.  in fact if i could i would crawl under my desk now and sleep. 

xoxo
wren

sweet sweet friday

ahhh i can't tell you guys how happy i am that it is friday.
by the end of the week my back has had enough of sitting in an office and i need the weekend. 

this weekend we have lots of little stuff planned.  i want to get into the nursery and continue to get things set up.  our gardens need lots of love and weeding.  i think i could spend the entire weekend weeding and still not be done. 

also we got two of the boxes for the living room installed last weekend and they look amazing.  this weekend we hope to finish the other two and get them installed... oh how this will dramatically change the feel of our house!

i am too excited.  i promise i will take pictures and share.  as  you can tell by my infrequent postings, by the time i get home the last thing i want to do is sit down at a computer again.  my back is not having it. 

have a nice weekend all... maybe we will even have a bit of sun up here in the pacific northwest.  wouldn't that be novel?

xoxo
wren

The Nursery 2...

The NURSERY

thought i would add the additional items i have posted on to our nursery scheme so you can get the over all effect.

so far this is what we've got going:

1.  wall paper - The Fir Tree - Ferm Living  (this is up on one wall only)
2.  crib - Gulliver - Ikea
3.  rug - Hogan, Teal - Crate & Barrel
4.  animal photos - Sharon Montrose's etsy shop
5.  ugly doll - Moxie - Ugly Dolls
6.  moose hook rack - Sprallig - Ikea
7.  eames rocking chair - design within reach
8.  awesome, cool, pillows by me - see them here
9.  lova, bed canopy - ikea
10. puzzle taxidermy, by me - see them here


not a bad start... more to come.  i plan on taking actual pics of the nursery once it's ready but it isn't quite there yet.  maybe the middle of July.

back to the rat race

hey everyone i'm back.

sorry i didn't have anything set up for when i was gone but that takes more planning than i'm capable of right now.

so i plan on writing about my trip back to PA later, but for now i thought i would share a story about my return.  i can't tell you how happy i was to get off that plane.  i was happy about it... my little in utero bambino was happy about it... we were happy about it.  the best part; seeing JD.  it has been at least 4 years since we have traveled apart and i'm grateful for that.

as i came up the stairs from the airport tram, there he was smiling and cute.  i blushed.  it was wonderful to be back in his arms.  we made our way to the baggage carousel and we stood with his arms around us (the bean and i) waiting for for our bags to magically shoot out on to the belt.

while we were waiting JD told me of our families latest accomplishment.  it seems that while i was gone Mr. Ginkgo learned that he could hunt and very proudly brought his fresh kill, a rat, to the porch to show us his personal victory. that was the good part of the story.  the bad part, is that JD didn't know that Gink had put a rat on the porch and he left the pups out.  before he could get outside to do anything both dogs had rolled in and on the dead rat and munched as much as possible.  needless to say, i was very happy to have missed not only this part of the story but the baths and sick puppies that were a result of the rat find.

the night after my return, right before bed, Ginkgo was making quite a racket in the mud room trying to show me something.  at the time i thought he just wanted a little treat or more food so i dismissed his meowing and went to bed.  at some point in the wee hours of the morning there was quite a disturbance in the house (which at the time we thought was the cat playing).  the disturbance caused both dogs to run, no sprint, from the bedroom barking.  JD shut the whole operation down pretty quickly and directed everyone back to bed.

that night, i don't think Rainier slept from that moment on.  she was continuously walking up and down the hall whining.  oh i was seriously going to kill her.  no matter how much we directed her to lay down, within minutes she was back out to the living room whining.  i even closed the door and that didn't stop the whining.

we awoke the next morning with little to no sleep and quite the grumpy attitude.  as i was putting breakfast together Rainier continued her whining at the front door.  finally JD had, had enough.  he went to her and begged her to show him what all the racket was about.  he began to move the few items we have behind the door out of the corner.  my yoga mats were moved, then the pups chuck-it, and then... it became clear why Rainier was whining.  there in the corner, behind the stuff, was one dead little mouse.  it seems that the racket the night before was our killer Ginkgo getting that little mouse he had been trying to tell me about the night before.  Rainier and all her whining were just trying to alert us to the dead little body hidden in the corner. 

the little mouse made it's way into the trash outside and things returned to normal inside.  it's too bad we didn't figure out our pet's language the night before, we could have gotten more sleep.  but next time let's hope we will know better.

i think Gink was all... "Welcome home mom... here's a little mouse present just for you."  thoughtful don't you think?  ha.