No News is Good News

No post last night because...I ended up going to sleep on time and sleeping through the night! It was uneventful and uninteruptted, and I feel so much better today.

My dad, Ray, and I made it outside on Wednesday just in time to see the downtown fireworks. It was a great show! Ray said how fun it will be next year when we can watch it with Baby M. We went up to the roof of the hospital parking garage and then got locked out when we tried to get back in the building and needed a security guard to let us in. Whenever I go on a wheel chair ride with out a nurse, they give us a 30 minute limit. The first time we went a little over the time, Ray got a call on his cell phone to check up on us even though we were only downstairs in the cafeteria.

On Wednesday night, my blood pressure was a little too high at bedtime, so they gave me an IV med that brought it back down fairly quickly but the excitement of all the extra monitoring kept me up until 1 am. Then they did a blood draw at 4 am. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep that night.

I slept in and then called my dad and told him to take his time coming over here. He was going to run some errands to help us with house stuff and then also ended up getting the oil changed in our car. Thanks dad! The morning ultrasound looked ok according to my doctors and they said that we'll just keep going until they decide otherwise. The results from my 4 am lab test also looked good - the kidney numbers are holding, the liver number is holding, and the doctors said that nothing out of the ordinary showed up.

Remember my neighbor who was admitted the same day as me? Well, she had friends and family over to her room on July 4th for a little party, then I heard later that night from my nurse that she was about to have a c section. It was not a planned c section, and something changed quickly for her or the baby that necessitated it then and there. It was a reminder that things change all the time in this situation and how any day can be THE day when the say it is time to deliver. I gave Baby M a pep talk about how excited daddy and I are to meet her but how we'd like her to stay in as long as possible. She responded by continuing to "look good on the monitor" according to my nurses and moving all around inside. Now that we've made it to the beginning of 28 weeks today (yippeee!), our plan is to just keep on going.  :)

In terms of specific prayer requests, there are a few specific things we would love prayers for:

- One week ago, Ray learned that his temp-to-perm job was ending today. When hired on as a contractor, he was told that he would be replacing an employee who was out on long term disability and would not be returning. His manager was surprised to learn last week, that the employee was returning, which meant that Ray would no longer be needed. Ray has been actively looking for other job opportunities, but this news threw us both for a loop since we were really hoping that he would be hired on there full-time this summer. We are trusting that there is an even better opportunity out there for him, but it is still unnerving for him to be unemployed while so much is going on with me and Baby M.

- The doctors are carefully watching the ultrasound results. They want to see increased blood flow from the placenta and umbilical cord and they want assurance that all the arteries they are watching are doing exactly what they should. Blood flow also impacts how quickly babies grow, so any limitation in blood flow most likely will delay growth. There is way more technical mumbo jumbo that we don't completely understand, but we pray that they keep seeing what they want to see as long as possible.

- The doctors are also carefully watching what the baby's heartrate is doing. They are encouraged when they see accelerations and very few decelerations. We pray every day that her heartrate stays strong and steady and she lets the doctors know that she is content being inside a little longer.

- My body seems to be holding up with everything and we just pray that it continues to remain strong until delivery.

- Our next goal is to get to 30 weeks to give Baby M more time for growth and development. We believe that she is still under 2 pounds and we hope that we can at least get her over the 2 pound mark before delivery.

Thank you so much for encouraging us and praying for us!