Meijer, Family Help and Contractions

It feels so great to be doing some normal stuff again! Today I actually got my own groceries for the first time in a month and it felt wonderful. I never thought I would be so excited about a trip to Meijer. It was especially fun to spend some alone time out of the house with Charlie. When the baby comes we won't have many opportunities to be out and about with just the two of us and I will miss that time.

Mark's Mom left this morning after helping us out all last week. It was a blessing to have her here and it made the last week of restricted activity much easier for me. She did so much work and Charlie got a lot of Grandma attention which was so good for him. Thanks for all your help Mom!

I am still having contractions off and on all the time. This makes me think this baby could come any day, but I also know I could feel like this until I am 40+ weeks pregnant. Thinking about contracting like this for 3 or more weeks is exhausting. I am trying hard to do normal life, but I do feel like most things are "on hold" until she makes her appearance. I want her to be healthy so for that reason I hope she stays put for a little while longer, but I am very ready to meet this little girl when the time comes.

Doing Well

So far baby TenHaken is staying put! I will be 36 weeks pregnant tomorrow so I am feeling much more at ease about things. It is a blessing to be this far along; if she was born soon hopefully she would do okay on her own and wouldn't have to stay longer in the hospital. The last couple of days my contractions have been fairly calm, so who knows, maybe we won't deliver for a few weeks yet.

Mark's Mom is here for the week so that has helped tremendously. She is doing a lot of cooking, cleaning, shopping and playing with Charlie. It is so nice to have all that stuff taken care of.

I go back to the doctor on Friday. If everything looks okay I am hoping he gives me the green light to be able to do a little more. I want what is best for this baby, but I am getting pretty sick of reading and watching TV.

Thanks for your prayers and thanks to all of you who have helped with meals, babysitting, yard work...etc. We are grateful to once again feel God providing for us through all of you.

Happy Father's Day!

To my wonderful husband...

Happy Father's Day! Thanks for daily sacrificing so much for our kids. You work really hard to take great care of us, even when it is not easy. I appreciate everything you do for us. We LOVE you so much!

35 Weeks!

I am 35 weeks pregnant today! It feels great to be this far along. Even though I am pretty sick of not feeling good and laying around the house, I know that the longer this baby girl stays put the better off she will be when she is born. We would love to avoid feeding issues, breathing problems and more hospitals stays for her if we can. I see the doctor again tomorrow morning so we will see what he has to say; hopefully everything still looks okay.

Me with my three babies...
(This was taken a couple weeks ago because I don't have a more recent pregnant picture)

More Fever and New Meds

More fever...104 degrees last night and 102 degrees this morning; Charlie is miserable. His blood work didn't show anything too alarming, so that is good. The doctor changed his antibiotic and we are praying this new one works its magic soon!

The Eternal Fever...

I feel like we can't catch a break lately! It seems like when it rains it pours at our house and that has been frustrating.

Charlie woke up last night with 103 degree fever again so we gave him some meds and a drink and then Mark ended up sleeping with him downstairs so he could keep an eye on him. This morning he still had a fever so Mark took him in to get a chest x-ray to see if he still had fluid in his lungs. The x-ray looked clean which is great, but now we don't know why he is still having fevers all the time. His antibiotics for the bronchitis are done tomorrow so he should be feeling better by now. Charlie's doctor suggested we do some blood work to see if we can get to the bottom of this; we are waiting to hear back from her on how to move forward with that.

Please pray for healing for Charlie and patience for us (Mark especially since he is being Mr. Mom right now). I feel so bad that Charlie has felt sick for so long and we need to figure out what is going on.

Update: Charlie had his blood drawn this afternoon and if there is something wrong the doctor is going to call us yet tonight. Hopefully it is nothing serious, but a problem that can be fixed. I really want my little buddy to feel like himself again...poor little guy!

Home Sweet Home

I am home! The contractions didn't stop completely, but after a couple rounds of different meds they did slow down so the doctor agreed to let me wait things out at home. All the contractions are exhausting, but it is worth putting up with them for a little while yet so this baby can be as healthy as possible. I was very excited to be going home. I took a shower right away and I swapped the hospital gown for my own sweatpants...much better :)

Charlie is still not himself, but he seems to be on the road to recovery. I think two more days of strong antibiotics will do the trick.

Thanks for your prayers and support!