More pregnancy adventures!

They just keep coming!

We are officially 22 weeks along today...if baby is born, he/she is "viable" outside of the womb. Weird to think this...of course, it is not the ideal situation. We want him or her to bake for at least another 15 weeks...we want to get through Thanksgiving, remember?!??! This pregnant lady wants to be able to enjoy her turkey, stuffing and--most of all--pumpkin pie!

So, we have had a couple of weeks of adventures! To begin, we took our first trip to Clovis Community Hospital last week, and specifically, to the Labor and Delivery wing. It was not under the most ideal of circumstances, however. I got back from dog training with Grizzly last Wednesday (a week ago) and found that I was bleeding. You can guess how. Then I began to cramp. According to our doctor's instructions, we went to the ER. We ended up finally in L&D where they hooked me up to the fetal monitor, gave me a shot to relax uterine contractions, got another ultrasound, and generally monitored me until about midnight (we got to the ER around 7). It was really frightening...I don't recall being more confused or scared in my life.

As it turned out, baby was totally fine (super-active, in fact) and I am fine, too. I am on a somewhat restricted routine...at least for the short term. Not too hard because school has yet to begin and I am taking this semester off from teaching--so thank goodness for that.

I guess there was bound to be at least one scary moment in this pregnancy--I am glad it turned out the way it did...just fine. And, we did get a preview of where we will eventually give birth...it's a nice place! The nurses took exceptional care of me and it was very peaceful and cozy. Doug noticed another pregnant mama (who was there to give birth) walking around the ward and they had posters up explaining the importance of skin-on-skin contact immediately after birth, so...all good signs of a somewhat progressive birth environment.

So, whew...everything's fine. And just to make sure, I was told to visit my OB this week. I went in yesterday and our NP confirmed that all seems fine. My uterus now extends above my navel and baby's growth is right on track. When we were listening to the heartbeat, I thought it sounded somewhat slower, so I asked if everything seemed okay. My NP said yes, it's a _____, right?

OOOPS. Did she do what I just thought she did? I am hoping she was simply asking the question, not confirming what she thought we already knew? Doug refuses to hear what she said, which makes it somewhat worse! I won't tell him (or anyone) which gender she indicated but it's hard to keep this secret, if in fact what she indicated is true! I am also somewhat disappointed, I was really looking forward to hearing Doug, at the birth, tell me if we have a son or a daughter. I suppose we still won't know FOR SURE until then, right?

The adventures continue, don't they?

It's Doug's 33rd birthday on Saturday! We are getting together with some friends from church to play pool and whatnot...it should be a great way to celebrate Doug! We also plan to spend his birthday cleaning out our second room...in preparation for Doug's mom and bro to come and help us begin to get what will become the nursery ready for baby! I'll post photos of our progress...