34 weeks.

34 weeks.

Six weeks until my due date! If I make it, they'll take me in my 39th week, which is 5 weeks away. But it looks like baby girl wants to make an early appearance, so I'm trying to make it to 37 weeks. Three weeks away. November 10th. Seems like forever. When I was in Arizona, I started having contractions. Monday morning we were getting ready to leave the hotel & my parents were going to drop me off at the airport. That didn't happen. I started spotting so my mom took me to labor & delivery. Labor & delivery is never fun...especially in Sierra Vista. Baby girl is doing just fine. There's no known reason for the contractions. But they're accompanied by more nausea (that my miracle drug, zofran, does not touch) & incredible amounts of lower back pain. At the hospital they gave me two shots of terbutaline to stop contractions. I'm not allowed to have it anymore because of my cardiac history. The stuff makes you all agitated & raises your heart rate, & the baby's. I shook like crazy for hours. A few hours after I left the hospital my blood pressure started freaking out & staying conscious was not easy thanks to that stuff. At the same time, my contractions came back. But my doctor told me to fly home the next day, so I did. I saw my doctor on Wednesday & he's a little concerned. But at 34 weeks, more than likely they won't stop me from going in to labor. & since baby girl is doing so well, he said there's a chance I could have the baby in the next week, or couple of weeks. Preferably I would make it to 37 weeks, but it's completely dependent on how bad my contractions get. Sometimes they're really bad. I can't talk through them & I can't really move. Really I just moan & groan until it's over. I don't want to keep doing that. They're no fun. I've been switched to weekly appointments, so we'll see how I'm doing when I go in this week. My belly also dropped a bit this week (as you can see in the above photo). It was the first thing Gabe noticed when he saw me. I remember feeling something weird in my belly on the plane, & sure enough, that's what it was. I look even smaller now. & I can ALMOST see my toes again. But most importantly, I can breath a little better. I seriously have no clue how this kid is fitting in there. It doesn't seem like very much space. She must be super cramped. That or really really small.

Echo. (Mom's dog aka my brother)

This week has been really exciting for several members of my family. Obviously, the reason I went down to Arizona, was my sister getting married. So that was very exciting. & then on Tuesday after my parents dropped me off at the Tucson airport, they got in a car accident. A woman in a mustang side swiped them... or something like that... on the I-10 going 80mph. The cop said they're lucky they didn't flip. But it did crunch the front of my mom's Pilot pretty bad. I don't think they know yet if it's going to be totaled or not. They & Echo (the dog) are fine. They had to stay in Arizona a few extra days, but are now on their way back to Colorado.

So anyway. I'm obviously back in Ohio now. I really miss being out west. A lot. I miss mountains. I want to move back. But I'm really glad that I'm home with my husband. I hated going through all that pre term labor crap without my husband there. I was so scared I wasn't going to be able to come home to him, so I'm really thankful I was able to. It's nice to be home with him. & my puppy. My nesting kicked in this week as well. The downside is that a couple hours of cleaning & organizing makes my contractions seem worse. So that's no fun. But on Thursday I spent the whole day cleaning downstairs & reorganizing the kitchen cupboards. I had to put sticky notes on them so that Gabe can find things. I had big plans for Friday. The upstairs. But unfortunately yesterday was not a good day for me so that didn't get done. I'm freaking out that baby girl is going to come soon & my house won't be ready for her. Her room has her things in it, but it's all just piled in a corner. I haven't sorted through anything. PLUS we have another baby shower on November 6th that people Gabe works with are throwing for us. So I have to make it that far. I realize that these things aren't a a big deal. But I don't like the feeling of losing control & I definitely feel like I'm losing control. It freaks me out. No bueno.

I know that baby girl is doing spectacular & that's the most important thing. & I know that if she comes early they have a good NICU here & she would be fine. But the idea of her coming in the next few weeks really freaks me out. We don't even have a car seat yet. We picked on out though & we're going to go pick it up asap. We even went & picked out our stroller this week. I guess it's just a matter of priorities. But it's so hard to prioritize correctly when you're freaked out about having a baby. Our nameless baby girl will be here soon. Guess I better get used to the idea.

That is all.

- Alexa