Team Ash's Cancer Walk

Today Matt went to Ashley Twellman's annual "cancer free" walk at Creve Coeur Lake. He had Jake in the stroller and Allie apparently ran about a mile out of almost 4 miles. I should add that Ashley is 37 weeks pregnant and this walk was a hopeful attempt to induce her labor. Matt told me that she was the fastest pregnant lady he'd ever seen and that he had trouble keeping up with her. Go Ash!!



By the time they got here at noon Allie had been asleep. She told me her leg muscles were sore...I am pretty confident that she was wanted a leg massage and hours of back scratching.



The kids were great today. Allie made another sun catcher for my window, she played teacher and hang-glide (she means hang-man) in which we always lose even when guessing the correct letters. Then she needed to clean up her mess which involves tons of foaming hand sanitizer and rags and she cleaned the white board, the chairs, the floors. I'm positive that the white board has never been more clean.



Jake pretty much sat with me and ate, drank out of my water cup, ate more, climbed all over Matt in the other bed or in the chair when Matt sat in the chair. Matt has become Jake's jungle gym. He was very gentle with me and gave Lauren lots of kisses and hugs. He fought a nap the entire time which is why he was so active today. He started to fall asleep at about 3pm and I told Matt he better get going or else he was going to miserable. So off they went, not without injury of course. Allie's toe was injured when they both were sitting in the recliner chair and she tried to move it and it ran over her big toe and broke the skin above the toe nail. Of course blood makes it hurt worse and she couldn't walk out of the hospital...Matt had Allie on his head and carried Jake.



I called at about 3:15 and they were both asleep in the car.



I believe there will be pictures of the walk today and you can see all the friends and family who celebrate Ashley being cancer free. I will post some if they come my way.



Christi, thanks for taking the kids for a couple of hours last night. Allie's mani/pedi looked great!

I'll update later.

Happy 32 Weeks!

Today marks another milestone...Lauren has reached 32 weeks. We are very excited and equally excited to report that the fetal fibernectin came in negative. Negative in this case is good.

Allie stopped by around lunch time with Renee to give me my progesterone shot. Renee went to grab some coffee and Allie said to me, "you don't like having babies do you mom"?. She obviously has some understanding of what we're going through even as a little kid. It was really cute. I told her that I wasn't going to have any more after Lauren. Then she reminded me that when I come home I can pick her up and hold her. Such a sweet conversation even if it was short.

Well, I just wanted to report the news today. Have a good weekend.

Branson Pictures

More pics

Pictures from Branson

These are in no particular order but my Mom sent these to me this morning and wanted to share them with everyone. Here are
pics from Branson of the kids. My
sister and Maddie went a long with a
good friend of mine from High School/
Church, Jaime and Jeff Owen and their two cutie pies Olivia and Aubrey. Allie and Olivia played well together and are best friends Allie tells me. They were trading clothes...isn't 5 too early for that?!?

Jake found a Lightning McQueen hat shopping one day and would not take it off. He also had Lightning sunglasses and a Firetruck shirt that he wanted to wear all of the time.

The kids had a lot of fun. I think you'll see that in the pictures. Last night they spent the night with
Nae Nae and Papa and were treated
to a movie night. They were hoping to swim today, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

Kids Reunion

It's been a long week without visits from Allie & Jake. They are home at last!! They had a great time in Branson with Grammie and Papa and are now back to reality with Daddy. They come up and it looked like they both had grown so much.

This week I don't have many appointments. I believe I have a fetal fibernectin again and then next week a growth ultrasound. I am anxious to see how much she has grown because I know I have. She's finally becoming easier to catch on the dopler for heart beat checks...she doesn't have nearly as much room as she used to. Now that she's getting bigger her kicks are pretty noticable and if she leaves her hand or foot somewhere it's pretty uncomfortable. This is something that I find to be a blessing though.

Matt bought me a wireless internet card so I am able to work without interruptions. Last week was so frustrating...after moving rooms I had low connection the wifi here and so I would get kicked off about every 30 minutes and have to restart my computer. I thought that it may be my computer but after an hour and a half dealing with the Boeing help desk we found that it' s the hospital. They switched their wifi. I'm a much happier employee and patient now.

My room is definitely the hottest on the floor, I really just don't feel like moving again.

Well if there are any pictures of the kids in Branson I'll post them.

Until later...

Another Move

Well, Matt is in the process of moving me...again. My internet has been a nightmare to deal with the past day. I've had to reboot my computer (reboot sounds so old school) about every 30 minutes to be able to access my work email and systems. It turns out my big suite that I was moved to on Tuesday is too far away from the routers on the floor and there isn't anything that they can do for me. So I decided if I wanted to keep my sanity I better downgrade. It's really not much smaller. I have double room without a roommate.

I mentioned that I would download pictures of Lauren's room when it was complete. My mom sent me some pictures and I'll post the 3 finished ones. Matt put up the baby bed so we the room is definitely about finished. We hope to have many more weeks to finish it. He's going to take a picture of the bed in the room.

Lauren's 30 Week Birthday!

Well today we celebrate Lauren turning 30 weeks. It's so exciting to hit, "the thirties" gestationally...I wasn't sure that this day would have come 5 weeks ago. I'm getting greedy now and hoping that I'm only half way done with this little girl growing in the womb.

This morning I had my fetal fibernectin and I honestly was not expecting it to come back negative (which is good) because of the contracting that's been happening. It suprisingly did! If anything this will give us a little more reassurance that in the next 2 weeks this little girl will stay put. Again, it's more of a reassurance game, but it's good to hear!

That's really all I have to offer for now. Thanks for the prayers!

FUNNY JAKE

So tonight Matt brought up the kiddos so we could have our dinner together. Allie showed me all of the things from school that she had made. She gave me an award to hang on my bulletin board that she received from her teacher for helping today. She also gave me a picture that she had drawn. The story below the picture is written (in cursive I might add), "The dog, pig, and hen did a jig!". The picture is in a disco scene with a big disco ball hanging between green lights. There is a radio on the table with speakers on a big pink pig and the hen dancing. The dog is in the bathroom going potty though. I hung it up so I can smile all day when I look at it.

Jake was a little crabby tonight. I do believe he's not feeling his best, but no fever or anything. He was showing off for Uncle D who came by to visit. He would slide off of the chair between the seat and the arm and then pull himself back up using his abs...I'm not going to lie, it was impressive.

Then, my nurse, Cathy came in. He loves when the nurses come in. He just talks and talks. He was asking her what she was doing, telling her about the movie CARS, and after dipping his cantelope in cheese, told her he would walk her out when she was done. After she left he said, "she's a nice lady". I was cracking up.

His little personality seems to be maturing so fast. I miss the days I don't see these things, but they are so special because I can really appreciate it now.

I don't know what else is on the agenda for this week. Possibly a fetal fibernectin tomorrow...it is Wednesday weigh day...big happenings here, I know!! I am scheduled for a NST (Non Stress Test) every Monday and Thursday.

I will post more later just had to share my kids visit.

A busy weekend for everyone. . .

Lots of things were happening this weekend.

My parents and Matt with the help of Jim and Renee's babysitting the kids got Lauren's bedroom all ready. They did a molding on the walls that is sooo pretty and then painted the molding white and the walls are a chocolate milk color. I am very impressed with how it turned out. I told Matt to just pick what he wanted and he did and it looks amazing. Thanks Mom and Dad for working hard to get it all done!! Allie called me and told me that it looked really good and so if I have the approval of a little girl who only likes pink, I'm pretty confident that it looks good. I think she did suggest pink polka dots on the molding though ;-)

I will hopefully get some pictures from my Mom and post them so you all can see.

It is a huge relief to have her room done...it's little things like that on my "to do" list that occupy my mind all of the time.

Saturday and Sunday I was having more patterned contractions. On Saturday it was late enough that they were able to give me my procardia earlier and I went to bed and did okay. Yesterday was a different story. The doseage of medicine didn't really slow them down and so I got a shot of tributaline (sp?) and then they stopped. I have been okay so far today with the occasional contraction. The acceptable range for me is no more than 4-6 an hour. I was having 4 an hour yesterday and the measures taken may have been a little more extreme than I thought they would be, but I didn't have anymore.

The kids came up yesterday and we had a great visit. The best part was being sandwiched in my bed between Allie and Jake. Allie got down to color and the next thing I knew Jake was asleep in my arms...just like at home. It was so great to snuggle with him. They behaved so well yesterday so time flew so fast and I was sad that they had to go.

Well, that's the weekend update. Looking forward to rolling over to week 30! I'll keep you posted!

29 weeks!

Well, my anticipation for the cervical length and the growth ultrasound lasted until 3:30 when they finally came to get me. I was up there for quite awhile because there was another patient in front of me.

My cervical scan ultimately showed no change which is great news. The numbers of course vary week to week but it is right at where I was at 25 weeks. Being bed-ridden is buying me much needed time and I'm glad that it's getting us closer and closer.

The growth ultrasound showed that she is about 2lbs-13oz, give or take about 6 oz. I was pleased to see her growth...it makes the sitting seem worth it.

My belly is definitely growing and today I had an accident to prove it. As I stood up to go to the bathroom my belly hit my breakfast tray and knocked everything on the floor. There were broken dishes everywhere along with the leftovers of my breakfast scattered everywhere. I had to have someone come into and clean up my mess.

Well overall the news this week is great and I thank you all for keeping me in your prayers.

Next week we'll have another fetal fibernectin and I believe that will be the extent of my schedule ;-)

No more needles!

Yesterday wasn't too bad. I purposely stayed up late the night before so that I would be tired when the blood lab techs would draw my blood. It worked pretty good. I am not scarred from the experience...although yesterday as I was waiting for the final stick I began to get sick I think because I had been awake without food and then charged with a ton of sugar mixed with a little anxiety. I spent the day in bed.

Today I feel much much better and learned that I passed the test. Yay! I'm so excited!

I will let you know about the growth and cervical scan when I get results. That could be tomorrow.

Needles x 4

Well I had a Glucose Tolerance Test (testing for Gestational Diabetes) yesterday in which I just assumed I had passed. I found out this morning that I am within range of passing but it was high enough to do a repeat. The repeat is a series of 4 needles in 4 hours after drinking some glucocola (sp?).

Anyone who knows me, realizes that I would rather be thrown down a flight of stairs or punched in the face rather than to be stuck with a needle. It's a phobia...something that I cannot seem to kick. So I called Matt in a panic to calm me down. He of course did. When I remind myself of why I have to do this it's definitely worth it and I am not anxious. I always do this...I get myself in a panic until the time comes and I always manage to deal with it and it's never as bad as what my worrying has made it out to be.

So my normally quiet week has been busy. Thursday I will have another cervical scan and a growth ultrasound. Looking forward to seeing Miss Lauren on the big screen.

An update on Angie, our friend. She has moved up to antepardum and we are excited. She moved up yesterday and while neither of us have wheelchair rights at this time I hear she's doing good.

Well pray that the test results are in my our favor. I will update with the news.

Another year older

Well the Birthday Celebration was great. It was a fun-filled day enjoyed with family, pizza, and lots of dessert. It was great to get out of my room for a little bit, the change in scenery was nice and to spend the evening with family in one room was a lot of fun. My guests included: Jim, Renee, Matt, Allie, Jake, Derrick, Jen, Jessica, Richard, Grandma Josie, and Aunt Mary. I was spoiled with so many wonderful gifts. My favorites were of course hand made from Allie and Jake. They both made me cards. Allie's card came with $5 in and a picture of a snow cone. The money is for us to go get snow cones ( a treat for her after school sometimes ) when I get out of the hospital. She also made me an ant made out of clay and painted it. You'll see Jake and I looking at a colorful little thing...that's my ant. Jake picked out a car from the movie CARS and expected nothing less from him. I am going to become a mad woman online--I receieved a lot of gift cards so I can do some online shopping. I'm very excited and I've already started!

The night ended with a progesterone shot. That was not my ideal ending to a great birthday, but it was for Lauren...her little dessert for the evening.

The pictures were courtesy of Renee from the party and some from this evening. Enjoy and I'll update later.

Jake busy at work

This was drop your kid off at their grandparents for work day...Jake was helping Papa Jim with his shipments. I just loved the picture and wanted to share it.

Test Number 2 Results

Well yesterday's cervical length test wasn't exactly great news. It appears that my cervix has shortened so my dreams of being in my king sized bed with my kiddos all around me (and Matt too) are put on hold. Maybe later I can feel comfortable about being at home, still too early.

It was Lauren's 28th week BD yesterday and that was something to celebrate. I remember looking at the calendar when I first got admitted thinking that 28 weeks seemed so far away, but it's finally here and now we can shoot for our next goal of 30 weeks.

I would like to ask for your prayers for a close friend of Matt's family, Angie. She is carrying triplets and was admitted to Labor and Delivery on Wednesday night with preterm labor. We know how scared she must be and we just ask that you pray for her 3 baby girls to grow and stay put. I am praying that Angie and I will be on the same floor soon.

Tonight is a special night. We reserved the "play room" as my kids call it down the hall for my Birthday. We are having my favorite birthday cake and a party...quite a big day for me. I have permission to go as long as I'm reclined. I know my kids are excited to be able to be in that room. It has toys, a Wii, scrap booking stuff, movies, games...it's a really nice place for families to hang out. I have a feeling Matt is going to watch me like a hawk to make sure that I don't move. I think he was going to have them wheel me in my bed across the hall. LOL! It's literally 10 feet across the hall, but I think I have to get a wheel chair. I can't wait to be able to walk around!!

I am so sad to not be able to plant flowers this spring or be outside and enjoy our grass and of course the kids running around in the yard. Soon enough I'll be wishing I was back in confinement when I have my hands full with 3 crazy kids. I'm dreaming for that day to get here!!