Last Dr's Visit (4/19)

Yesterday we went to our last doctor's appointment!  Yup friends that is right....we have an induction date set!  But I am getting ahead of myself...let me back up.

Last week, I was a little thinned out but not dilated at all, even after my fall, nothing was going on.  I was disappointed because while I know Shea is super safe right now and he is growing....I want him out!  I am sure every woman feels this way at 39 weeks, but the unknown of Shea's health is making me super anxious.  I want him out, so we can start loving on him and the doctors can start making him healthier.  I know he will never be "normal" heart wise, but they can start working on making his heart more functional for life!  

So this week we are 50% effaced and 1/2-1cm dilated.  He said he would give us 1 cm, because he was able to touch Shea's head.  This little boy is definitely making his way down south.  I have heard many a story about baby's becoming breached late in pregnancy, so I asked was it still a possibility, and our dr told us not really.  He is so far down.  I also asked about his weight.  I had been having a conversation with a co-worker about 8-10 lbs baby.  I just don't think I am big enough to have that size baby in me.  The doctor confirmed that Shea was def not that big....but there is no way to really tell until he came out.  And same with length.  So, any guesses on weight and length for baby Shea?!

Let's talk induction!  The doctor originally was talking about next Wed/Thurs (my due date). My awesome husband spoke up about starting earlier in the week to help with surgeons schedule and all the stuff.  We are lucky that the hospital has space for us and our doctor is working that night too!  We will be admitted Monday night with the drug: Cytotec.  This is to help with cervical ripening.  Officially we will start Tuesday with induction.  Sometime that morning I will start Pitocin.  This will help start contractions....wahoo!  I am ready to get this show on the road.  These plans are of course all based on Shea not making his arrival sooner.  Which would be fine with us too!

I am trying to take these last few days to enjoy the "baby exciting" feelings.  I know it will be tough goings once Shea gets here.  But I really want to enjoy the excitement of "My baby is coming!!  I am going to be a mom!!"  Thank you for the prayers, messages, sweet gifts and gestures.  We know you love Shea and us, and it just warms our hearts to know we are not in this alone!  

BabyMoon (4/8-4/10)

Here is the long awaited BabyMoon post you have been waiting for!  Sorry it took me so long to get it up, but I wanted to add pictures and everything! :)

Friday afternoon:  Paul and I drove up to Uptown Charlotte (that's downtown for people who are confused why we call it Uptown...I have no idea...we just do)  We checked in the hotel and relaxed for a bit.  Our room was really nice and we felt very lucky to be able to stay there!

Friday night: The plans were to eat at Mortimer's, but right next door they just open a "Red Eye Diner" made to look like we were back in the 50's.  My Jersey husband was stoked!  And this weekend was all about him and spending time with him, so of course we went.  Our waiter was wonderful and really was attentive.  Our meal took forever to come out and we couldn't figure out why....until it came.  The fried chicken I ordered is fried to order.  Which is what made it so amazing! I am not making this up friends...I told Paul he (or someone) would be making a trip back over here when we are at the hospital for weeks.  It was sooo good!

After dinner we headed to Time Warner Cable Area for a little Hornets game!  Our friend Matt hooked us up with his seats again.  We love being able to see games once in awhile and they always seem to win when we are there.  The Hornets did not disappoint...they won again! While talking to our friend after the game, Kemba Walker's mom stopped by to touch my belly.  I am not one to mind anyone touching my belly, but it was kinda odd, because I didn't know who she was!  We talked for a little bit and she predicted that Shea would be here by last weekend.  So..Shea still isn't here but one day we will get to share how a famous NBA player's mom felt him while he was still in my tummy!

Saturday: So we were supposed to order room service and have breakfast in bed, but nothing really called to us on the menu. We went down to the dining room and has a free breakfast buffet.  We had some time before the Funny Bus tour and we both wanted to see 7th street station, so we started walking.  It was so cold and windy, but we braved the weather. 

7th street station is pretty cool.  The outer walls have different eateries, while the middle has tables and some food/wine vendors for you to purchase and take home.  We wandered around until our Funny Bus Tour.  We really enjoyed the bus tour!  We went around Uptown, South End, Plaza Midwood and NoDa.  We learned some history about the area we didn't know and laughed alot!  We played a drinking game (I drank water) called "Church!"  Basically every time we saw a church we called out "Church!" and everyone drank.  If you don't live in the area...let me tell you, there are alot of churches!!  We stopped halfway through at a brewery called Heist.  Paul got something called a crowler.  A 24 oz can filled with a beer from the tap and then they were able to put the lid on, so it looked like a regular can of beer.  Pretty cool!  

     


After the tour we went back to 7th street station for lunch.  Paul went to Hazelnuts Creperie. There are several locations and my parents and I love that place! I was glad he was able to try it and love it too! I had a grilled cheese from Orrman's Cheese shop.  Now before you go and judge...it was a peanut butter and jelly with goat cheese sandwich.  So weird and so yummy.  Definitely glad I went outside my comfort zone!  We grabbed me a cookie from Cloud 9 and headed back to the hotel.  I had scheduled a nap for me...and boy did I use it.  I slept for about 2 hours, Paul slept for about an hour.  It was just wonderful :)








Saturday night: We got in the car and headed to Plaza Midwood.  Soul Gastrolounge didnt open to 5, so we walked around the area.  There was a tiny little music concert going on, and lots of little shops that we walked in and out of.  We went back to Soul and I am so glad we went early!  We had to wait about 5 minutes for a table and by the time we left the wait was unreal!  Our food was soooo yummy.  I wont be able to remember all we ordered but we loved the fried brussel sprouts, grilled caesar salad and pork belly tacos 
with watermelon!

Once we were stuffed, we headed to the Checkers game.  We were able to join our new Camp Luck/Baby Luck family and I am so glad we did.  These kiddos are just amazing and meeting their families was so encouraging!  Kim Jackson is one of the board members and she has just taken us under her wing.  She brought us a cute little onsie with Camp Luck's logo on it and some other Camp Luck swag.  We aren't "glad" that we are going to be a heart mom and dad, but we ARE glad that this community is such a supportive one!  Unfortunately, we aren't the lucky charms for the Checkers as we are for the Hornets.  Both games we have been to, they lost.  But we did see several fights and that's always exciting! Of course I needed some ice cream afterwards....back to Plaza Midwood for some Dairy Queen!

Sunday: Cowbell didn't really call to Paul and I, so we headed to Dandelion Market.  Now I do love this place for dinner, in fact, it's one of my favorite places to go and take visitors too! But my brunch, we just okay.  Paul loved his, and could I have ordered some other things on the menu, I would have been happier too.  Nothing wrong with the meal, but expected more I guess.  We decided that the weather was a bit too cold to go to the Whitewater Center and walk around, and I had walked alot over the weekend.  But we weren't quite ready to go home yet.  Paul loved the Plaza Midwood area and really wanted to check out this record store.  He was able to get two vinyl albums for decent prices.  We also needed to go to the grocery store (we go to Harris Teeter mostly) and there was one in Plaza Midwood.  What's cool about this one is that while it's new and swanky, it is built on the spot where the very first Harris Teeter was.  Probably our last time going to the store just the two of us...we enjoyed it!

There ya go friends!  Our babymoon/ 3rd anniversary trip in a nutshell! We had a blast spending time together and enjoying the Charlotte area.  I am sure it will be a long time till we are able to get away just the two of us.  Thank you to my parents and our friends for helping us plan and enjoy it!

We all fall down (4/11)

Well I forgot to write this blog and the baby moon blog is still in progress...so here is a little recap from last Monday.

Paul and I drove up to Zootastic in my hospital packed car.  Being so close to due date, we didn't want to chance something happening and 911 being the only option to get me to the hospital. We had a ton of fun with my class. And Paul have made a new friend with a certain giraffe named Melvin. He won't allow me to post pictures, but I promise, they had a great time together!!

We had a Dr's appointment later in the day, so I drove back to school to dismiss my kiddos are Paul went home to wait for my arrival.  I spent a little too long chatting at school and decided to head out the back door to the parking lot. I wasn't walking too fast or anything...but I totally face/belly planted.

I fell 97% on my belly, 1% on my right elbow, 1% on my right knee, 0.50% on my left hand, 0.25% on my right pinky and 0.25% on my left pinky.  I came out of my shoe and didn't even know I fell until I realized my glasses were hanging from my face and our sweet custodian, Frank, came running and yelling out of a classroom. He had seen me fall. One of my co-workers came running out too.

I was so embarrassed, I didn't register any pain, just sheer embarrassment. Since some things were bleeding, we did patch me up. My co-worker walked me to my car after a few minutes. I'm going to honest, I wasn't super worried about Shea, my water didn't break, there was no blood from that area and he is so protected in there.

I called Paul on my way home, he helped calm me down a little bit and when I got home we headed to the Dr as planned. Our Dr is pretty laid back and doesn't take my crazy antics too seriously. But he was very concerned about me and my placenta rupturing. (Even though there was no dilation yet) So we were sent to the hospital for monitoring.

Well you know, we decided to walk all the sky bridges to get there and ran into a volleyball friend of Paul's. It was actually nice to see him, but I had started cramping, and felt like I needed to be looked at sooner rather than later. It took us awhile to get to the right nurses station on floor 8, but once we got there, we were taken to a monitoring room.

Everything was fine, Shea's heart rate was fine, nothing much was showing up on my contraction monitor. However they didn't want me to eat anything. I had last eaten at 12...it's not going on 5...and they wanted me to wait until 9pm.  I warned the nurse that I probably would pass out that long not pregnant, wasn't sure how I was going to make it 9 months pregnant. She must have talked to the Dr (who we were waiting to come up from the ER) because she came back with a liquid tray. I must have been hungry because I gobbled up the chicken broth, jello and sweet tea!  But unfortunately, we had waited too long because the dull headache I had, was now growing and growing worse. Paul was helping me rub my temples and scalp when she came back in. She left to bring me Tylenol but she didn't come back, instead a new nurse, Kelsey, came in. 

Oh how we loved her! She was so attentive and helpful and she got the Dr in!  Dr agreed I was okay and could leave at 8:30 instead of 9!  Kelsey also tried to help me get into a better position, like on my side. But because of Shea's position, laying on my back was the only way to keep his heart rate on the monitor. Sweet nurse even wheeled me down to the lobby to meet Paul in the car.  I asked her to be our labor/delivery nurse! Yall that's how good she was:) 

Today (4/18) we are now 10 days (really 9, because it's my bedtime) out from due date. We have a Dr's appointment tomorrow and we are so hoping there has been some movement in the dilation area! 

Wonderful readers

I have wonderful readers!  One of them sent me a sweet card and necklace. I'm so lucky to call this lady a  friend as well. She has gone above and beyond and even joined Facebook so she could get more updates as our journey progresses!  Her message in the card was one I have seen before but never applied to myself:
(Might wanna grab some tissues)

A baby asked God, "They tell me you are sending me to earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?"

God said, "Your angel will be waiting for you and will take care of you."

The child further inquired, "But tell me, here in heaven I don't have to do anything but sing and smile to be happy." God said, "Your angel will sing for you and will also smile for you. And you will feel your angel's love and be very happy."

Again the child asked, "And how am I going to be able to understand when people talk to me if I don't know the language?" God said, "Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweet words you will ever hear, and with much patience and care, your angel will teach you how to speak."

And what am I going to do when I want to talk to you?" God said, "Your angel will place your hands together and will teach you how to pray."

Who will protect me?" God said, "Your angel will defend you even if it means risking its life."

But I will always be sad because I will not see you anymore." God said, "Your angel will always talk to you about Me and will teach you the way to come back to Me, even though I will always be next to you."

At that moment there was much peace in Heaven, but voices from Earth could be heard and the child hurriedly asked, "God, if I am to leave now, please tell me my angel's name."

God said, "You will simply call her, "Mom."

The BT Shunt

We have been doing lots of prep for Shea's arrival: nursery organization, buying last minute items, hospital bag packing (-ish...Paul and Sheas are done..mine is WIP!), car seat installing, oh and yeah preparing for his first surgery. (I also should mention I've been reviewing stuff about labor and delivery since I have to do all that before we even get to meet our little man!) 

So his first open heart surgery could happen within the first week of life. We also could be discharged and then be back in a few weeks to have the surgery. Only Shea's little heart and lungs will tell us that once he is born and we see how he reacts to the world!   The surgery is called Blalock-Taussig shubt, BT shunt for short.  

Here is a little video to explain why we will need it.  For more in depth information: here

People have asked how I'm doing, which is a totally normal question to ask a 37 week pregnant lady.  I'm doing well, ya know, minus the massive heart burn, acid reflex, zero bladder control, and the unability to walk up and down the hallways or climb stairs like I used to!

And then of course, I'm also wondering 'oh do they mean mentally/emotionally?!'  Because in that area I have no answer. Most days I'm okay, seriously, I am. But it's also because I think I have compartmentalized it too. I am focusing on my sweet kiddos at school and the pregnancy. Of course I slip into the scary part and the anxiety just gets the better of me. 

Tomorrow we start our babymoon/staycation/3rd wedding anniversary. I'm definitely looking forward to it. But I'm wondering if maybe I packed too much in? Sure hope not. This girl has a field trip Monday!  Luckily, Paul is going with me and if Shea should start to make his arrival, we will be ready to roll! I'm not thinking he is going to be an early baby, but we know all babies come on their own time. :)

Now this momma to be needs some sleep...so peace out!

Sweet Baby Shea

For those of you who may have missed it, (because Facebook likes to hide things) I did start a Facebook page dedicated to Shea. I will still be blogging, don't fret readers! But I wanted to have an easy and quick way for Paul and I to communicate what's going on in the world of Shea.  They won't be long posts (so I say now...) but hopefully informative ones as Shea makes his arrival!  

Here is the link:
Sweet Baby Shea

Make sure you hoover over the like button and make sure the "all on" for notifications is clicked so you don't miss anything!

Oh...and we had a dr's appointment on Thursday. We are officially at 36 weeks.  There is no movement "down there" and no discussion of induction yet.  He said maybe we could talk about it in two weeks.  It seems so far away!  But really it isn't...we will be there before we even realize it!  

Maternity Session- black and white edition

Wow!  Y'all are so sweet...we had over 200 people look at our photos from the last post.  And when we look back at the history of our blog...over 13k reads!  I had no idea when I started this blog, that anyone would really join us.  And yet, we are international!  Love you all dear readers!  

Now here are some of my faves in black and white, which is why you are really here :)  (Again big thanks to our photographer Lora Lynch)

 I love these in color and black & white...I can't help it!!