Our Stay in Rockford

Jason had business to attend to in Wisconsin this week and last, so he dropped Brayden and myself off in Rockford with my family for a week. We will be back in Champaign late Wednesday or early Thursday.

Yesterday I was able to meet a few of my friends from high school, and catch up, while we let our kiddos have lunch and play at the park. This particular park also has a petting zoo, The Children's Farm, so we took the kids to see the animals. Brayden really enjoyed playing with "new" friends, having a fun day, and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Today Grandpa Bob is taking Brayden to go fishing for the first time, which he is really excited about. I will have to update later to let everyone know how it goes, and if they catch anything. While they are there, my sister, Bethany, and I are taking my mom to a Day Spa to have a "girl's day" and get mom (and ourselves) pampered a bit for Mother's Day. We are getting Mom a massage, facial, spa pedicure, manicure with paraffin treatment, and some other little goodies. I am looking forward to my hour long facial and spa pedicure while there!! (I opted not to do a massage because I am holding out for an appointment w/ my friend, Sally, to give me a nice, long pregnancy massage!)

The next hour can't pass fast enough- I am so looking forward to a little indulgence! I had a pretty rough day yesterday, so I am looking forward to it even more. I started having pains in my lower abdomen yesterday morning, kind of a really intense pressure. I kept thinking it would pass. After taking Brayden to the park/Children's Farm, it was getting worse. Then on our drive home, I started having contractions every few minutes. I called my doctor's office in Champaign and they had me go directly to Labor and Delivery at one of the hospitals here, given my past record of pre-term labor with Brayden. With him it started at 30 weeks, and I am 28 weeks right now. I was scared to death, but went in. Luckily, all of the tests came back fine, except I was really dehydrated (again). The monitor strip showed some "uterine irritability" and contractions, which they thought were probably being caused by the dehydration. So, they got a fast drip IV started and kept an eye on it to see if hydration would bring the contractions down. Thank goodness, that is what it was, and things settled down the more hydrated I got. As far as the intense pressure, they are thinking that I actually pulled my round ligament (which usually stretches gradually in pregnancy) since my belly has literally "popped" in the past 2 days. I couldn't fit in maternity clothes when I got here, and now that is all I can fit in- granted they are still huge and look ridiculous, but I am in them nonetheless.... FINALLY! (I jokingly describe it as I "sprained" my belly by popping so fast.) So, I spent most of my day and all night at the hospital, but am now back at my parent's and things are settled back down.

(That was hospitalizaton #9 for this pregnancy, anyone want to make wagers on the total count before Rhylan is born?!?!? We could form a pool of some sort! I am so, so, so sick of this. But he looks really good, and that is what matters in all of this- a happy, healthy little boy joining our family in 10 more weeks... not before!)