It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood....

Because we've made it to 32 weeks today!!

I wonder if PBS still has Mr Rogers reruns? I loved them as a kid....perhaps i can just buy Mallory dvd's of previous years of Mr Rogers....

Yesterday was so much fun! I'm not sure what I enjoyed more, all the great company, super yummy strawberry cupcakes, all the presents or that Vinti White Chocolate Mocha Stef brought me from Starbucks yesterday morning! It all made for a really good day, and I slept like a log last night! Now hopefully I can get all the thank you notes written up.

I'll add a few more pictures later but here's two to start with.

George enjoying the buttercups from mom's yard



And me on the bed with all my presents, note George is checking out the presents too. How many times can you say you got to have a shower while wearing your pj's and it was expected and accepted!



We got lots of great stuff for Mallory and it just seems to make everything even more real. It will be fun to have a meet and greet with everyone from this shower when she arrives and comes home!

For any of you who would like to read a little more about other's experiences with pProm, life with a preemie, etc, be sure to check out Christi's blog with her experiences with Gunner. She started leaking at 28 weeks and Gunner arrived at 33 weeks. Her blog is http://babyyoungblog.blogspot.com/. Everybody's experiences are a little different, but it's good to know about others experiences and then document your own as well.

Looks like Ben and I will have a pretty relaxing day today. Since UK lost yesterday, I don't have to watch anymore basketball now for almost another year, since we don't watch any until tourney time. I'm now ready for Football! We are going to try to pack up all this stuff that I will not need during the next 2 weeks so Ben can take this stuff home, it's amazing how much you can accumulate after 6 weeks in here! I've got a couple things for work I'm going to put together this afternoon, perhaps we will make a trip to McDonalds and figure out what restaurant we want take out for dinner tonight.

I'll post more shower pictures later!

The March is On....

Most of you who know me well, know I am a far cry from a hypochondriac, more of a suck it up and deal with it kinda girl, and I don't think the word "worry" is in my vocabulary....Ben typically worries enough for the both of us, but I swear, these last 2 weeks may just turn me into a touch of a hypochondriac!

I think it's just because we've come so far and we are SO close to actually making it to 34 weeks, and I want it so bad to get to April 12, that now all the little things start to bother me.

I've never really talked much about the statistics of this whole "springing a leak" thing, which actually does have a medical name, it's pPROM, which stands for preterm premature rupture of membranes, which for me SAL (sprung a leak) just makes it a little less serious than the actual "medical name." But in all actuality, we really have beat the odds so far. I knew 72 hours and 2 weeks were two hurdles to get past, but I never really googled to find out specifics about everything. I think the less I knew about "statistics" the better I would be because I knew it didn't really matter what the statistics were, we were going to beat it and win!

So, in my quest to avoid actually learning more about SAL, as I'm going to refer to it as, I do visit the community message boards on www.thebump.com, which is a pregnancy/baby website with groups for everything related to pregnancy and babies. I've found a nice happy little home on their 3rd Trimester board, High Risk Pregnancy Board and Preemie Board. Through the Preemie Board I've actually found a couple other girls who have been through this whole SAL thing as well and have pulled through successfully as well. One girl, Christi, also did a really good job of blogging her way through this whole ordeal and now that she has a happy baby boy, some of the things she has gone through with him since he's been born, and I believe is around 8 months old now. She has some great info on her blog about pPROM, statistics and preemie info, so I grabbed some actual statistics from her site, since I still refuse to google it and look it up, LOL!

pPROM is the single most common diagnosis leading to admission of the newborn to intensive care nursing.

Here are some stats:
• 1/3 of preterm births are due to preterm premature rupture of the membranes (PPROM).
• About 75% of all women with PPROM will deliver within 1 week, and nearly all will deliver preterm.
• Major neonatal infections occur in about 5% of all cases of preterm PROM, and in 15 - 20% of those with chorioamnionitis. .
• Only about 20% PProms will prolong pregnancy duration up to 1 month.

So, thankfully, other than still delivering preterm, we have really made it past a lot of hurdles and beat the statistics, YEAH!! So, I think that's why these last 2 weeks are going to be tough because I want it so bad! Not that I didn't want the other previous 6 weeks so bad, but it's like you've made it to the top 3 finalists in the beauty contest, but damnit, you want the crown!!

Because I want it so bad, I think that's why now, more than ever, every little ache, or odd feeling, or anything is just going to drive me nuts. They keep asking me if I'm having contractions....I have no idea if I'm having contractions! You people have told me a time or two that you are picking them up on the monitor but I don't feel anything...I've never had a baby before but I'm guessing contractions are one of those things you know it when you feel it! So, NO, I don't guess I'm having contractions! My temperature has pretty much consistently hovered in the 97's and 98's and the other day it was 99 a time or two....and you just want to be NO, I will not have a fever!! So, it dropped back into the 98's, but all this stuff is just wearing on you after so long. Same thing with Blood Pressure, mine's always been great and then the other day the bottom number was 91 and the little machine was beeping at us and again, I'm like NO, my BP will not go up this far into this. So, yes, I may become a touch of a hypochondriac these last two weeks!

Mallory's a trooper and I really hope she comes out kicking and screaming and flipping off the womb and saying, real world here I come! That's probably a little much to ask of a 6 week early baby, but you never know, she is my child!

So, enough of all that stuff! We will do all we can to get Mallory to April 12!!

I'm looking forward to tomorrow when we are going to have a shower as such here in the hospital. Since I had nothing for Mallory other than a swim suit prior to two days before I ended up stuck in here, I really haven't had time to prepare for baby like I needed to, so Stefanie decided that since all my showers got canceled until after Mallory is born, that she would take it upon herself to send out the invitations, let everyone know what's going on, collect the presents and bring them up here to me....all this in the middle of her Sister getting married next weekend! So, Stefanie will be by tomorrow along with Mom, Susan, Aunt Sharon and Memaw, so it should be fun and hopefully this child will have something more than a swimsuit to wear after it's all said and done!

You always hear about pregnant women "nesting." I guess since I'm not getting a chance to beings as though I'm stuck in the hospital, Ben has taken up "nesting" for me. Everything kinda got thrown in his hands when I landed in the hospital 6 weeks ago, but I really never imagined he would do or want to do as much as he has. He's all about getting the garage cleaned out, the nursery furniture set up, trying to figure out a place for all the crap we have, getting the guest bathroom finished up, getting the camper ready so if we have to be in Louisville for a while it will be ready and the list goes on and on. I hope he doesn't have a major meltdown because he's so intent on getting it all done before we get home, and I'm just like as long as the crib is up somewhere in the house, really that's all I care about, the rest can wait until I'm there to help if need be. I can't say enough how great he has been through all this, but he really doesn't have to be superman and get it all done because I don't expect everything to be perfect when I get back home!

So, that's my ramblings for this Friday, so glad we've got another week down and just a couple more days to reach the 32 Week mark!! Now the final march is on to 34 weeks!!!

Our little curve ball

So my oh so easy pregnancy gave us a little curve ball this weekend when apparently my water broke, or trickled more like it. I sprung a leak. Unfortunatley when that happens you are then stuck in the hospital until the baby is born.

So they put me in an ambulance to Louisville's Norton Hospital Downtown known for their neonatal unit and they are attached to the childrens Kosairs hopsital.

Here's my view from the back of the ambulance.



Thankfully I haven't lost a lot of fluid, my cervix is closed, her head is down there as well helping to keep it plugged. Both Mallory and myself are stable and they've actually taken me off all monitors and iv's but will occasionally come in to pump me some antiobiotics, take my temp, blood pressure and to check Mallory's heart beat, but i'm a lot more comfy now that i'm not all wired up.

Last night wasn't great sleep, but we made do. Here's Ben's spot to sleep!



Thankfully I feel well and Mallory is doing good, I'm just confined to the hospital until she arrives. The first 72 hours or so is the most critical to make sure I don't get an infection and cause earlier labor. They hope they can put me off till 34 weeks, which would be about 6-8 weeks from now. I thought I was 26 weeks today but they are thinking I may be 27 1/2 -28 weeks because she is bigger and more mature than a 26 week baby which is a good thing, so things are looking positive, just will be here for the long haul.

Here's our entertainment options for the next several weeks:



So, I will keep everyone updated, but we hope for Mallory that we will be in here for several weeks and it will be fairly unexciting until she gets more mature!

So keep us in your prayers!!