Photo Updates

This is me leaving Divine Savior in Portage and heading to St. Mary's in Madison. The nurse is Anna (she used to be my neighbor) and the ambulance gentlemen were Richard (I think that was his name) and Jon; they were all super nice.



Settling into my new room. This is the room we were moved to Friday morning after being in the birthing suites Thursday night. The socks on my legs I have to wear all the time. Since I am on bed rest they are concerned about blood clots so they help with circulation.



I am allowed one 30 minute wheelchair ride a day. Sawyer and Tom were testing out the wheelchair to make sure it was safe before I got into it.



On Saturday I got to see Sawyer for the first time since the whole thing started. I was so excited to see him; but this is us saying good-bye to each other. He has been so great and understanding that I can't be there for him like I was before. I am so proud of him.

Blessings keep coming!

16) Yesterday I started feeling down and out and I was laying there a St. Mary's staff member walked in and gave me a stack of cards that people sent me - it was incredible!

17) Had family spend the afternoon with me yesterday. Sawyer, my mom and dad arrived at 2:00pm. It was so great seeing Sawyer again and to hear his laughter fill this room.

18) A surprise visit from my sister and Ken! They arrived around 5:00pm so we all had supper together.

19) I was allowed to take a wheelchair ride for 30 minutes. It was fun to walk the hallways with my family and see Sawyer run - he has the cutest run ever!

20) Slept pretty well last night - the best I have had since I have been here! I slept from 10:00 to 3:30; straight through! Then I was up at 5:45am - the morning before that was 5:30am.

21) I got breakfast in bed on Mother's Day; every mother's dream! ;)

22) I then had a lady come in and bring me fresh towels, took out my trash and mopped my floors - once again every mother's dream on Mother's Day!!!

23) My nurse brought me a Wonka chocolate bar for Mother's Day! It's called "Domed Dark Chocolate" it is velvety dark chocolate with milk chocolate medallions!

Counting my Blessings

Even though the situation is a huge bummer that we are in right now there is so much that we are thankful for. I decided I wanted to write them all down up to this point and share them with you.

1) The fact that we made it 34 1/2 weeks with complete placenta previa with no bleeding and no restrictions - that is really unheard of!

2) The decision that we made not to go on our St. Louis trip. Since the beginning of the year this was the weekend we were going to leave for St. Louis for our anniversary weekend and to take a little family vacation with Sawyer before his sibling is born. After our 28 week ultrasound with still having placenta previa we decided it was too risky to travel. If we would have continued with our trip; we would have been in St. Louis when I started to bleed.

3) The fact that I had a MOPS Steering Team meeting on Thursday is why I did not go to work in De Pere that day but rather went to work two days in a row (Tuesday and Wednesday).

4) Having a ST meeting at my house when it happened. I am so glad I was not alone with Sawyer when it happened. Instead Sawyer was peacefully napping at my mom's house and I was surrounded by 10 other mommy's that took care of me.

5) Thankful that my Dr was able to meet me at the hospital so quickly since she was not with clients but rather just doing paperwork.

6) Thankful that another Dr. that I trust was there until my regular Dr got there.

7) Thankful that the nurse in Portage who checked me in was my old neighbor.

8) Thankful that while I was on the stretcher in the ambulance on my way to Madison I was holding my cell phone and I would just smile every time it chimed at me - this meant that I received a text message. I knew it was people texting me letting me know they were praying for me.

9) Thankful that the bleeding did stop within 2 hours!!! The primary risk with placenta previa is that they can't stop the bleeding which - well bad things.

10) Thankful that the weather isn't the greatest right now - it doesn't make it as bad sitting inside.

11) Thankful that I no longer have to be "hooked" up to anything - much more comfortable.

12) Thankful that the baby is measuring two weeks ahead (according to the ultrasound done yesterday) and is estimated to weighing 7lbs 11oz right now. This helps me relax knowing that my baby will be born early and yet still be born at a normal weight.

13) Thankful for the flowers that were sent to me yesterday (from Sharyl and Mike) - they sure do brighten up this room on such gloomy days.

14) Thankful for all the facebook messages, phone calls, emails, etc. of everyone letting me know they are thinking of us and praying.

15) Thankful that Sawyer is in good hands and having such a great time with his grandparents - thank you MieMie/Gr-Ma and Papa.

Updates Continued

I believe we left off at me arriving at St. Mary's in Madison yesterday at 5:00pm. I was then brought to the birthing suites in the OB department. Here they continued pumping me with fluids due to them not wanting me to eat or drink anything just in case I had to go into c-section that night. I also had monitors on my belly so that they could keep watch in the baby. The remaining of the night was pretty uneventful. I had already stopped bleeding by the time I reached to Madison. The monitors around my belly were showing contractions and the nurses kept asking me if I was feeling them but I really didn't besides the fact that my stomach would harden up, but there was no pain. They kept watching these to make sure they continued to be braxton hicks instead of real contractions. If they were real contractions it would have been off to do the c-section.

At 5:00am today the nurse came into my room and said since the night went so well I was finally able to eat!!! She offered me me my first drink of anything; apple juice had never tasted so good. She then "disconnected". The baby monitors came off and the fluids were disconnected from my IV. They have kept the IV in just in case the bleeding does start again and I am sent right away to have the c-section. At 6:00am they moved us to our room for the week. They placed us right next to the nurses station so that we are real close so that they are better able to assist us just in case. At 6:30am I placed my breakfast order and by 7:00am (19 hours after the last time I ate anything) I was eating a huge breakfast!!! It was an omelet with cheese, ham and green peppers, hash browns, fresh pineapple, toast, glazed cinnamon roll and crangrape juice; yup I ate it all!!!

Tom then at about 8:00am to go back home to get my shower things, things for me to do and to see Sawyer. I then took the morning to try to get some rest. (I had only slept for about 2-3 hours last night due to my brain thinking too much, not comfortable and everything that I was hooked up to.) At 9:45am the nurse (Kerri) came in to get me to have my ultrasound done. The doctor wanted to make sure the baby was still looking good. The ultrasound did look good. They measured the baby, the amniotic fluid and looked over the placenta. The baby did measure two weeks ahead of my due date and weighed in at 7lbs 11oz. I was then wheeled back to my room holding a profile view of my baby's face. It sure did feel good seeing our precious little one and knowing that even if he/she came early that it weighed good!!!

I then tried to sleep some more but I was having braxton hicks so I just rested. I ordered my lunch and ate (Fettuccine Alfredo, corn, bread stick, chocolate cake and milk). Tom was back in the room with me by 1:30pm and we have been hanging out ever since! The nurse comes in about every 1 1/2 to 2 hours (sometimes longer) just to see how we are doing. Sometimes they check my blood pressure, temperature and listen to the baby's heart rate and then sometimes they flush my IV. All the nurses have been so great.

Once Tom did get back and I finished my lunch I took a shower!!! Man did that feel good! Since I am only allowed to get up for my one shower a day and to go potty I was so tempted to take an hour long shower because it felt so good just to stand. I resisted though and just did what I had to do and got back in bed. I am now in my own pj's, feeling refreshed and with a full belly. Tom ate at Famous Dave's for dinner and I ordered a grilled veggie sandwich, pasta, baked potato chips, apple pie and a root beer.

I think I am now going to start winding down for what I hope is a good night of sleep. Thanks again everyone for your prayers!

Update from the hospital

Hey Everyone,

The past 26 hours has been a journey I will never forget. It all started at my home yesterday afternoon. I was having a steering team meeting for MOPS at my house; so it was me along with 10 other ladies. I was sitting on the couch while we were having our closing prayer (current time 2:00-2:15pm). After prayer time it was time to eat some dessert and make an adorable craft! I walked to the kitchen to defrost the berries for the angel food cake and then realized that something was not feeling right. I decided I was sure it wasn't anything big so I finished what I was doing and then was just going to go to my bedroom to "freshen" up. As I turned around to walk out of the kitchen and through the living room I saw where I was sitting and then it hit me that it wasn't good.

Since we found out at (20 weeks) that I had placenta previa we were always told that the baby will be fine but that I definitely do not want to start bleeding. Yesterday I was at 34 weeks and 5 days. I have not yet been on much restrictions due to me feeling fine and no spotting; everything was going good. When I saw the blood on my couch all I could think about is; the worst thing that could happen with this "diagnosis" that I have is happening. I turned around to say something to the ladies and even though I don't remember exactly what I said it something along the lines of "I am not trying to freak anyone out but I'm bleeding". After I verbally said I immediately started to cry and walk to my room to change. I remember holding onto my dresser having a difficult time breathing and then remember how incredible all my mommy friends were. One helped me get a new pair of pants out, one was calling my mom, one was calling my husband, one was pulling up her car for me and then out the door I went. I later found out that they also cleaned my couch for me by putting the seat cover in the washer and it came out!!!

My friend Sarah was the one that took me to the ER. As we were in the car she just held my hand and was reassuring me that everything would be okay. I slowly started to relax and we even had a couple of laughs together in the car. The last laugh was because she dropped me off at the wrong door - although we didn't realize it until we walked in and saw that it was the Education Center instead of the ER; we laughed pretty good at that one.

After checking into the ER they took me to the OB where they started monitoring me and checking my vitals. The nurse that was assisting me was my old neighbor when we lived next to my parents; so that was really nice to have her. It was also really reassuring when I was still getting onto the bed and Dr. Blohm (my brother and sister-in-laws doctor) walked into the room. It's just always nice to see the face of a doctor that you know and trust. She was there in the room with me until my normal doctor got there (which didn't take long because she was at the hospital doing paperwork). Then Dr. Blohm asked me "Didn't I see you this morning walking; I was the one that passed you running?". Yup it was me walking with my mom. She was then also kind of glad she was there because she was able to see what placenta previa looked liked on an ultrasound screen, I guess she has been educating herself more on this type of situation and being to recognize it herself.

(Oh yeah by this point Tom has arrived to the hospital; he was at work.)

They ran a lab on me to make sure that there was no amniotic fluid along with the blood and there wasn't. This was a huge blessing because that meant I was not in labor and the baby was completely fine through all of this!!! Dr. Strabel then tried to look to see further where the blood was coming from but there was too much for her to be able to tell. I was then being shipped to Madison to the St. Mary's hospital by ambulance. At this point my mom was also at the hospital to drop off our camera and video camera just in case we were going to be become a family of four yesterday.

Once I got into the ambulance (Tom drove separately to the hospital so that we would have a vehicle in Madison for when we were discharged from the hospital to get home) the clock said 4:00pm - I am thinking I arrived at the Portage ER around 2:30pm. The gentlemen that took me to Madison were really nice (Jon and Richard - I think that was his name) - we had some pretty good laughs on the way. During our road trip I did actually almost fall asleep but then Jon asked "Are you feeling okay?" in a concerned voice and I said that I was but asked why he was wondering. He said my blood pressure was dropping and getting kind of low so he just cranked up my fluids some which did bring my blood pressure back up a bit. At the hospital I was 124/? and in the ambulance it dropped to 101/62; by the time we go to the hospital I was back up to 108/?.

That is how the past 26 hours started - stay tuned for your next update ;)

Happy 3 Years to Us!!!

The wedding scene! Those that stood on my side was my sister (Toni), my brother (Terry), my sister-in-law (Sandra), my brother (Tim), my sister-in-law (Amber), my niece (Emma), my nephew (Treyton) and my nephew (Trent). Those standing for Tom was his best friend (Jayson), his brother (Tony), his sister-in-law (Rachel), his brother (Ben), his sister-in-law (Holli) and his niece (Kaylee).



We are now Husband and Wife!!!!



The entire wedding party including the ushers (Nate, Jason, Joe and Shawn).



I just really like this picture because I remember how hard it was for my brother (Terry) to actually "bow" to me. Good Times!



Our parents...we love them so much!



This is my friend Jenna and her husband Dave (at the time they were engaged and then got married in October). She was my personal attendant and sang at our wedding. They are incredible!



Leaving the church and on our way to the PARTY!



Our reception was at the Kestrel Ridge in Columbus so of course Tom just had to hit a couple of golf balls.



It's moments like these that I cherish forever!!!


To my AMAZING Husband - Tom:
Honey these past three years have been unbelievable. Granted we have had our bumps along the way (seriously though what marriage hasn't), but it's because of those bumps that have brought us where we are today. There is a song that says "I thoguht I loved you then" and oh how much truth is in that song. The day I said "yes" to be your fiance to the day I said "I Do" and then to the day we had our first child - my love for you just keeps growing. You have been my rock! I know I don't tell you enough just how much you mean to me but I honestly don't know where I would be without you in my life. You are always there for me. You know exactly what I need and when I need it. Thank you so much for caring, providing, protecting and loving me! We have been through so much together already just in the past three years and to think how much my love for you has grown I just can't wait to see where our love will be on our 50th!!!
I LOVE YOU!!!

34 Weeks

Today we had our 34 week check-up for the baby. Everything is looking good! The baby's heart rate was between 15-160 beats/minute. I am also still measuring three weeks ahead; measuring at 37 weeks (no wonder I feel absolutely huge). Today we talked about how the c-section will go. She just explained to us who was going to be in the room and the whole procedure. I think both of us had a lot of our questions answered which felt really good.

It is strange to think that we for sure will have our child enter into our lives in 32 days - June 4th!!! With Sawyer going naturally we didn't know the exact date (obviously) of when he was coming, but with this one we do. It sure does help making sure everything is ready for the big day.