Still hangin on

Well we hit 35 weeks today! Woo hoo! I can hardly believe it! Three weeks ago when the doc said he would come any day and we didn't need to bother scheduling any more appointments, Jonathan asked him what would happen if he didn't come right away. The doctor (who, by the way, was a cardiologist before deciding to switch to maternal fetal medicine, which is basically high-risk pregnancies, and has been dealing with pregnant women for 25 years, so he's pretty smart) laughed at him and told him that would be a miracle. Well....  I guess we're witnessing a miracle! I am so so sooo grateful for that, too! I keep thinking about the fact that we aren't going have a long NICU stay, and if he stays in a little while longer.... who knows, maybe he could actually come home with us! I've never brought a baby home with me or had one in the room with me at the hospital so I'm getting so excited at the thought of it!! But whatever happens, we're just extremely thankful for this blessing.
I think there are a lot of things that have contributed to keeping him in. Obviously, modern medicine. I don't go two hours without taking something and when it's getting close to my next dose I definitely need it. Without it, we'd be in serious trouble! I have yet to dip to having contractions less than every ten minutes ever and some days its around every 5 or 6 minutes, but they haven't pushed the babe out yet so it's okay. Some days I am just ready to be done with the pain, but most of the time it's manageable. 12 weeks of bedrest probably helps, too. I literally get off the couch to go to appointments, the bathroom, take a bath, and that's about it. Also great doctors. They said they were more aggressive with me than they normally would have been since Caden came so early and I'm so glad they were. We wouldn't have made it nearly this far if they hadn't been watching me close and intervened so early. Jonathan's Christmas break was perfect timing so that I could lay on the couch the whole 6 weeks he was off and he took care of everything, but even if he hadn't had that break, our ward is so amazing I know we wouldn't have had anything to worry about. They have brought dinner every other night the whole time and babysat a lot and I always have people offering to help. It's so nice to have a huge list of people offering for you to call at a moment's notice to watch your kids. They've seriously been amazing. I think being able to be happy and not get depressed and too stressed out has helped too. In the hospital, they told me everyone on bedrest gets depressed. Honestly, I never got to that point. Stressed sometimes, yes, but never depressed. I think it is due to all the amazing support I have. I've had so many people just drop by to drop something off or visit. So many sending texts or messages and calling and everyone has been so kind and made me feel so good. Every little kind word makes a difference and I have felt so loved that there was no way I could possibly get down in the dumps. THANK YOU everyone so much!!!
Still, with all these helps, it's still nothing short of a miracle and mostly due to all the prayers and fasting others have done on our behalf. Last night while studying scriptures we were reading about miracles and Jonathan explained to the boys that our baby staying in is a miracle. It was so fun to tell them that and see them understand (as well as they can :) ). Going from knowing he might not survive to knowing he would have serious long-term problems to now knowing he has almost a 100% chance of being totally fine and maybe coming home with us is a humbling experience. We know it doesn't always work out this way, in fact it didn't work out for us last time, so I don't know why we've been so blessed, but we are forever grateful to our Heavenly Father and our Savior and to all those who prayed in our behalf. Thank you thank you thank you forever!

Also, as an update, last week was Easton's 4th birthday!!! He didn't get his birthday wish of the baby coming on his birthday, but he did get "Hun" (my mom, they copy what my dad calls her :) ) to come! She came down to help celebrate and help me out with Jonathan back in school and the boys loved it! He also got so spoiled with presents from everyone and has had a heyday with his new toys ever since. On Monday, Jonathan had taken Easton to Chuck E Cheese for the first time and he had a ball. Jonathan did too, he's so excited to go back :) Then on his birthday, since Dad was at school, my Mom took the boys to one of those blow up, bouncy house places and I think Easton was in heaven. They were the first ones there when it opened and the last ones to leave before it closed in the afternoon. Oh my word those boys had so much fun! Then that night we had a couple of friends over for cake and ice cream. I didn't want to do anything too big since I can't exactly do much, and since we didn't know if we would even be here or not, but luckily my aunt Brenda and uncle Craig and their family had sent Easton a Lightning McQueen pinata for his birthday and Easton couldn't talk about much else in the weeks leading up to it! We even watched videos on youtube of kids breaking pinatas so Easton kept saying, "Everyone will line up and everyone gets three hits and then it's the next person's turn." Well, the few kids that were there were all pretty little, so finally Jonathan took one big whack at it and candy pelted the wall and I was sure he broke something :) No harm done though, and the boys thought it was the coolest thing ever and kept talking about how Dad broke the pinata and the candy flew at the wall. It was a happy, simple birthday party that Easton loved.

The day after the party, we got hit with the stomach flu. Well, some of us did. My poor mom was sick as a dog and so were Easton and Caden. Luckily me and Jonathan escaped it, but my mom was so sick and then right after she got better she and Easton got a cough and cold. Some fun for them huh? But because she was sick, she stayed longer than she was planning and decided to stay another week. It was sooo nice to have her here while Jonathan was in school. Especially since she took the boys to the park one day and she was worried about leaving me home alone so she brought a blanket and I just laid on the blanket and read a book while she played with the boys. My word it was so nice to get out in the sunshine! It was 65 degrees and I was in a t-shirt and flip flops and starting to sweat by the time we left. I actually got a sunburn, I'm pretty sure that's easy when your skin hasn't seen the sun for 3 months. She left today since Jonathan doesn't have school on Fridays so he'll be here with me for the rest of the weekend. So we're hoping the baby either comes this weekend or next, but not while Jonathan is in school. Which leads me to some exciting news..... Only one more week of bedrest!!! Next Thursday I'll be 36 weeks and so I'll stop the medicine and bedrest! Woo hoo! So excited! I really really hope he stays in till then cuz I'm curious to see how long I'll last before he comes after I go back to being normal. Honestly, I can't imagine it would be that long, but I've heard of people who do so I want to know! Jonathan has a basketball game that night so he's making me wait till after to stop my medicine, ya know, just so he doesn't risk missing it :)  So I'm going to go to his game and then stop taking the meds after that. I am sooo excited to go to his game and do normal things! So we'll see what happens next weekend!