Almost There!

Well I know that I am like the worst blogger of all time. But, hopefully if you have had any clue about what has been going on in our lives, you will understand! Catching up from where I left off before in like July, much has happened. Turns out that all the contractions I had ended up thinning out my cervix by 50%. So, the doc put my on bedrest. We ended up having to hire someone to help me with the girls during the day as I was not allowed to lift anything over 10 lbs. It sucked. Luckily we were able to find someone that we really like and trust and the girls adore. Her name is Claire Sheets and there have been days that we would have been lost without her! Thank the good Lord for bringing her into our lives (and my good friend Amy C.)! After being put on bedrest, I ended up passing at least a total of 12 kidney stones, 3 of which I had to do in the hospital. They get caught in my bladder and get stuck and are almost impossible to get out on my own. I would have to go and get an IV and get flushed full of fluids and pain killers since that is all they could do with me being preggo. The other 9 (at least) I passed at home, thankfully! :) I met with a Urologist and he put me on a strict diet of NO spinach, caffeine, dark sodas, nuts (including peanut butter), chocolate (yeah, that one has sucked!), and very limited dairy. As much as the diet sucks, it does work as I have not had any stones in about 2 months. Apparently I have some genetic condition that makes me pre-disposed to getting kidney stones (thanks Dad and Grandpa!), but when I am pregnant, makes me like 4 times as likely as the normal person. It sucks. But, I have never had a stone when I haven't been preggo (knock on wood), so I am planning on saying screw the diet after kiddo here is born and we will see what happens. I have been without ice cream, chocolate or peanut butter for too long! Someone better be bringing me a Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard from Dairy Queen when this is over!

So, since all of this we have had a couple of false alarms of labor, but nothing has panned out. Last Wednesday, I was having contractions about 4-5 minutes apart and went to the Doc.'s office. The nurse practitioner checked me out and my cervix is COMPLETELY thinned out even though it wasn't dilating any. She sent me to the hospital. They watched me for a couple of hours and NOTHING. So, I am still stuck at 1 cm as I have been for about a month. They sent me home and I have now decided not to stress about it. I am to be induced on Monday, October 26th and if kiddo decides to come in the next couple of days, great. If not, well, we will see him or her on Monday! It is really exciting, made even more so with all that has gone on. The only part that is a bummer is that due to the outbreak of Swine Flu (H1N1), the hospital has introduced a bunch of restrictions, mainly that no one under 18 may visit and only 2 visitors at a time. So, the girls are not going to be able to go to the hospital. Layla is going to be angry, but what can we do? We don't want her or Jilly getting sick, you know?

Layla is getting VERY excited. At first she told us we had better be having a girl and she would be mad if we brought home a boy, but has come around in the past 2 weeks and wants a brother. I guess we will see. We do have names picked out, but you will have to wait! :)

In other news, Layla turned 4! We had a great Cinderella Princess Party for her. Lots of family and some friends came and we all had a great time. She received a lot of wonderful gifts (which I am WAY behind on getting Thank You notes out...SORRY!). We got her a Princess Bike which she wants to ride all the time and is getting mad that it is getting dark earlier and cold and that she can't go out whenever she wants. But, such is fall. :)

So, I guess that is all for now, I hope that catches you up! :) I will leave you with a couple of pics of the girls and say I will be back next week with pics of a new baby and 2 proud big sisters!