Quick Update

Well, we reached the coveted 36 week mark yesterday. We are THRILLED. I am now officially OFF of bedrest and back to a normal life. Well, as normal as can be with a 6lb bowling ball hanging off your abdomen.

Baby watch has officially begun. I realize now that I can no longer make any calls to friends without the first words, "No, I'm not in labor yet." Nor can I not answer calls because people automatically assume that I'm in labor. Excuse me, but I DO spend a lot of time in the bathroom these days, and NO I don't always bring my phone in with me. Kidding kidding. I promise if you care enough about David and me and baby Jeck to be reading this blog, you will know when we're in labor!! :)

In any case, I had my 36 week appt today. 2 cm dilated and 60% effaced. YIKES! Does that mean we really are going to have a baby soon?????

Still working on names....

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hi everyone,

Things have been pretty quiet in the Jeck household. We are VERY excited to have officially reached 34 weeks, aka the "safety zone." All along, we have been told just make it to 34 weeks!! Hard to believe how fast the time has gone.

We had a good appointment yesterday. An ultrasound showed the little one is head down and weighs nearly 5 lbs! Unfortunately, I'm now dilated to about 2 cm so there has been a little progress, but my cervix isn't thinning too badly, and the baby isn't too low. So hopefully we can keep baking for at least another 2 weeks or so. My doctor also gave me the official OK to start doing a little more next week, although David is hesitant for me to stop the bedrest. He doesn't have any vacation scheduled until the end of October so wants the baby to stay inside as long as possible. Also, Eric and Christy and Rachael and Hank have trips planned the week of October 11th-19th, and Grandma and Grandpa Jeck will be babysitting in California so we'd like to avoid delivering that week if possible. If only it were that easy to control, right?? :)

In other news, our house projects are slowly but surely coming along. We've run into tons of snags along the way, but at least coordinating everything has kept me busy while on bedrest these past few months. We're REALLY hoping to have at least everything inside done before the baby comes. The pool (aka money pit) will not be finished for several more weeks... Hopefully we can post some pictures soon.

David and I were visiting our good friends' home (the Harlows) a couple nights ago and happened to glimpse their new daughter Ava's nursery. It is BEAUTIFUL and perfect. We are making fun of ourselves for being bad parents already because our son's nursery is basically empty. Although David did put the crib together on Monday night!! We are very proud of that. :)

I wish everyone a healthy and happy New Year!!!!

Status Quo (again)

Well, it's been a couple of uneventful weeks since I've last posted. I've had 2 more NORMAL doctor's appointments, which is GREAT news. Well, not normal entirely, but I haven't dilated any further, so we are all thrilled. My OB just wants us to continue with the bedrest for now. Of course, the contractions are still there basically all the time, but I'm learning to ignore them pretty well... We actually had the "induction discussion" at my last visit. The doctor HIGHLY doubts that we'll make it far enough to even consider that, but she will probably recommend inducing by about 39 weeks, if necessary. If the baby gets more than 6 or 6.5 lbs, she's worried about the delivery with my little ol' pelvis. Crazy to think that in 7 1/2 weeks max, the little one will be here.

Dog training is continuing. They are doing much better. David bought us a small doll to pretend with and both dogs go a little crazy when we have him out, but hopefully that will improve. I also ordered a CD of baby noises to play for the dogs. Too funny!!

David is doing great. He's back to work and feeling well, and very happy about the results of his tonsillectomy. He's playing in a golf tournament this weekend so send good thoughts on Saturday morning. He and I made a quick Target run the other day, thinking we should have some basic baby supplies on hand. I had to sit at the front of store (considering I'm really not even supposed to leave the house, walking around was kind of out of the question!), and communicate with him in the baby aisle by phone. He grabbed one bottle and 1 small bag of diapers and then got completely overwhelmed. We don't REALLY need any more than that, do we?? :)

My parents will be out for a long weekend starting next Wednesday, and we're looking forward to their company. My mom has the job of starting to sort through all of Aaron and Julia's hand me downs from Christy and Eric (thanks guys!!). It will be fun to start organizing!

That's all for now! Hope everyone is doing well. I've been very busy knitting and since I don't have too many other pics to post right now, will put up a few of my completed projects...

The Planners

Just wanted everyone to know that David and I have finally accepted that we're going to have a baby (potentially very soon).
Last night, David looks at me and says, do you think we need a "labor plan?"
My response, "Yeah, that would probably be a good idea."
David: "I think we just get in the car and drive really fast."
Me: "That sounds perfect. It sounds kind of like my 'birth plan.'"
David: "Really, what's that?"
Me: "Get to the hospital and have a baby."
David: "OK, good."

We are TOTALLY ready. Especially if I don't go into labor while David is playing golf. AND, as long as I don't go into labor prior to 34 weeks, we will most certainly be stopping at Eegee's on the way in. Prior to 34 weeks, we'll go straight to the hospital.

In other news, I am SOOO excited for COLLEGE FOOTBALL. At least there will be something to do on Saturdays (if anyone has any ideas for Sunday thru Friday, let me know).
Oh, and we started our private dog-training lessons yesterday. Let it suffice to say that JJ and Denali were NOT shy about showing the trainer what they need to work on.

Quick Update

We are back from our latest OB appointment and things are status quo. I'm just so relieved that we didn't get sent back to the hospital! Cervix is basically the same, as are the contractions. So we'll just continue with the strict bed rest for now and weekly appointments. David tried to faint again in the doctor's office so he could get some free icecream and attention, but they didn't fall for it this time. :)

Otherwise, we had a very pleasant weekend. My mom flew in last minute from LA to help a little with the move. I take that back...she helped a LOT! David is now back to flying solo around the house again. This may have been the one time he wasTRULY sorry to see his mother-in-law go!! (kidding).

Too Much Excitement

Yesterday started like any other...a few typical contractions, maybe slightly stronger than before. We decided NOT to go to the hospital knowing that I had my regular OB appointment that afternoon. David has been doing really well since his surgery and actually played golf in the morning. And then we had a quick meeting with our interior decorator (we are SO chic!). There was NOT much time for lunch, especially for David (this becomes important later on).

So anyway, the news at my appointment was not great. I was still contracting away, and unfortunately I am now one centimeter dilated by manual exam. Which equals true preterm labor, which most likely equals bedrest for the foreseeable future and no starting work in September. We were told that we needed to go directly to labor and delivery for monitoring at the hospital (this is getting all too familiar). Now right around this time David starts turning very pale and bleary eyed. Remember how he didn't have time to eat lunch? Well he was also VERY dehydrated from his golf playing (it's still difficult for him to swallow) and extremely hypoglycemic. I'm thinking that we're both going to end up at the hospital but thank goodness he perked up after a bit of fruit juice and an ice cream bar.

After David's excitment, we head straight over to my home-away-from-home at TMC and get right in. I'm hooked up to all the monitors and sure enough, contracting away. I'm given a dose of terbutaline (EVIL EVIL stuff) and taken off to have an ultrasound. The great news was that via the scan, my cervix is still long and closed (which is definitely reassuring according to my OB, but doesn't negate the 1cm dilation she felt on her exam). Contractions continued even after another dose of the dreaded terbutaline so IVs were started (OUCH!) and I was given a large dose of ibuprofen. I also had to get an injection of steroids to mature the little one's lungs, in case he makes an early appearance. They finally let us go home around 10:30 last night (thankfully, as there was a lot of discussion about admitting me for an overnight stay). Needless to say, NOT how we had envisioned spending our afternoon and evening.

I awoke to more contractions this morning and was instructed to go back over to the hospital. Thankfully this was only about a 3 hour stay, and the contractions are improving with another dose of Motrin (convinced them not to administer more terbutaline!). I have to go back to the hospital for the second steroid shot and more monitoring this afternoon. BUT...the good news is there is plenty of distraction in between visits because...

WE ARE OFFICIALLY MOVING INTO THE NEW HOUSE TODAY!!!!

David has done an amazing job of moving ALL of the contents of the old house this past week. He's been sore from the surgery, but overall has done EXTREMELY well, with essentially no down time. He is definitely NOT a complainer (unlike his pathetic wife!).

The other good news from yesterday is that during my ultrasound, they did a very cool 3-D image of the baby. Can't quite tell if he is more Jeck or more Thall yet. Hopefully we won't find out for sure for at LEAST another 8 weeks or so!!! Opinions???

Pictures

Look Ma...No Tonsils (and a BIG, FAT uvula!)!

JJ and Denali rather confused by my rapidly expanding belly

(and wondering why we would take pictures of it)

27.5 weeks

We are alive!

Hi! Well, we survived post-op day 0 so far. For those of you who don't know, David had his tonsils out today...supposedly NOT a fun surgery for an adult (if you can call him that). The surgery was around 11am, and I can't believe how well he's doing. He's up and walking around and even eating (and not even too grouchy!). Apparently, the pain usually ramps up after the first day, and peaks around day 4-5, so we're not out of the woods yet...

I'm doing pretty well too. I've discovered that as long as I really keep quiet, the contractions are pretty quiet too. I may have overdone it a bit on Wednesday, and paid for it yesterday, but today everything is pretty calm. Hoping to keep it that way!!

We'll try to post some pics later (got some great ones of the inside of David's mouth...VERY gross!).

THE BABY IS GROUNDED!!

Lanai'i, Hawaii (18 wks) Vancouver (24 weeks)

Hi and welcome to our blog! David and I are very excited to welcome our son, due to arrive this fall (11/11).

The pregnancy had a bit of a rough start with some pretty bad morning sickness (ahem...all day sickness!!) and fatigue. David had it REALLY rough...I was away 5 days a week in Phoenix and all he had to do was the daily check-in call: "Honey, how do you feel? I'm so sorry you threw up 6 times today. I'm off to go play golf, ok??"

Kidding...He sent excellent supportive vibes from Tucson, of course.

Once the sickness went away, we've had pretty smooth sailing. We took a fabulous trip to Hawaii in June to celebrate our first wedding anniversary and my 30th (!!) birthday. David and I are back to living together again, and we've had a great summer. We even got to spend some time with both our parents in LA and Vancouver. Despite my studying for my board certification exam, we managed to have some serious fun.

Unfortunately, things don't always go as planned. We hit a small bump in the road last week with contractions coming way too early. Baby Jeck and I took two trips to the hospital to be monitored and have the contractions stopped with medication, and we've seen our ob several times as well. She put me on strict bed rest which meant no board examination in Chicago. David FINALLY got to experience the true joys of a preggo (and VERY emotional) wife!! Things seem to be improving, and we are all thrilled that I'm at least allowed to get up and move around a little bit now!

We have no idea what the next few weeks will have in store for us, but one thing is for sure...BABY JECK IS GROUNDED (and I'm sitting with my legs tightly crossed)!!! We'll keep you posted!!