Bed Rest Ends!!!

wow, i can hardly believe that we have made it this far ... without any hospital time (other than those 3 hours one day for contractions), no medicine!! 112 days of bed rest! and, we've made it to 37 weeks, which anything from 37-42 weeks is considered full-term!! so amazing and wonderful. we are celebrating.

today was a big day ... my stitches were removed. my drs had been back and forth for some time on when the stitches should come out, should they come out and induce the same day, not induce, epidural/no epidural. we weren't sure if they would ever get on the same page. so, finally on monday they scheduled the stitches to be removed today. so, today we went to the hospital to see my perinatal dr who was taking out the stitches. he had planned on using an epidural, but the nurse had scheduled me without one. i was already there and the dr said we'd at least give it a try with no pain meds.

i'm not sure if tom's hand will be usable for a few days ... lots of clenching of tom's hands, a few nails digging in, and some awesome relaxing music in my ears. i just kept telling myself that there was an end in sight. two of the nurses were also in the room and were very sweet and helpful during the whole thing. a couple times i did grab the one nurse's hand ... i think i only squeezed and clawed tom's hand ... i hope!

the dr showed us the stitches. we had no idea how large and thick these stitches were, but we now understand why they were saying that the baby was not going to suddenly pop out! the drs that we have been with throughout this process have been so wonderfully encouraging and amazing. we could not be more pleased with all they have done for us.

after i rested for awhile and finally got my legs to stop shaking, we headed out for lunch. how wonderful ... my first lunch outing in at least four months!!!! it was great. of course, being that i haven't been this active in several months, i'm in my ninth month of pregnancy, and i just endured some incredible pain, i was pretty sore and worn out. but, it was still wonderful to be out in the real world today!

it is such a huge responsibility to carry another human being inside of you. to know that every thing i do affects this person directly. i just think back to that 6-week appointment and that heartbeat we saw. how cool that i have two hearts beating inside of me. how totally beautiful to think about that little one forming and growing each day. what a gift this is!

at this point ... we wait. labor could happen any day now. we are celebrating this gift we are about to be given and are so excited to meet Little G soon. what a miracle the creation of life is, and how much we have enjoyed watching my belly grow knowing that another little person is forming inside. so, we are excited to celebrate Little G's birthday sometime in the very near future. keep your eyes tuned to our blog as we'll update here.