Thankfulness

This pregnancy had been a bit more complicated than the last 2 were. If not for the fact that Zofran kept me from puking up anything and everything I ate or drank from weeks 6-18, I could have lost a lot of weight, like I did with Sienna. Thank goodness for that medicine!

Starting at 17 weeks I have had bouts of sometimes very regular contractions, which if you know pregnancy, they say more than 4 Braxton Hicks in an hour is a reason to go to the hospital in case of pre-term labor and we were well above 5 an hour. I knew the drill, since I was also on bedrest when I was pregnant with Sienna. Lay down, drink tons of fluids, empty your bladder. I was very worried, and counting down until Baby was viable, then until Baby was 28 weeks, which is where I was when I had pre-term labor with Sienna. But the contractions kept coming, and getting stronger. They have gotten to the point where my uterus is so irritable that if I stand for about 5 minutes or longer at a time, I will get them every 2-4 minutes for a few hours.

The Dr's are not okay with this. While I am not dilating yet, things are changing and we don't want a bout of contractions to send me into true labor. Especially since I am only now at 33 weeks and they don't deliver babies in the hospital on Kauai until 35 weeks, which means I would have to be flown by Spencer's company to Oahu. If the baby did come early, it would be in the NICU there. So I have been on modified bedrest since last Wednesday. I swear each day gets a little harder for me. I am not one to sit still, to lay down, to feel like I cannot even clean up after my children. But it's just a few weeks until I can and is such a small thing to keep this baby baking a little longer. While the timing here ended up crazy, with Spencer working 15 days in a row (all 24 hours), I am super thankful for friends and neighbors that have chipped in and tried to make things easier, to take my kids for a little while, to pick up paper plates at Costco so I don't go insane with unwashed dishes collecting all over my home.

 I am extremely grateful that I am not working. It has been such a gift to be home with the kids, and they have expressed so many times how happy they are that I am here. While I have occasionally done a few haircuts or colors, I wasn't taxing my body the way I did in Utah and I can't imagine how much earlier this could have started if I had been working like that. I just feel so blessed, which might seem crazy, but I can see the Lord's hand in my life, inspiring me to wait until we were here to try for a baby, where my husband has been able to be home every other week, helping take on homemaking duties to take the load off of me throughout this entire pregnancy.

I love Christmas-time. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ, and I am immensely grateful for His many sacrifices for me. I am thankful for my knowledge and testimony of His life and love for me and how that knowledge has gotten me through my darkest of days. I am so grateful to be able to celebrate His life at this beautiful time of year, with my beautiful 3 children and new little one to come, with a husband better than I could have wished for. I didn't post for Thanksgiving, but my heart is overflowing right now and I just had to share at this, the most wonderful time of the year. Merry Christmas! We wish you all the same joy and happiness!