The Busy Week (Week 31)

Hi Everyone,
This last week has been chaotic. Plenty of excitement with a little concern mixed in too.

Much of this week has been devoted to getting this weekends baby shower in order. Lindsay, her sister Jessica and best friend Desiree have been coordinating this for sometime. They've been working very hard planning the decor, getting the local and ironing out the details.

To add to the goings on Lindsay's Mom has come to town both for a visit and for the baby shower. So Jessica and her kids have been staying over to spend time with her, and also finish getting the baby shower details set. Then at the end of the week family members switched out and Lindsay's Aunt stayed with us. So we've had a pretty full house all week long.

Friday, we had a appointment with the OB for a check up and another ultrasound. The ultrasound was to take more measurements to check her development. Audrey is developing well. On that day, Audrey was 31 weeks 1 day old, but the measurements from the ultrasound say she's developed to a 32 week 4 day, so she's a tad bigger than average! She's also guessed to weigh about 4 pounds. Her heartbeat clocked in at 144 beats per minute. So she's still cooking nice and healthy.

Then came the OB appointment. This is usually just a little chat with just to see how the pregnancy is going along. Lately, Lindsay's been retaining a lot of water and her ankles have been swelling. So we had to let the Dr. know about this. Then the Dr. brought up the results of Lin's blood pressure check, it was high, and her urine test resulted with a little protein in it. Because of this we were told we had to go to OB Triage to be monitored. This freaked us all out.
(completely forgetting what we'd just seen on the ultrasound.) We rushed to Triage to get stuck in a nook for about three hours. They did a blood test and monitored her heart rate (NST or Non Stress Test) and we just sat... and waited.... four three hours... Finally we were able to leave. They had the results of the NST and sent the blood test results back to the OB (the hospital would have the results sooner than if the OB office had done it themselves.) The bad part about all this is now Lindsay will have to go and be monitored twice a week until Audrey is delivered. We went home exhausted and tired. If things don't improve the Dr has threatened bed rest and we'd rather not let that happen.

Saturday came the most exciting part of the week... The baby shower! Our family and extended family converged on the Manistee Ranch for a few hours of celebration devoted to the subject of this blog. Things went off without a hitch. Jessica took the reigns of hostess and I tip my hat to her both for her coordinating things and for showing no signs of stage fright when talking to the large group of strangers before her! There were fun games, good food and plenty of good spirits. I was happy to see everyone who was able to make it. When gift opening time came... the only thing I can say is: We know the greatest people EVER! Audrey will never need clothes until she is about 5! She received so many cute outfits we are buried under about a ton of baby clothes! We got quite a bit of what was on the registry and a few surprises that weren't. I think I have a tendency to like homemade gifts a little more than store bought just for the personal heart that went into them (no offense meant to those who did buy things) but there were a couple of gifts that stand out as needing an Honorable Mention:
- Audrey received a homemade bonnet with a little story to go with it talking about how the bonnet can be used for going home from the hospital or Christening, then used later in life as a something old item when she marries, and then reused again as a bonnet for her child. I thought this was incredibly sweet gift and idea.
-The Mom of one of Lindsay's BFF's made Audrey a VERY cute black and pink stripe afghan. I'm told that it's up for being added onto as Audrey grows up!
-The Basket of Everything Useful! We also got a gift from a friend of Lin's full of such useful things. Some of which were items we'd forgot to include in the registry (like safety locks for the cabinets) as well as blankets, toys, and about a million other things!
Those were just the Honorable Mentions for the time and thought put into them, but everything we got is very much appreciated and we are very, VERY thankful for. We love all of it very much.

Sunday, has been the day to catch up on relaxing! I spent the morning putting the crib, the dresser and the changing table together. A bunch of our family got together and went in on buying it. It was another gift from our baby registry and was quite expensive so it was a good idea that they did that. I had a great time assembling it, kind of took me back to my child hood and playing with Legos! The rest of the day we've lounged around and made sure not to let Lindsay stress.

That's what's been going on in the world of the baby. I'm sure I've forgotten to mention some details but as you can see there's been a lot to say. So I wanted to let everyone know how much we appreciated everyone and everything in regards to this weekend and we love and thank you all!

Also, if you have pictures from this weekend we would really like it if you could email them to either of us. We only ended up with two pictures of the baby shower on our camera.