Jen gets parole from her house arrest!

Okay, so it's been so long since I wrote an entry, I had to read the last one to remember where I left off.

So where am I? You guessed it...Starbucks. But not the same old one. I'm at one closer to my house. That's because Jen is back at home and the situation has changed, for the better! Jen was able to go home a couple of weeks ago (quite surprisingly). As I mentioned in my last post, we had heard they might release her on Saturday if tests looked good. They rushed her into the test one Thursday morning and sent her home the same afternoon! That was the day before I took some vacation time to get the house ready before the baby came. So it was sudden, but perfect, timing.

Since then, we've also had a follow-up ultrasound at the high-risk clinic and the results showed that Jen's body was able to hold the baby better and all of the pressure was no longer on the cervix and it's accompanying stitch. It was quite the (pleasant) shock for us to see them measure the cervix at over 2cm on the ultrasound, which was about 1cm longer than it was the day they rushed us into the hospital in January. They also told Jen that at 32 weeks, her bedrest restrictions would be eased up, and she could get out and walk, go to the store, etc. on a limited basis.

This past Friday was the 32 weeks mark. We celebrated her parole and went out to Franklin for a nice lunch and to stroll around. We even went to the Hill Center in Green Hills that evening for a little more shopping. Since then, I think the both of us feel more confident and comfortable about the rest of the pregnancy (well, Jen feels about as comfortable as she can right now). The restrictions of bedrest, and my need to be around the house constantly, have alleviated. Jen will be able to get up and build her strength back up somewhat before the baby comes, which is good. Life feels somewhat more normal, and we're able to enjoy the last few weeks of it being just the two of us.

This relief has allowed me to start thinking and focusing on other things lately, namely looking at the future and start making other plans in my creative career. Having to set aside thoughts of career development the past 5 months has given me some perspective and fueled my curiosity of what else I'd like to tackle. I'm very happy as a freelance artist and with the work I'm doing, but I would like to enhance my creative arsenal by taking up photography, learning to do websites and maybe even do some more writing (outside of this blog). All things I'd like to learn about and try to do. So I'm going to start doing this summer.

But, of course, in the forefront is the arrival of our daughter. I couldn't be more excited and ready for time to pass and for her to get here. Pray with us that she'll get here happy and healthy all at the right time. And, that means that finally we'll be able to reveal her name to everyone! We have a midwife's appointment this morning, so we're interested in seeing what she'll say about things. Then we don't have another ultrasound until May 18th, which happens to be our wedding anniversary! We know if we get that far, they'll want to remove the cerclage and then it's anyone's guess when she'll be born.

Hopefully you'll hear from me between now and then.

-chadley

The further adventures on Jen's pregnancy...

Okay, so I hope you've been checking Jen's blog if you've wanted the latest on what's going on with the pregnancy. 'Cause I haven't been a-blogging lately, in case you haven't noticed.

And, it's very likely you haven't. :)

So what IS going on? Well... once again I'm blogging from the Starbucks near Vanderbilt. This time, for an entirely different reason. Jen's across the road, asleep. She's been on bedrest in the hospital for almost two weeks now. How long will Jen be there? Well, that depends. We're hearing different things from different doctors. But the consensus is that they will re-evaluate around 30-32 weeks. They've been reluctant to do thorough exams on a frequent basis, but presumably they will at that point and make a decision.

I honestly don't know how I feel about that. Although I hate that Jen has to be in that hospital bed 24/7, at least I know she's somewhere safe if she needs immediate attention. If she's at home, help is a little farther away. On the other hand, I know she would be more comfortable at home and after 32 weeks the likelihood of things happening quickly will have eased up a bit. So I guess we'll just see what the doctor's say and go from there. Fortunately, my work load is lightening up at LifeWay and a good portion of the freelance work I will be doing in the next 2 months I can do from home (they've been very understanding and accommodating and I couldn't be more grateful - thanks, y'all!). So if Jen is at home again, hopefully I can be around quite a bit. And if she doesn't go home, we'll just keep doing what we're doing. I guess we'll just see what the doctor orders...

Oh, one bit about the hospital stay - Jen does get a 30-minute break every day where I can take her out in a wheelchair. I think that gives her something to look forward to, which I'm glad to be able to do.

So what else is going on? Answer: not much! Keeping up with work, doing what I can around the house and keeping Jen company as much as possible fills every day. I know Jen and I are already looking forward to getting back into some healthy routines of walking and eating at home. Eating takeout every day takes a toll on the body, especially if you have a self-loathing thyroid gland. Now that warmer weather is here I'm trying to take walks when I can around the Vandy area and just do what I can.

I'm also chipping away at home projects and plan on taking a long weekend for Easter, finishing the nursery, cleaning out the garage and working on the back patio area. Spring has definitely sprung and I want to get the patio area in shape so we can enjoy it when we bring the little one home. I did put together a grill the weekend before Jen's incarceration and we grilled hot dogs once and we can't wait to do it again! I did some artwork for the nursery and I want to finish the last piece that has our little girl's name on it (and, no, I won't tell you what it is. And if you try to guess it around me I will rename you "Black Eye"). There's a few odds-and-ends we need to take care of, so I'm gonna be working on it. Hopefully I can update you on some of those things, but I suspect that Jen will want to have the big "reveal" of the nursery on her site, so keep an eye out for it.

Okay, I'm about blogged out, so that's it for now. I'll try to write sooner next time. Thanks again for all the prayers and support. It means a lot to us!

-chadley