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