Things I love!

So, I am feeling a little Oprahish..lol--Maybe its our current weight similarity...haha..there's my funny for the day..err..week.

I have decided I am going to post all of "Alyse's favorite things" through the year 2009.

My first is a Christmas gift we recieved from Aunt Ann and Uncle Bill. I hadn't even heard of these but they are so awesome!



It's a Flip Video, Digital Camcorder. Let me just tell you, these things are nifty.

They have a usb port built in so you dont have to keep up with cords and cables to upload to your computer. They have two memory sizes, a 30 min and 60 min version. They aren't expensive, I think the 30 min one is about $80 at WalMart.

The video quality is pretty good too. Here is a video that I shot with it last week :)

Aubree Rockstar

Preggo Cravings!

WOW! The cravings have really set in this week.



Here are the top few:





I have eaten on average two salads with thousand island dressing per day for the past week. Before this week I maybe ate thousand island dressing 10 times in my life.



SOURDOUGH bread. It needs to be crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. YUM. Just by itself, no sandwich, no soup...just the bread.



I LOVE these things. My teeth are super sensitive so I cant eat them everyday--they are delish though!



I dont even know what to say...these things are just awesome!

I bet I could eat a tray of California rolls THIS BIG!



I guess thats about it. We will see if they stay the same for the next 5 weeks!

Baby shower..and the nursery is DONE!

I apologize----I have been procrastinating posting up pictures but the nursery is FINALLY done! I also have like one picture from the baby shower. I feel bad because I don't have ANY pictures but I couldn't move around, and it's hard to take many pictures from one place. Maybe someone else took a few and will email them to me...hint hint :)

I am just following doctors orders...I cant unpack and put this stuff away :) I guess someone will have to stay and do it for me.

The crib bedding has this print on it. It's just easier to get a good picture of the hanging "toy" bag.

I gave in to the "wall decal" fad. I loved this little quote and I am so happy with the way it turned out! It is on the wall above the crib.

Mom and Dad found this glider at a yard sale for like $30 this summer. It was an awesome find!

Gramps built this crib when I was pregnant with Aubree so our children and hopefully someday Meredith's children will use it...and many generations after that!

Here are SOME of the adorable clothes...we have several preemie outfits too, thank goodness!

One of the few actual pictures of the shower.

Aubree with Granny and Aunt Annie and baby Reese.

Mom made this adorable diaper cake. It is sitting in the crib waiting to be disassembled so we can use the diapers and the goodies off of it. She monogrammed the hat that's on the monkey's head with the baby's name on it.

by popular demand....

Pictures of the new car. Zach worked very hard to graduate and get a job so I am very happy he finally has something to show for all of his hard work.

Home Sweet Home v2.0

Its nice to be home again, even if its only for a few days. Like always no news is good news. The bleeding is slow and the terbutaline is still making me feel icky but other than that life is good!
I am on complete bedrest with bathroom privileges only. I can take car rides and sit with my feet up at other peoples houses but that's about it. I will go back to see Dr.F in a week if we can make it that long without another L&D trip.
Our church family is still helping out with meals which is just amazing and trust me very much appreciated by Zach, who would otherwise be shopping and cooking every night on top of the other chores he has adopted around here.
Our family is helping out tremendously too. Granny Marge is coming over and getting Aubree fed and off to school so Zach can be at work at a decent time. She is also picking her up in the afternoon a lot and helping around the house. Mom is trying to get the nursery finished..and everyone else is just doing all of the in-between stuff.
Aubree is also being a big big helper. She is bringing me more snacks than I can handle and "talking to Griffin so he will be good". She is learning to brush her hair and pin it back with a clip and also had a first try with the hair dryer the other day! I can't believe how fast she is growing up!

Its Humpday...

Dr.F just came in and wants to keep me one more day even though the bleeding is slowed down a lot. My blood pressure decided to go up yesterday but my bloodwork looked great and I am not having any swelling so he is thinking its a combo of nerves and the terbutaline.
Keep fingers crossed for my bp to behave so zach can come get me tomorrow...in his new car (pics later)!
Oh, my awesome news of the week...I figured out that the hospital has froot loops, lucky charms, and cinnamon toast crunch, but they only advertise corn flakes and raisin bran! haha, life's litte victories!

Just call me.....

PINCUSHION!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry I haven't posted in a few days, the wireless network at the hospital has been down for the past day or so.
Yesterday, I had my glucose tolerance test and failed by 7 points which was a huge surprise. Well - turns out it was administered incorrectly, but I still had to do the 3 hour, 5 blood draw test...starting at 5 a.m. today. My hands are going to be black and blue for sure.
Griffin still looks fine and I am not having contractions which means the terbutaline is doing its job. I did have some high blood pressure for a few hours yesterday but it seems to be fine now.
That's all the update I have for now...maybe I'll have some juicy hospital gossip to post later!

Here we go again...

So late yesterday afternoon I was just sitting around getting ready to ride to Zach's parents house for a change of scenery. I went to the bathroom and, change of plans. Same as last time. Lots of red blood, no pain, no warning.
Baby looks fine, I feel fine...no contractions...just this crazy bleeding.
Aubree was more confused this time why all of the sudden she had to go to Gramps and Gigi's by herself and mom and dad had to go to the hospital again.
I believe we are going to have to sit her down this afternoon when she comes to visit and try and explain things a little better to her.
I will give updates when I can!

a few 4d photos...

I got a bazillion pictures so here are a few that I randomly chose :)

Praise the lord---and pass the ammunition...

Thank goodness things have still remained uneventful for the last few days as far as the baby is concerned. We had a lovely meal from a wonderful church member last night and things have just been very easygoing....BUT
When I was discharged Wednesday, Zach and I stopped at Walgreens to get my prescription and he noticed his debit card was missing...now if you know my husband you can probably guess that this happens about once a month. This time though, I just had a feeling that it was not going to be at home on the counter so we called right away and cancelled it. Well last night after dinner Zach got online to pay some bills and noticed two charges to his debit card
1- Popeyes Chicken $7.xx
2-Kangaroo Gas $20.00
Someone found his card and decided to have a tank of gas and some lunch on us. I don't know what it is about this that makes me so mad...its like people think because you drop your card-they have the right to go shopping with it! Anyway, he called and filed out a police report last night and hopefully there will be some surveillance video of this person using his card so we can maybe keep this person from doing this to someone else.
On a lighter note, 4D ultrasound is today so I will have some sweet pics to post later.

Home Sweet Home..

I am SO happy to be home. I got discharged from the hospital this morning and we just went ahead and picked Aubree up at school early so we wouldn't have to make several trip's out. She was so happy and excited to see us there to get her!

Zach's grandma came over this afternoon and picked up around the house for us because I am stuck here and it will drive me crazy if there are things laying around everywhere.

It was also nice to see all of the cards in the mailbox from friends and church family. Some of the ladies are cooking for us for the next few nights so I am excited for that because like all churches, we have some AWESOME cooks :) I am also planning to freeze leftovers so we will have some things put away for later.

Thanks for all the kind thoughts and prayers...Griffin and his placenta are behaving for the time being so lets hope we can keep it that way for the next 8 weeks.

How did I get so lucky...

I have been sitting in this hospital room for 3 days and it has given me lots of time to think.

I have read stories/blogs by other women who have spent weeks, even months in the hospital waiting for their baby to come. Most of the time they talk about the poor food, or being interrupted during the night by nurses for vitals and meds and other annoyances....

All I have been able to think about is how lucky I am. I am so lucky to live near a great hospital with the sweetest nurses and a great doctor who genuinely cares about mine and my babies well being. I am so so lucky to have the family and friends that I have. I have sat and wondered what I will do with Aubree if I'm on bed rest and she needs to go to school/dance/church/wherever while I am home and Zach is working...and never once did I worry about her feeling alone or being with someone she didn't love and who didn't love her equally as much. All of our friends genuinely care about my daughter and I am so thankful for that. I am so appreciative of our Church family at Madison. I have had emails and phone calls and visitors and people are just waiting for me to get home to come over and help feed my family with all of their delicious food.

Sometimes it takes something bad happening to stop and think what/who we take for granted.

I just want to thank everyone for all of the love and support we have been given and let all of you know that I am eternally grateful.

P.S. Cookout at my house this spring when Griffin gets here...he is gonna owe ya one :)

One more day????

Well. Dr.F came in for his usual 8 a.m. visit and once I told him that I hadn't seen blood since about 4p.m. yesterday he said if I could go all day today with no problems he could send me home tomorrow. Lets keep out fingers crossed. I understand there is a certain Cinderella book that Aubree is waiting for me to read to her at home.

Update

I'm going to have to get more creative with these blog titles I guess...
Dr.Fiore just came in..he agrees that I am better off here until I stop bleeding completely rather than being at home. I will be here all day and tonight and we will re-evaluate again tomorrow. He says the baby looks good so now my issue is planning Aubree's days and how I am going to arrange to get her to school and dance and things like that. Wish me luck.

I slept SO WELL last night!

WOW. I slept (without the aide of drugs) so well last night. I mean I woke up at 12am and 6am for medicine but that is still better than the night before...trust me.

I have no idea what is going to happen today. Dr.F said he would be by this morning, he could send me home or I could stay. I am kind of nervous to go home because its 20-30 minutes to get back if something happens...I think that is in the back of Dr.F's mind too. I will update when I know more.

Oh, by the way...until I get my cell charger I can be reached at 265-7210, or of course on the lovely Internet..but I cant access my hometown email so use alysetaylor@hotmail.com .

New Room...No News

I have been moved from Labor and Delivery to Antepartum...this is good news because I had no interest in Laboring or Delivering until MARCH!
I am still on contraction stopping meds (Brethine) even though they have given me a break from the belly monitors until this evening.
Dr. Fiore came in this morning and took me off food restrictions so I have had a shower AND two meals today and I couldn't be happier!!!
He said we needed to stay one more night and its possible I could go home tomorrow, or 5 days, or I could be here until the baby is born...its just something we have to take day by day.
Personally. If I am going to be home in the bed worried sick that something will happen any moment, I would almost rather be a hallway from an Operating Room at the hospital to be on the safe side.
This entry will be short because Aubree is here visiting me for the afternoon so I want to spend time with her and away from the computer :)

Oh so early update...

FYI----Hospital beds are very difficult to sleep in....I just hope Zach is getting some Zzzz's on the futon next to me.

I am feeling fine and still having minimal bleeding since we got to the hospital. I am noticing some of these supposed contractions on the monitor, but since I just took my dose of the meds for stopping that I am assuming they had worn off. Don't get me wrong...these are not "omg you are going to have a baby contractions", just "hey girl with previa, you don't need to have these contractions".
I am dreaming of a big bowl of raisin bran...or two---I wonder if my sweet little nurse can make that happen.

Anywhoo, keep the prayers coming...we need three more weeks with him in my belly, but of course we will take all we can get...March 3rd still sounds awful nice to me :)

Oh, also---Don't forget to pray for Zach, I hate the amount of stress this is putting him under--and I appreciate and love how much of a sweetie he is being in spite of it all.

The best turkey sandwich on Earth!

I finally got some food....so its not the big bag of everything on the menu at Krystals that I pictured but this is the best turkey sandwich ever!
On a serious note, the medication is still keeping contractions away so hopefully we are getting a handle on things!

Hospital Update

Well. I am on my second dose of Brethine(contraction stopping meds) and I have had my first of two steroid shots. Apparently I am having contractions that I am completely unaware of. This is probably the cause of the large bleed earlier. The good news is they don't seem to be causing more bleeding and the medicine is stopping the contractions until the doses run out. I am SO HUNGRY though. I cant eat "just in case" and I am absolutely starving!!!!!! Zach went to eat dinner with Aubree and hopefully once he gets back I can send him for food for me.
Ill try and keep this blog updated as much as possible.
Thanks for the prayers :)

Ringing in the new year at 27 weeks....

Well...2009 is off to an exciting start :)

I am blogging from Labor and Delivery Room #7 at Huntsville Hospital.

How did we get here?

I have had a small amount of bleeding for a few days now, which is kind of to be expected with placenta previa, BUT this morning I had a very large scary amount so here we are.
The baby looks great and I am not contracting at all so that is good news...actually the worst news I have received is that I cant eat for the rest of today just in case we have to have a c-section sometime soon. Dr. F did go ahead and give me my first steroid shot (ouch!) just in case things got worse before they got better but I have a feeling were going to be ok for now.

I will post updates as we have them....its not like I have anything better to do :)