Baby Showers, Pre-term contractions, and only 1 month to go!

This past week has been a very busy week for all of us. 2 weekends ago, my mother in law and good family friend, Auntie Sue, gave me my first baby shower. It was a lot of fun and people where very generous to our new little addition. We were "showered" with beautiful and thoughtful gifts. The shower was at 3pm in the afternoon in Pickering. Ryan and some of the other males of the family organized a baseball game outing at the Sky dome to see the Blue Jays play the Red Socks. So, my Dad and Ryan left from my parents around 9am in the morning. My mom, sister and niece Emily left around 11am. On the way there, we stopped for some wonderful Swiss Chalet chicken. Yummy! I am so deprived from the good Canadian Swiss Chalet, so my sister suggested we get some for lunch. Great idea Pam!

There was about 12 people at the shower, mostly family and some friends. We played fun games and people guessed what they think the babe will be, when it is going to be born, and the weight. That sheet is on my fridge right now so we will have to see who the winner is. There was more yummy food with lasagna and salads and of course ice cream cake for dessert with some fruit. It was a great afternoon. Thanks for all the hard work preparing the shower Auntie Sue and Lorraine, and thanks to everyone for their generosity.
Here are some photos from the shower:

Me opening up some gifts:

Posing by the "Diaper Cake". A cake made of diapers, made by Lorraine and Sue. The diaper cake up close. It was full of treats, baby bath products, baby grooming products, toys, and of course diapers. The people at the shower. Back: Mary Waters, Martha, Granny England, Christine Waters, Emily Young, Krista Cordell, Me, Pam Young. Back: Joy Shook, Lorraine Hewlett, Sue PooltonThe Ice cream cake.My family. My niece Emily, me, my sister Pam, and my mom.
Ryan and I headed home the next morning and enjoyed some of the sunshine by doing a bit of yard work outside. I had seemed to have caught a pretty good cold and was suffering from the sneezing, running nose, coughing, general cold issues. The next morning, Monday morning, I had to work - but it was class to get re certified for basic life saving and advanced life saving, so at least I wouldn't be on my feet for 12 hours. After class I went to labor and delivery for my Monday Non Stress Test (NST), and the nurse came in shortly after hooking me up and said to me; "Do you realize that you are having quite a few contractions?" Now, I had been feeling the baby quite a bit that day, but I thought it was the babe more so then contractions. The funny thing was, during my course I was sitting beside a Labor and Delivery RN, and she turned to me at one point and said to me "Are you having contractions?", because I kept rubbing my belly. But there on the monitor, you could see plainly, and I could feel the contractions occurring every 2 to 7 minutes. Now, don't forget that I had this cold and all I wanted to do was go home and go to bed. Instead, they kept me for 2 hours to monitor me. The doctor was called and he wanted them to check to see if I was dilating with any of these contractions, and luckily I was not, so I was allowed to get home. I was told that it is common for women who have polyhydramnios, the high amount of amniotic fluid, to have early contractions and as long as I don't have any cervical changes it is not considered preterm labor, rather preterm contractions, or Braxton Hicks contractions, which are normal. I get home, still having contractions off and on, and now notice that I am bleeding from the vaginal exam. Another call to the MD, who assured me not to worry and I was told just to take it easy, which is what Ryan made me do.
On Tuesday, I decided to pull out the package from the MD's office and read what the warning signs were to preterm labor and I had almost all of the signs. I was still having contractions intermittently, so I called the MD and again was reassured that things were ok and to try drinking lots of fluids, to help stop the contractions. By the end of the day, I was feeling a lot better. My belly was not tight, the contractions had almost stopped, the bleeding had stopped and I felt better having spoke with my doctor. My doctor said that if I didn't want to go to work the next day, that he would give me the approval to stay home, but if I wanted to go in, I could go.
So, on Wednesday, I thought I might as well go to work. I felt pretty good, the Braxton Hicks were tolerable and to be expected, but my cold was still pretty bad. I had felt contractions off and on through out the morning but I wasn't counting the amount of them. At lunch time, I noticed that the bleeding had restarted and I decided I would go down to labor and delivery just to be on the safe side. I talked to the nurses and we called the doctor who wanted to put me on the monitor just for bit to make sure things were ok. Once the monitor was placed on me, it showed I was having contractions every 2 to 3 minutes. The nurses told me that I wasn't going anywhere so to call back up to my unit and tell them I wouldn't be back. The contractions continued for about 1 1/2 hours and them they decided to start an IV and give me a fluid bolus to see if that would help slow them down. The fluid worked wonders and slowed them down to approximately every 10 minutes or so. The doctor came and saw me around 6:45 and told me that I couldn't work until seen again on Tuesday (tomorrow), and they scheduled an extra NST for Friday, and let me go home.
My NST on Friday and today were both fine, only about 3 contractions in he 40 minutes that I was there. I should mention that the babe is looking great through all this as well.
Tomorrow I go for an ultrasound, I am excited to see how big the babe is, and I will get to talk to the doctor and see what he wants to do about me going back to work. I hope that he lets me go back to work, I don't want to be on bedrest. He may put me on 8 hour shifts though, which would be fine with me.

On Friday, Ryan's work threw him and 2 of this pregnant colleagues a surprise baby shower. Again, we were showered with beautiful gifts and we were very appreciative of their generosity. It looks like Ryan had a great time, and here are some photos from his shower.


Now, today is exactly a month before the babe is scheduled to arrive. I haven't a clue when the babe will come. I hope it can wait until the end of this week at least, especially since Ryan is going to Chicago on Wednesday for work. It would be just my luck that the babe decides to come on the day he is out of state. With all this preterm contraction drama was going on last week, I became quite nervous about the fact that we didn't have anything organized for the babe. This weekend we worked on getting ready for the babe, all the clothes are washed, all the bed sheets/linens are washed, we cleaned up the bathroom and made room for the babe's bath supplies, we put the car seat in the car, and started to pack the hospital bags. I am feeling much better now that we have started to get ready. Here are some photos of the babe's room, just waiting for the babe to show up.

The babe's crib with the saying "Dream Sweet Baby Dreams" above it.

The Babe's change table, the baskets loaded with clean clothes for easy access. The clock that Lorraine made for the babe's room.All ready for a bath.