Getting ready

Well, it's been a crazy few weeks around here. Specifically this last week.

First of all, check out my little man getting ready for church. Doesn't he look handsome? Don't you love pictures in my messy bedroom, on our messy unmade bed?! But he looked so handsome that day I had to take photos. A few hours later he promptly threw up all over the outfit but...hey, at least it's recorded for history.

Anyway, we had a strange bout of sickness for Colt at the beginning of the year. I think he started the stomach virus that is going around. Through all that we found out he had an ear infection (YES, less than a month after getting tubes) and the antibiotic made him even sicker. But as soon as we took him off that and dairy he was back to normal.

Then, I started to develop a headache, which turned into a lingering headache (not migraine) which prompted my body to respond in other such ways that I ended up going to the hospital to have my blood pressure checked. Blood pressure was fine, but they noticed I was having pretty strong contractions every 2 minutes. Now, I couldn't feel them but they ended up checking me to make sure and I was not dilated at all. Went home with a pain med for the headache.

Two days later, I'd been at work all day and came home where my sister was watching Colt while John was at a business dinner. Everything was fine, Colt was playing, Julia and I were eating, and then we were getting him ready for bed. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, I started having severe pains in my lower abdomen. They grew progressively worse and spread through my entire abdomen. After a few minutes I was on all fours, unable to stand, sit, or walk and crying out in pain. My poor sister...she was terrified and trying to wrangle Colt. She called my mom and John and I ended up BACK in the hospital (on my doctor's orders).

Most intense, terrifying pain I've ever experienced (well, it was on-par with the worst migraine I've ever had) but I could hardly move. To have the nurse even hook me up to the monitors was painful. What was happening is that my uterus was in one strong, constant contraction. It was as hard as a rock and not letting up for HOURS. The monitor was not showing strong contractions, because I was in ONE the whole time!

Eventually, they determined I was dehydrated. They gave me a shot of muscle relaxer to stop the contraction. Which helped some, but still left intense muscle pain. So I got a shot of Demerol (wow!) and sent home. The next morning came and I was STILL unable to walk without assistance, let alone get in and out of bed. Luckily I had a doctor appointment that day. He was pretty much unconcerned and called it severe round ligament pain. Gave me muscle relaxers and orders to stay in bed and rest. A few days later I did feel 100% better.

ALL of that to tell you the next part. We have been really dragging our feet about getting ready for Owen's arrival. We've been busy, we've been enjoying Colt, we've been getting through the holidays, we've been living in denial. But two trips to the hospital to see contractions gave us both quite a wake-up call.

I know it sounds crazy, but I've had such a hard time accepting and getting excited about this pregnancy. I'm not ungrateful, just haven't been quite so accepting of God's plans this time around. But now...well, now I'm getting excited not just because Colt is going to have a little brother to grow up with, but because we're going to have another son. I'm getting excited for OWEN because he's Owen and he's joining our family. And that's a pretty big step.

I'm still very protective of Colt, especially because he's too young to prepare for this life-changing event. I'm cherishing the alone time we have as a family, the ease in which our routine flows right now. But slowly and surely, I'm beginning to get excited for Owen to join us and mess us all up. Those same things I thought about Colt (what will you look like? what will your attitude be like? who will you become? will you sleep? will you love adventure? will you be a cuddler?) I'm now wondering about Owen.

I'm sad that it's taken me so long to get to this point, but really glad that I'm able to see what a blessing it is to be excited by God's plan and for our second son.

It has sprung us into action, we are done with the playroom and have only the nursery left to put together. A small shower is being planned for me. And I'm starting to wrap up projects at work and think about maternity leave.

We're having another baby!