Happenings All Around

July and Early August 2009

Panic had set in a bit at the announcement of bed rest.  Dr. Jack had said a week but I was gearing up in my head that Dr. Jack never goes backwards on this kind of thing!  I wasn't so much panicked about the bed rest (although 16 weeks seemed like a really long time) but more about the fact that I wasn't prepared to bring home a new baby.  Her nursery wasn't done.  I didn't have all the traditional baby things I thought I would need right away.

I sent my mom shopping.  It was looking unlikely that we were going to have a baby shower before Baby Bradford arrived.  She ran after the things that I was certain we needed to have at the house to be prepared for Baby Ella's arrival.  Bouncy seats, bottles, wipes, and diapers were not optional!  :)

I told Jeff it was time to paint!  It took him and Anne three trips to Lowe's to finally find the perfect color paint for Ella's walls.  Jeff got busy painting and even Connor helped.



I slightly broke the rules as I traveled around the corner to my sisters house to watch Connor and my nieces perform in the Backyard Talent Show for St. Jude.  My nieces and sisters work so hard on this and I didn't want to miss a thing.  I cried off and on for two days trying to decide whether to go or not and decided being upset about it wasn't helping matters either.  They provided me with a reclining lounge chair where I could be down with my feet up and enjoyed the show.  Connor and Hannah did a water balloon throwing gig.

After one week on bed rest, my doctor lifted his orders.  He warned that it would probably not be too much longer and the potential for me to be put back on bed rest or to spend some time in the hospital was very probable.  I promised to take it easy and see the specialist.  I used my new freedom to get the final things I needed.  The specialist put me on blood pressure meds and both doctors were very happy with how things went.  Things were looking better!  We even went ahead and set the date for the baby shower.  It was set for September 12!  (If only we had a crystal ball. :))

In the mean time we finished our summer off celebrating my mom's 18th year of running the St. Jude Memphis to Peoria run.  We were able to attend the telethon as a family and to cheer her on for her running accomplishment as well as the Backyard Talent Show crew's money raising efforts.  It was a wonderful evening!