31 Weeks and Counting

As many of you know, Dale and I are preparing to take on new responsibilities as parents. We're anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first babe. As life goes, we took a little turn over the weekend. I went into labor at a little over 30 weeks. Luckily, "mommy instinct" led us into the care of great doctors and nurses. Currently, I'm admitted and on bedrest indefinitely, until Baby Sell #1 makes an appearance. I decided to create this blog to help keep loved ones posted with our progress and happenings. Plus, as you can imagine, sitting still in bed is a stark contrast to the lifestyle I'm used to. We are grateful for the friends and family who have stepped up already to offer support and encouragement; we appreciate you very much. We're learning to be humble and accept and ask for help, and we know your gestures of kindness will be immeasurable in the days to come.

Admittedly, I'm a little out of my element here in the blogging world, so I hope you'll forgive me if there are typos or if the pages are generic. (Hopefully I'll have lots of time to develop a "skill" for blogging : )

So here's the rundown:
We enjoyed a nice fourth of July weekend and had time to spend with both of our families. On Sunday, July 5th, "mommy instinct" indicated that something was wrong, so we returned to Omaha. After some investigating we realized that I was in labor and progressing. This bought me admission to Clarkson Hospital. By Sunday evening, we were able to stop contractions, but my water broke incidentally. I was administered steroids to help baby's lungs, and I was maintained on magnesium sulfate for 48 hours, to prevent contractions. The medicine made me feel awful, admittedly, and I apologize to those of you who tried to call or visit, as I know I wasn't myself.

On Wednesday, July 8th, I was weaned off the magnesium (hooray) and granted bathroom priviliges (= a shower!) Currently I'm laying low, and I promise I'm abiding by the doctor's orders! I have a little more energy than I did the first few days. My mom and sister have been insanely helpful (thanks!) with helping me out at the bedside. I remain on antibiotics as well as a medication for blood pressure and to prevent contractions. The game plan for now is to try to prevent labor and delivery until 34 weeks, which is 3 weeks from today.

Certainly, we're taking things day by day and are grateful for every hour of "incubation" that we achieve. Baby has looked great on the monitor (which monitors his/her heart rate) and I've been feeling well--no more contractions!

I'll try to make future posts a little shorter, but I wanted to catch you up to speed. Thanks to each and every one of you for your prayers, well wishes, and offers to help out in one way or another. We are insanely blessed with a wonderful support system.