16 months and 24 weeks!

Ok, so yes, baby Noah is on his way. The delay comes from not only being very busy with the move into the new house but also with the me having complete placenta previa. Since 1 bleeding episode, I am now on bed rest and taking little exhales each day and week that passes. Grow Noah grow!

Matt has been super dad and husband. To borrow, my friend's phrase: " the best husband in the WORLD"! I won't get too crazy (oh, yes I will) but he is on me like a hawk when it comes to my activity. At least once a day I hear his, "honey.. what are you dooo-ing", when I get up and start roaming. He makes sure I have water by my side 24/7, am fed, entertained, the house maintained and oh, did I mention he takes care of Olivia all day? Ok enough about his wonderfulness. See pic's.

At first I was down a bit with all the changes and restriction. I said to Matt early on, " I feel like I am not doing my job as a mom!" He, so Mr Miagi like, says, "Oh yes you are, your job has just changed." He has a way of saying certain things that are so simple, yet totally transform my perspective. So let my new job begin! Taking care of me and Noah and keeping us safe and healthy. check! Project Noah has begun and I am taking my job seriously.

Friends have been wonderful about keeping in touch and offering help. Visits and chats with them are so nice! Rachel and Mom have been so generous in driving to help Olivia and I when Matt is gone and taking care of us so well. I have done some crafting, work from home on the laptop, writing, studying, reading, getting ideas for Noah's nursery, writing cards...Things I love doing but don't generally have the time. SO far I have not gone bananas and am feeling surprisingly relaxed. I know, it is still early.

Olivia:
Olivia has turned into a real little woman. She is running, interacting with her stuffed animals, feeding them, she talks non stop in toddler babble, uses her words and signs all day, walks down the stairs, plays hide and seek, kicks a ball, stacks blocks, uses an iphone... Well, she does. She loves watching herself in the videos I take of her. Especially the ones where I am asking her to sign. She follows along with herself in the video with a big smirk.
Last month she weighed in at 22 lbs and 31.5 inches. Long and lean, like her daddy.
She is staying super healthy so far with surprisingly and thankfully, no colds yet.
She waves and says "bye bye" all the time, even at naps and bed time, and blows kisses. I love when she does it at the Kingdom Hall to her friends when she sees them. It is the sweetest thing.
She still loves her books and points to things and identifies most objects in the books when we ask her where they are, and say's and signs "more, more, please" to read again. But then she does that with almost everything these days.

In September, we went on a wonderful trip to a lake house in Pine Mt Lake in Groveland. We all loved spending time with the family and relaxing. We are calling that the baby-moon and anniversary trip since I am not going anywhere soon. I was so thankful for the relaxing get away before the bed rest.

Over all, life just keeps getting better with Olivia and with Noah on the way, we look forward to another bundle of love running around.

Lunchtime for teddy.

Did I mention, Olivia drives boats too?

Running off with a huge piece of chicken.."What!?"...

Signing "again" to daddy.

kisses

Family photo.

Great Grandma Beulah and Olivia

Playing peek a boo-hide and seek and signing bird.

A rainy day at home cooking. Matt whipped up home made turkey sweet potato meatballs, berry smoothies and gluten free pumpkin bread for Olivia. Pasta dinner for the big kids and chocolate chip pumpkin bread. yumm!

Breakfast for mama.

100 day count down on the Noah chain.

The project

I am 22 weeks pregnant with my baby boy and have been diagnosed with complete placenta previa.
At 19 weeks, I had a small amount of spotting so went to the Dr immediately. The ultrasound revealed the previa. This Dr was somewhat positive about most previa conditions moving up and not being an issue. We were told to take it easy and have cervical rest. We also got to leave the appt with good news, that we are having a baby boy! We were mostly excited and not too worried at this point.
At 20 weeks, we had our u/s and Dr visit. Again they confirmed the complete previa and was given more details about risks and more restrictions on lifting ( nothing over 20lbs) and activity. Limiting my exercise to walking, needing to stay hydrated and limit stress and fatigue. And still pelvic rest. We know what that means. These Dr's also stressed the seriousness of the condition as one of Jehovah's Witnesses. Since the probability of bleeding is high with the risk for hemmorage and premature delivery. All with no blood of course. We left comprehending and absorbing the seriousness of the condition and precautions we needed to immediately take.
We went out immediately and purchased step stools to avoid lifting Olivia and I stuck to only walking for exercise. Hour long walks however.

We were all adjusting and implementing the changes. I was still working and taking care of Olivia as usual some days alone while Matt was gone on his 24 hr shift. At 21 weeks, after a long, active day with Olivia and Matt at work I was woken up to bleeding at 12:30 at night. I went to the bathroom and the bleeding continued flowing out, but then stopped. I called Matt immediately and we decided that we would got to the Dr first thing in the morning. I felt fine, except for my mental state being quite alarmed. Lot's of scary dreams later, I woke up and called the Dr's office and got in that day. The ultrasound revealed Noah doing well and the placenta intact. No separation of the placenta. So that was good news. We were again calmly but seriously explained what could happen in my case and being a witness brought even greater risk to me with the inevitable bleeding. We decided that we would take all precaution we could. We decided I would stop working immediately and be on very restricted activity at home. Mostly sitting and resting.

Since then we have worked to recruit a care crew and have my mom and sister coming over from an hour and a half away to stay with me when Matt is gone. I am so thankful for them. Friends have been more than wonderful in offering other assistance and meal preparation and drop off and other around the house help as I need it. Just knowing that I have so many people to count on is a huge relief to Matt and I. For Matt knowing that I have my "special" food and someone with me to make sure I am not active, and to take care of Olivia is a huge comfort to him while he is away.


Keep cooking baby Noah! We love you..