13 December 2020

 

I feel like my whole week got derailed!  On Monday we were suppose to be hosting our 13th annual Gingerbread Family Home Evening event, but with me being on bed rest and Arlo's potential Covid exposure we made the difficult decision to cancel.  I was pretty bummed.  In the afternoon Phil took Arlo to get a Covid test so that he could return to school earlier.  In the evening Felicity had her first choir concert and Helen was going on a visit with her Young Womens leaders.  We dropped Felicity off at Cienega, then we waited outside while Helen had her visit.  They were broadcasting the choir concert live on YouTube, so we watched from the car while waiting for Helen.  The kids stood six feet apart and sang in masks and as you may imagine, it was pretty awful.  It certainly wasn't the ideal set up for singing, but we made it through to the end.  I am divided on whether I should commend the school and the teacher's dedication to making sure the kids had a performance experience, or disappointed that they had them perform under far less than ideal circumstances.  

 Phil worked at Pima on Tuesday and I had a follow up with the OB from last week's hospital visit.  Everything is looking good again and we're measuring right on target.  I have another ultrasound next Tuesday, so we'll get a better estimate of the baby's weight, the state of the baby's placenta, and start making some more definitive plans for our c-section.  I am also starting twice a week non-stress tests (NSTs) next week to keep an eye on everything while I try and carry the baby for as long as is safe.  

 My friend Abish came over on Tuesday night and brought dinner and helped me wrap Christmas gifts after Phil took the kids to church.  The girls had Young Womens activities in the evening, Helen's class was decorating gingerbread houses and Helen was able to include her friend Morgan via FaceTime who would have joined us for the FHE decorating, but couldn't this year.

 Wednesday was Arlo's 9th birthday, it was also the day when we got his Covid-19 test results back, he was negative, which I suspected seeing as he had no symptoms.  I called the school to see if I could forward them the results and have him back at school, but a district representative called me back and said that the secretary at Copper Ridge gave me incorrect information, that if Arlo wasn't wearing a mask when he encountered the sick family it didn't matter that he had a negative test, he couldn't come back to school for fourteen days.  So I guess he'll be doing online school for the remainder of the year.  We made plans to celebrate his birthday on Friday when everyone would be home.  Felicity spent the afternoon with Nana doing some Christmas shopping and the two of them had dinner together.

 Phil taught again on Thursday and in the evening started taking down the built-in desk and shelves in what will soon be the baby's room.  Once he got them down we realized that the tile backsplash had damaged the drywall, there were some electrical outlets that would need to be moved, and there was no carpet under the desk drawers; our project just got a lot bigger!  We both attended a virtual stake leadership training via zoom after dinner which was interesting.

 Phil was home on Friday and spent his morning cutting out the damaged drywall.  Helen got to go out with Nana in the afternoon to do some Christmas shopping when she was done with school, she decorated another gingerbread house with her cousin in the evening before coming home.  We got a call that the rest of our baby furniture was ready to be picked up, so in evening Phil went and got that.  

He and I took Arlo out to dinner for his birthday once we got the furniture home.  Arlo wanted to go to Red Lobster, so we drove to the only one still open in Tucson, on Oracle and River, which took us about 45 minutes.  We enjoyed our dinners and when we got home we had cake and Arlo opened his presents.

 Phil was back to work at the fire station on Saturday and the kids and I came to an agreement that we needed to get some chores done around the house.  Since I am officially on bed rest I really couldn't do much, so we rotated with each kid helping for an hour at a time while I directed and by the afternoon we had the house clean and the laundry done.  I sure hope they help me keep the house picked up, I really like it when its clean.  Our sweet friends, the Masseys brought us dinner in the evening.  I'm so grateful for all the help we are receiving.

 Phil came home in the morning and we enjoyed church together from home.  Felicity had a runny nose, so we didn't want to spread any germs.  The kids played together in the afternoon with Arlo's new building set.  He got some new Legos and a straw construction set that he and the sisters had fun playing with.  It was nice to see the kid play with actual toys!  

 Felicity made some gingerbread in the afternoon and Arlo hung out with me on the recliner watching Christmas movies.  Helen was speaking at a Priesthood and Young Women's preview event, so she and Phil went to the church around 4PM.  Just before they left, Phil noticed that Charlie had gotten himself a mouse.  I don't know how the dirty little thing got in the house, but I'm glad we've got Charlie on the prowl.  He doesn't do too bad for a claw-less, spoiled house cat! 

 Next week will see my last day of work.  Raytheon shuts down for the holiday season and we get a couple of weeks of paid vacation.  I'm using the rest of my PTO to start my holiday break early.  I'd normally go back on January 4th, but this year that's when I'll be starting my maternity leave.  I get 12 weeks of maternity leave between the company's parental leave and my short term disability benefit, but when that time is up, I'll be submitting my resignation.  What started as a necessary job turned into a ten year career and it helped me take care of my family well, but I always had hopes that I'd be able to come back home full time to take care of my family.  My sweetheart is willing to provide that for us and I am so incredibly grateful.  We've taken the time over the last nine months of our marriage to use our double income to set us up to make living on one income comfortable.  I'm so very, very excited to be a stay at home mama again!

06 December 2020

 I'm exhausted!  It was a heck of week.  Phil was hunting with his brother on Monday and the kids and I managed our schedules without too many problems.  Everyone had in person school and I had several meetings back to back throughout the day.  Felicity helped me deliver eggs in the evening and once we were done with that I was able to meet my girlfriends in town.  We had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory and enjoyed time together as always.  I'm so grateful for them.

 I'm trying to get everything ready for both baby and Christmas.  Of course, I'm still working, so its been challenging. I probably over-did it on Wednesday between working, emptying out the office to make room for baby, and cleaning because by mid-afternoon I was having contractions and some spotting.  The internet company came out in the afternoon to move the cable from the office to the kitchen where I'll be setting up my work space temporarily until the shop is finished and I have a new office/craft room.  Once the cable guy left I knew I needed to call the doctor's office and see what she wanted me to do seeing as the contractions weren't going away.  She called me back while I was on the way to pick up Helen and Arlo from the bus and wanted me to head to the hospital.  I got the kids settled, packed a quick bag, and made arrangements for my mom to pick Felicity up from the bus later in the afternoon.  I headed for the hospital and left a message for Phil who was still hunting and out of cell service.  By the time I got through admitting and hooked up to two IVs, I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes.  They weren't super painful and they weren't very productive as I wasn't actively bleeding, but seeing as I am only 32 weeks and have the placenta previa we needed to stop the contractions.  I was admitted for 24 hours where they gave me medication to aid in the baby's maturation and to stop the contractions.  It took several hours, but we got the contractions down to only one or two every hour while giving the baby steroids and magnesium to make sure his lungs would be more mature and his brain would be protected if I did have to deliver prematurely.  Phil called me in the early evening and was able to come home from hunting. The hospital allowed him to come stay with me even though their no visitor policy is in effect since there was a chance that we'd have to have our c-section early and there would not be enough time for him to get there.

The nurses took great care of us and baby Jude is doing well.  His heartbeat patterns were perfect and strong, accelerating when they should in response to contractions and recovering quickly.  He seemed pretty unaware that anything was wrong.  When my contractions and bleeding were under control I was released on Thursday evening with instructions that I would have to spend the rest of my pregnancy on bed rest and would need to come back right away if I had further bleeding or frequent contractions.  The medication I received should help safe-guard the baby from complications if he has to come in the next couple of weeks.  We're hoping I can hold out until 37 weeks, which would be delivery via c-section Monday, January 4th.  However, its possible we'll be having this baby before then, we'll just have to see how things go.  Bed rest is going to be hard for this mama!  We got home to find that my sweet friend Gretchen had brought the kids dinner so we didn't have to worry about that.  I sure am blessed.  

 Thursday evening I got a phone call from a neighbor letting me know that one of their children had tested positive for Covid-19 and that Arlo had been playing at their house early in the week.  Ugh, I really didn't need another level of complication!  Lucky for me, Phil had taken off of work through the weekend, so I had lots of help on Friday.  The kids had dentist appointments and I am happy to report that no one had any cavities!  The dentist looked at Arlo's broken tooth and was of the opinion that waiting until after he's had orthodontic work to fix the broken tooth is the best option.

  Phil and the kids finished decorating the house on Friday, hanging the rest of the lights and getting out the stockings and such.  Nana took Arlo out for his birthday in the afternoon and they had lunch out and got to buy some new clothes and toys.  He had a great time and was excited to show us his new stuff when he got home.  The elementary school called me in the afternoon informing me that our neighbor had reported their child's positive Covid test and that they had said their child had played with Arlo.  The secretary said Arlo would have to stay home from school for two weeks unless he could provide a negative Covid test after eight days.   

Phil and I took a trip to Walmart and the feed store in the evening, with me waiting in the truck since I am not supposed to be up and wandering around.  We also stopped at Home Depot and picked out our Christmas tree.  We decided to make a date of it and had dinner at Red Robin when we were done since it was just the two of us.  

 The kids helped with cleaning house on Saturday.  I tried to direct from the couch, even though that's challenging.  I very quickly realized that I'm going to have to adjust my expectations for how the house is going to run over the next few weeks.  A member of the Primary Presidency came by the house to bring Arlo an ice cream treat for his birthday in the afternoon and he was pretty excited about that.  Felicity had a birthday party to attend in the evening and was looking forward to spending time with her friends.  Helen also had a virtual get together with some of her girlfriends, they did a paint-a-long and watched a movie together.  

Phil was able to get all of the office/craft stuff out of the extra bedroom.  Now all we need to do is to remove the built in cabinets/desk and paint. I'm hoping we'll be able to finish the nursery before the baby comes; of course that's made harder with me not being able to help much. Our new stroller and car seat came in the mail and Phil was excited to take everything out of the box and set it up.  

  We enjoyed church from home on Sunday and I was able to stay down pretty well.  In fact, I didn't get up until close to nine and took a 2-3 hour nap around 2pm.  Phil started grinding his deer meat, it had been chilling in the cooler since he brought it home last weekend.  He made us fresh deer tacos for dinner which we enjoyed in front of a Christmas movie.  The kids donned their Christmas jammies in the evening and pulled out the tree ornaments.  Usually decorating the tree gives me anxiety, the kids man-handle my ornaments and make a mess of the whole situation.  I sat back on the couch and let them do their best.  They only had one of the several totes out, so the tree probably only has 1/3 of the ornaments this year, but I am happy to report that the kids were really careful and did a good job; I didn't even rearrange them after they went to bed.  I'm going to learn a lot about letting go and being humble over the next few weeks I think!