Showered with love!

I just wanted to take a minute and thank all of my great friends and family that showered me and Ruby with love. During the month of May, I have had people throwing showers for me and Ruby. It started with Will's mom, aunts and Grandma. Then I had my great friends Audrey and Kira throw me one. Next was the 1st grade team at my school and that one was a complete surprise!!! Then Sariah threw me one for our ward. Next, one of my dance classes threw me a surprise shower at the end of class. Last my sweet sisters, all 5 of them, and my mom threw me one yesterday. Ruby got tons of great things and she will definitely be the best dressed little girl! Thank you so much. We are glad that you are in our lives and we can't wait till Ruby gets to meet all of you!!!

3 Weeks to Go!

So I went to the doctor's yesterday and everything looks the same. He said that I am still 80% effaced and dilated to a 2. I am still having contractions but they have slowed down to about 8-10 minutes apart. So now we are just playing Ruby's waiting game. He said that she could come tomorrow or wait a few weeks. It's all up to her! Let's hope she wants to come soon!!!
I went back to work today and we only have 2 days left!!! I am planning on teaching summer school next week, unless I am having a baby. I figure why not make a little extra money instead of sitting around. We have our dance festival tomorrow and then a lot of my students get checked out right after. Last year I only had 6 kids stay out of my 26 kids. On Friday, the kids only come from 8:45-10:15 and then the teachers have a luncheon. I can't believe how fast this year has gone.

Nothing is stopping these contractions!!!

I have now officially been having contractions since Wednesday morning! I started having consistent contractions on Wednesday morning and by lunchtime they were 3-4 minutes apart but they didn't really hurt. So around 2 I called my doctor and he said to go to labor and delivery to get checked. So we went to the hospital thinking it might be time for Ruby to come.
They checked me and told me I was 70% effaced and dilated to a 1, maybe a 2. Well a few days earlier, when I saw my doctor I was only 25% effaced and not dilated at all. So I had made some progress since then. While at the hospital, my contractions went to 1-3 minutes apart. They called Dr. Merrill to see what they wanted to do, because going by my 1st due date I was 38 1/2 weeks along but going by my second due date (June 17th) I was only 36 weeks along. My Dr. wanted them to give me the shot to stop the contractions to see if we could give Ruby a few more days to cook! So they sent me home but my contractions continued to come about every 4 minutes and they never stopped like they wanted them too. They told me to come back when they were about 2-3 minutes apart and a little uncomfortable, because they weren't really hurting me when they were 1-2 minutes apart in the hospital.
So today I woke up and they started out being only 2-3 minutes apart. By about 9 o'clock this morning they were 1-2 minutes when I was walking around and they were more uncomfortable but I could still talk fine through them. So we went to the hospital again and they checked me. I was now 80% effaced and I hadn't dilated any more. But my contractions were now 1-2 minutes apart and the last shot they gave me did nothing to them, when they should have stopped them. So my Dr. had them give me a shot of morphine to see if we could get my uterus to stop contracting. They also told me I had to stay down all weekend until Monday. If I wasn't having any contractions, I could go to work on Tuesday and then go to my doctor on Wednesday because that would put me to 37 weeks and then it wouldn't be considered a preterm birth. Well since I have a great principal, she has already gotten me a sub for all of next week and she told me to stay down.
I have been out all day, because of the morphine, but the contractions haven't stopped yet. They have slowed down, but it should have stopped it. So now we just have to wait until they are really painful or my water breaks. I guess we'll see what happens in the next few days. I wish my body would respond to the things they're doing. Especially since they won't let me have her until Wednesday. So I guess we'll see what Ruby has in mind!!!

New Baby Picture

Here is the most recent picture that Will took for me. I will be 35 weeks tomorrow, so only 5 more to go. We are getting really excited and I feel like we might finally be ready. There are a few more things that I would like to get done, but if she was to come now we would be okay! There is only 2 1/2 weeks of school left. My students keep asking me when "our" baby is coming. They are kind of sad that she won't be here until they are in 2nd grade. I don't think they realize that this baby isn't "ours", but I have been pregnant all of the school year! I go to the doctor on Friday and I will have more news then.

Poor Abe

Yesterday Abe had to go in for surgery. Ever since he was a puppy he has had a little bald spot on his head. We had it tested by a vet when he was a puppy and they kept saying that it was nothing. Well at that point it was smaller than a dime. It has just kept growing and getting bigger. When I took him to the vet in December, the vet told us it was just a bacteria that was deep in his skin. They took a sample and found that it wasn't cancerous, so we didn't worry as much. So he gave us antibiotics and it was supposed to stop it from growing anymore. It didn't!!! I asked the vet how much it would cost to take it off and he quoted me $1,000. No way was I paying that amount.

This was last summer and it was so little!

About a month ago, it started to get really dry and bleed. So we took him up to a vet in Layton that was friends with Will's mom. He knew what it was right away! It was a cyst and it would just continue to grow and take over his head. By this point it was about the size of a 1/2 dollar, maybe a little bigger. Well this doctor said that he could remove it for about $350. That was a doable amount! So he went in yesterday and had it removed and we also had him fixed.
The vet called me when he was out of surgery and told me that it was a lot deeper than he thought and that he had to cut some tissue. The vet had to put in 12 staples and some stitches to keep it shut. He also had to reconstruct part of his head to make it look normal when it heals. He has to keep the staples in for 21 days. If we would have known how serious the cyst surgery would have been, we wouldn't have had him fixed on the same day. I felt horrible yesterday when I saw him. It looks even worst because they had to shave his head.
It is so dry and he tries to itch it with his foot all the time, so we knew that one of us had to stay home from work to make sure that he didn't hurt himself. So, lucky me! I made sub plans and I got to have a day of rest. He also makes the back bleed whenever he shakes his head because his ears hit that spot. Hopefully he will heal okay and he won't get an infection. He is on antibiotics and pain killers. The thing that makes me the angriest, is that if we would have taken him to a vet who actually knew what he was doing, we could have had it removed when he was a puppy and avoided this whole 12 staples mess!!!

Here's after the surgery! How horrible
He just looks miserable!

Baby Ruby Update

I went to the doctor again today and everything is still looking good! I am now 33 1/2 weeks!!! Her heart rate was good and I am again measuring 1/2 a centimeter big. I have now gained 24 pounds and the doctor is happy with my weight gain (at least some one is!). The only problem is that Ruby has not turned at all yet. They say at this point that the baby will start to turn to prepare to come down, but Ruby is completely turned sideways. My doctor said that we will continue to watch and if she hasn't turned by about week 37 or 38, then we will start to worry and we will try to force her to turn!
I have my first shower tomorrow and Will's family is throwing it. I am really excited because this means that Ruby is coming soon and it also makes me anxious because Ruby IS coming so soon! We have painted the room pink and brown and now Will is going to go back and do brown stripes on part of the pink wall. It is going to be so cute and we are 2/3 of the way done! We are slowly getting ready for her to come. I have loved being pregnant but I sure am glad that there is an end in sight.