27 Weeks & all of life's blessings

27 Weeks

How far along: 27 Weeks

Gender: Boy

Weight gain: Brady weighs right around 1.5 pounds. As for me, I am up 9 pounds which puts my weight at 128.

Maternity clothes: I bought my first pair of maternity work trousers from Old Navy. OH MY GAH! I love having elastic versus buttons and zippers.

Stretch marks: Nope, thank you Palmer's.

Belly button in or out: Still in!

Sleep: Much better than last week. Definitely needed the extra rest, but I am loving the daylights savings time. A couple extra hours of daylight is so nice.

Miss anything: Nope

Movement: I did go a few days with no movement. I was somewhat worried, but thankfully after my monitoring at the hospital (see below) I was reassured that Brady is most definitely active and healthy.

Cravings: Nothing in particular. I am eating mostly cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries, and apples. I am working on pulling in some more protein into my diet. However, meats aren't the most appealing.

Queasy or sick: NOPE!

Looking forward to: The weekend. I am hoping to finish up some of the decorating in Brady's nursery and begin planning the transformation from formal dining room to sunroom/playroom. More to come on that decorating venture very soon.

Worst & Best moment this week:

I wanted to put these two together this week.  As many of you know I was in a minor car accident yesterday morning.  Nothing serious, but being pregnant always makes the "minors" in life seem major. My commute to work is primarily 75% country backroads.  [Yes, I work in Gastonia.]

As I rounded one of the narrow curbs I hit a slick spot and fishtailed.  Due to the 45 MPH I was driving and the mix of gravel and wetness my overcorrection was a huge mistake. It caused me to spin twice and land in the ditch opposite of the direction I had been driving.  After a mini screaming meltdown by myself in the car I found my phone and called Brian. Being the amazing husband he is, he calmed me down and helped me assess myself.  I had no injuries, no pain, and the car seemed to still be able to drive. The worst damage at that point was the hideous mascara that was running down my face. Ummm... if you know me I am one of those ugly criers, so this was a pretty horrendous sight.

Brian had already left the house at this point and was at the scene within a few minutes. We looked at the car and decided we could drive it home and contact the insurance company from there.  On the way I called the doctor's office and they suggested I head to my hospital's birthing care unit to be monitored for a bit. In the meantime my fifth grade team shot into action.  DD (my mentor) subbed for my class, got lesson plans together, and found an additional sub for the rest of the day. Amy and Patti also were texting and calling to make sure I was okay.  I felt so loved and had such a sense of peace about being out.  If you are teacher you know the feeling of not having prepared for a sub at such short notice. (That  sub crate only gets you so far.)

As it would seem the worst was over... not even close. We got the car home and waited to set up a time for the collision agent to assess the car, which wouldn't be until the next day. So off we went in our SUV to uptown towards the hospital.  About five minutes down the road Brian noticed the temperature gauge shot up.  He thought maybe it was low on anti-freeze.  We stopped and re-filled the radiator; unfortunately, within a few miles we back to an empty radiator.  There was no way we were making it to the hospital in this car.  Again, small mini panic attack on my end.  Brian remained calm as a cucumber and so we began what seemed like an endless journey to the mechanic's.  Stop. Refill the radiator. Drive a few miles. Pull over. Repeat. Finally, we made it to the repair shop.

At this point we were out both of our cars and I still needed to get all the way to uptown to the hospital.  Amazingly, we were able to reach our friends who were vacationing in Hawaii.  They, without thinking twice, offered us their car until they returned. Again, we were shown tremendous support without any questions asked. As we arrived at the hospital we were prepared to wait the usual two hours to be seen and then another hour for the doctor. However, we were pleasantly surprised at how quickly they admitted us and how kind and loving the whole nursing staff was. We were given a "tour" of the birthing triage center that we will be using when the real deal happens.  Also, because we were there during the shift change we met many of the nurses we will be working with during L&D.  However, the best news we received was (after 4.5 hours of monitoring) Brady looked happy and healthy. We discussed on the way home how despite the long monitoring process how nice it was to spend uninterrupted time together, just our little family. We have been so busy working and staying busy with the house and baby prep that we haven't gotten much "us" time.

To sum it all up, I wanted to make this the "best & worst" part of the week because although this seemed like the day from Hell itself, Brian and I both agreed that God used this crazy day to show us so much of His goodness.  We had so many people reach out to us, offer us support, alternate transportation, meals, and prayer.  We also were able to take an average work day and spend some quality time in conversation that we unknowingly needed.  Lastly, we were thankful for His protection in my life and little Brady's.

"Give thanks to the Lord; for He is good, His mercy endureth forever." Psalm 106:1