Dreaming of...

...a healthy baby and a cheeseburger :)

I am still on my jello, clear liquids, and broth diet. Man am I hungry! My stomach has been growling at me all day. I am already dreaming of what food I am going to request as soon as I get to eat again. I am also thankful I know two excellent dentists because I don't think I have ever had more sodas, jello, and Italian ices in such a short amount of time. I can feel my cavities at work :) I have been trying to get every calorie I can out of my "liquid" choices.

Well, we are still waiting...they declared me stable enough to get an ultrasound a few hours ago. The specialist downstairs gave our baby a grade of C vs A for two main reasons. The heart, weight, etc. looked looked as it should, but the water surrounding it was very low and the baby did not practice its breathing for the 30 minutes we were having the ultrasound done. We told them that the baby had hiccups twice last night so we know the diaphragm is working. Their hope was it was asleep and resting. They wanted me hooked back up to the monitors as soon as I got upstairs and we are still waiting to hear from our doctor on their opinions. The babies heart is still beating happily away right beside me so that is very comforting.

We still haven't gotten more than a few minutes cat nap. Every time I settle in to fall asleep I get a contraction and every time Craig gets settled in they seem to come in to check on everything.

I thought I would post a picture of my view of Craig from my bed. He has a very fancy "pleather" or plastic leather recliner to hang out in.


I will post more when we hear from the doctor as long as we are in the "hurry up and wait" pattern...

Thanks for the continued love and support. Baby Hardin needs all it can get!

On the move again...

Well, I am beginning to wonder if this is my baby (even though I have carried it for 33 weeks). 1) This baby does not appear to be a planner or like to follow the plan 2) This baby likes to party at night (not at all like its mother!).

About 1 am this morning I felt a bunch of fluid, which in turn started contractions. They were about 10 minutes apart and stronger than the ones I had been feeling earlier. They monitored until about 4 am and decided to move us back down to labor and delivery. We are now in our 3rd room since Sunday at 1 am when we arrived.

I am back to monitoring the heart rate and contractions constantly, checking vitals and temperature every two hours, and a liquid diet. They are still hopeful to slow this as long as possible. To help in that I am limited to bed full time still.

I am sure it goes without saying that we are pretty tired from another night of no sleep. Craig thinks he got maybe an hour and I probably got about two 10 minute naps.

Here is a new picture of our room.


One tired mom...


Keep praying and hoping this little one decides to hang out with mom a little longer...but, on a positive note...we made it to our first benchmark!

A new room...

Well, as I type this the baby has hiccups and it is so comforting to feel it in its "normal" movements etc.

We have changed rooms! The doctor stopped by about an hour ago and said since everything is so stable he wanted to move us to a more long term room in the hopes this baby will stay in for awhile. The new room will have a more comfortable bed and I will not have to be hooked up to so many machines.

Here is a picture of our first "home away from home"


Here is a picture of our new room



Here are the benchmarks we are trying to hit:
* 48 hours from when the water broke and our two sets of steroids (for the babies lungs)- 9:00 am Tuesday June 16
* 72 hours from when water broke, decrease in chance of onset of labor and greater chances of stabilization- 1:00 am Wednesday June 17
* 34 weeks pregnancy, increased chances of lung development- Friday June 19
* Keep baby in as long as possible and as long as there is no concerns of infection or stress to the baby

Still a waiting game... thanks for all the calls, emails, prayers, thoughts etc. This baby is well loved and we appreciate it!!

Very tred mom and dad...

This picture was taken right before bedtime last night...

Well, we kind of slept through the night. I started with Benedryl (which was not successful) and then had to move onto sleeping medicine. It took awhile, but I did get a few hours of sleep. Unfortunately, now I have that drunk hung over medicine feel. For those of you who know me well... I have a hard enough sleep routine at home and always have trouble sleeping in new places. Being in a new place, attached to machines that make noises, and getting poked at every 2 hours doesn't leave much room for beauty sleep!

We are in a huge room so Craig was actually lucky enough to get a cot to sleep on. He said "not having "fat girl" roll over all night actually helped him get pretty good sleep- all things considering." Don't worry... I lovingly call myself "fat girl."



Here is a picture of our excitement. We are confined to bed and relaxing. Check out my awesome calick hair. I am hoping to get unhooked from machines for a quick shower...we will see...

Still waiting...

Not much has changed... I think I am starting to feel the contractions more, but would not describe them as "hurting" yet. I think I am just becoming more aware of them. They are still letting me eat so I had a light lunch and dinner. This makes me very happy because I was getting hungry! We will keep everyone posted here. We are hoping for some sleep tonight. Hopefully better luck then we have had so far on some shut eye. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers. Every hour baby Hardin stays in the better!

We also met with the pediatrician in the NICU. She answered a bunch of our questions. It looks like baby Hardin will definitely be in there for 2-3 weeks at a minimum because of how early it is. There are still a lot of unknowns because we don't know how the baby will react outside the womb. Craig and I are trying to wrap our heads and hearts around the fact of leaving the hospital without our little one...

In the hospital...

Craig and I have begun the hurry up and wait process....

Last night we went over to our friends Anna and AW's house and they fed us a feast! We had yummy ribs, veggies from the garden, and a Paula Dean's pound cake. Baby Hardin gave some really good kicks for them to see my whole belly move.

Little did we know I would be awake at 1:00 am trying to figure out what was going on. About 2:30 I was pretty sure it was my water that had broken. I was not having any contractions (that I could feel). Craig, although he was very tired, snapped right into action and helped call my doctor. She wanted us to go ahead and head into the hospital. When we got here they confirmed it was my water that had broken. The doctor decided that we were not going to speed it up or slow it down. So... here we sit and wait...

The estimated weight based on the ultrasound is 4.5 lbs and the baby is head down as of right now. Contractions are happening, but very light. When we arrived they were steady every 4 minutes. Now, they are happening every 2-10 minutes.

The pediatrician is supposed to be coming down soon to talk about what will happen to the baby after birth because it is early.

We will keep everyone posted. Right now we are just trying to get some rest, which is nearly impossible with people coming in and out of the room and being hooked up to all kinds of machines.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We will be in touch soon! Place your bets on the gender!

Nursery Updates...

We hung the pictures tonight. Now we just have finishing touches to go on the nursery. Here is a quick video and pictures showing it.