My babies left me! :(

My mom and sister just left with our kids. It was very bittersweet. I was so sad to see them go, but a whole week without kids..... THINK about the possibilities! ;)

It's so nice that my mom took them for a visit, even though it wasn't required. It had been the plan when I was laid up, but I got off bedrest yesterday! (Happy dance!) so they didn't have to go, but she didn't want to disappoint them since they were looking forward to it so much. We had didn't get to have our long summer visit and the kids were missing all of their "Oklahoma family" . I'm glad they get to spend some time with them. It'll be best for me too - even though I'M OFF BEDREST NOW! (more happy dance) - that I can still take it easy for awhile. Everything looked great again with the baby and my cervix (hooray) and the ultrasound was perfect, so my Dr felt comfortable letting me up. I'm so excited about that. Thank you Lord for answered prayers!

Some pictures of the kids before they left. The last ones for a few days... :)


Angel had such a great time helping out with Conlan. She loved snuggling him.

Taylor and Chandler were a little upset about leaving, which surprised me. They were so excited about going. I think it must have sunk in right at the last minute how much they'd miss us and just how long a week really is. :) Brayden on the other hand couldn't wait to leave. He kept waving and saying "Bye Mommy, shut the door!" :)

The hoodie bunch

All loaded up, ready to go.

It's the weirdest feeling to load up your kids and send them off over 300 miles away. I'm so glad my friend Carly called right after they left or I think I would have been a basket case for a good hour or so. Now the emotion has passed and I'm distracted, so we're good.... until tonight when I can't tuck them in..... boy, it's going to be a hard week! :(

Bad fall

Yesterday Chandler crashed on his bike coming back from the neighbor's house with Taylor and Angel. He was getting so fast and fearless - I was afraid it was only a matter of time before he wiped out.
His face took the worst beating. :( Poor guy.

We cheered him up with the royal treatment of dinner (of his choice - pb&j) and chocolate pie on the couch. :)


His eye is pretty swollen today and there are definite signs of a black eye too. :)

Say it ain't so!!

This bedrest thing has gotten so old SO quickly. I know it's for the health of the baby and the best thing for both of us, so I'm enduring. It's been an enormous blessing to have mom here. She's been so amazing - I feel guilty sometimes, it's been hard to "let go" and just allow her to help me. I don't know what I'd have done without her.

On the upside, the time I've been able to spend one on one with each of the kids has been so nice. I also have had much more time to spend in the Word - what a refreshing thing! So, it hasn't been all bad.

On Wed I went for my weekly appt. It went very well. Everything looked great and the baby is doing wonderfully. My latest test was also negative - the second one since my hospital stay - which is great news. My dr and I had talked about if the test was negative that I would possibly get off bedrest(!!) so when I heard the results on Thursday, I spend the rest of the day out of bed and most of today running errands.... BY MYSELF! thinking I was off bedrest! I was beside myself with excitement. I even got to take the kids this morning to the fire station field trip! THEN I talked again to my dr and she wants me to stay down until Tues, when I have my sonogram for them to get a better look at the state of my uterus. (Lovely I know!) So you can imagine what a huge blow it was to me! I was just crushed. It was so hard to get back on the couch. I didn't at first - Mom finally called Tom and said he'd have to take my keys away because I wouldn't lie down. :) I did though and a good thing probably. I had lots of contractions this evening. :-P

On top of that roller coaster of emotions and drama, we had an ER run to top it all off! The tooth that has been bothering me for about a week decided at precisely 5 oclock Friday evening to start hurting so badly, I was curled in the fetal position praying for a migraine instead of a toothache. We ended up in the ER just to get some sort of relief to get me by until Monday. Oh what a day.

We have a whirlwind weekend ahead of us, Tomorrow: soccer tournament for Taylor, games at 10, 2 and 5; friends coming to stay the night at 6 or so; ladies night out at Aimee's at 6; and Sunday: church and a potluck here at our house! Whew. I'm tired just thinking of it. And I'm still on bedrest. Whoopee. ;)

Fire station field trip

Fry family visit

Roughly half of my family has been here since Sunday evening. It's been so wonderful! My mom barely lets me move an inch from the couch (exactly what I need since I start contracting anytime I move practically), serving me hand and foot, and taking care of the house! I feel like I'm 8 again and sick, being babied by my mom. :) Though this treatment I'm getting now is a step up from when I was a kid. Mom never was the coddling type. I totally get that from her (and my dad- double dose!) much to my kids' chagrin. hehe

My dad and 5 of my siblings - Jonah 14, Hosanna 12, Angel 7, Sophia 6, and Mirah 4 - came with my mom and all but Mom and Angel left today. We were sad to see them go. Chandler begged to be taken "home" to Oklahoma. He is quite certain he wants to live there and would not miss Mommy and Daddy. I begged to differ. lol And even if he didn't miss us, we'd miss his sweet face too terribly much. Taylor is as pleased as punch that Angel gets to stay so it wasn't hard for her to say goodbye to the others. She and Angel are great friends. Taylor introduced her as her Aunt to a lady from CHEC who brought dinner. It was so funny. True, but still funny to hear them refer to each other that way.

I have a praise! I have a laptop now! Actually I did mention it, but thanks to Connie and Praise to God for laying it on her heart to be so generous. :) I forgot about pictures having to be loaded to our pc, though just loading pictures to the blog and then typing the text later from the couch is huge.

My mom came with us to ELO today. Everyone was asking why in the world I was there. :) With mom helping load kids and carry bags, it's not bad and everyone at ELO is being so understanding. They let me just sit the whole day.... which is harder for me than anyone I think. I walked a bit just to get to different classrooms so I could sit in on the kids' classes. That was really fun. Watching the Botany class helped me get a better feel for what I should be focusing on in that at home. Knowing exactly what the teachers are saying in all the subjects helps me to be able to ask pointed questions and re-enforce what she learned. It was nice also to be able to get out and see all my CHEC friends. The four walls of this living room make me antsy! But I can really tell a difference when I go out and I'm up -- I contract and get very achy down there. It's so frustrating. I had to run some errands yesterday with mom and we ended up being gone longer than planned. Then being out today really did me in. I'll definitely have to limit my outings to JUST elo and church... well and the dr of course. I'm going in every week to be checked out now. Such is life when you take the unexpected leap from a very uneventful pregnancy to high risk! Ugh.

Let's see what else.... Oh more praises to God... we sold the Nissan that has sat in our driveway for the past two years!! :) And it comes just in time for CHRISTMAS, so no stressing about where that money is coming from! Imagine this! -- I get to sit here and peacefully do all of my shopping online, while my wonderful mom cleans the house and great, great friends bring over dinner!! What a life!! I need to be on bedrest more often. lol.... Yeah RIGHT!!

I guess that's about it. I go back to the dr tomorrow. I did mention the test last week came back negative? I can't remember. So that's why I'm being able to go out a little - IF I sit wherever I go. Though like I said I can tell it's doing my body no favors so I do stay down 97% of the time. Have to keep this baby healthy and IN my belly. :)

More soccer pictures

Updates coming soon -- I have a laptop now, just no way to connect to the net as of yet. :)

Chandler's game

A few shots from last week's game that I never got to post. It's hard to get good pictures at the indoor place. He had two game this week but I didn't get to go to either, Taylor's game totally did me in today.

*bedrest update* The test did come back on Friday negative, meaning my chances are much lower of having the baby within the next two weeks as long as I stay down. It doesn't change a whole lot as far as the bedrest goes, which is really stinky. I can go out a bit as long as I sit everywhere I go and don't overdo the outings.

I went to Taylor's game and that brought on some contractions and totally wore me out, so I just had to hear about Chandler's games from him later. He's doing so well. Both of the kids are improving a lot. Taylor's playing forward now, which I never thought would be possible because she tends to be so timid.

Well that's all for now - my 5 min at the pc are up. :)

Crazy scary weekend

I'll post more details later on -- here's a letter I just sent out to catch anyone up who may not know about our weekend.

To all our dear family and friends,

Just a quick rundown for anyone who may not have been aware of what has gone on in the last few days - The gist of it is, we've been in the hospital since Sunday (Sept 30) dealing with preterm labor at 25 weeks. It's not exactly as bad as it sounds, but still pretty scary, nonetheless. God is Mighty and the drs were able to get the contractions stopped. (call me if you want the long version. lol) The baby is doing GREAT, there was never a question of that, just the part about wanting him to stay put!! Yes, I said HIM! We found out during all of this that we are definitely having another little boy. Chandler is very excited. Taylor was expecting this and is dealing with it well. :)

Now I am home and resting. (How wonderful to be back in my own home, I missed my family so much!) I am on complete bedrest until further notice, possibly the rest of my pregnancy. We are praying that is not the case. I will see my Dr. on Thursday to repeat a test that will determine whether or not I have to stay completely down or if I can be on modified bedrest. My mom will be here this weekend to help me (Thanks Mom!). I feel so relived knowing she'll be here. The kids are pretty excited about an extended visit with Grammy! Tom is being a phenomenal support - loving and caring for me while I was at the hospital, while also managing things at home, even keeping the house clean AND doing school in the evenings after work! He's doing such a great job.

We have been very humbled and overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and serving from our friends!! It is an awesome thing to see the body of Christ at work, quite literally being God's hands and feet as He cares for my family during this time that I physically cannot. We are truly blessed to have such dear friends and family. Thank you all so much for all the cards, visits, calls and prayers. Knowing that we had an army of prayer warriors behind us this weekend kept our spirits strong.

A special thanks to anyone helping out with our children until my mom gets here while Tom has to work!! And anyone providing meals. The list goes on and on. Stephanie Forringer is setting up childcare and meals for us, she also kept the kids all day Sunday when we didn't know what was going on (a very scary day) PLUS she cleaned my house and did my laundry!! What a great friend. Thanks, Steff. You're so good at seeing needs and meeting them without being asked. I love you!

God is just showing Himself so sufficient and merciful during this time-- He stopped the contractions, kept the baby very healthy and IN my womb!, and He has provided for all of our needs through help from our friends and family. As hard as bedrest was for me to hear, I know this is happening for a reason. I've told many friends that perhaps God just wanted to kick me on my butt for awhile to force me to slow down enough to commune with Him in a way that I had been too busy for previously. And also to PROVE to me that it is only through HIS power and strength, not my own, that my home and family are cared for. That is something a dear friend has been trying to get through my thick skull for weeks as I'd be overwhelmed by my lack of performance in caring for my family. I think God just took over for her and decided to teach me the hard way. :) He has a plan and a purpose. We will trust Him!

Again, thank you all from the bottom of my heart. We love you all.

Tom, Adriana and family
adrianareagh@yahoo.com
tomreagh@gmail. com