23w2d (Nursery Post)

I'm still kind of reeling from what I posted about yesterday.  Please add this little guy to your prayers. :)  It makes writing happy-go-lucky, fluffy pregnancy posts seem really... heartbreaking.  I know this is a daily occurance.... Babies die or are born way too early, but it still hurts.  And it hurts so much more knowing that this family has had a hellish journey and all we wanted for them was a nice, easy route.

So, my heart is hurting, and in some ways, I need to write something happier to bring me into a good headspace.

On Thursday night, we took the kids to Holy Thursday Mass and, near the end, I started feeling uncomfortable.  By the time we got home and Peter started doing their bath, I had changed into PJs and was resting in the overstuffed nursery chair.  It dawned on me that I was having Braxton-Hicks contractions. 

I'd never had these with Bobby and Maya (or any of my other pregnancies either), so I was both surprised, excited, and terrified.  Were they really BH?  Was it something else?  I silently recounted how much water I'd drank (a lot) to make sure I wasn't dehydrated.  Had I done too much?  Was going up and down the stairs to the playroom too much?  Kneeling at church too much?  I told Peter I was going to lay down to make sure they passed (which they did).  Within half an hour, I'm timed that they were very irregular, werent painful, didnt cause any cresting (just a light tightening in the uterus), and didn't last.  Thirty minutes after laying down, they were gone.  While I still had to pee a half dozen time over the night, there was nothing else going on.  I ran Friday morning, and all seemed (and seems) fine.

But, the nursery.... There are still a few things I'm waiting for, namely the picture my dad is sketching, but, for the most part, it's done!

My nursing chair sits by the window and in front of a blanket that I made for our first baby, 13 years ago.

changing table area

changing table area

closet.... Maya helped hang up the clothes :)

crib with the painting of an elephant that my dad painted for Nicholas and Sophia way back when...

rocking chair, which was Peter's grandmother's and where Yaya rocked generations of Haytko babies :)

It's been a lovely time getting the room ready, and the kids love.hanging out in there.  They like to crawl up in the chair, grab a book, and either get snuggled and read to, or they will read it outloud (I like to think, they are reading to Michael in the womb!).

***
I have to reorder my P17.  It seems kind of nuts that I'm now on the 'refill'.  I mean, wow...  And I realized the other day that I really only have 6 prenatal appointments left (24w, 27w, 30w, 33w, 35w, 37w)  and then the delivery at 37w6d.  It seems kind of insane to think that I've done the majority of my appointments already.  Add to it, yesterday's marker of 5 years since Nicholas and Sophia had their Memorial Mass, and life seems to be moving at such a whirlwind pace.  Bobby and Maya are on the flip side of 3 and a half, moving closer to 4 years old every moment, and as Maya is always reminding me about their birthday party, I wish I could just slow down a few of these days and hold onto them.  Before I know it, the kids will be in college and it will just be Peter and I in this house.

Where is all of the time going?