51 days

Well we're counting down, only 4 more days until we meet this little guy! I had an untrasound this morning and my fluid levels were low, 6.3. I think the fluid levels fluctuate up and down so I'm hoping they just caught it when it dipped down. But just in case I'm taking extra care to keep my feet up, my leg wraps on, and drink lots of water today to ensure they go back up! I don't think the doctors will do anything unless it gets below 5. I hope this little guy doesn't come before Friday since Chris doesn't arrive until Thursday night.

Our plans have changed a little bit. Originally, I wanted Chris and the kids to come down when the baby was born so we could all be together as a family here. I figured we could have some time together. Talking to the doctors and nurses I quickly realized that my idea of how things would be was not very realistic. In reality I will have to spend the majority of the day in NICU pumping, doing Kangaroo care, and monitoring the baby's improvements. My kids could only come in for a few minutes a day. Chris has to work full time from OKC to continue getting paid, so someone else would be watching the kids. There wouldn't be much for them to do and it may be stressful for them to be in this environment. And we'd all have to sleep in one big room at the Ronald McDonald house to be close to the hospital (which means no one gets enough sleep!). So Chris and I have decided they may be much happier at Dean & Karen's (Chris's parents) house. My parents will be in China visiting my sister during this time. When they made all the arrangements for their trip my dad said "you better not have this baby in March". I replied "why in the world would I have this baby in March?!". So here we are, scheduled to have the baby March 30th;). My niece and nephew are so excited about Grandma and Grandpa coming to see them in China so I told them to keep their trip. Plus our kids are SO excited to go to Portland and I know they will get lots of time with their cousins, be spoiled rotten, and get to play all day (which is really all they want to do at this age). So Chris and I will be able to focus our attention on this little boy and take care of what he needs to get a good start to life! It will be hard for me to go a month without seeing the kids, but I think this will be better for everyone.

As if this bump in the road isn't enough on our plate, we've been house hunting as well the last two months. I wasn't too excited to come home and look for houses with a newborn and Chris and I already know what we are looking for since we've been researching houses and school districts since the Fall. Plus, our company provided storage expires in May, at which point we would have to pick up the hefty payment, so we wouldn't be saving money by delaying the house hunt. So Chris has been seeing houses, video taping them, and sending me the videos. We found a great one and if everything goes through, we should be closing on it at the end of April! Being at my parents house has been wonderful (a true blessing), but we are excited to settle into our own place now as a family of five!