The last few weeks have felt like a crazy blur. I will attempt to recap all the happenings, but I am bound to miss some things. Weekends in April were filled up with baby showers for friends, packing our stuff and getting out of the house so our realtor could hold open houses--Still no luck selling the house, by the way.
near the end of April I went with the girls from work to a "night of indulgence" at a local salon. It was lots of fun though some of the treatments left a lot to be desired for us. Basically you go to 5 different "stations", each lasting maybe 10-15 minutes: 1. facial, 2. foot massage, 3. paraffin wax and hand massage, 4. scalp massage and hair shampoo, 5. back massage. All of mine were great, except the back massage. It was just maybe a 10 minute massage in a massage chair, but the guy that did my massage had a runny nose so he was sniffling the whole time and occasionally one of his hands would break contact with my back for about 5 seconds and I can only imagine that it was so it could make contact with his snotty nose, then return to my back. It made it a
little difficult to really relax and enjoy the massage. The girls used that night as a baby shower for me as well, so holly made her delicious chocolate cake and they all chipped in and bought us our pack n' play.
woohoo!
The next week was crazy. I had a doctor's
appt on Tuesday and everything was going great. No contractions, no aches, no problems. The doctor said I was doing great---measuring right on, weight gain looked good, no other problems with
bloodwork or urine. After that Andy and I went to our closing to sign the paperwork on our new house. We officially became the proud owners of 2 homes. (this was NOT the timing I was hoping for.)
When I woke up Wednesday I was having some discomfort and I just blamed it on being pregnant and the baby getting bigger. My mom and grandma came to
OKC Wednesday night to help the next few days with painting the nursery, packing, etc. so we went to
Lowes to pick out paint. Thursday morning I woke up feeling a little better but still uncomfortable with a little bit of a backache. I called the doctors office and spoke to the nurse (Dr. was out of town). She said she thought I might have a urinary tract infection and had me come in to give her a urine specimen and gave me a
rx for antibiotics to take over the weekend. Andy and I ran some errands Thursday, bought a new refrigerator, got all our blinds cut for the new house, etc. My mom, grandma and aunt were at our new house painting the nursery (which turned out GREAT!--I will post pictures later). When we finally sat down that evening I realized that my back pain was coming and going at regular intervals (about 20 seconds at a time, every 7-8 minutes.) Since I have never been pregnant before and really have no idea what I am doing :) I just assumed I had been up and around too much and figured if I drank plenty of water and got some rest things would settle down. I did call the answering service that evening and spoke to the doctor on call who suggested drinking water, relaxing and then going to the hospital if the pain
didnt stop. It was late at that point so I showered and went to bed. I was able to fall asleep and stay asleep without any problems.
I woke up Friday morning and realized the pain in my back had gotten more intense but was still coming on every 7 minutes. I got up and used the restroom and (sorry if too much info for you) realized that I was bleeding. PANIC.....I woke
andy up and as he was getting dressed I called the doctor. Spoke to the nurse---doctor out of town, remember--and she sent me to the hospital. Got to Mercy around 9am. hooked up to monitor for fetal heartbeat and to monitor contractions. Baby's heartbeat was great, praise the Lord! I was able to relax a little at that point. I was having contractions every 6 minutes now. They checked me out and found that I was in preterm labor--I was just shy of 31 weeks at that point. I was between 70-90% effaced and between 1 and 2 cm dilated. They gave me a shot of
Terbutaline to stop the contractions and admitted me to the hospital. I stayed from Friday morning to Sunday evening. My contractions stopped Friday afternoon after taking
terbutaline orally every 6 hours and I was given 2 injections of corticosteroids to help the baby's lungs develop more quickly, in case he decided he really wanted to come early. I was discharged Sunday evening after another exam showing no change in effacement or dilation since Friday and was given orders to stay on strict
bedrest only getting up to use the restroom and to take a 5 minute shower each day.
Now, we were scheduled to move into our new house on Saturday.
Uhaul was rented and friends had been recruited to help, but our plan was basically busted since I
couldnt be involved at all and Andy wanted to be at the hospital with me to talk with the doctor. Let me just say...we have been blessed with the most AMAZING friends and family. They stepped up and moved us in without us being there. Andy was able to help out a little here and there, but my mom and grandma, Justin, Kelli, Marcus, Matt, Daniel, Dane, Bum, Kylie, Jon-Michael are life-savers and I cant even begin to tell them how grateful I am for their help!! (sorry if i forgot anyone!) We were moved in by the time I was discharged on Sunday and I was able to come home to a surprisingly organized new home. My mom hung around a few days to help cook, unpack, organize, etc which was a great help! Friends and church family have brought us great food and I have gotten lots of encouraging messages, emails, visits and phone calls as well. What have I learned through this so far?......1. God is good. He has provided. While I do not always understand His timing, He is in control and I can trust Him. If our house had already been sold and we were on a deadline to move out, this would have been a disaster. As it is, we still have some excess furniture at the old house as well as nearly all of
andy's garage stuff and his
monte carlo. It has been much easier knowing that we have some time to organize what we already have here before we have a totally evacuate the other house. 2. We are blessed with wonderful, amazing, unbelievably great friends and family. Seriously. 3. I have the greatest husband in the world. He has been strong, comforting, kind, helpful and wonderful. He basically has to make my food, clean my dishes, refill my water, let the dogs out, let the dogs in, unpack, organize the house, PLUS go to work and he has done all of this without a single negative word. I couldn't have made it through this without him.
We don't really know what to expect now. This baby could theoretically come any day now, but we are happy knowing that contractions are basically stopped at this point (still taking med to keep them controlled). We are now at 32 weeks and we know that every day we make it means a bigger, stronger and healthier baby. I see my doctor on Tuesday and we will discuss the overall plan I guess. I am most likely on bed rest until delivery, which is difficult for me, but we will do what we have to do. We can't wait to meet this little guy and for you all to meet him too, but we are hoping we wont see him for another 5-6 weeks :) We appreciate all your prayers!
I will post some pictures of the new house (
pre-furniture) this week and when I can talk
andy into taking some pictures of the house with furniture in it I will get those posted too.
This is my mom at about 6 months pregnant with me.
Family pic 1982
Baby Laura
Baby Laura being fed formula by Uncle Rick. Thanks Mom, I could have been a genius if you had breastfed.. :) 
Mike gazing lovingly at the best little sister in the whole world
Mom, Mike and baby Laura
Entry hall, looking at the front door. Hallway to nursery and guest room is the archway to the right of the front door. Coat closet on the left. Exciting stuff...
Living room. Entry hall is the arch on the left.
Looking out the windows of the living room onto the covered patio.
Looking into kitchen from living room.
Den
master bedroom. my favorite thing about this house is all the windows...big big windows! I am sure i will dislike them when it comes time to clean them all....
bathtub that i can't use until after the baby :( dr's orders.
shower
this photo doesnt do it justice. this is my 2nd favorite thing about this house. BIG master closet. lots of room for lots of shoes!
guest room. love the windows.
guest/hall/2nd bathroom
Nursery
garage
so i know that lots of these photos dont really show you anything about the room. it is hard to photograph an empty room. once the house is slightly more organized i will take new photos, but this gives you a general idea. come visit! 
justin making around a corner without spinning out
justin and andy both heading the WRONG way on the track.
Sunday morning we packed up, loaded the car and headed to Texas motor speedway!! This was the main reason for the trip and the reason I called this our redneck vacation. We went to the NASCAR race. We allowed ourselves plenty of time to get to the track since 250000 people were going to be at the race. It only took us about an hour to get to the track and get parked (much less time than we expected) so we had a lot of time to walk around and take in all the redneck culture. 
It was pretty chilly and windy that morning!
Once we got to our seats we warmed up quickly. We were in the sun, but it was only 60 degrees. I was afraid I was going to fry being as pale as I am, but 2 coats of SPF 60 served me well :) only a slight sunburn where my hair was parted. 
white trash pregnant nascar fan picture. I considered wearing a wife-beater and holding a koozie with a beer for this photo, but decided against it. ha. i am not sure what face I am making in this pic....maybe I did have a few beers???
