9 Years Ago Today....

That's when it all began. We don't really celebrate the anniversary of when are two lives came together since 9/11/01, but we will never forget. I was 17, Steven was 3 days shy of his 17th birthday; we were just beginning our senior year of high school. He lived in Houston, TX, I lived in Mountain Home, AR - seemed like a world apart. The night of 9/10/98 I came home from a horrible day, feeling so alone. I got online to quickly check my email before bed. Then, suddenly, just as I was about to sign off, this guy named Steve that Joe had given my ICQ (istant messenger back in the day) number to, sent me a message asking how my day was. I began talking with him and telling him all the struggles I'd had that day. We began chatting about anything and everything, getting to know one another. We'd never met in person or spoken on the phone at this point, but we talked as if we'd known each other for years. Before I knew it, the sun was coming up. We signed off at 7:30am the morning of 9/11/98. When I crawled into bed that morning, I knew in my heart that this boy had just changed my life forever. I don't know how I know, but it was as if God placed this peace on my heart and I knew my life would never be the same, that something very special had just happened. 2 days later on Steve's 17th birthday we spoke on the phone for the first time. 2 months later, he had managed to convince his dad to allow him to move back to Mountain Home with his mom in the middle of his senior year to see if we could make our relationship work. God certainly had a plan - how many parents would let their child make that kind of a move for a teen romance? We finished our senior year together, went to prom together, and he proposed to me the night of our high school graduation. My family, of course insisted we wait until after college to get married - we were too young to be so serious. So 7 and a half years after that night, we were finally married. Now, we have created a life together. It seems like the last 9 years have led up until this moment in our lives. I am so proud to say that Steve is my first and only love, and always will be. And we will be able to provide our son with parents that have a strong and loving marriage, something neither of us ever had. God has truly blessed us in so many ways.

Senior Prom 1999

Summer 1999

April 23, 2005

June 9, 2007

Little Isaac Lee

Crib and Blanket

We finally got our crib put together (I say we, but I really mean they - Steve and his dad). It's beautiful - Thanks Dad and Rebecca!!! It matches the stain on our chair rails perfectly. Steve did a fabulous job choosing the stain. And as for the blanket, I do take all the credit for that. I started it about a year ago, knowing it would one day be a baby blanket for our child, I just didn't realize how soon that would be! It's made with Cotton Fleece, which I adore, although it does split easily, using large needles to give the lacy effect. I'm so glad to be done with it, I was seriously getting sick of it. I did run out of yarn while working the last row of crocheted trim, but it ran out just as I was about to start the very last edge of the blanket, so you can't even tell - even if you look very closely, it looks like it was done on purpose.

Pattern: Lace Blocks from Big-Needle Knit Afghans by House of White Birches

Yarn/Needles: Brown Sheep Co. Cotton Fleece; US10.5

Introducing my new friend.... the terb pump

So for the last 4 weeks I've been taking terbutaline pills to help stop my contractions. Terbutaline is an asthma medicine that relaxes smooth muscles (including the uterus) the doctor's often prescribe for preterm labor. It was working pretty well, up until labor day (see labor day post below). Since then, I was having contractions breaking through the pills. So they decided to put me on a terbutaline pump that delivers the medicine constantly into my body. I have to stick my leg with this little needle that inserts a small catheter just under the skin, then the needle comes out. The tube connected to the pump hooks up to the catheter and the pump delivers a very small steady dose of terbutaline (0.06mg/hour). Every 4 hours it delivers a large dose of 0.24mg, and if any time my contractions are getting bad, I can have it deliver the larger dose, as long as it's been at least an hour since my last large dose. The pump has a case that clips to my pants and a bag I put it in when I take a shower. I only have to change the catheter every 5 days, so at least I don't have to stick myself every day. I have to change out the medicine cartridge daily though, but they send me all the stuff by fedex weekly.

It seems to be working really well so far. My contractions are coming about 2-3 an hour, they speed up a bit the hour before my large dose is due usually, but as soon as I get that they taper off. The first night, it turned out I didn't have the tubing connected completely and all the medicine leaked out. Then when I woke up I was contracting like crazy. I realized it was leaking so I changed the injection site and reconnected everything. I strapped on my monitor, and holy cow, I was having 10 contractions an hour . The nurse about freaked out and made me give myself a large dose and drink a quart of water (yes, a quart) and remonitor. Luckily they slowed down to 3 an hour once the medicine was being delivered correctly.

So it seems like I really did need this thing after all. I had no idea without the meds how bad my contractions could get. Some of them were even painful, which has never happened before. It was scary. So, even though it sucks being hooked up to this thing all the time, I guess it is necessary at this point, and it seems to be working well.

When I changed the injection site yesterday I let Steve stick me, and he enjoyed way too much. When I did it it didn't hurt at all, when he did it it felt like someone jabbing a knife in my leg and he thought it was hillarious. He's seriously diabolical.

Labor Day

Well, Labor Day this year almost became LABOR day for me. I think my body got confused and thought labor day meant it was time to go into labor or something. I was literally one contraction away from making a trip to the labor & delivery ER yesterday. I have this contraction home monitoring system where I have to monitor my contractions for one hour twice daily and send the data over a fax line to a nurse station so they can keep an eye on me. If I have 4 or more contrax in one hour, I have to hydrate myself and remonitor for another hour. If I have 4 or more the second hour, they call my doctor and decide what I need to do. So, I often have to remonitor, however by the second session my contrax have always tapered down to 2 or 3. Yesterday, after several days of feeling really good and having very few contrax, I decided to clean up my messy kitchen just a bit, as my in-laws were coming over for a BBQ and I couldn't stand the mess. Steve was asleep during all of this, so he can't be blamed for my moment of weakness. The big mistake - monitoring right after this little escapade. As soon as I strapped on the monitor I knew I was in trouble. I counted 3 contrax in the first 10 minutes! Now, these contractions I have are not painful, they are just a tightening of my abdomen that lasts 40 seconds or longer. So, I often don't notice them. After my hour was up I sent in my data, thinking I'd had 5 or 6 contractions and knowing I'd have to remonitor. The nurse called me back sounding very concerned - the verdict = 9 contractions in one hour. That's a record for me. I didn't even feel all of them. So, I was told to take a second dose of my meds, and drink loads of water (dehydration triggers contractions, as does a full bladder, so basically I should just camp out in the bathroom with a bucket of water). My second monitoring session was not much better - 8 contractions. So, being labor day, my doctor's office is closed, so they had to call my doc at home and get her opinion. During this time, I'm sitting at home waiting for Steve and his dad to finish grilling food so I can eat, and I have an apple pie waiting for me that I've been craving for weeks. So, needless to say, I do NOT want to go to the hospital, where I'm gonna have to wait for 2 hours probably for them to strap monitors on me, only for my contractions to stop (just my luck) and then I get sent home hungry and tired. I WANT that apple pie! So, finally after what seems like an eternity, the nurse calls me back and says my doctor wants me to drink more water (I already feel like I'm floating by this point) and remonitor a 3rd time. If I have 4 or more contrax the 3rd time, it's off to L&D, otherwise I can stay home and enjoy my apple pie. So, by this time I'm so paranoid, everytime Isaac moves I think it's a contraction. During my 3rd session I was pretty sure I'd felt 5, maybe 6 contractions, so we made plans to go to the hospital. But when the nurse called me back, turns out there were only 3!! Yay! No labor this labor day!! They really tapered down after all that, thank goodness, and I got to enjoy my apple pie and postpone my tour of L&D for a while longer!

So far this morning, my uterus is being pretty irritable, so hopefully we don't have a repeat of yesterday. I did learn my lesson - no more cleaning, even a little bit. I'm going to stay on my butt from now on, as long as I have too. This little guy has a lot more baking to do. Luckily I have my weekly doctor's appt today, so we'll make sure all those contractions yesterday didn't cause any more damage to my cervix. After a week of very few contractions and overall feeling great, I was really hoping this appt would give rise to a lessening of my restrictions, but after yesterday, I doubt it now. On the upside, I do have permission to attend childbirth classes one night a week for the next 5 weeks - tomorrow is the first night. I'll get to leave the house once a week in addition to my doc appointments - yay!!

Sooooo, on to the knitting of the holiday weekend. I finally got out the beautiful angora/lambswool blend that Joe gave me for Christmas last year. I've been saving it for the perfect project and the perfect moment. I've had the project picked out for some time, but was waiting for the perfect moment when I felt the strong desire to work with something as delicate and soft as this luxurious yarn. It was so amazing! I've never worked with something so soft, I couldn't help but rub it against my face the whole time I was working with it. So here it is. Isaac will be so spoiled after wearing this, he'll turn his nose up to anything made of acrylic or itchy sheep's wool.




Pattern: Baby Hat from One Skein by Leigh Radford,
Jimmy's Baby Booties

Yarn/Needles: Lorna's Laces Angel; hat: US8, booties: US6

And lastly, here's just a pic Steve thought was funny: pregnant lady digging into ice cream