Egg Hunt, Princess Party and a Preggo Pic!

Saturday morning we had a Ward Easter Party and Bishopric Breakfast. It's a tradition in our ward to have the Bishopric cook breakfast for the entire ward once a year. This year was no exception. We got home Friday night just before midnight and we got up just in time to wash off a layer of dirt and campfire smoke (it took several baths to scrub it all out) and head over to the church. We had a lovely pancake breakfast and then a fun Easter egg hunt as a ward. It was a lot of fun. Tyler was still down camping but I have no idea why I didn't get a picture of Maddie during the egg hunt. She was there and having fun I promise! :) We came home from the activity and I crashed hard! I slept for several hours and woke up feeling pretty pregnant still. I guess not even a good nap will cure that though, right?!

Monday I woke up and my contractions that are constantly 3 minutes apart were pretty intense. I think I just way overdid it and it was starting to catch up with me. We had tickets for a Princess Tea Party that they were having at the city library (free but just limited supplies so we had to reserve a spot) and Emily had been looking forward to it for a few weeks. I'd planned on calling it part of her special birthday week and she was really excited about it, so when my sister in law Jen called to remind me about it, I dragged myself off the couch to go. It was really cute! They had 3 stations where the girls could make and decorate their own princess crowns, and then they could eat a princess snack and choose a special princess sticker and the last station was a few princess stories and matching games. It was super cute and Emily loved it.

We came home from that and I crashed again. I didn't get off the couch until it was time for bed and then I came down the next morning to resume my former position on the couch where I could see and hear and referee from a somewhat comfortable horizontal position! My contractions were now right on top of each other and I started to realize that the 3 minute breaks I'd been getting between contractions was a HUGE blessing! I also had the pleasure of enjoying some lovely back labor at this time as well and each time I stood up I would wonder if I'd be able to move my contractions were so hard.

*I need to say for those that are new to my history of having babies that I never at any time was worried about delivering the baby early and even thought of going to the hospital to be checked. I have what is called an Irritable Uterus that likes to contract! Fortunately these contractions (not Braxton hicks contractions - they feel like real labor contractions lasting for 1 minute at a time and having the most pain during the height of the contraction) DO NOT change my cervix at all. The danger or having these unproductive irritable uterus contractions is that you can't feel the difference between them and real labor contractions so you don't know if you are indeed in full blown labor, they just kind of mix right into the middle of the irritable uterus contractions and some are productive and some are not. For me, having done this 5 times before I know that I have a few "signs" and can usually tell when my cervix starts to dilate or efface. However it takes me until 3 or 4 weeks before my due date to start dilating and with the past 3 babies I have chosen to be induced (or as I like to call it, put out of my misery) a week early. I have NOT had any signs that my cervix is changing and I am not worried about having the baby early. I am VERY convinced that I will have to kick this one out as I have the last 3 (my first two came right on their due dates and I was induced with the last 3).

Anyway! So I spent two days on the couch with extreme labor pains and I had some angels step in to help me! One angel took all of the laundry in my house on Monday (which was a LOT since we'd just been camping!) and she washed and folded EVERYTHING so I didn't have to and I almost cried with gratitude!! I had another angel take my fabulously energetic and mischievous 4 year old for the day! And yet another angel go shopping and pick up birthday treats for Emily's class on Wednesday as well as several things I needed for Emily's birthday party on Friday (Birthday post to follow)! And still another Angel came and helped me clean my house to get ready for said birthday party! I called my Angel Doctor and had him prescribe me some pain medication so that I might be able to get off of the couch and back into an upright position so that I could resume life and mothering of 5 small children! And my Angel Husband saved me by putting the kids to bed every night and helping to pick up the house and massaging my back and feet and offering priceless moral support as well as giving me a priesthood blessing. I am SOOOOOO grateful for all of the help and prayers that we've received recently! I hate having to depend on other people to do things that I should be able to do for myself but we have so many wonderful friends as well as family and neighbors who have stepped in and just taken care of things. What a huge blessing!

This picture was taken on Wednesday the 20th. I was 29 1/2 weeks pregnant. For those wondering why I was actually dressed with makeup on after hearing what a fabulous start to the week I'd had - I woke up on Wednesday feeling a lot better and we had the opportunity to go to a sealing of a great family in our ward and I just sat in the car on the drive up there and sat in the sealing room while we were there so I wasn't exerting myself at all and it was so amazing that I'm really glad I didn't miss it.

I had a Dr appointment today and I'm still measuring about a week ahead of my due date. So my saintly Doctor decided to look up all of the due dates they gave me at all of my various ultrasounds and choose the earliest one. So that moved my due date up from July 2nd to June 30. I know it's only a few days but that means that I can now have a baby on Thursday June 23rd instead of Saturday June 25th and I am THRILLED with those few days! It's been a good day! My contractions have settle down quite a bit and I've only had to take one dose of pain medication every day instead of every 4 hours like I anticipated needing it. In fact I haven't had anything today and I'm still feeling pretty good.

I can't tell you have very blessed we have been recently. Peter has had miserable sinus infections or strep throat every month since October and the other night he could feel that he had another one coming on. He was achy and had tons of sinus pressure and pain as well as headaches and he was wiped out. We both prayed that he would feel better and be able to accomplish all of his responsibilities. He has an appointment with an ear nose and throat specialist next week and we just wanted him to be able to make it to that without having to be down and out with another infection. The next morning his symptoms were completely gone and he felt wonderful. Such an immediate and obvious answer to our prayers! The same thing has happened with me and my contractions. We both feel like the Nephites who had their burdens made light so that they couldn't feel them upon their backs. The burdens are still there. Peter still needs to have his tonsils out and probably surgery in his sinuses to fix the problems he's been having and I'm still pregnant having contractions every 3 minutes or less, but we can carry on. The burdens are light enough that we can endure them. And I am SO grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who is aware of us and for so many wonderful people who have been praying for us. We can feel your prayers and we are so grateful!