Family, Showers, and Lasagna

Today was a day of wonderfulness! Jayme has taken over for Noah's mom and is proving quite adept at her new job. She arrived early this morning to help me get spruced up for today's baby shower my cousin expertly planned (despite numerous last minute time and location changes). Both of my sisters flew in for the shower, which made it extra special!

My cousin went above and beyond with the decorations and snacks. She arrived early and set to completely transforming my room into party central. She even had marching orders for my sisters! In one short hour the place was completely transformed; I was able to spend the next two hours feeling more Jessica-like and less bedridden "momma" like (I think Elmshaeuser intimidates the nurses and doctors so they just call me "momma" instead). Thanks Cuz for once again keeping me sane and upbeat!

It was awesome and uplifting to get to see so many of my friends all at the same time. Thank you all so much for shoving together in my cold hospital room! I promise to post more pictures in the upcoming days.

Thoroughly exhausted from the shower, we rounded out the day with a new loveseat being delivered to the house (if I get to go home, it turns out we need a place for me to lay), a rousing game of Settlers which Noah, of course, won, and a fabulous home-cooked meal.

Noah and I would love to give a special shout-out to our gracious and caring visitor from Harvest. She walked into a flurry of activity and came bearing wonderful gifts of homemade lasagna, bread, brownies, and raspberries. I am so excited to get a break from hospital food and have already come to look forward to these visits from Harvest with great anticipation - food and fellowship (even when craziness of my ever changing situation means I can only muster 5-15 minutes for a visit :-(

Speaking of the medical side..... we had a fairly decent Friday and Saturday. It seems, however, that nights and mornings are my most challenging times. Noah and I got about three hours of sleep last night before my body decided to have a momentary lapse in judgment. Unfortunately, one small blip usually means hours of frantic activity. After we were able to pin baby down and hold him still on the monitors (he may be a bit on the big side, but he is still small enough to actively hide from the TOCO monitors... which he does on a routine basis), we only had to stay hooked up for 1.5 hours. The loud beeping sounds of the machine and the sudden and immediate fear of being transferred to the delivery wing pretty much guarantees sleep is not going to happen while hooked up or for a while after. In the end, we just followed my status quo of, "well, baby seems fine. We can't explain what is happening to you." On the bright side, the best kept secret of being hospitalized is Ambien; I will definitely be taking up that offer tonight!

General FYI: I don't know what machines have moved into the room next to us, but they have basically killed our phones - we are talking no calling or texting capabilities. We apologize for any messages/calls we haven't responded to. Please know that email is probably the best way to get a hold of us for the time being.