31 weeks!!

Hello all and happy Monday! It was a happy Monday indeed! We are now at 31 weeks...a huge milestone...and still seem to be holding steady! My doctors have started joking that I am going to turn out to be "that patient", you know, the one that they try desperately to stop labor early on just to have to induce labor when she is overdue! ha ha... Seriously, my measurement is still between 30 and 36mm, which is considered "normal" and I am not contracting any more than someone this stage in pregnancy normally does (braxton hicks, or practice contractions) and usually not more than 1 or 2 an hour, so everyone is cautiously optimistic. I have actually been instructed to call the office and schedule my c-section...I guess they think I am really going to make it that far! So exciting! Please pray, because the surgeon that did Tanner's delivery isn't on call the week I am supposed to deliver and I am trying my best to encourage him to change his schedule! :)

Our other exciting news is that due to our good report today, it looks like my check out next week is still on! It is so hard to believe that it is so close...if you think about it...this is quite possibly my last Monday night spend the night in the hospital!! So incredible! God has been so good to us and we are sooo thankful! As excited and ready as we are for me to be home, we are also a bit nervous. From the beginning, the doctors had told me that I was staying until delivery. Their reasoning was not only due to my body and how it was holding but that because they have discovered that when they send a mommy home on bed rest, she very seldom is able to be on the kind of bed rest that she can have in the hospital. After our weekend spend the nights I can understand...as careful as I am and even though I have lost a lot of strength during my weeks here, I was surprised by how easy it is to slip back into "mommy mode" and want to do more than I should. Please pray that I am able to be very good about my strict bed rest and continue to allow our care givers and Greg handle operations until after P3 joins us! We are still hoping and praying for a December baby! We are so thankful to our friends for the offers of help and items to help with keeping me in the guest room and even a fully reclining lawn chair so that I can BE OUTSIDE!!! yippee!! I don't care that it is getting chilly...I'll wrap up in a big blanket just to be able to sit outside and breathe in fresh air and feel the breeze!! aah...I can almost feel it now! :)











We Powells had a fun weekend...complete with a spend the night on Saturday! So maybe we were a little over-confident after our last try...quite possibly due to the benedryl help...but we were humbled this week! I think it was well after 10 before we finally had to turn off the lights and TV and put both boys in bed with me just to get them to lie still long enough to pass out! But again...it was totally worth it to have all my guys here when we woke up in the morning! Amazingly, Greg was able to get boys up, fed and dressed all in time to head out in time to make it to church on time!

Landon had a great baseball game on Saturday! He played so well that he earned the game ball!! Grandmommy and Grandy surprised him by showing up to watch and Tanner got to play with Mr. Bryan, Greg's college roommate...it was a great day!

Thank you to all of you that have come down for visits during my stay...it has truly made this time so much easier, and truth be told, I have rather enjoyed having one on one adult conversations for the first time in a long time. I am so thankful for your support, encouragement and especially your prayers...I, and we, are so humbled and appreciative. We hope and pray that God will bless each of you as He has blessed us through you...you have exemplified the love of Christ and we love you!