34 weeks and a whole new frontier.

It is official. We've made it to 34 weeks gestation. When J and I met with the perinatologists before we even got pregnant this time we set today as our goal for future pregnancies. There were several times in these past few months where we really didn't think we'd make it, but here we are, thank the good Lord.

I am officially free of bed rest and all oral medications (still getting the 17P shot for two more weeks though). I took my last dose at 10:30 last night. We'll see how today progresses. Thus far, I haven't noticed a big upswing in the contractions, but at the last med weaning they did not pick up until late afternoon/early evening.

We went out to dinner with a bunch of friends last night to celebrate. My OB said it was OK to jump the gun by 6 hours since it is easier to get a sitter and a group together on a Saturday night instead of Sunday. We had a fabulous time. It will probably be our last true date night without any kids for a few months which made it all the sweeter. Thanks to all our friends that could join us and especially thanks to T, who joined us on her birthday!

This morning, we woke up and went to Mass as a family--a first in over 2.5 months. It was great to see so many friends and share the joy of this milestone with such a great community. I had to laugh at myself though. I nearly fell over when I went to genuflect before sitting in the pew. I didn't have enough muscle strength to return to standing after bending to one knee. I don't know why I didn't think about it before hand. Fortunately I could use the pew side to help pull myself to my feet instead of crashing to the ground. I had to sit for most of Mass--the sit/stand/kneel left me feeling terribly dizzy in the beginning. I guess my heart just can't keep up right now, but at least I got to sit in our church and be present for the Mass. I'm grateful for that. After Mass, we went to one of our favorite family restaurants for lunch. They gave Z some raw pizza dough to entertain him and we had such a nice time.

As we were driving home, my mom called. This weekend is the area's garden train open house. People all over the city open up their back yards for donations for the Make-a-Wish foundation. One of my parents' neighbors participates. He has a huge area of his yard set aside with permanently installed train tracks with tunnels, bridges, cities, and towns in his landscape. We stopped for about a half-hour and let Z scamper about checking out the trains and following them around the yard (I sat on a bench for a large part of this adventure).

Now, I'm just exhausted. My feet and toes are total sausages. I've been laying down for so long that the normal pregnancy swelling hasn't happened. But sitting (and a little bit of standing) sure brought that back quickly. I had huge indentations along my feet from my ballet flats when we got home and I took them off my feet. Now, I'm taking a rest with my feet way up on the back of the couch while Z has his afternoon nap and J heads to the gym.

I think it is going to take me much longer than I expected to get back to my normal energy and exertion capacities. That's OK though. I just have to be realistic, which is hard when there is so much I want to do. Let's face it, I want to get out and about, there are things I need to do, and I know once Miss Thing arrives it's going to take a bit to figure it all out again anyway.