Pregnancy updates!

So, a lot has gone on since I last posted.

I am now at 28 and a half weeks! It's so crazy! I only have roughly 80 days until this little bundle of joy is here!

I had an appointment yesterday and I had the pleasure (ha ha) of doing the glucose tolerance test. One word: YUCK!

That drink is so gross. After the first sip I thought, aw, this won't be too bad...then after the next 3 sips I thought to myself, "How am I going to get this stuff down without throwing up?" It was a struggle, but by the end I had decided if I just gulped it down, I'd handle it. I was right. While I was waiting for my hour to be up before they drew my blood, they did the rest of the normal check-up things.

My blood pressure was a bit high for me, but still in the completely normal range. I've gained about 18 lbs during the pregnancy which they say is right on track, so I was happy to hear that. I'm measuring right on and our little girl's heart beat was about 150.

She's moving more than ever lately, and it's so much fun to feel her and on occasion see her roll around my belly. David has been able to feel her for a long time, but it's super easy for him to feel her move now.

This is what What to Expect says about our little one during the 28th week.
"Your baby is settling into the proper position for birth, with his head facing downward (toward your body's nearest exit!). Your little work in progress is now about 2.5 pounds and almost 16 inches long. He's busy adding new skills such as blinking to an already impressive repertoire of tricks like coughing, sucking, hiccuping, and taking practice breaths. Your baby's sleep now includes the REM (rapid eye movement) phase — and that means he could be dreaming already (what do you suppose he's dreaming about?)."

She's about the size of an eggplant, and weighs about 2.5 lbs. They say that she has a super good chance of survival if she were to be born during this week, but let's all pray she stays in there for 11 more weeks like she's supposed to!

I recently figured out that I will not be receiving maternity leave (paid maternity leave) so I kind of didn't know what to do. After lots of discussion with the company controller about policies and what not, they told me that if I wanted to take unpaid maternity leave and have the delivery of our baby covered, I would have to commit to a year of work after coming back. Ugh. One year of full-time work while someone ELSE is raising my little baby? That's not something I wanted to do, so I rushed to find other options. I thought things out and at first I was going to just quit and end up on medicaid.

There were many things wrong with this sudden quitting plan, but the biggest thing was the issue of income. Without me working, we'd really be in a tight spot money-wise, and I didn't want to do that to us, so I knew I had to think things out a lot more. After much prayer and thinking things out, I came up with a better solution. I am going to cut back my work to part time the month before the baby is born, and after 8 weeks of unpaid maternity leave, I will return to work part time. Since my insurance will not cover the delivery if I cut back my hours AFTER having the baby, I needed a way to make things work financially because I can't rightly pay for the delivery without insurance--unless I want to be paying for it for maybe the rest of my life. We already tried the whole no insurance and major medical happening thing and I really don't want to deal with it again. Anyway, I am going to cut back my hours so I will be able to qualify for financial assistance to help cover the delivery costs. This went over quite well with my project manager at work, and I am so pleased that they like me enough to keep me as just a part time employee! (thank goodness!)

So, because I am cutting hours back but not quitting, we will be just fine financially, which is a huge blessing-especially when bringing a child into the world!

More and more every day, I find myself stumped at just how blessed I am. I am so thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and for the power of prayer and personal revelation. Without these fundamentals, I don't know where I would be, and I'm almost certain I don't want to. I know that prayer and fasting help me to make even the toughest decisions that don't seem to have answers, and what a blessing that is!