Happenings

We're going to condense a few updates into one post! Hopefully I'll keep it short and sweet, but you know how I can ramble.
Let's start with 37 weeks: Monday night I thought I was starting to labor. I woke up having contractions around 2 am. They weren't horrible, but painful enough to wake me. I never really got to a point where I started timing them though. They were about fifteen minutes apart, lasted several hours, then stopped and I went back to sleep. Then nothing much has happened since. At my appointment Wednesday both nurse and dr were surprised that I actually made it the extra week. I had progressed a whopping half centimeter. Really, not much change at all. Which is fine. I was hoping we could at least get through thanksgiving before this girl came and here we are! Also, sadly, I was positive for strep b. I was hoping I could avoid or at least postpone getting an IV when I get admitted (just to make moving around a little easier) but that's not going to happen. Good thing I'm more of a "go with the flow" type. I have a lose birth plan, meaning I'm not so strict with it that if things don't go exactly how I'd like it'll be the end of the world. I'm more concerned with getting her here safely than I am with being in complete control. So, Tuesday is my next appointment and the dr will strip my membranes. Wednesday a friend will be doing a pressure point massage to help things get going too. We'll see if it works.
On to Thanksgiving: I was thrilled to actually make it to Thanksgiving. And the best part! My relux was having a mild day!!!! Which means I stuffed myself silly and loved every second of it. We kept it small this year due to my being nine months pregnant. My sister, Ally, and her two kiddos joined us. We split the cooking between the two of us and it was perfect. The food was so yummy! The pie was so yummy! We watched Home Alone while we digest dinner. Then we played games while we digested pie. It was such a good, mellow day.
On to Make-A-Wish: Yesterday, Friday, we received a delightful piece of mail! We got the official letter saying that Olivia has been nominated and approved for a wish. I was surprised at the mix of emotions upon getting the letter. Of course, the overwhelming emotions are that of gratitude and excitement. But what surprised me was the sadness that accompanied them. I have a child that qualifies for a wish. I've known that her whole life, but getting the letter just drove that home. Sometimes it's easy to forget that Olivia isn't whole. She looks like any other child, she plays like any other child, she acts like any other child. Sure, she turns blue when she's cold, her colds last longer than most, she tired a little more quickly. But all those things have become our normal and it gets easy to forget that we were told we would survive her. But everyone knows that make-a-wish is for children who are ill, who might not survive. And my kid is one of them? So, yeah, that was a bit of a surprise for me. But, really, we are all way more excited than anything else (I just like to document all the rollercoaster feelings, since this is basically my journal.) I had Ella read the letter head to Olivia and when it registered who it was from, Livie got the biggest smile on her face. She is so beyond excited. She's been planning this for a year now. Most of the time she says we're going to Disneyland, but every once in a while she says she wants a princess castle playground and swing set. In the letter, they did explain that our wish granters will play a wish game with her that will help her narrow it down, so we'll keep ya posted. I've already started a hashtag on instagram #oliviamakesherwish So that should help keep those entries easily accessed.