Friday,, July 17th

Good morning from Hotel de Presbyterian (it sounds much better to me when I say it that way. . .almost like I am staying in a cute little boutique hotel instead of a hospital)! Cooper and I had a MUCH better night last night. My doctor has doubled the dose of my Procardia which seems to be helping. I am still taking it every six hours and the contractions seem to kick in about the last hour before I get my next dose. They are considering bumping it up to every 4 hours, but I guess we'll cross that bridge if we need to. Apparently the next step if the Procardia does not keep the contractions at bay is to hook me up to an IV to pump me full of fluids and narcotics. I definitely want to avoid that if at all possible!

I think I actually got about 6 hours of sleep last night. . .that's 3 times as much as I had gotten the night before, so I am VERY excited. The nurses have threatened to cut my visiting hours if I don't start resting more, so I am trying to be good. Apparently lack of sleep can contribute to the problems I am having. As I know a lot of you know, it's VERY hard to get any sleep in a hospital. I do get a dose of Ambien at night, but I think the dose is pretty low and my body just laughs at it. In addition, my room is right next to the nurse's station, so it is not the quietest place on the floor. The good news is that I get all of the updates on Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson as well as John and Kate Plus 8 without having to open a tabloid magazine!!

Speaking of my room, it has turned into a Diet Coke and chocolate wonderland! I had some very special visitors yesterday, and all of them walked in with an armful of goodies. . .THANK YOU! The nurses kept laughing when they walked into my room, but I think they were really trying to figure out how to get their hands on some of my goodies! I enjoyed all of my visits yesterday and it was wonderful to catch up with some friends that I had not seen in a while.

I had a very special visitor yesterday who I was VERY excited about. For those of you who attend Wylie UMC, Ben and Sandy Brown's daughter, Lauren, is a nurse in Labor and Delivery here. She came by my room yesterday to check on me and she is just as precious and funny as you would expect. We had a wonderful talk, she answered a lot of questions for me, and has become my guardian angel. Apparently she is rallying the troops to make sure I am very well taken care of while I am here and when I deliver Baby Cooper. In case Lauren is not on duty when I deliver (which I pray she is) she is taking care of hand-picking who my labor and delivery nurse will be. My dear friend Lorna told me how amazing Lauren is, and now I understand why!!

Sean seems to be hanging in there on the home front as best he can. He is burning the candle at both ends between trying to manage the girls, work from home and worrying about me. A huge THANK YOU for all of our amazing friends who have come to his rescue and helped with dinners taking care of the girls. Sean is A LOT like me in the respect that he has a hard time asking for help, so you will literally need to just tell him, "This is what I am going to do". (Sorry honey. . .I now you will be reading this, but you know it's true). I know that he greatly appreciates all of the outpouring of support and love that we are receiving. If you call either one of us and don't hear back from us for a while, PLEASE do not take it personally. We are receiving a ton of phone calls and messages and we are still trying to figure out this whole thing. Just know we love and appreciate all of you and we promise to let you know how you can help.

Meghan seems to be doing ok. She was experiencing some swelling and pain yesterday which is to be expected after receiving an injection in her ankle and then having it wrapped in a bandage for 24 hours. She started her anti-inflammatory prescription, so hopefully we should start seeing some improvements soon. It is SO hard for me to be stuck here and not able to take care of my baby, but I know that Daddy is doing an incredible job.

Our dog, on the other hand, is not doing quite so well. Max (our sweet beagle) is having a very hard time with me being gone. Apparently he is moping and watching the door waiting for me to get home. He lost his feline friend last week and I think that me mysteriously disappearing has sent him over the edge. Imagine what will happen when I return home with a little person. We may need to call The Dog Whisperer!

I think that is about all of the updated news I have. I am sure my doctor will be by soon, so if he has any earth shattering updates (other than how he spent his day off yesterday), I will be sure and update the blog.

Thank you again for all of your thoughts and prayers. We greatly appreciate all of the love and support that we are receiving.

Much love,

Sean, Laurie, Kaleigh, Meghan and Baby Cooper