Today's the Day!!!

So I was able to sleep longer than I expected, but it's 2:45am and I can't sleep anymore! I am so excited to meet this little guy I've been carrying around for the last 9 months!

Yesterday, Bailey and I enjoyed our last quiet day together. I think she knew something was up. She was so cuddly and was quite put out when I had my laptop in my lap instead of my lap dog! I was putting Christmas music on my computer so we'd have something to listen to in the hospital, and that seemed to trigger about nine months of emotions. I cried all day long! It's been such a hard pregnancy, but we managed to keep our little guy safe to his big day. All told, we've had:

• 3 trips to the ER
  
• 1 night in ICU
• 8 trips to Labor & Delivery
• 11 weeks of Hyperemesis Gravidarium (severe morning sickness), including 6 weeks on a 24/7 pump of Zofran
• 3 weeks of restricted activity
• 9 weeks of bedrest due to pre-eclampsia 
• 14 weeks with this insane headache
• more blood work and labs than I can count or care to remember
  
• and one amazing, wonderful week on our Alaskan cruise!

After so many weeks of being restricted and limited, it's so exciting to finally reach the end. We can't wait to hold our son and to begin the process of recovery. I have a good bit of muscle atrophy from the bedrest, so it will take a little longer than usual until I'm feeling normal again, but we're grateful for the help of friends and family, especially in the first few weeks, to help us with the baby, meals and keeping up with the house.

Niels will post an update in a few hours (!!!) with The Big Announcement, but I wanted to take the opportunity to make one last post and request a few prayer items for our expanding family:

• for the safe delivery and health of our little boy
• for all to go well for me with the C-section
  
• wisdom and guidance for Dr. Brister and the rest of the medical staff who will be taking care of us
• for our little guy to take quickly and well to nursing
• for strength to adjust to a vastly different sleep schedule--especially for me, as I generally need 10 hours to function since my head-injury. I know that won't happen for the foreseeable future!
• for an easy recovery from the C-section and muscle atrophy
• for travel safety for the family and friends coming to visit us
• for Niels and I to have wisdom to be good and godly parents to our precious boy!

We expect that I will be in the hospital for five days (til Saturday) given my special circumstances with the head injury and risk for HELLP syndrome. So Niels will be the point person for the next little bit. We look forward to seeing and/or hearing from you soon and introducing you to the jongste de Jong (youngest de Jong)!