A couple of prayer requests.

The end of last week brought two changes to my pregnancy, neither of them happy-go-lucky sort of changes. So I'm posting the info to keep you all in the loop and also for those of you who pray, to pray on our behalf that God would intervene and make everything "all better"! The Bible says that the prayer of one person is powerful and effective, much less a multitude...

So the first bit of news is a report we just received from my 20-week ultrasound. Good news: Brain looks good. Heart looks good. Most everything looks good. But there appears to be a small amount of excess fluid in the baby's kidneys, indicating that there may be a bit of a plumbing problem with Baby. The doctor does not seem too concerned; it is fairly common with 20-week-olds and usually resolves without creating any complications. I will have another ultrasound at the 34-week mark (I'm at 27 weeks now) just to verify that the baby's kidneys are not getting too chubby. It is our hope and prayer that God would fix up the "kink in the line," if that's the cause, and have the 34-week check be normal. Wouldn't that be nice.

Then at about the same time as receiving the ultrasound report, I started having lots of uterine activity. Contractions every time I stand up and walk, to be exact. After two days of that uncomfortableness while still trying to chase Luke around, I got monitored at the Sutter Davis Birthing Center. They did a variety of tests and have declared that I have an "irritable uterus" (what an ugly phrase) and while at this point it is not leading to preterm labor, I need to do looooots of resting. The doctor cited four main causes: bladder infecction (nope), dehydration (nope), not enough rest (Luke, you hear that?), or an inordinate amount of baby movement (yessiree). As long as I am horizontal, there are no contractions. Usually sitting is okay too. But the moment I stand up, blobbity bloop.

So I may be stuck in a bed or chair for the next three months (can we say again how much we appreciate living near family??? Richie's first response when my parents offered to watch Luke during the days while he works: "God bless that family.") But we are hoping this is just a brief season of uterine irritability (this happened for a couple days back in August, too) and that all this belly activity goes away soon. That's where all the praying comes in. We are confident that God hears. We know God often does not do things the way we want them to be done, but God hears, and does what is best in the big scheme of things (not what is most comfortable or contraction-free) (though we sure hope so).

Meanwhile, I get lots of time to read (you know how much I love that). (Yesterday Haley offered to give me list of book recommendations, and we both burst out laughing.) And I've gotten time to take care a lot of health-care paperwork. Whee. I've also gotten to spend more time on my current Bible study, Jennifer Rothschild's Walking by Faith, which has proven very applicable during this stage of our life and my pregnancy. I love her phrase that With God, it can be well with my soul even when it is not well with my circumstance. Part of the Bible study includes memorization of key passages, and this is the one I'm working on now. A psalm of King David. Applicable to non-king me? I think so:

Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;
My hope comes from Him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation;
He is my fortress...

So as I rest and fill my time with things that are so nice to be able to do (everything but reading), my parents are tending to Luke and spoiling him rotten with love, attention, and cookies.

My dad took Luke to the pastry shop this morning and got him three large cookies. Luke in his deep gruff voice insisted on "BIG ONES." Then, with a huge cookie stuffed in, managed to bark out, "MO!"

My mom is Luke's current MVP; several times this morning I went to sit in the room where Luke and my mom were playing, and Luke pointed at me and said, "Done!" He wanted me to go away.

So off I went to be horizontal again.

(Glad God hears prayers given even from us horizontal people. But all you vertical people, please pray, too.)