Grind

.....and so it continues. Carrie is still on bed rest. Tomorrow we hit the 27 week mark. Next Tuesday at 28 weeks we hit a real milestone. Apparently, after 28 weeks, the chance of survival for these babies hits 100%. That is if they are born at that point and have no other problems of course. If you remember, Carrie started bed rest after our hospital scare at 24 weeks. That means we could have another 6 to 8 weeks of bed rest.

As of this moment, I have no idea how we will make it.

Carrie is a very active person. She is also very independent. These two things have been taken from her, and understandably this has forced her into a state of agitation. She is agitated with a number of things.

1. There is a Southwest commercial that plays during Red Sox games that talks about how often Southwest flies from Boston to Chicago. Carrie hates this commercial with a burning passion. It makes that chime sound every time they put a new flight up on the screen. I try and hit "mute" when it comes on.

2. Our neighbor's have a black lab that barks all day long. Our neighbor's are really cool people don't get me wrong. The dog they have is a nice dog. The thing is, they leave for work in the morning and leave the dog outside where it barks constantly. I have literally gone to the fence and begged the dog to shut up.

3. We are bored with food. Nothing is exciting. On Sundays we have been ordering some type of Asian food which is great. However, we have been unable to find a place that does Chicken Pad Thai the way Carrie likes it. Our favorite food to eat is Sushi and Carrie will not eat anything that will potentially harm our little band she is growing. We miss Sushi and I'm sure that will be the first thing we do when she feels up to it after the boys get here.

4. Carrie is extremely uncomfortable. I mean extremely. No matter how she sits or lays she can't find a place that feels good. Her entire body is sore. This is a constant source of annoyance and I have no idea how to help. She doesn't complain too much, but I can tell by the look on her face that things aren't good. Her belly is now at the point that I would refer to it as "EPIC".

5. Me. She won't say so, but I'm pretty sure that I rank up there pretty high on the list of things that annoy Carrie pretty bad. I kind of get in my own world and just go about life like a bull in a china shop. Beer bottles crashing into the recycling at all hours. Guitars laying around. Shoes or anything else I touch laying around in random places. Music blaring. Baseball on T.V. Power tools running. Yelling on the phone. Leaving to go play with my friends.

This pregnancy and bed rest thing is something that neither one of us have ever had to deal with. There is no manual for it. They can't just give her drugs to knock her out for the next 8 weeks so she doesn't have to deal with it. I myself am going to work on several things to make her life a little better while this is going on. Here is my list:

1. Shut up
2. Pick up my things that I leave laying around
3. Try to be better about sitting still and just hanging out with Carrie (I have ADD so bad I should be part of a study)
4. Watch less baseball (this is going to hurt, but the Red Sox suck this year)
5. Shut up

I put "shut up" twice because I'm bad at that.

The good thing is, the baby room is almost done. Eric (BPM Tour Manager) installed the floor last night and is finishing up the trim today. This made Carrie very happy which in turn made me happy. The room looks pretty sweet. I will post some photos of it as soon as we get the whole thing done.

Last night, I was watching the movie 61. This is about Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle when they were both trying to break Babe Ruth's home run record. During that season, Roger's wife had a baby boy. He missed the birth because he was on the road playing ball. When he went home, he walked into the nursery to meet his son Randy. So I'm watching the movie and at the point in the movie where Roger (played beautifully by Barry Pepper) walks into the room and looks down at his baby boy, I gasped out loud. I'm not sure why.

The reality of three little bodies laying in cribs totally helpless hit me. Our flesh and blood totally dependent on us. I have thought about all this before of course. However, I don't think I will be able to fully grasp the situation or how it's going to be until I'm right there in it. It reminds me of when my brother's son Charlie was born. Charlie had jaundice and had to be wrapped in one of those light blankets for a while after he first came home. Jason would call me in the middle of the night. I of course had NO IDEA what he was going through, but I tried to be there for him.

Jason: Hey. What's up?

Me: Nothing. How are things there?

Jason: He's wrapped in that blanket. I'm just sitting here watching him breathe. I can't take my eyes off of him.

Me: Man, I don't know what to say. I'm sure it's tough.

Jason: I just watch his chest rise and fall. It's like if I leave or go to sleep it might stop.

Me: Wow. I have no idea what to say.

Jason: Nothing you can say. It will happen to you too if you're lucky.

I know I will be the same way. I will go from baby to baby, placing my hand on their little bodies and feeling to make sure that their hearts and lungs are working. I'll go outside and walk around the house to make sure nothing out there can hurt them. I will lock all the doors and then I will go check again. I can see myself standing in the doorway of their room surveying this amazing scene. I'm hoping their mother will be sleeping. The dog will be with me of course. She is already good at guarding her brothers.

On a side note, we were sad that we had to cancel our couples baby shower. Ryan and Haley were awesome for putting that on for us. Thank you two very much. I'll try and keep the boys away from your daughter. Some folks have been asking, so I would like to tell you that we are still registered at Babies R Us, Target, and Diapers.com. We hope that you like the way the blog looks at this point. Thanks to Carrie's friend Jennifer for having it re-designed for us. If you have a twitter account, please follow us. The link is at the top of the page. If you don't have a twitter account, get one. When this whole thing goes down, I plan on twittering the entire event as it happens. Stay tuned.