1 Month Old!

Today you are one month old!  I look over at you sleeping and it's really hard to believe...from how much you've grown, to being able to see some of your personality come out, to seeing how you fit into the family.

We didn't do a whole lot this weekend, beyond venturing out (all 5 of us!) to Michael's to get a few craft supply type things.  It was actually a pretty decent trip, seeing as how this was the first time we'd all been out to a store before (we've all been out to the aquarium, the science museum and so on).

Tomorrow is your one month well check, so I'm sure I'll have more stats then  I think you've done some pretty good growing in the past month...maybe breaking the 8lb mark already?  I think you've gotten longer too, and the clothing that we first bought for you (or got as a gift) is already starting to fit differently.

In any case, here's the attempt at 1 month pictures (still taking them every day...but today was also posed with a number one!  And a bear...).

Four Weeks Old - My Favorite Things

It's hard to believe it, but you are four weeks old today (and will be one month on Sunday!).

I thought I'd take a minute (or two or ten) to write about some of the things that you are doing and some of my favorite things about you.  Of course, a favorite thing is that you are a girl, which might not seem like a big deal, but it's "different" than being a boy like your brothers are, even though right now it's pretty much the same things going on...aside from us treating you like a girl and dressing you like a girl and all of that.

One thing that is my absolute favorite (and a bit different from the boys) is your smile.  Yeah, newborn smiles are considered to be not really intentional (or just gas, as so many people like to say), but I don't care.  Even if they are gas or unintentional, they're a preview of what your smile will be like when you do mean it.  It seems like you smirked and smiled right from the start, and it really brightens my day (usually several times a day) when I see you smile...both when you are awake or sleeping, or even when you are eating.

I love your little facial expressions.  Your eyes are so bright and it makes you seem very alert and interested in whatever is going on.  You seem very happy when we give you attention by talking to you or playing with you, and it seems like you can't wait to join your brothers in play time.

I love your cuddles.  There are many afternoons where I can (and have!) dozed off while you sleep on my chest.  I love the way you snuggle up and get very relaxed when you have your ear pressed to my chest to hear my heartbeat.

In terms of other things you are doing...you are staying awake for a little longer period of time now.  Usually an hour or so, but sometimes as long as two hours awake without too much fuss.  You are eating A LOT.  More than I remember your brothers eating in one sitting.  I honestly have no idea how you are fitting that much into your tummy, but as long as it works for you, I guess it's fine!  You're getting stronger, too, and moving your neck muscles a bit to try and hold your head up.

Well, that's about all for the moment!  It's so much fun watching you grow and seeing you get to experience things for the first time!

Making Waves Before Birth

I've posted most of your updates on my own blog since our very first hospitalization and release when you were 28 weeks along.  I'm happy to report that today that you are 34w6d along...getting closer and closer to your birth day!

We've spent quite a lot of time in and out of the hospital, at home on bedrest, in doctor's offices, and having ultrasounds.  To date, here is the history of hospitalizations:  our first was on June 5th (at 27w6d) and lasted 3 nights.  We got 48 hours worth of magnesium sulfate, and steroid injections over that time for your lung development.

Everything was pretty good until I had to stop taking ibuprofen at 32 weeks.  The doctor also gave me permission (and encouraged) being a little more mobile.  At 32w1d, on July 5th, contractions started again, and I was dilated up to 3cm at that point.  They gave us terbutaline, which stopped contractions for about an hour, but they restarted as soon as it wore off.  We spent one night in the hospital and started taking nifedipine to control contractions again.

Things were going moderately well again until the contractions slowly started creeping in again.  Dilation increased to 4cm.  Then, the week of July 15th I could feel contractions, and at our doctor's appointment they were starting to get worse.  At that point, things had progressed to 5cm.  The doctor we saw was hesitant to send us to the hospital (just due to the fact that I could talk through contractions).  The remainder of that day and the next, I was a little on edge, continuing to have contractions, so we made the decision to go to OB triage on Friday (@ 34w1d).

Once set up on contraction monitors, the situation went downhill quickly.  Contractions were more frequent than I thought (four every ten minutes!) and the decision was made to see how it would react to terbutaline again.  Terbutaline did control the contractions, but no sooner than it had worn off, cervical check revealed almost 6cm dilation, and a bulging amniotic sac.  Friday night was the first time that delivery was becoming more eminent.  They gave two more terbutaline shots to stall labor long enough to get antibiotics for group B strep.  Overnight, we got a few doses of stadol for pain (which made you pretty active once it wore off!).  Dilation never progressed further, and we ended up being transferred to antepartum the following afternoon.  In a somewhat surprising twist, we were discharged to go home on Sunday, with a little security net put in place by having NST's scheduled for twice in the upcoming week.

After spending Sunday night at home, everything seemed to be going decently.  Monday came, and we had another doctor's appointment, where there was no cervix check, no apparent change in anything (heart rate good and all of that).  We took it easy for the rest of the day and went to pick up your brother's from daycare.  After we got home, we sat on the couch and watched TV.  At that point, I started feeling weird, in kind of an indescribable sort of way.  Not long after, I launched into contractions.  They didn't built, but went right to a contraction every 2-3 minutes.  After drinking a few glasses of water and laying down for a while, the contractions didn't get better.  It was nearing your brother's bedtime, so the decision was made to pack everyone up and go to the hospital.

At the hospital, contractions were once again happening at four every 10 minutes.  They started the IV in triage for antibiotics, and we were taken directly to labor and delivery again.  No further cervical changes occurred either, so the evening was shaping up to be just a repeat of the previous Friday.  Since you were 34w4d along, there was still no intervention to speed labor along.  Eventually, the contractions did die down (just as before), and we spent the rest of the day in the delivery area until being transferred to antepartum once again in the late evening.

Today, you are 34w6d, so tomorrow you will be a week away from the magic 36 week mark!  No huge contractions of note today, and everything seems to be going well.  The only minor things going on now is that 1.  I felt like I ate too much earlier, 2.  you showed your excitement with dinner by moving around and kicking everywhere, and 3.  the left side of my chest is a bit sore (shoulder blade, going into my chest a little).

I have to admit that the calm that we are experiencing right now is almost too reminiscent of last Sunday evening when we were discharged to go home.  All was mostly calm (although I was probably more mobile at home, with your brothers wanting to be entertained) and everything seemed just fine all the way into the next day.  So tomorrow I might be a little on edge when evening approaches, just so we don't have a repeat of the past two "false starts".

As things get a little closer to delivery, I start to wonder how your entrance into the world will go.  Will you be a little early?  Will you decide to go all the way past your due date?  Will we be in the hospital when labor starts, or will they have kicked us out to wait it out at home?  Will labor start with water breaking?  Will it start with contractions?  Will the labor be fast or a "reasonable" amount of time (like with your brothers)?  Even things like will you be born at night, or during the day?

It's going to be weird with you on the outside, but I think after all of this build-up, it's going to be exciting to see what you are like!

Long Road of Bedrest

Even though the last post seemed pretty uneventful, there's been quite a lot happening since!  I've already typed it out a bunch of times (and I'll link it soon!), but the short of it is that we were experiencing some pre-term labor that landed us in the hospital for about 4 days.  It was not the best of days, but we got through it, and now we're just hanging out at home, trying to keep you in as long as we can!

It makes me feel better that you seem to be doing pretty well (pretty healthy by ultrasound and all sorts of other tests).  We got a couple of shots of steroids while in the hospital to help with your lung development, just in case you were to come early!  I guess when I wished that this pregnancy wasn't going so fast, I should have been careful what I wished for!  Things have slowed down immensely in my head, and the past week has been very slow.

The one good thing to come out of it is lots of ultrasounds.  Lots of opportunity to see your cute little face (and the techs have even said you have a bit of hair as well!).  I'm excited to see you, to see what you are really like, and excited for your brothers to meet you, but I have patience as well.  It's estimated that you're about 2 and a half pounds, but I am frightened by you being born that small...your brothers were both over 8 pounds, and they seemed fragile to me at first, I can't imagine what a much smaller baby would be like.  I also don't want to have to have you stay in the hospital for very long after birth either.  Anyway, I try not to think about these things...at least too much!

Well, one of these times I'll get to scanning your ultrasound pictures....you're getting bigger, so they look a whole lot different, but they're still interesting!  Keep on baking...and I'll do my best to keep you in!

Less Than 100 Days to Go!

This is completely random, and I noticed it almost serendipitously last night, but it is now 99 days until your due date!  I was setting up a ticker/count-down timer on my tablet last night and it came up as being 100 days...so that was pretty interesting!

Today you are 25 weeks, 6 days.  This past weekend, we had your "fun" ultrasound and, yes, you're still a girl and we got to see some of the features on your super cute little face!  You do look like your brothers...same nose, same chin, same general shape.  You were loving to play with your hands and feet, and your feet are up so close to your face...very flexible!  One thing that was different between you and your brothers is that it looked like your eyes were open off and on!  I think you could hear them (being silly) during the ultrasound.

Not too much terribly exciting going on with doctor's appointments and the like...other than we have the 1 hour glucose screen coming up (whenever I get around to taking it...maybe Friday?).  I'm not too worried, since everything was fine with Jared, and even after he was born I was just fine with the 2 hour test.  We don't have another appointment for about 2 more weeks.

The rolls and kicks are getting more frequent, even though there are some times that I can't feel you at all.  It makes me a little nervous (with no rational reason!) when I see you kicking or punching where your placenta is in the front...it's probably fine, it just creeps me out!  You do most of your moving around at night, so both me and your daddy feel you in there.

Well...that's about all!  I don't have the pictures from your ultrasound here, but I'll add them soon (when I get home, hopefully!).

24 Weeks and Almost Summer!

It's already well into May, and it feels like it's summer time...which should give me lots of time to write, right?  But I've been slacking, as always ends up happening, and now you're 24 weeks (and 1 day!) along!

No longer is gender ambiguity!  On April 3rd, we found out that you are a GIRL!  I have to admit I had no strong feelings either way (your dad was convinced that you were a girl, and so glad he was right!).  It makes it easy since we have your  name all picked out and all of that good stuff.  Everything has checked out pretty well at the past doctor's appointments too (heartbeats solid in the 150 range).  At the ultrasound where we found out that you were pink (vs blue), the tech wasn't able to get all of the measurements that she needed, just due to your position...so we got to go back for another ultrasound this past Monday to get the rest.  You are still so squirmy, and it was funny to watch the tech get you into a good position, only to have you throw your arm up in the way right before she took a measurement.  You measured pretty much right on target (not "earlier" or "later" than your due date would say...46th percentile)...so maybe you'll be smaller than your brothers (but not too much!) when you're born.

Tuesday, right after the ultrasound/appointment, on the other hand, wasn't so great.  Me, your daddy and Daniel all had food poisoning and were throwing up (or having it come out of the other end).  Jared escaped because he didn't eat what we had for dinner the night before (pizza).  I don't think you were too thrilled with me throwing up every hour or so for a while there, and I was in a world of pain the next day (cramping, intermittent contractions and so on, probably exacerbated by dehydration).  Luckily, everyone has recovered pretty well, just in time for the weekend!

Other than that, some things to look forward to are scheduling your "fun" 3D/4D ultrasound here in the near future!  Daniel had his the day before he turned 24 weeks, and Jared a bit later at around 28 or 29 weeks.  We're hoping to hit a middle ground with you and maybe do it around 26 weeks!  We want to do some family pictures too, and you'll be in there, just as a belly though (for now!).

And that's about it!  Time to settle in for the long summer...even though less than 16 weeks until your due date doesn't seem like that long!

The Last Day of Ambiguity!

Gender ambiguity, that is!  Yes, that's right...tomorrow you will (most likely) be known from here on out as a "he" or a "she".  It's come upon us all really quickly, and I don't hesitate to say that it's come more quickly than with your brothers!

To state the obvious, tomorrow your parents will know if they'll have three sons come August, or two sons and a daughter.  As most every parent says, a healthy child is most important...which it is...but it's hard not to wish for one over the other, or think of how things might be in the future if it's one sex over another.  So here's my thoughts.

There's advantages to either sex!  I won't say disadvantages, because that's not what we're really going for here.  If both of your older brothers were girls, I think we'd be leaning towards a boy, just to have at least one of each and to kind of balance things out, so to speak.  So, it'd be nice to have a girl, for reason that we do not have one and we'd like to experience that.  Three boys would be good in a lot of ways too.  I was packing away some of the clothing that Jared had outgrown (and in some cases, it was clothing that Daniel had worn, that was passed on, etc).  Some were super cute, and some I wish hadn't gotten lost in the laundry or something, or had been more in season for both to wear.  Toys...yeah we have lots of trucks and legos and other things.

So I totally lied...said I wasn't going to talk about the disadvantages, and I suppose that's still true, as I'm not getting into the disadvantages of being a boy.  Rather...we don't have a name!  Such a problem to have, right?  And that's really about all!

I hesitate to make any of my own predictions, because I really don't know, and I really don't have any indications that you're one over the other.  They say that mom's are supposed to have this sense as to the gender of their unborn child, but I don't.  And I don't know if I want to, for reason that I don't want to get it into my head that you're one over the other, and have it not be the case.  Ambiguity today, certainty (well, mostly), tomorrow!