Wednesday, April 25, 2012
"Well, that's surprising."
Truman's response to a reading of "It's Not the Stork" and learning exactly how Baby Brother got into my belly.
"This baby is huge!"
Baby Brother Updates
"This baby is huge!" -- Those were the words of Dr. Martin after this week's sonogram. At 26 weeks, 1 day, Baby Brother was measuring two weeks ahead and estimated to weigh 2 lbs, 12.8 ounces. To put that in perspective, Truman weighed only 1 lb, 12 ounces the first time I held him at one month of age and 2 lbs, 15.6 ounces the first time I nursed him at 10 weeks of age (or the equivalent of 33 week gestation). It's pretty cool to realize I've already held a baby even larger than the one I'm currently carrying. I'm on my way to a very large baby, which is fabulous in my opinion.
Everything was still looking good at this week's appointment. My gestational diabetes test looks great, my weight gain is good, the amniotic fluid looks good, and my cervical measurement is OK. It went down to 3.2 because I had a more active weekend. That's still a safe range, but also a reminder to take a little easier next weekend.
26 weeks marks a huge milestone in terms of infant mortality and postnatal outcomes. Although it is still far too soon for Baby Brother to be born, he would be in exponentially better shape than Truman were he to come at this point.
Ben has been working diligently on the nursery so that I can organize all the boxes of baby clothes and baby gear filling up the nursery and figure out what else we need to replace before Baby Brother's arrival. I'm so ready to get his room prepared, even though he won't use it for a long time.
Truman Updates
I forgot to report that Truman earned MVP for the two-week period in his mainstream class a couple of weeks. We still get lots of reports of naughty days from his PPCD class, but he seems to do OK in his mainstream class most days.
He weighed in at 35 pounds at his most recent weight check about six weeks ago, finally hitting a mark we've been working toward for a while. He's still not filling out at all, but he is getting taller and although he's still the shortest kid in his class, he's not so short that he's out of place among most of his peers anymore.
He's still learning like a sponge, regularly sharing facts with me that I didn't know and reminding me of things I had long ago forgotten. He's starting to show some reading readiness signs like spelling, identifying how words start and end, and sounding out a few short words on rare occasion. He impresses me all the time with his intelligence and level of understanding of things I would never have expected him to understand at this age, like his understanding of how some of the changes in my body may be affecting me. He asks me regularly about whether the stretching of my belly hurts me or makes me sore.
"This baby is huge!" -- Those were the words of Dr. Martin after this week's sonogram. At 26 weeks, 1 day, Baby Brother was measuring two weeks ahead and estimated to weigh 2 lbs, 12.8 ounces. To put that in perspective, Truman weighed only 1 lb, 12 ounces the first time I held him at one month of age and 2 lbs, 15.6 ounces the first time I nursed him at 10 weeks of age (or the equivalent of 33 week gestation). It's pretty cool to realize I've already held a baby even larger than the one I'm currently carrying. I'm on my way to a very large baby, which is fabulous in my opinion.
Everything was still looking good at this week's appointment. My gestational diabetes test looks great, my weight gain is good, the amniotic fluid looks good, and my cervical measurement is OK. It went down to 3.2 because I had a more active weekend. That's still a safe range, but also a reminder to take a little easier next weekend.
26 weeks marks a huge milestone in terms of infant mortality and postnatal outcomes. Although it is still far too soon for Baby Brother to be born, he would be in exponentially better shape than Truman were he to come at this point.
Ben has been working diligently on the nursery so that I can organize all the boxes of baby clothes and baby gear filling up the nursery and figure out what else we need to replace before Baby Brother's arrival. I'm so ready to get his room prepared, even though he won't use it for a long time.
Truman Updates
I forgot to report that Truman earned MVP for the two-week period in his mainstream class a couple of weeks. We still get lots of reports of naughty days from his PPCD class, but he seems to do OK in his mainstream class most days.
He weighed in at 35 pounds at his most recent weight check about six weeks ago, finally hitting a mark we've been working toward for a while. He's still not filling out at all, but he is getting taller and although he's still the shortest kid in his class, he's not so short that he's out of place among most of his peers anymore.
He's still learning like a sponge, regularly sharing facts with me that I didn't know and reminding me of things I had long ago forgotten. He's starting to show some reading readiness signs like spelling, identifying how words start and end, and sounding out a few short words on rare occasion. He impresses me all the time with his intelligence and level of understanding of things I would never have expected him to understand at this age, like his understanding of how some of the changes in my body may be affecting me. He asks me regularly about whether the stretching of my belly hurts me or makes me sore.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
"The risk has passed"
Due to large size of our growing second son, my OB/GYN announced at this week's meeting that she believes the risk for cervical incompetence in this pregnancy has mostly passed. According to my doctor, once the baby reaches about 26 weeks in size, his weight is large enough to begin dissipating across the uterus and he basically serves as his own cervical stopper. Well, although we just passed the 25-week mark, this guy is measuring about 10 days head, making him a 26-weeker from a size perspective. He currently weighs an estimated 2 lbs, 3 ounces. It appears the cerclage has worked!
This week's good news is far from a diagnosis of a risk-free pregnancy from this point forward because although all medical signs point to incompetent cervix, we might have been wrong about why I went into labor. As a result, we're keeping all the protocols in place for reduced activity, weekly cervical length checks, and anti-contraction injections. It does mean that we can start to relax a little as to the biggest risk this pregnancy had going in.
My gestational diabetes screen came back with flying colors as well, and my weight gain is on track, so a very healthy pregnancy and good doctor visit all around.
As we get past these milestones and march toward an end to this pregnancy that actually results in a baby, we finally feel confident to take care of some of the things that need to happen to prepare. This weekend, we settled on a name for the new little one, hired a doula, bought a new dresser for Truman's room so that the baby can have the one in Truman's room that matches the crib, completed a registry, and let Truman make the final decision on bedding for his little brother. He chose pirate ships, of course.
I'm also starting to feel the need to take care of all the summer details for Truman so that everything is in place in case this baby does decide to make an early entrance after all. With some input from Truman, in the last week we've also picked Truman's summer day camps and paid and confirmed six weeks worth of day camps, signed Truman up for T ball, and scheduled private swim lessons. We bought his summer sandals this week, and I ordered warm weather church shirts.
Truman and I also started talking this week about what he wants to do for his birthday party and who he wants to invite. Considering his birthday is 10 days after my due date, I really don't want to put that off to the last minute. Also, as the mom of a kid with a summer birthday, I've learned you have to think about the invite list before school is out so that you can find out the last names and contact information for the kids your child wants to invite. Having a first name only in the middle of July doesn't get us very far.
This week's good news is far from a diagnosis of a risk-free pregnancy from this point forward because although all medical signs point to incompetent cervix, we might have been wrong about why I went into labor. As a result, we're keeping all the protocols in place for reduced activity, weekly cervical length checks, and anti-contraction injections. It does mean that we can start to relax a little as to the biggest risk this pregnancy had going in.
My gestational diabetes screen came back with flying colors as well, and my weight gain is on track, so a very healthy pregnancy and good doctor visit all around.
As we get past these milestones and march toward an end to this pregnancy that actually results in a baby, we finally feel confident to take care of some of the things that need to happen to prepare. This weekend, we settled on a name for the new little one, hired a doula, bought a new dresser for Truman's room so that the baby can have the one in Truman's room that matches the crib, completed a registry, and let Truman make the final decision on bedding for his little brother. He chose pirate ships, of course.
I'm also starting to feel the need to take care of all the summer details for Truman so that everything is in place in case this baby does decide to make an early entrance after all. With some input from Truman, in the last week we've also picked Truman's summer day camps and paid and confirmed six weeks worth of day camps, signed Truman up for T ball, and scheduled private swim lessons. We bought his summer sandals this week, and I ordered warm weather church shirts.
Truman and I also started talking this week about what he wants to do for his birthday party and who he wants to invite. Considering his birthday is 10 days after my due date, I really don't want to put that off to the last minute. Also, as the mom of a kid with a summer birthday, I've learned you have to think about the invite list before school is out so that you can find out the last names and contact information for the kids your child wants to invite. Having a first name only in the middle of July doesn't get us very far.
Monday, April 9, 2012
24 Weeks
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| At the Ennis Bluebonnet Trails |
Truman continues to ask lots of questions about when his baby brother is coming and what birth will be like for me. It is occurring to me that we need to start getting ready for this baby. We've got a new nursery to prepare, a name to pick out, classes to attend. Even though this is our second child, it's beginning to look like we could actually have a full-term healthy baby, and we know nothing about "take home" babies.
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