"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.