Today marks a huge milestone in pregnancy number two. Jackson was delivered on this exact day in my pregnancy with him. No, this does not make it Jackson's birthday (that was back on August 6th). It means that I am 33 weeks and 1 day pregnant.
What does this all mean? No matter what happens, from this moment forward I have a better cooked baby! Jackson was medium-rare. We are hoping for medium to well done this time around.
I had a feeling my doctor was wary of this pregnancy, but that was confirmed a few weeks ago. She told me in all honesty that she thought this pregnancy would have progressed with HELLP syndrome rearing its ugly head around 23 or 24 weeks. I am pleased to report I have proved her wrong! Blood work shows that all is well. My blood pressure is fine, I am not swollen at all, and there have been no symptoms other than typical third trimester aches and pains. I love being right.
From this point forward I am entering pregnancy territory that I have never navigated. In fact, I would have been on bed rest for the past six days. Therefore, I have been experiencing pregnancy in a new way since last Wednesday.
I refuse to complain, because the last thing I want is to have another premature baby. However, it would be unrealistic to deny the fact that the next six weeks may be a challenge. Here is a short list of things that have come to mind several time as I ruminate on the next six weeks:
- I may have the honor of being the mama who is so ready for her baby to arrive rather than the mama sitting in the NICU all day for weeks hoping her baby can come home soon because he arrived too early.
- I may bake a baby who is big enough to eat and sleep well when he is born. However, that baby is baking in my belly while I am teaching in a middle school classroom. This ought to get more interesting with each passing week.
- Is it really possible for my belly to get bigger? Did I not get stretch marks the first time around because I did not get bigger than this? Better get some fancy lotion just in case.
- Will we actually get to the scheduled c-section at 39 weeks? Are we going to show up to the hospital prepared with bags packed? "Hi! I am here for my c-section."
- What if I go into labor in my classroom? That would actually be kind of cool. Freaking out middle school kids is actually pretty fun. I mean, I was the teacher that put a preserved frog in a girl's locker last year and took a video of her reaction. (For the record, she had it coming with her dramatics during dissection.)
- Is this kid going to continue to stand on my pelvic bones and punch my ribs simultaneously? We may need to have a little chat.
- At what point is my stomach going to completely run out of space? How am I going to eat enough food to gain the recommended amount of weight? I can barely stand to eat a full meal now.
- Tired. Just tired.
- Did I just drop something? Screw it.
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