Ultrasound Results

Well, it isn't good news. Baby's stomach is now 4 weeks behind in development, and he is now in the 15% size range for his age. On Wednesday I will be 32 weeks, and he only weighs 2 lbs and 14 oz. Now my doctor and the high risk OB on staff are talking about delivering him at 34 weeks the latest. In that scenario, he would then spend a couple weeks in the hospital (until 36 weeks).

Next week we will have another ultrasound, this time with the high risk OB, to check on him again. The more he gets behind, the sooner they need to deliver him.

Meanwhile, there's nothing in particular that I can do to make up for my inefficient placenta, but the doctor has decided to put me on bedrest orders just in case that can help.

Other vital signs - heartbeat, movement, umbilical cord bloodflow- are all still good, but they will continue to monitor these as well in case something changes and the baby shows distress.

Little Update

All of you people are incredible! I've been telling David he has no idea how much love he's already receiving!
The next ultrasound appointment isn't set yet, but I'm expecting sometime next week. That's when we will have a more substantial update on whether his stomach is catching up and he's gaining weight. This week I am just going to baby monitoring appointments where the nurses hook me up to baby heartbeat monitors and contractions monitors to see how things are going. He's been very active, which is a sign of a healthy baby!
Also, today I have been abnormally hungry...I had lunch three times! I bet that means he's growing :)
We've been getting ready for him with childbirth classes and buying his carseat and moses basket. I kind of set up a registry at amazon under "Joanna Calderon and Omar Calderon" if you'd like to help out! It is "kind of" set up because there are things we have to wait until he is born to buy because we don't know if he'll be premie or newborn....so we registered for the very obvious necessities and a couple fun things :)

It's crazy how fast time is flying now! Please pray for Omar and me that we are also emotionally prepared as a couple to have a new member in our family. We want to be ready to face anything together and not have the stress/anxiety/sleeplessness/hospital bills and everything else wear us down in how we support each other and show love to each other every day. So far, we are doing well! But we need prayer protection.

Thank you!!!

Urgent Prayer Request

David is too little for his gestational age. The doctor is admitting me to the hospital today to give me steroids and a magnesium sulfate IV to protect his brain. Right now he is in the 19th percentile for his age, so if he dips below 10 percent, they will have to deliver him. As it is, my doctor says she will deliver him at 36 weeks at the latest (I am 30 weeks).

Of course, we are totally caught off guard by this info. Please pray his growth speeds up (especially his stomach, which is 2 weeks behind) and that he thrives in the womb. Pray he can stay in there at LEAST until 36 weeks so he does not have to be in NICU. Pray for our emotional health because it is not easy to hear the doctor talk about stillbirth possibilities. I know David will be born fine and healthy, but I really want him to be full term and naturally born, too!

Belly Pictures

So I forgot to ask Omar to take some pictures yesterday...I took a couple myself this morning! Not the best photography, but gives you an idea of what is happening with the belly :)

He was moving while I was taking pictures.

This baby is now about 15 inches long from head to foot, weighs around 2 lbs, and can do everything a newborn can (suck his thumb, blink his eyes, kick his legs, practice "breathing") BUT he would still have a very difficult time if he were born now. He just doesn't have enough fat on his body, and his brain is not as sophisticated (can't regulate body temperature, for instance, or breathe rhythmically).

Another note: If you look at my belly, the area from my shirt to about 2 inches below is my stomach. It is squished. This is why after eating dinner, I look a LOT bigger, but I can't actually fit very much in there. Everything below that space is pure baby. I even feel him moving above my belly button now.

He is big enough now that he can't hide in my pelvis and kick my bottom, like he used to :) Now I can actually harrass him by pushing on one side of my belly button and feeling him squirm to the other side. I can tell he has been practicing breathing because he has been getting hiccups more frequently. This comes from swallowing amniotic fluid.

I remember the University of Houston nurse asking me at 12 weeks if I wanted "to keep this pregnancy." I had already seen his little legs and arms in an ultrasound! I was so shocked that I actually didn't understand her the first time! This is not a "pregnancy." This is a baby, and I am in awe of how God is knitting him together!

28 weeks!!

Wow, it is hard to believe I have come this far already...only 12 weeks away from experiencing Eve's curse firsthand! Only 12 weeks away from holding this precious baby next to my heart!

I AM going to post pictures of my 3rd trimester belly, I promise! I keep waiting for Omar to take some of me because I am terrible at doing my own, so maybe we can do that tonight. If so, I'll get them posted tomorrow morning! Till then, just imagine what I would look like if I had swallowed a soccer ball. Omar keeps hoping my belly button will pop, but it is still resolutely "inny," although practically flat.

The cutest thing happened this morning. I woke up around 6 from a nightmare about being lost in Mexico City and spent about 15 minutes just lying in bed, recovering. Right at 6:15, Omar's multiple alarms started going off. One goes "Beep. Beep beep. Beep beep beep. Beep beep beep beep..." The other one plays a very cheerful cell phone song. Well, just as these alarms started ringing, David woke up!! Suddenly he was kicking and twirling around inside! I swear he HEARD the alarm and woke up. Isn't that adorable?
But I really hope that doesn't happen when he's a newborn sleeping in our room!

Day 1 of Being Husbandless

Well, depending on whether yesterday counts (I said goodbye to him at 8 AM), this is either day 1 or day 2 of my first separation from my husband!

I realized today that I have never been a single adult in Houston. This is important, I think, because it means I have no idea what to do in my hometown without family or boyfriend/husband. On the other hand, I could totally rock this week of singleness in Boston. I would be down at the ocean eating cannoli instead of doing google searches about pregnancy pains.

So let's just cut me some slack and agree that Houston is not the best city for inspiring energetic single living. Particularly in summer.

So far, I've been doing pretty well, though, I think. I paced myself yesterday so that I didn't watch the movie we had rented until 9 PM (the later the better, because then I can go straight to sleep). I actually cooked an awesome Brazilian salmon soup for myself and didn't follow it with a bowl of ice cream. OK, I admit to putting on Omar's boxers and the teeshirt that smells like him to watch the movie and sleep, but you know...we've only been married for seven months...

This morning I went to church by myself and had a good time despite the church being quite empty. Then I visited Central Market to check out the July 4 scene and eat some samples. I bought some fruit while I was there because I have discovered that buying fruit is the ultimate consolation for loneliness. Since yesterday, I have acquired 8 peaches, 2 mangos, 1 pineapple, a box of strawberries, and one box of blueberries. Today I added another box of strawberries and 4 "plumcots."

Somebody told me that the nice thing about being pregnant is that you're never alone. I don't feel that occasional tapping in my uterus qualifies as companionship, though. That's especially true this week because David has been growing capillaries and spinal bones and hardly moving at all. I can talk to him, but he can't talk to me.

But truthfully, I am really looking forward to this week as a chance to do some of my own kinds of things I haven't done in awhile -- cooking new recipes, going on long walks, reading some good books, and hanging out with some friends I haven't seen a lot of lately. I just have to find a way to keep myself occupied in the evenings/nights when I am most likely to miss my best friend.

By the way, Omar is on a mission trip in the Dominican Republic :)

Becoming the Ultimate Klutz

Since last week (week 23), I have been dropping, tipping, and spilling things left and right. Because it started happening so suddenly, I am still not used to it, and it feels like my body just gives up on basic motor skills at key moments.

I decided to post about this after what happened last night. We were cleaning up after dinner, and I had just finished wiping down our glass table with windex and paper towels. As I came into the kitchen to put the windex away, the bottle shot out of my hand, across the countertop, and straight into our water glasses. Omar, who was standing right next to me, looked at me like I was crazy and said, "What are you trying to do?"

I started laughing because it was so ridiculous that I was trying to fling the windex across the room. He made me write a note on the refrigerator reminding myself to "be careful when picking things up, putting things down, or when moving."

When it first started, I was making dinner for another couple at our house, and I had to reach for something in our top cabinet above the stove, where Omar keeps his beer. Naturally, a bottle of Shiner Bock came crashing down onto the kitchen floor...somehow staying in one piece, but with the bottle top popped, spraying beer all over the counters and the floor.

Two days ago I had a crazy problem with my other motor skills as well. I was teaching a lesson sitting down. I just slightly reached with my right arm to show my student something in the music, and I completely lost my balance. I remember the bewildered look on her face as I started tumbling towards her and grabbing at the stand to catch my fall from my chair. She is extremely excited about the baby, but trying to explain my physical awkwardness was really embarrassing.

So what is the deal? Do 10 pounds around the middle really do so much damage to my sense of balance? Or is it the movable, squirmy 1 pound that upsets things? I looked up my problem online, worried I had some sort of unidentified neurological disorder, and pregnancy websites assure me it is just the combination of "relaxed joints and water retention."

Yesterday I told Omar that maybe I am experiencing this clumsiness so I will be sympathetic with the baby :)... like when he pees on me as I am changing his diaper...