27 Weeks, 5 Days

We are rounding the bases and about to slide into 28 weeks. That will be a day to celebrate. Reaching 28 weeks was our long term goal from the beginning but we didn't dare verbalize it. My favorite perinatologist congratulated me no less than 3 times today. She was the attending on call the first weekend we arrived and she has been a source of comfort ever since. It is hard to believe that I've been hospitalized for 34 days now (but who's counting?).

I am sorry for the lack of updates lately. The past two weeks have been difficult and the last thing I wanted was to dump some of that Debbie Downer funk onto all of you. I can manage to talk myself into being positive about 80% of the time but sometimes I just like to wallow in sadness and self pity that remaining 20%.

Last Friday was our 6 year wedding anniversary. We celebrated with breakfast from Bagels Forever and my extremely generous gift to JD was to order him two Diet Mountain Dews from the cafeteria. The OB did a double take when she saw that tray delivered and she was relieved to learn that the milk, not the soda, was my beverage.

We were supposed to be celebrating with a trip to Minneapolis to go to a U2 concert so you can imagine the soda didn't quite cut it. For months I was trying to come up with a clever, attention getting saying to put on a maternity tank top but all I could come up with was "Baby loves Bono." I'm pretty sure that BD#2 is a bigger fan of The Edge, like his dad, so at least the pressure was off for that. Apparently astronaut Mark Kelly made a virtual appearance from the space shuttle; that was probably a more entertaining and noble choice than selecting this bed-ridden prego. All the reviews from the concert were glowing so it sounds like we missed a fantastic show - despite some heavy rain (Thanks for the pics TL!).

The Edge, cool as ever

Bono, singing in the rain

However, a highlight from our unplanned staycation, was a visit from my brother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew. They left the fridge stocked with food for JD and KD and my brother made me my favorite indulgence - chocolate scotcheroo bars. Being the mechanical engiNERD that he is, he decided to increase the Rice Krispie® volume by 50% to allow adequate surface area for maximum chocolate coverage. This was the first time he had ever made the bars and I give them two chocolate-smeared thumbs up.

For the past few weeks, my OB has been talking about scheduling a growth ultrasound for July 25 so you can imagine that I was pretty excited and anxious to reach that milestone on Monday. Well, sometimes being a stable and relatively low maintenance patient has its drawbacks because somewhere along the way, that little order was never processed. I feel bad for the medical resident who was sent to tell me that it wouldn't make a difference, clinically speaking, if the ultrasound was delayed for two days until an appointment opened up. My tears of disappointment quickly showed her that, from a clinical standpoint, it may not have been a big deal but from an extremely personal standpoint, it was a huge deal for this patient whose happiness depends on reaching major milestones like that. Ultimately, it was rescheduled for this morning at 9:45. We received great news...the AFI is 7 and the estimated weight is 2 lbs, 12 ounces. The measurements estimate that the gestational age is closer to 28 weeks and 1 day instead of the actual 27 weeks and 5 days so it looks like BD#2 is following in his sister's footsteps and measuring a little bigger than expected. They tried to take some pictures of him but, also like his sister, he is most comfortable with his hands up by his face. Here is one that is pretty clear. You can see two little eyes, a nose and mouth towards the right of the image. They can't do those cool 3-D images because there isn't enough fluid to allow for that.

That's all the news for now. Thanks for your continued support and prayers. A social worker stopped in today and she was amazed with the social support network we have, something we are very thankful for.