Presley Ann

Presley Ann

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Milestones

The past couple months have been full of milestones for our family. We passed the six month mark of Presley's birth, celebrated both Mother's Day and Father's Day with a trip to the cemetery, Noah graduated from the 8th grade and started working out with is high school football team (this was an emotional time for mom!) Parker closed out a challenging year of fifth grade but managed a strong finish and we finally hit "viability" for this baby girl. It hasn't been an easy road, with busy boys and all kinds of spring events mom has been on bed rest for ten weeks. If you know me, you know that being sedentary is not my forte! I was forced to give up the new job that I absolutely loved, step back as "team mom" back out of carpool and rely on others to meet my families basic needs. There are days that have been absolutely maddening. But through it all we've had some time as a family to simplify things and focus on what's really important, each other. I've had opportunities to talk with the boys more than I ever did during our busy, hectic days. I've been able to spend time individually watching movies with them, talking about their friends and interests and just be present, something we didn't often have time to do. I have not always handled things with grace, have had my share of meltdowns and have nearly lost my mind feeling unprepared for baby, but we're getting through it and baby is thriving!
You'll notice we've yet to settle on a name for this little girl, so she remains "Baby Girl" at the moment (another maddening issue for me, lol). I think we are so in love with her that we want it to be just absolutely perfect, nothing seems good enough just yet. As far as pregnancy is concerned, it continues to be less than typical. We were elated to reach 24 weeks, it was the first major milestone we'd been working toward. At 24 weeks baby is considered viable and we were set to receive a round of steroid injections to boost her lung development in case she decides to make an early appearance (which she seems quite determined to do). I was feeling pretty good when we went in on a Monday morning for the first shot, it was quick and simple and baby was active and looking great. A few hours later I felt awful! Thought maybe I was coming down with the flu, achey, low grade fever, headache, just not good. Called the OB who said that definitely wasn't a side effect of the steroid and agreed that maybe I was coming down with something. The next injection had to be administered exactly 24 hours later, so we headed back to the hospital for round two. I'd had a few contractions overnight, so was hooked up and monitored for a bit, only showed one contraction during that time, so we got the injection and headed home to rest and hydrate. Around 3pm regular contractions hit, by the time we reached the hospital (for the third time in two days) contractions were five minutes apart. I almost immediately received a dose of turbuteline, this slowed contractions some, but they were still somewhat consistent and measurable. When a nurse arrived with the second dose they realized that my heart rate was way to high to receive another dose. So we tried another medication which seemed to work and I was sent home with a prescription. Contractions have continued over the past few weeks, but seem to be pretty well controlled with meds. The medication made me feel awful for a week or so, but that also seems to have calmed down. We are now 27 weeks with baby measuring about a week ahead, which is fantastic. She is super active and strong, which is very reassuring and now we just focusing on letting her grow for as long as possible! The next goal is 32 weeks, at which the survival rate is nearly the same as a full term delivery. Once we reach that goal, my cerclage will be removed at 36 weeks, doctors are pretty confident that once that happens, we will pretty quickly have a baby! It's surreal to be at this point and we really feel like we're in the home stretch. I am extremely grateful for the love, prayers and day to day help we've had over the last several months. It has truly made some unbearable times a little more bearable. Now...on to the third trimester :)