Milestone

Bed rest is making this pregnancy seem longer than it is.

With Thomas I carefully tracked the days and weeks before his due date. I couldn't wait for my new baby to arrive. It seemed like December would never come. Of course, when it did come, it didn't matter since Thomas had been born two months prior.

Anna's pregnancy breezed by. Apart from progesterone injections and regular OB appointments, I had a young toddler to distract me and I would look at the calendar and think, "Wow! Thirty weeks already!"

This pregnancy started out that way. It began so well and was progressing at such a nice pace. The last four and a half weeks have brought Time to a grinding, moaning crawl. It's taken this long, but I've finally made it to the first--the FIRST!--big milestone.

I am 28 weeks pregnant today.

It's taken long enough. At 28 weeks the survival rates are very high and complication rates are very low. There would still be some problems and certainly some Respiratory Distress Syndrome and the baby would most likely need very invasive breathing assistance, as least for a few days. But at this point, the doctors would be pretty cheerful if little Baby Nuevo had to be born now. I wouldn't be, but that's beside the point. The real upside to this is that I'm not having a baby today. So hopefully the picture gets even better from here.

The real bright spot for me is the meeting I had with one of the specialists who came around yesterday. I haven't seen her since the day after my water broke and I was struck by her pretty first name--Helen--and by her wild optimism. She said then that she thought they could keep me here for ten weeks before the baby would be delivered. When she came yesterday she asserted that she believed that I'd make it until 32 to 34 weeks and that they'd have to do a c-section to get the baby out. She had a lot of very technical reasons why she thought that, but I'll tell you the truth--most of it went over my head. I hope she's right!

It's amazing the variety of estimates there are as to how long I'm expected to be here. I can only assume that it's because some doctors tend to be much more conservative than others, but I don't really know why. I'm thinking of starting a betting pool for my visitors and staff. I'll put a calender on the wall and they can write their estimates on it and whomever is closest can win something cool. Like a cheesecake.

The important thing for now is that I'm still pregnant. My fluid levels are very low and sometimes that depresses me, but there's nothing I can do about it. I'll leak while lying on my back, perfectly still. What more could a person do? The baby is transverse breech now and so I think that I leak more now that the baby's head isn't "plugging the exit", so to speak. I just hope the doctors don't get nervous about how low my fluid levels are and decide to section me earlier than necessary.

I'll keep you updated.

For now I have another ultrasound to look forward to in an hour, plus my brother is coming up to bring me a Chipolte burrito. So much to do, so little time.