Today I reached a milestone. It might not be considered worthy of the local news stations, but in my world of pregnancy highs and lows lately it is definitely a momentous occasion and one that my husband and I are celebrating. I am now 6 days further in my pregnancy than when my youngest daughter was born 16 weeks early back in 2008. I am 24 weeks and 6 days pregnant today! I finally see some light at the end of the tunnel that I can get this pregnancy to term. Although my baby boy would be viable at this gestation if my body once again failed, he would have several things against him that could cause complications and decrease his chances; our elevation (over 6000 feet above sea level), his gender (it’s been proven that Caucasian male micro-preemies don’t do as well as girls), and his lungs would be underdeveloped. However, based on my last ultrasound, I am feeling incredibly hopeful that everything will be ok and I will make it well past 35 weeks.
I had something strange happen on Sunday at 24 weeks and 2 days pregnant, the same gestation my daughter was born at when she had to be taken by emergency c-section. I’ll talk about it in a separate post as I don’t believe I am the only one who has delivered a preemie to have this experience in a subsequent pregnancy. I would welcome some conversations on it. So keep an eye out for a follow-up post.
My cervix is holding at between 2.6 cm and 3.2 cm in length and I have not had any funneling since week 17. I have been able to be home with my girls and have managed to follow the doctor’s orders of modified bed rest as much as I can allowing me so far to avoid a lengthy stay in the hospital. I’ve hired a house keeper that comes weekly for a couple of hours to help me get everything cleaned up. Having never had someone clean my house before, I’ve discovered I love it. She’s amazing. My in-laws have offered to pitch in so that she can continue to help out. I’ve also had family members helping out with watching my girls or taking my oldest to have special days with grammy or one of her aunts. That has helped tremendously as I know my oldest has been very bored without mommy to be her usual fun self taking the girls to the park, or coming up with fun activities to do during the day.
My baby boy is kicking and moving every night and I already feel such a close bond with him. Last night he kicked hard enough for daddy to feel his kicks several times. I love this part of pregnancy! I can't wait to meet him, but I've told him he has to stay inside until he is full term. I think we are close to having a name for him, although we keep going back and forth between two. I am not sure why we seem to have such a difficult time with reaching a decision. We both feel confident we have a name, we start addressing him by the name and then both hubby and I will say "I don't know...let's wait on it." With our girls, their names seemed to come to us relatively easily. Hopefully we will decide soon as I would prefer to address him as something other than "baby boy."
I’ve had many questions regarding cervical length and bed rest. I think it’s best to address them now to clear up any confusion. Instead of including them here, I will list the most common ones in a separate page link above my post titled “Common Questions.” I did want to highlight a video in my post today from babyssentials.com that does a nice job of explaining an incompetent cervix. I think this will help give a visual for those that still aren’t sure what an incompetent cervix is and why I have been so hypervigilant about everything.
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