1 Week… 7 Days… 168 hours… 10,080 minutes… 604,800 seconds… stand between me and meeting my son! To say I am excited is a complete understatement! I look back over the months and it amazes me the journey that my husband and I have experienced these past eight months. All the fear and doubt – not wondering if we would make it this far – but here we are: A week from holding our newborn son in our arms! I am so grateful to have reached this point and I am so hopeful that in one week WE WILL be holding a healthy baby in our arms!
The last several weeks have been uneventful, which is just the way they should be. I woke up on February 1st feeling so blessed! I was overjoyed to have reached the month of February still pregnant. As I have mentioned in past posts, I’ve had this fear that I would not make it to certain milestones. Always worried that baby boy would come either stillborn or premature before February arrived. Waking up the morning of the 1st of this month was such a relief. I was able to scratch another milestone off my list. I’ve always worried that my baby would die on significant dates. This includes holidays, whether big or small. The last significant date that was important for me to pass was Valentine’s Day. My heart has always gone out to families who have endured losses on special holidays. I imagine it is hard to ever fully enjoy special dates when you’ve lost such a huge part of your heart and soul on that date years past.
34.3 Weeks
My weekly high risk ultrasounds have been going great without any hitches! The techs look for several different things throughout the ultrasounds. Baby must perform three movements and complete 30 uninterrupted seconds of practiced breathing. The tech checks the blood flow through the cord and the heart and documents the heart rate of my baby at each visit. They also check my amniotic fluid levels. Making sure they haven’t drastically risen. My levels have been holding pretty steady (around 27 afi) for the last three weeks. Not in the normal range, but thankfully just mildly concerning. If my baby passes all these tests I am given a less than 1% chance of having a stillbirth between that appointment and the next appointment the following week.
The best part of these ultrasounds is of course getting to see baby boy! The techs are always spoiling me with wonderful pics and video clips. I every once and awhile am treated to a 3d or 4d scan of my little man! We’ve gotten more than one shot of him sticking his tongue out and making funny faces! At my almost 31 week appointment he was weighing approximately 3 lbs, 13 oz. At my almost 35 week appointment he was weighing approximately 5 lbs, 13 oz. These measurements are of course approximations and can be finicky. It’ll be interesting to see how big he actually is at birth. The tech guessed that he will be over 7 lbs at birth. I’m guessing anywhere in the 6 lb range. Time will tell!
Hold us close these last few days! I am very optimistic that we will make it to the 23rd with a safe and successful birth. But the warm wishes and prayers are always appreciated! Until next time, we’ll have a handsome baby boy in our arms!