23 Weeks

I feel like I hit a big milestone today in that seven days ago they kept telling me they might have to do an emergency c-section (and wouldn't attempt to save his life), and now today if that happened (at least in Hershey or Harrisburg), they would whisk him to the NICU and attempt to save his life. I'm hoping he stays inside a lot longer. I know micropreemies have a very, very LONG road to normalcy, but at least now I know they'd attempt to save his life. He's very active these days. I feel his kicks all throughout the day. I woke up bright and early this morning (4:30am) and couldn't go back to sleep, but I was able to take a nice nap while my mom took the kids to gymnastics. My dear mother left her home VERY early this morning as she was on our front porch by 7:40am. She also stopped at the library to return the 6 books Paul got me last week and to pick up 6 more books plus one DVD. She'll be returning home tomorrow evening. I haven't had any contractions or bleeding. The spotting has all been brown, and they said I only needed to call if it was red.

I weighed myself this morning for the first time in three weeks, and I was relieved to see I had gained four pounds in that time span. This puts my total weight gain at 12 pounds, and I think that's pretty good considering I'm at 23w. I'm doing much better with weight gain this time than I did the last two pregnancies, although I realize weight gain is the least of my concerns right now. I want to check more regularly to make sure I don't need to cut back now that I'm on bedrest.

I'm very grateful for the help my mom and in-laws have provided over the past week because I paid for babysitters from 9am to 6pm yesterday, and that wasn't cheap (although thankfully babysitting around here costs a lot less than in places like Chicago, where my sister lives). Obviously it's far better to pay for babysitters than to go into labor at 23w. I'm just hoping I won't need to be on bedrest for too many weeks. I think it will depend on whether the placenta previa resolves or not as well as whether my cervix gets too short again or not. Hopefully I'll find out more tomorrow at my appointment. Someone from church offered to drive me to and from my appointment tomorrow (3.5 hours round trip not including the time spent in the doctor's office). I should only have to make one more trip to Harrisburg after this one because my other two appointments this month can be at the local hospital. The first week of July I can switch to Geisinger (where I had the IVF done).

The meal that was delivered to our house last night was delicious. Nancy brought baked ham, macaroni and cheese, grapes, green beans, and homemade chocolate chip cookies. Ham and grapes happen to be favorite foods for Nadia and I, and all three of us like macaroni and cheese. When I'm not pregnant I love chocolate chip cookies. I shared a few cookies with our neighbors last night, and my mom and Nadia have enjoyed them today (Paul, Ian, and I won't be eating any).

My mom also took the kids to the hairdresser today. I had noticed last month that Nadia's hair was naturally curly (beautiful ringlets) where her hair wasn't quite as long. Since she doesn't enjoy having her hair brushed and never likes to wear it up or have anything in it, I decided to get it cut shorter in the hopes we'll see the natural curls more. It was the second time in her life that her hair was cut (aside from the bangs), and the last time I just had them trim her hair. This was the first significant haircut she's ever had, and she'll be turning 4 years old in 18 days. I wish I could say I loved her haircut, but I don't. For one thing it's shorter than what I was wanting, but the bigger problem is that she cut the bottom in a really choppy way. I have no training in cutting hair, and I think I could have done a better job. After it grows a bit I may take her somewhere else to get it evened out. I'm going to try blowdrying it and curling it under to see if that helps. The good news is that hair grows back. I had hoped to love her hairstyle for her upcoming 4 year old pictures at Walmart. It went much better with Ian. His haircut was better than I can do at home, and he didn't cry at all (he cried so much that he threw up the last time I took him to the beauty salon). She had the clippers set at "four." I'm recording that in case I forget and need to look it up the next time I get his cut. I wanted it shorter but not a buzz cut. His hair is a definite improvement. Hopefully I'll feel better about Nadia's in the coming days and weeks. Of course since she's my daughter, I think she's beautiful even with a bad haircut.