The Romaezis

Day 61: 32 WEEKS!!!

We have hit another huge milestone and I cannot believe it. I AM EIGHT MONTHS PREGNANT!!! I’m doing a darn good job of keeping my New Year’s Resolution so far. I hear reminders from the nurses at least once a week as to how far we have made it on this journey. It really is insane to think that we came in at 23 weeks. We HAVE come a long way. I am so thankful that Kayvan has been here for me every single step of the way. I know I have said it again and again but family and friends have been so amazing to us as well. Watching our pets, keeping us fed, keeping the hospital food out of my mouth and helping us prepare for the boy who has made it more than evident that he simply cannot wait to meet you all.

Baby is in a good spot–much better than the prognosis of “If you can make it to 24 weeks the baby will have a 50% chance of survival.” According to the ultrasounds he should now be able to breathe on his own outside of the womb. Hopefully he will soon have the ability to maintain his temperature and eat on his own as well. Kayvan and I were just talking last night about the fact that we went from the possibility of having a preemie in the NICU for months to having an almost full term baby hopefully come home with us…or worst case in the NICU for a few weeks. The kid isn’t here yet and we won’t know anything about how he will do until he is born. All things considered so far, we have a lot to be thankful for. Our next big milestone is 36 weeks. That is only a month away. I expect that the doctors will give me an induction date about 2 weeks from now.

I mentioned yesterday that I made quite a few new hats. They are now up for sale on Etsy. Click the photo below to be taken to the listing. I am also working on a custom order for a dinosaur hat and papoose. I can’t wait to finish it and show it to you! I should have it finished tomorrow. Don’t forget to enter the contest for a custom made hat. The deadline of February 25th is rapidly approaching!!

Now that the boy is at 32 weeks the non stress tests are a bit different. Instead of 10 and 10s, which I explained earlier are that baby has to increase his heart rate by 10 beats per minute 10 times in 10 minutes, he has to do 15 and 15s. Same concept but replace the “10” in the previous sentence with “15.” …or something like that… But, he didn’t get that memo today. He showed us lots of good variability but wasn’t quite pulling 15 and 15s. I sat on the monitors for an hour before the nurse took me off and asked if the strip looked okay enough or if I had to go for a biophysical profile ultrasound. Doc cut him a break and said the strip looked good enough.

Another new thing today is that my legs turn PURPLE after I take a shower. Mind you, I am supposed to sit on a shower stool and I do what I’m told since I don’t want my shower privileges taken away. It seems my legs have gotten used to this whole bed rest thing and figure I no longer need good circulation. Since that isn’t really the case and I would prefer to avoid blood clots should I end up with a c-section at the end o fall this, I got a new accessory to my hospital wardrobe. Compression sock thingies. They are pretty neat actually. They aren’t really socks but cuffs that go on each legs. They act sort of like a blood pressure cuff, squeezing and releasing on each leg to encourage circulation. It feels like a massage so I told Kayvan that he can now get away with only rubbing my feet. Hope these work!