The Romaezis

Day 81: Ending of a Chapter

This time next week I’ll be in labor.  If I’m lucky and the whole process is fast, I’ll already be a mom.  Kayvan and I have decided to count down to the next milestone which is our trip to L&D THIS Sunday night.  That means we are 6 days away!  That means this is my last week in the High Risk Pregnancy Department…or HRP as we familiar with hospital lingo call it.  This morning, as the lights were yanked on by the lab tech at exactly 6:00 a.m. (I just love being the first on the list) I realized that this is the LAST time I will be pulled from my beauty rest to be stuck in the arm and have the blood sucked from my body at such an hour.  Now, I am expecting the need for blood work at the end of this week…and an IV…and other medical interventions that I do not want to think about right now.  But they won’t be waking me at 6a.m. for blood draws anymore!!!  I’m looking forward to this week of “lasts.”  Some of them, like the blood draws, I’m happy to see go.  Others, like the non stress tests (yes, NSTs), ultrasounds, hearing baby’s heart rate every 4 hours during vitals and just being pregnant in general I know I’m really going to miss.  I’m sure having a baby in my arms will trump all of this.

As I sit here a week away from having a baby I have absolutely NO urge to nest.  I’ve thought about this and part of it is good since I am not allowed to nest anyway.  I DO NOT want that energy when all I can do with it is sit in a hospital bed.  When the nurses mention nesting during their pregnancies and how they would go crazy I shrug and say, “I guess that is what crocheting is for me.”  But I know it is not entirely true.  The last two weeks Kayvan has been at home…nesting.  I love watching Kayvan come into the hospital room full of excitement and smiles as he shows me the nursery, the baby stuff he has assembled and just talks to me about how purely looking at baby items makes him SO happy.  I’m excited to have this baby.  It just doesn’t feel like a reality for me yet.  It’s a month early, my body is not ready, I’ve had a pregnancy that you wouldn’t exactly call typical and I’m sure this is why I’m not nesting.  I’m glad my husband is!  Someone has to get this stuff done.  Watching his excitement I understand why nesting is important for a new mother, it gets her prepared for baby, it helps her come to terms with the fact that she is about to have a baby and the fact that soon, she will no longer be pregnant.  I’m fairly certain that I will be organizing our house like a mad woman well before I’m able to handle it.  I’m not worried.

We had an ultrasound first thing this morning and since the hospital is home for Kayvan again he came with!  I’m really glad he did.  The boy was a maniac in there.  When the ultrasound tech put her probe near his butt, he stuck his butt out staking his claim.  The kid never likes it when I poke at his feet and he doesn’t like it when the tech does it either.  She was trying to get another angle on the amniotic fluid pocket she found because his hand was blocking it so she tried near his feet and he kicked her…a few times.  It helps that this tech gets a kick out of her job and seeing babies on the screen so whenever he messed with her she would laugh and comment that he is “strong” or something like that.  He got hiccups for a bit which she measured, even though we weren’t doing a biophysical profile today (BPP) and she measured his movement which she said was really good.  The fluid levels seem to be pretty constant…at least for the past week.  Last Thursday we were at 4.2 and today we are at 4.31.  Not “normal” levels by any means but I’ll take it.  Our last ultrasound is Thursday and I really hope that the levels are the same or better then.