35 Weeks

Today marks 35 weeks in this pregnancy. Based on previous experience, I figure I have at least 2 good days of pregnancy left. That is incredibly hard for my brain to wrap around. We have a goal to make it to 38 weeks but we are extra prepared in case this baby makes an early appearance. Bags are packed, babysitters put on notice and I am trying to keep the house and laundry clean. At this point we know that if I do go into early labor, the doctor won’t try to prevent it as I am already on progesterone. The good news is that at my appointment on Thursday, we were not showing any signs of labor at all. Baby is measuring a touch ahead and is incredibly strong.

Molly and Emily were both born at 35 weeks and 3 days exactly. An incredibly bizarre coincidence. My doctor finds it so strange, he told me he had it circled on his day planner so he would be prepared. At birth, both girls had low Apgar scores and they each suffered from different issues. Molly struggled with eating and keeping her temperature regulated. She was also incredibly week and sleepy so she couldn’t nurse and could barely keep her eyes open during a bottle feeding. She may have gotten to come home a bit earlier if she hadn’t inherited stomach issues from my side of the family. As it was, she stayed in the hospital for 8 days. I was fortunate enough to stay with her. Emily struggled a bit more, she had trouble keeping her O2 saturation at acceptable levels and her heart rate tended to fluctuate based on her breathing. Because I had a toddler at home, I was not able to stay with her and she was in the hospital for 9 days. She was much stronger than her sister though and ate like a champ.

With Molly, one of the nurses told us to be glad she was a girl because boys don’t do as well when they are born early. The doctor said that in med school they call it Wimpy White Boy Syndrome. Makes sense to me. Men are always huge babies when they are sick. It was funny at the time….now it is ominous.

I am writing all of this to inform people of our concerns. In the past few weeks I have gotten some comments from people about how “35 weeks isn’t that early” or “at least you won’t have a huge baby” or my personal favorite, “if the baby stays in the NICU, at least you will get to sleep.” I cannot even begin to describe how inane that statement is. On top of the fact that we don’t want to leave our baby in the hospital, a mom of a preemie is still up every 3 hours to pump “liquid gold” for her baby. Anytime a baby is born early, the risk of issues is multiplied. So we want people to be informed. And praying. Pray that this creature stays put for 3 more weeks.

Because we still do not know why I went into early labor, there isn’t a whole lot we can do to prevent it. I am relaxing, a lot. I don’t lift anything over 10 pounds and am pretty much homebound. Those efforts, coupled with the progesterone and prayer, I am hopeful that we can last a few more weeks.