A Better Day

Thank you everyone for all of your love and support these past few days! Since I have my doctor's appointments on Tuesdays, I seem to be in good spirits Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. By Friday, my p17 shot starts to wear off, I get crampy, and then start to totally freak out. I usually spend my weekends totally convinced that I'm going to lose the baby. I'm still waiting for all the full test results to come back on my third infection. It seems my body hates the stitch.

The ultrasound today took almost an hour. I remember during Ella's big ultrasound, the only thing that mattered to me was knowing whether I was carrying a boy or a girl. I never thought that they baby's heart might not have all four chambers, that it might be missing a kidney (thanks for that reminder at 3am this morning, Jess), or only have a 2 vessel cord. This time, I asked a lot more questions and asked the tech to point out all of the these things to me. Of course, this little one's head was jammed right on my cervix- no wonder I've been experiencing some extra pain down there. It also made the task of measuring the length difficult for the poor tech. Despite all of the cramping and contractions I've been having, my cervix is still closed and is still hovering in the 3.3-3.6 range (which I guess is good for a transabominal measurement of someone with a short cervix). Luckily, I have another measurement on Thursday with my Peri.

I was happy that my doctor didn't walk me through the same steps as Ella's 20 week appointment. At Ella's, she gave me the paperwork for the hospital, a list of pediatrician's, and brochure to sign up for birthing classes. I'm so not ready for any of that. We did talk however, about where I'll deliver should I go into full labor before 28 weeks. We are so fortunate to have two top hospitals that have level 3 NICUs here in San Diego. Hopefully, I won't need either one of them, but it was good to get that plan into place. She did hook me up with some disability paperwork as tomorrow will be my last day of work for a while. As I mentioned before, she actually offered to put me off after the cerclage, but I elected to go back for a while. Working has been good for my spirit and I'm definitely going to miss that. But I also feel that if I lose this baby, I want to know I have done everything I should have done.

I had my husband take some pictures of me at the doctor's office today. The top picture is of me at Ella's 20 week ultrasound (God, it feels like that was such a short time ago) and the bottom one is of me today. I'm really quite fond of my little bump and can't wait for it to get even bigger.





On a different, but kind of related note, I have been receiving some really powerful signs from the universe that this baby is going to be okay. Just last night, a special blogger friend forwarded me the lyrics to a beautiful Norah Jones song. She didn't know it (and neither do most of you...), but this baby's name is... Nora. I had to download the song to my Ipod immediately and have listened to it a hundred times.

Here are the lyrics:
Lonestar where are you out tonight?
This feeling I'm trying to fight
It's dark and I think that I would give anything
For you to shine down on me

How far you are I just don't know
The distance I'm willing to go
I pick up a stone that I cast to the sky
Hoping for some kind of sign

Lonestar where are you out tonight?
This feeling I'm trying to fight
It's dark and I think that I would give anything
For you to shine down on me
For you to shine down on me

And, last weekend after eating Chinese food my fortune said,
"star light, star bright, your wish will come true tonight." And, as we drove home we saw a rainbow.

Just realized that both of these signs, involve light, which is the meaning of the name, Nora. :)

I guess that's it for now. I have received some very sweet Ella gifts in the past month and need to post on that, soon. My husband temporarily lost our camera on his recent trip to Atlanta. Thank goodness it's been recovered. :)

xoxo