9 days and counting

Yup, you heard me right. 9 days and counting until hospital bedrest, and I am SO not ready. It could be worse I guess. I mean, I was able to extend my time at home by 2 days. If you remember, I was supposed to be admitted on December 26th, but now the plan has changed to December 28th. I am so happy to be able to be home for the holidays, although Brian does have to work on Christmas Day. Bummer, huh? But the plan now is to have one more visit with my OB on Christmas Eve, then see the peri in his office on the 28th for one last in-office growth scan and cervical length check.

I was told to come "with my bags packed".

So the way I envision it is to go to the peri's office (yes, I will bring my bag), then hopefully enjoy my last lunch "out" for a while with Brian and Abby, then take Abby to her 16-month well visit Monday afternoon, before they drop me off for my extended stay at "Hotel Hoag".

From there, I will remain on 24-hour fetal monitoring. The purpose is to watch for any drops in heartrate, as this would be an indicator that baby girl is kicking the blood vessel. If they find she is, they will have no choice but to take her. You see, the bigger she gets the more likely she could rupture the blood vessel when she kicks. If that were to happen, there would be little to no chance of saving her. That's the whole reason for the bedrest and planned early delivery. I was given steriod shots shortly after I had the appendectomy, just in case surgery triggered any labor, but since it's now been a month, they will give me another round of steriods once I am admitted. Assuming baby girl behaves and does not practice her karate kicks on that blood vessel, then she will be delivered via a planned c-section, on either January 14th or 15th. I will be in my 34th week of pregnancy when baby girl is delivered.

So, as of this week, I have gained 12 pounds total. Not much, I know...and it's not for a lack of trying, that's for sure. I am definitely bigger than I was when I delivered the twins, although that's no surprise considering I have been pregnant for 3 weeks longer than I was last time. And last Monday, baby girl measured 3 pounds 7 ounces, although I am a little skeptical of those measurements they do with an ultrasound. But even if you give or take 5 ounces (making her 3.2), she is still outweighing Abby by a whopping 14 ounces. Crazy, huh? Honestly, I am just hoping to get her into the 4 1/2 to 5 pound range before delivery. Considering she's coming at 34 weeks, I'd be very happy with that.

I still have tons of things to do. We are working on getting our guest room ready for the Grandmas, who will be working in shifts to help care for Abby when Brian is working. I have managed to get all of Abby's old newborn clothes out, but it still needs to be washed and put away. And apparently, I never planned on having another preemie, because I sold all of Abby's preemie-sized clothing on e-Bay as soon as Abby grew out of it, so some shopping needs to be done. And there's a few other odds and ends I need to get.

I still have some holiday shopping to do, and we are hosting a Christmas Eve gathering (12 people or so) Thursday night. Not to mention, Christmas Eve is also our wedding anniversary, so I need to come up with something for my wonderful husband. Oh that's right! I almost forgot that a dear friend of mine is hosting a gold party at my house on Tuesday night too! Humph. All this while per the doctor's orders, I am not to be on my feet for more than 45 minutes at a time.

Now that I think about it, I should not be sitting here blogging...I have a lot to do!