An (un)Eventful Weekend

Friday night was Aaron and my date night.

We got a babysitter, spent time together laughing and talking and I got breakfast in bed the next morning.

Unfortunately my primping for this outing involved a regularly scheduled ultrasound that showed my cervix had shortened by 30% in 2 weeks. And the location was L&D triage at Brigham and Women's hospital.

After seeing that my cervix had shortened the doctor suggested a cerclage (stitch through the cervix) to prevent any dilation. Aaron came home, we dropped Tessa off at some friends house and off we went. Ultimately the doctors at the hospital decided not to do the cerclage because I was so close to "viability"* and they didn't want to cause any PTL (Pre-Term Labor).

My cervix was measured at 2cm long, which isn't SUPER short, just shorter than it "should" be. I was not contracting. So they finally decided just to admit me for observation - hence the breakfast in bed (you'll notice the bed in the picture above is a twin size...never a good sign.)

Nevertheless, I wasn't kidding about date night. I was actually very surprised at how calm I felt during this whole thing (ie my intuition told me I was not going to have a baby that weekend), and so Aaron and I sat in our little room and joked and laughed and "how was your day?-d" from about 9 until midnight. Around midnight Aaron headed home and I sat waiting for a room.

I ended up staying in the hospital until Sunday afternoon. A test and an ultrasound gave us strong indications that I wasn't about to deliver. The test** they did was negative, and if it is negative gives someone a 95-99% certainty that they aren't going to deliver within 2 weeks. The ultrasound was much better than the one on Friday, whether that had to do with an actually growth in my cervical legnth, or a different person and machine doing the measuring I don't know. I am now home on bedrest and looking toward 26 weeks...and beyond (in Buzz Lightyear voice.)

*Viability is considered 24 weeks (though that is stretching to 23 weeks in some cases). That is when the baby has a fighting chance of surviving outside the womb and most hospitals will consider resessitation, before that some will not. At 23 weeks a baby has a 20% of survival, at 25 weeks it is 65%, and at 26 weeks (when Tessa was born) it is 75%. Though full-term is our ultimate goal, afte 30 weeks babies have a 90-95% survival rate.

**The test is called a Fetal Fibronectin or fFN test. See this link on the March of Dimes website for more info because I can't explain it to you.

Random notes:
I am recovering from a cold (I know you know because I've been complaining about it all week) and so was coughing up a storm the whole time I was in the hospital. A normal person would just suffer through it, but I had nurses checking on me every 4 hours so they listened to my lungs and "prescribed" things like saline spray and cough drops (both over the counter medicines that I'm sure I/my insurance paid an arm for).

Tessa loved her weekend with Daddy. They came to visit me on Saturday, she loved the bed with the moveable head and foot buttons and then when it was time to go she gave me a big hug, a kiss, waved bye-bye and headed down the hall.

I took the chance to visit the NICU. This is a different hospital than the one we delivered Tessa at and I was feeling very sad not to have access to the nurses who I'd consider friends and missing the familiarity of the surroundings. The NICU tour was helpful in at least making me feel comfortable with the level of care a preemie would get (still hoping to avoid it though). However, I haven't been in a NICU since we left with Tessa and it was HARD to go back. The babies are so tiny and the feelings are still very fresh.

I was looking forward to hearing how Aaron was 15 minutes late for church on his first morning ever of being in charge of getting out the door (I even had a spy in place who was going to keep an eye on him). Yes, I know that is a snarky thing to think...but don't worry, he miscalculated and thought he needed to leave by 8:00, when it is really by 8:30...and so he was there 10 minutes early. Darn...seriously.

We had a major snow storm Saturday and Sunday. The roads were so bad Aaron almost left me at the hospital until Monday! I realized that I'm really working this whole "mothering" thing. I haven't had to shovel in three winters. Winter 07 - pregnant, winter 08 - taking care of a baby, winter 09 - pregnant (which leads me to believe that winter 10 I'll be off the hook as well!)

October Side Note - Major Clue #4

Here is a picture of the whole family in costume, under the glare of the always flattering fluorescent lights.

Just in case you don't get it Aaron is a baker and I am an oven.

Get it...Get it...?

Cause a lot of people at the party didn't.
"Oh I get it, he's a chef and you're a microwave..."

Of course you all have the benefit of 3 previous clues...and above average intelligence.

I was afraid that this costume/announcement would be bordering on tacky (and who knows, perhaps it was), but so many people didn't get it that it ended up being rather clever*.


*Since I'm now addicted to using asterisks you should check out this funny post about Halloween costumes on the blog "Stuff White People Like" ...

Corn on the Cob

Daddy Time

Aaron has been working a lot lately, so here are a few pictures for him of recent Daddy-Daughter moments.

Remember the "Day Off"? Well, here is a picture of him reading with the two girls...


And this is the sign of his popularity, they are waiting for him outside of the bathroom door.


Here is another picture of Daddy and Tessa reading


And as a final touch here is a picture of the two of us missing him

(I mean, LOOK at the expression on Tessa's face)

With that I'll just tell Daddy that while I'm posting this his sweet girl just cleaned out his whole bottom drawer and mixed everything in the with dirty clothes she dumped out. I hope that doesn't make you too "homesick".

Its December

And its COLD!

The non-profit I work for hosts a fund raiser every December called the Christmas in Salem Home Tour and we were out and about all day participating in the Christmas cheer. I left a few hours before Aaron, who stayed home with Tessa while she napped. As I was waiting to meet up with him I could see a man with his little papoose baby all snuggled up in his coat and with her little pink hat-ed head bobbing along. Her body was very warm...but her face was very cold. The poor little thing has never felt anything cold except the little drops of reflux medicine we give her twice a day. She was rather befuddled, but gave me a warm winter smile nevertheless.

I was only able to go with Tessa and Aaron for one house before I scampered off to do a little task, so Aaron got to experience the ego boosting fun of walking around with a cute baby. This was emphasized since there were no other babies that we saw visiting the houses...and by the fact that she was so bundled up that only her big blue eyes and pink cheeks were showing. According to Aaron she loved the Christmas trees and the fancy china in the houses, and everybody loved her.

The camera didn't work in the cold outdoors so I couldn't get a picture of how darling she looked. But when I got home about 15 minutes after Aaron he was standing like this with Tessa in the kitchen...waiting either for me to get home and take the picture, or for me to help him get her out of the Bjorn without waking her...not sure which.

Tessa's Daddy

During the time I was adding hyperlinks to the tour guide post and writing the post about our Halloween costumes (all in all about a half an hour) I thought Daddy was sleeping on the bed with Tessa. After all it is very easy to fall asleep yourself when you are putting the baby down for a nap. However he surprised me when he finally came out of the room and I asked if he had been sleeping. "No, I was reading that nursery rhyme book..." ...to himself! He he he.

Tessa's Daddy

I came home tonight and found Daddy and Tessa asleep on the bed. Tessa was holding Daddy's finger. It was the PERFECT picture. I grabbed the camera...and couldn't take the picture because I knew the flash would wake one, or both, of them. So I guess I'll just stick to old fashioned remembering, in lieu of a picture. Trust me, it was heartwarming.