Uncharted Territory

We have finally made it past 24.5 weeks, which is as far as we've ever been.  Everything still seems to be going well so long as I show up for my progesterone shot each week.  I've actually been brave enough to decorate what will hopefully be the nursery with a coat of paint and some wall hangings.  I was able to use a lot of stuff we had already and some basic supplies from the craft hoard, so the whole room was done over for just an additional $47.  Johanna will be a thrift store baby, for sure, but that doesn't mean she can't have nice things.

 

A good Christmas was had by all, but unfortunately the most outstanding gift we received was a rear-ender fender bender on Christmas Eve from a woman who doesn't believe in stopping before a right on red.  We're hoping to get Dave in a rental before work starts next week.  That poor little car has had its butt crunched too many times.

Gift Registries and Other Updates

In response to popular demand, and the need for more detailed guidelines than "not pink," we have created a few baby gift registries.  They are by no means the be-all-end-all lists of what we want or need, but they're a start.  If somebody finds a cute outfit at the thrift store and washes it a few times, that's cool too.  But we really do love the Burt's Bees stuff.

• Burt's Bees Baby
• Amazon

In other news, we had the 18-20 week ultrasound at the hospital last week.  Everything still looks good, but they want to follow up in a month to look at whatever they didn't get a good enough look at the last time.  My blood pressure is in question, so I've been monitoring that at home in addition to a delightful 24-hour pee test and blood panel.  Results to follow.  Getting the progesterone injection has been a bit of a bureaucratic nightmare involving second-party distributers, third-party pharmacies, lost paperwork, and lots of waiting on hold over the phone.  I think we finally have all the bugs worked out, and I'm supposed to go in for a shot in the butt every week for the duration.  Cervix still looks good; we have another ultrasound this week to check it again.  Blood pressure follow-up is next week.  If our insurance didn't cover all this, we might well have been tapped out by March.

I'm told they usually deliver people in my circumstances around 36 weeks, which would be the week of March 15, the dog's birthday.  I'm seeing some very cute birthday snapshots in our future.

Johanna

Our 16.5 week ultrasound today promoted "Baby Julian" (aka "Baby #5") to Baby Johanna.  I'm happy; Dave is understandably a little disappointed, but he'll be over it in about two minutes.  It's made it a little bit more real for me.  Up to this point, I haven't had a chance to feel pregnant; I've felt like I have a strange degenerative syndrome.

Nothing appears to be seriously abnormal, so thank goodness for that.  My cervix is behaving itself so far, but they want to see me again in two weeks just to make sure it stays that way.  The progesterone seems to be doing its job effectively.

Oh, and this time I have placenta previa.  If it had to be something, it might as well have been that, because it doesn't change our plans at all.  We were already definitely having a caesarian because of the classical incision they did on me before, so another reason labor could be life-threatening is purely academic.

Here's hoping for the best.  Just once, please.