34 Weeks

Well, the first day of my 34th week was my baby shower, which was a most splendid affair that felt really special and wonderful. There is really nothing like spending time with so many of your family and friends all in one place. It happens so rarely in our lifetimes. I'm so thankful for all of the people who hosted and organized and made food (yummmmm btw) and drove an hour and even much longer to come spend time together. I started bawling as soon as I walked in the door--happy, touched tears. I really appreciated the support immensely. I'll post some photos soon enough.

In the meantime, I want you all to have an update from this morning's visit as events are progressing more quickly than I can document them.

I went in for an ultrasound this morning and they saw that the cyst grew in the past week and they are concerned about compression of the baby's organs so we scheduled a procedure to drain the cyst this Thursday at 1 pm. They are not sure if they will need to sedate me and the baby--that will be determined on Thursday. They will have docs on hand to do a c-section if for some reason I go into labor or if the baby shows any signs of distress.

They will insert the needle through the baby's side in between her ribs to drain the cyst. They feel that the cyst may very well refill with fluid but it will reduce compression in the meantime. Depending on how quickly it refills, they may do the draining procedure again right before they deliver the baby. At this point, I am having either a c-section or EXIT procedure. The doctor said that she hopes that by draining it, I will be able to have a regular c-section instead of the EXIT procedure.

My blood pressure increased again and they are not happy with how much my feet are swelling so a shorter timeline to delivery is still what they are talking about. Again, they said likely at 36 or 37 weeks. I hit 36 weeks on Saturday, April 2.

The good news is that the baby's heart and lungs look very healthy, other than being compressed by the cyst so they are happy that the compression will be relieved this week. Also, the stomach looked better this morning than last week so her swallowing seems to have picked up again. That's great news. The sonographer said that the baby's bladder looked full so that was a good sign.

Nico and I are working every night to try to get the nursery ready. We bought a dresser on Sunday and we picked up a crib and changing table from friends. I called the painter and asked him to do one more coat of paint in the nursery--it needs another one--and that's tentatively scheduled for Thursday morning before our procedure so all of the baby items are in the office ready to be moved in to the nursery once that's done. In the meantime, Nico is assembling furniture and I'm trying to organize other things in the house and clean. My Mom will be coming this weekend to help, and I already started making a list of things we will do together, including wash and put away all the baby clothes and pick up final items we need. Whew!

The baby is six lbs so we have a big healthy baby who is ready for whatever happens.

xoxo, amanda

And, again, xoxo, Amanda. Little, take a bow.