Thoughts and Preparation in Week 37

I am now full term in the pregnancy. 37 weeks! What a milestone for our little guy!! Only 10 days to go until our induction. We are feeling apprehensive for what the future holds for our son, but our feelings are met with a lot of hope that Samuel is going to be strong enough to survive his birth and have some time with us. We know his heart is relatively strong with only a minor defect on the right side (see former blog post for this summary). His kidneys, bladder and stomach all appear to be the correct size for his gestational age in the last ultrasound (34 weeks). There were abnormalities found with each of these organs in prior weeks. Has God corrected these things as Samuel grew inside my tummy!? We so desperately want to believe the answer is yes! We are also hopeful Samuel’s lungs are strong too. Samuel gets the hiccups almost every night. I personally think this means he is preparing to breathe air (aiding lung development), but during this practice he is ingesting in too much amniotic fluid and hence the reason for his constant hiccups. I could be wrong but this is my current belief anyway. We have a good solid OB/Perinatologist to deliver Samuel and a hospital that is geared up with surgeons and other medical professionals if we need them.

I am picking up our visitor badges for our immediate family tomorrow. The hospital’s lead social worker has been incredible with ‘bending the rules’ for our situation to ensure all of our immediate family can be with us right after the birth and all at the same time. We found out last week there is a new H1N1 outbreak hospital policy that greatly limits visitation to patients who have just delivered babies. The policy also excludes ALL children under the age of 18 from any visitation whatsoever. The social worker is getting this policy overturned too for Luke, but his visitation time has to be greatly limited. Regardless, I am so very grateful to her for this! I just cannot imagine meeting and getting to know Samuel after the delivery and they tell me Luke could not be a part of that experience. I would be crushed.

This week, we are packing the hospital bags, finalizing the birth plan and plan on doing some doing some of our own amateur pregnancy photography (I’ll post a pic on the blog if something turns out good). It is also my last week at work so there are quite a few loose ends still to tie up.

Finally, we went to the store yesterday and had Luke pick out a gift (a little plush stuffed lamb) to give Samuel. I think this will be pretty special as Luke is just now starting to understand how to give and share with others. We have been telling him that his little brother is coming for some time now since my belly grew. He seems to somewhat understand because he has pointed to my belly and say’s “baby” and gives it a big hug. It’s so sweet. I really should capture that on video before it is too late!