3 Weeks and Some Change

This Thursday I will be 37 weeks pregnant. 3 more weeks to go!!! I'm sure none of you are as excited as I am, because trust me, I am really freakin' excited! As I have mentioned in the past, I don't love being pregnant. While I feel like I look pretty good for a pregnant lady, I don't feel that good. And being pregnant really goes against everything that I am naturally. I'm fat, I can't drink, I can't go out dancing, and people look at me strangely when I swear and when I blast Flo-rida in my car. Oh, and I can't drink Red bull. That just isn't me. It is really hard to curb some of these things for 9 (10 actually) months!

Besides the reasons why I hate being pregnant, I can't wait for this to be over so I can finally meet my new baby boy. This time around has been wrought with scares. After being fired 8 weeks into my pregnancy, I was so stressed that I was afraid my stress would cause a miscarriage, which only added more stress! Then we found out that there was something wrong with the umbilical cord. The cord is supposed to have 3 vessels: 1 vein and 2 arteries. Ours, however, only has 2; it is missing one of the arteries. This could mean anything from stunted to growth to kidney problems to downs syndrome to absolutely nothing, so we had to go see a specialist. The specialist told us that she saw a 2nd marker for downs syndrome, so at 24 years old I had to have an amnio. This sort of problem is so rare for women as young as me, and with fathers as young as Casey! After what seemed to be the longest 3 days of my life, the doctor called and all of the results were negative. Genetically, there is nothing wrong with this baby. Of course, we've got 18 years to screw him up now! It has become increasingly apparent in the last 17 weeks that the 2-vessel cord is causing no problems at all. The biggest fear is that growth will be stunted. Because of that, I have had to go in every week for non-stress tests and ultra-sounds just to make sure he is growing normally. Well, he isn't growing normally, he is growing rapidly. He has 3 more weeks to stew and he already weighs over 7 lbs. At this rate, he'll be close to 8.5 or 9 lbs by the time he is born. Stunted growth my ass. Even my doctor was joking around about it. Nothing can keep me from having big babies, not even complications!

All this time has been focused on growing a big, healthy baby, and I have done that. I've done everything by the book, except for the occasional Pepsi. I've made sacrifices I was more than happy to make to ensure that baby had the best chance. I've worried and cried about his well being for 17 weeks. Now all I want is to hold him and tell him it's all ok. When we were seeing the specialist, the ultrasound technician paused the screen and said "oh how sweet! He is giving you a little thumbs up. He's telling you 'everything is going to be ok, mom!'" Now it's my turn to return that favor. That little thumbs up got me through the hardest weekend of my life, now it is my turn to get him through the hardest years of his. And really, I can't wait!