Mid summer updates....

We are almost 37 weeks! I shake my head when I say it since I had prepared for a preemie arrival. My hospital bag is full of preemie onsies and diapers which will soon have to be switched to newborn. I had a vision of how the birth was going to go and had prepared myself for the quick departure of baby H. after birth as the NICU team took her away. As this still may be possible it is more and more unlikely. I may now be able to hold her after her arrival and she may be able to stay in my hospital room with me. The whole story is crazy to think of. Can’t get pregnant, two failed IVF’s, a twin miscarriage, prognosis of never getting pregnant on our own, donor egg process beginning and one month before natural pregnancy, a 50% chance of a birth before 30 weeks and a 20% chance of carrying her over 30 weeks, 9 weeks in hospital and now Friday the hospital considers me full term. This baby is a miracle. I go to the doctor every Monday now until her arrival. They said she will be small around 6-7.5 pounds. They suspect the steroid shots I had at 23 weeks may have had something to do with it since she was ahead of schedule since then. I am happy with this weight as long as she is healthy. I am not overly huge which is nice in a summer that has been unusually hot here in NS. I am starting to get anxious for her arrival. I want to see her alive , breathing and safe. Essentially we have been waiting for her arrival for four years. I have been super stressed about our pup Colby. I know I talked about him in previous posts but this has become a heated debate in our house between me and hubby. Colby has been showing some territorial aggression. Meaning when anyone knocks on our door or comes on our property he goes nuts barking. He barrels his way to the person entering our property if it is in our yard just to sniff them and walk away. In that instant I am sure the child or adult is shitting their pants as this 110 pound lab is running full tilt toward them. He has nipped at one child in the neighbor hood who was tormenting him. But the instance that bothers me the most is his reaction to my nephew who came to visit. He lunged at him for no reason upon meeting him and barreled toward him in the pool and would not let him out. I had to put him in the backyard. These were instances that came unexpected with no provoking. After that they were fine playing fetch in the back yard, Colby wanting to sleep in his room (which we did not permit) and following him around the rest of the weekend. We talked to our vet who recommended we put the big guy on meds which after some research I was disappointed that that was his solution without trying anything else. So Danny upped his exercise to one hour a day instead of half hour and we start behavior modification next week with a trainer. The trainer seemed to think this is common and we can help him this way instead of drugging him. I just can’t help but think that this may get worse……more babies (if we are so lucky) more chaos, more noise, more kids in and out of the house and my poor anxious dog going buzzurk because he thrives on a routine, quiet household that he has been used to for seven years now. But I don’t’ want to leave him behind either. He loves us and we love him and this is his only home he has known. Danny seems to think that it is only fair to him we try behavior modification and increased exercise first if that doesn’t work we will turn to the drugs and if that doesn’t work we will then consider rehoming him. I hope this trainer can help us. I hate feeling so anxious about this. I bought extra gates for baby with gift certificates from my shower as I will never let them be around eachother without hubby home. I really don’t know how serious the problem is either. He has never been aggressive, always anxious though and never so territorial. Maybe he just needs some readjusting not a biggie or maybe he needs a whole makeover. I bought a baby alive doll and recorded a baby crying on my iphone from utube and have been walking around the house with this doll for four days while it cries. He was interested at first but doesn’t care so much now. I hope our neighbors don’t see me! So I have some peace knowing we are doing whatever we can to make the situation better for everyone. Anyways, things are good. Summer is moving along and we are just waiting for her arrival. It has been nice to have these last weeks with just me and hubby as we spend some time together alone.

9 months pregnant