The Long and Winding Road

This Friday, Teri will be 36 weeks pregnant, and the days can't go by fast enough for her.  She has weekly appointments now every Thursday with her doctor to monitor the baby and check on Teri's well-being. In addition, she has been going to the Mayo Clinic about once a month or so, which are appointments that are specific to her health and to review what infections her lungs are breeding as of late, her blood levels, meds, etc.

Last Friday we went down the Mayo for her last appointment there prior to delivery.  They didn't have a whole lot to say for right now other than "just stick it out a couple more weeks to keep baby out of the NIC unit".  They consider the baby to be "full term" at 37 weeks, so anytime a baby is delivered before that, they automatically put them in the NIC unit to monitor them for a couple days.  They also formulated a plan on what meds they would put her on immediately following delivery.  The plan is to put another PICC line in before she leaves the hospital, then put her on another anti-biotic(s) and possibly lipids again. I found this video online on what a PICC line is exactly in case you are interested: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/picc-line-placement/MM00781

What is killing me right now is Teri's struggle to maintain her weight.  She is almost 20 pounds lighter than what she was at full term with Ari.  Even at 35 weeks, she weighs 1 lb less than when she got pregnant.  And when she delivers, the weight of the baby and the other "stuff" will drop that by about another 10 lbs.  This is by far the skinniest I have ever seen her, and it is kind of scary.  When I get home at night and on the weekends I try to get her food and ask what she wants to eat all the time, but as with anyone who feels sick, your appetite is diminished so it is hard to force.  She does really try, but ends up throwing up some of her food too.  An example of this happened last night, I made spaghetti (because Ari said she wanted it) for us, and she did pretty good eating it, had a snack after, then at around 9:00p.m. started coughing and threw up most of it.  As with everything that CF brings, we both feel helpless when these things happen.

As I just said, she has been coughing more since being off the anti-biotic, and now in addition to that, she is trying to get over a cold she got the end of last week (which Ari has too).  Luckily I haven't gotten it yet, but we really want to get through that before we bring a baby home.

They are still planning on inducing her at 38 weeks if she is healthy enough to make it to that point.  If they think things are getting too stressful for her or if the baby is under too much stress, they will try to induce earlier.  Like I was saying, the magic number is 37 weeks to avoid the NIC unit, which is 10 days from today.   The goal is to NOT do a c-section too since the recovery time would be longer and harder for her in the condition she is in.

So for now, we are focused on taking it day by day and hoping that the next couple weeks go well enough to kick-start a good recovery after delivery.  I just really want Teri to get back to feeling normal so she can fully enjoy our latest addition to the family.

I think Ari knows the baby is coming soon, because she talks about him multiple times a day without us even bringing him up.  She also loves to play in his room (which we are trying to keep to a minimum).   Here are a few of the latest pics I have of her...

Putting her baby dolls in his crib to sleep:

Being her goofy self, playing in baby's room:

That is a bowl of fake bananas she "made", and is trying to eat them while wearing her chef outfit and jewelery and playing her Dora video game... And they say kids are over-stimulated...