32 Weeks

8 MONTHS IS FINALLY HERE! In just 4 more weeks our Little Monkey will (in technical womb-terms) be "full grown." He'll still be able to put on more weight if he chooses to stay inside a bit longer... but he'll be completely formed and just adding "fat."

In some instances, the last 32 weeks has flown by. Other days, it CREEPS along. I'm almost (almost) to the point of pure ready-to-pull-my-hair-out, get-this-kid-out-of-me. The last week has been rough. He's finally big enough to kick the crap out of my ribs and I'm almost certain I'll end up with bruises by the way he kicks (and kicks) and kicks in the SAME spot over my tummy. He definitely has sleep and wake patterns now. As in, by 7pm he's up and squirming and by bedtime 9pm-ish, he's in full-blown temper tantrums in there. I honestly don't see how a nearly 4-pound baby (if we go by "typical" statistics) is squirming in there, but I'll take the ultrasound techs word for it.

For those that haven't heard, I went back to my asthma doctor on Friday and had a chest x-ray. When I had my round of IV-steroids they didn't help like they typically do. Don't get me wrong... I'm not in the midst of an asthma attack, ready to hit the ER, like I have been MANY a times when the IV doesn't work. It just didn't "fix it" like it typically does. Anyway, the doctor, who I affectionately refer to as my second Father and I'm quite certain he considers me one of his children, wanted to do a chest x-ray to make sure I didn't have any underlying pneumonia. (For those wondering, it IS safe to do an x-ray, as long as your in your third trimester... plus the baby is shielded. To top it off, apparently they did x-rays in the third trimester way back in the day before ultrasounds to ensure the baby was fully developed. Go figure.). Ok, so they did an x-ray (and no, you could not see Brooks). The good news is, I have no pneumonia. The bad news is, he's collapsed part of one of my lungs. It's not terrible in the sense that I need to be laid up in a hospital bed... but it's definitely not going to get better (and in fact, will only get worse) until he arrives and it can fully inflate again. It's for this reason that I am hoping and praying Dr. McMichens will say we can go ahead and deliver him earlier than 39 weeks (plus, Dr. Serio will be out of town and I want him (at a minimum) in the same city while I'm having surgery). Dr. Serio seemed to think he would... so here's hoping he'll be here even sooner than 7 weeks! :) I go back to Dr. McM on the 25th (Monday), so I'll post the status update then.

Until then, we have a baby shower on Friday with Todd's hockey team... so that'll be fun. At least all the stuff we've had going on over the last two months has kept the time moving. Today is also my birthday, which is still hard to believe I'm really 27. I can honestly say with the 4+ pound weight in my tummy and lack of sleep, this year I feel older. haha.

My sweet husband was on a checklist rampage this weekend. Todd assembled all of Brooks' baby items (pack n play, stroller, and car seat), so they are all in his room ready to go. The stroller and Pack n Play could have waited... but we both wanted to know how they went together/functioned so we weren't stressed with a screaming monkey trying to figure it out. He also assembled his new Eliptical machine that he bought with his Christmas money. It'll help both of us lose the extra baby weight! :) The nursery glider is currently en route, so he'll have at least one more thing to assemble this week!