Gio's breakfast, lunch and dinner come to him in the form of a syringe attached to his feeding tube, he got a whole whopping 30cc at his 3pm feeding and kept it all down the hatch, no wasted calories that time.  His jaundice was kicked up a notch so he spends his hours dozing under the UV lights, he definatly got his love for light from his olive Daddy, pastey Mommy can't handle that!! I still would love to stick him under my shirt and walk out of there with him, but I know that too will come with time.  

Some people say better late than never...how about better early than never?  Gio decided he couldn't wait another 4 weeks so he came out to meet the world at 6:45am March 27th.  He weighed 4lb8oz, 17 inches long.  He spent he first few hours in the NICU while I recouped.  The first two days he was doing very well but then slid a bit downhill,so I was sent home emptyhanded.  The nurse practitioner for the NICU told me it could be up to a month for him to come home.  Until then, I will just have to get my fill of him at my daily visits to Virtua.  

Last night Steve and I went to see Duplicity with Clive Owen (LOVE him) and Julia Roberts (LOVE her).  I must say I slept through 2/3 of the movie.  Not because I was tired, but because the movie drug on and was so slow.  I was so disapointed in Clive and Julia for picking an unstimulating movie...Today was a wonderful day... I got to sleep in and woke up to a beautiful day...Steve and I ran some errands and picked up makings for meatballs and gravy.  We spent the afternoon cooking and hanging out.  My parents and Suzanne and Sean came over in the evening for tacos.  Suzanne and I took a prego picture together, you just don't know when these boys will decide to come join us!!!  

Well I made it thru my last day at work.  It wasn't easy since my drs. appointment yesterday left me achy and crampy.  At least I know I'm dialated and effaced.  That's good to know in case Gio does need to come out before April 18th.  All thats left is school and baby baking for the next few weeks!!

Well I didn’t do so well at my ultrasound last wednesday. My OB had sent me back to the perineatologist for another US because I had lost some weight from my last checkup. The US tech was really quiet during the whole scan and I felt like I had to poke her with a stick to get her to say anything about what she was looking at. So then she left and a few minutes later another US tech came in to repeat everything that the previous person had done. When the Dr. finally came in I was already on high alert because I could just tell something wasn’t right. She started talking about the baby being less than the 10th percentile of growth and IUGR (intrauterine growth restriction). She said that sometimes babies just stop growing at a certain point in the uterus and do much better once they are on the outside. She did say that the blood flow to the baby was fine (the cord, placenta, liver, brain) and that during my nonstress test (NST), the baby had reassuring movement and reactivity. She set me up for biweekly NSTs, weekly Dopplers (to check the blood flow) and another growth scan in three weeks (to see if he has gotten any bigger). After these three weeks, if he doesn’t show much progress, she wants to talk about taking him early instead of letting him stay until natural labor comes. I don’t know if I can deal with that... I’ve seen premature babies at my work and what they have to do to them to keep them safe. Also, if he's super small to begin with and they take him early, I can’t even imagine what he’ll go through. I tried to find out all the information on IUGR I could last night to see if there’s something I did wrong or if there’s something I can do differently in the next six weeks, but the literature doesn’t really give that much concrete information. Its almost as if the experts don’t really know that much about it. Its frustrating when someone tells you you’re not quite right but can’t tell you why or how to change it.
I'm hoping that he's just a small baby because I'm a small person. I had a talk with him the other night... I told him that its okay if he wants to be small, he just needs to get a little bit bigger to above the 10th percentile of growth so that way they won't be so eager to take him early. I just want to keep him close to me and safe.

Well, I officially gave my time for maternity leave at work.  I start the week of March 23rd and come back the week of June 15th.  I'm looking forward to having time to focus on finishing school and staying well toward the end of this pregnancy.  I'm starting to feel the stress of doing it all and my body is responding.  This will give me a light at the end of the tunnel to focus on instead of my legs aching, my lower back in knots and these damn Braxton Hicks contractions that make my belly look all deformed and lumpy.  I just smile when people say, "Pregnancy is so beautiful!!" 

We just had a lovely March storm and I'm hoping to not have to go into work, I'm waiting to hear back from by boss about staying home.  Baby Gio really gave me an uncomfortable night last night... no matter which side I lay on he's kicking the tar out of me.  As soon as I hit that 28week mark, he has just been commin' from all sides of me.  Some people say they didn't even know I was pregnant until I turned to the side and WHOA!! I guess I should take that as a compliment that I don't look pregnant from the back (however that would look).  Our baby shower (Suzanne and myself) was wonderful!  We got to see family and friends and eat great food and we both received wonderful presents.  Steve and I have the nursery all finished so all he has to do is show up!  Not that I'm rushing, I still have finals week the first week of May and I'm waiting to see if I make it through.  If not, I'll just have to study with a little man laying on my chest... It's all good!