Hospital Life - Day Ten

Greetings again from my current home in a twin-sized bed at Women's Hospital!!

Here's a quick update on how the Baldwin family is doing. On Saturday we started week 23 with a visit from the neonatologist. She was wonderful and scary both. She told us everything that could be wrong if Zachary was delivered this week and everything they would do to help him. We signed a bunch of consent forms and continued our prayers that Zachary will continue to wait to be born. Also on Saturday they gave me two steroid shots to help develop little Zachary's lungs. Unfortunately I had some scary side effects from the steroid shots, I started cramping and bleeding. Due to these complications, I was not allowed to leave the bed for any reason and they added another anti-contraction medicine. No worries, we are fine and I'll do anything to help my baby stay inside and help his chances for survival. Thankfully yesterday and today are much better days. The cramping has gone and the bleeding has slowed down a lot. Stephen and I are so relieved.

Speaking of Stephen, he is just amazing. He has been such a rock and so supportive. Lots of people told us that when we were in intensely stressful situations, such as this, it can wreck havoc on a marriage. Not ours. We spend our time together closeted in this room talking about things, both serious and not. We ease each other’s fears and enjoy talking about our little Zachary. I am so thankful that I have him as my husband. I couldn’t love anyone more. He takes good care of Zachary and I and we do our best to take care of him too. I can't imagine life without him by my side. Thankfully, I don’t have to.

Sorry for the delay in updates. While it's true I'm not doing much at all, it's kind of difficult to type while laying on my back. I'll try to post more often. By the way, here's a picture the nurse took of us yesterday during our "family cuddle time."

Thanks for the continued support and prayers and, as always, love to all!!

Hospital Life - Day Nine

Greetings again from my current home in a twin-sized bed at Women's Hospital!!



Here's a quick update on how the Baldwin family is doing this weekend. Yesterday we started week 23 with a visit from the neonatologist. She was wonderful and scary both. She told us everything that could be wrong if Zachary was delivered this week and everything they would do to help him. We signed a bunch of consent forms and continued our prayers that Zachary will continue to wait to be born. Yesterday they gave me two steriod shots to help develop little Zachary's lungs. Unfortunately I had some scary side effects from the steriod shots, I started cramping and bleeding. Due to these complications, I am now not allowed to leave the bed and they added another anti-contraction medicine. We are fine and I'll do anything to help my baby stay inside and help his chances for survival. Thankfully today is a much better day. The cramping has gone and the bleeding has slowed down alot. Stephen and I are so relieved.



Speaking of Stephen, he is just amazing. He has been such a rock. Even before this I knew we had the b eof us and we can talk about everything! Lots of people told us that when we were in intensely stressful situations, such as this, it can wreck havoc on a marriage. Not ours. Stephen is a rock and I am so thankful that I have him as my husband. I couldnt love anyone more. He takes good care of Zachary and I and we do our best to take care of him too. I can't imagine life without him by my side.

Hospital Life - Day Four

Well, thankfully last night I got moved into my bigger room. It's much more comfortable and has two big windows that provide a lot of natural light,. Today's been a quiet day, I did have an ultrasound this morning and got to see my sweet baby boy. Other than that I've been chatting via email and resting lots. Will update more later this week.

Update on Us

Well, this morning they moved us out of labor and delivery and into an antepartum room for the long haul. (Well, we are in a small room for now and are on a waiting list for a bigger room for the long haul.) Baby Zachary is one tough little guy and thankfully loves being inside me so much he isn't trying to come out yet. He's got at least six more weeks (until week 28) to stay in there to come out reasonably healthy. But we are all doing good in the interim.

We really appreciate all the thoughts and prayers and rays of sunshine sent our way. Thanks to all our friends and family here in Houston for coming up or calling to check on us and thanks to our family in California for calling and making sure we know we are being thought of. We love all of you very much and feel very lucky to have such a wonderful support system.

Again, many thanks and, of course, love to all!

Baby Zachary

I have some news. I am writing this from Women's Hospital. I was at work yesterdy and my water broke, yeah at 21 weeks and 6 days. So I was rushed to the hospital and THANK GOD my cervix is not yet dialated nor am I having any contractions. I am stuck here in the hospital (amen to WiFi) until I deliver this baby. We are praying I can wait to deliver him until I am at leat 28 weeks (I started week 22 today), so six more weeks. I am only allowed out of bed to use the bathroom and they stuck a portable potty two steps away from the bed so that's the extend of movement I have. Never a dull moment. Any prayers sent our way would be appreciated.

Love to all.

This baby MUST be growing!!

This baby must be growing a lot this week! All of a sudden, I have the BIGGEST appetite I have ever had! Ugh, it's a struggle to eat reasonably healthy foods, as they just don't seem to be filling me up! In my head, it's always, "bring on the crap foods!" Hee hee.

We have a doctor's appointment on Thursday, so I'll keep you posted!

Love to all!

Week 20

Sorry we haven't blogged yet this week. It's been a busy one for both of us. Here's what our amazing little boy is doing this week...

Your baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. He's also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom, and about 10 inches from head to heel — the length of a banana. (For the first 20 weeks, we use measurements taken from the top of the baby's head to her bottom — known as the "crown to rump" measurement. After that, we use measurements from head to toe. This is because a baby's legs are curled up against her torso during the first half of pregnancy and are very hard to measure.) A greasy white substance called vernix caseosa coats her entire body to protect her skin during its long submersion in amniotic fluid. (This slick coating also eases the journey down the birth canal.) Your baby is swallowing more, which is good practice for his digestive system. He's also producing meconium, a black, sticky substance that's the result of cell loss, digestive secretion, and swallowed amniotic fluid. This meconium will accumulate in his bowels, and you'll see it in his first messy diaper (although a few babies pass it in utero or during delivery).

Things otherwise are well. We started cleaning up what will be Zachary's room last weekend (boy do we have a lot of stuff to organize, donate, etc.!!) Kim can feel Zachary kick quite often now and Stephen thinks he may have felt the baby move a little bit last night for the very first time. It's a bit early, but it could happen! We go back to the doctor next Thursday for a check-up (and will hopefully get to see our amazing little boy).

Love to all and we'll write more next week!

P.S. Last week the baby was the size of a "heirloom tomato."

Week 19

Here I am, at the end of Week 19, really starting to show...

Guess how big Zachary is? (Week 19)

Okay folks, without cheating by looking at the website we use, it's time to guess the size of Baby Zachary. The only clue we'll give you is that the website always compares the size of our baby to the size of a food. We're VERY interested to hear your guesses...

Your baby weighs about 8 1/2 ounces, and he measures 6 inches, head to bottom — about the size of a ______. The hair on his scalp is sprouting. This is a crucial time for sensory development: Your baby's brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. He may be able to hear you as you talk. Research shows that he's learning to distinguish your voice from others, and he'll soon show a preference for it. Let Dad get in on the act, too — encourage him to talk to your baby.

We're ready to hear your guesses now...

Love to all!

Registering - Part One

So today we started registering. We went to Babies R Us and spent over three hours picking out stuff for Baby Zachary. We thought we were going to do a zoo animal theme, but we found a better theme for Zachary's nursery. We are going with under the sea. Here's a picture of the bedding set.

Here it is as a toddler bed...

Isn't it cute? In real life there is much more detail, but this gives you an idea. We thought the blue would be nice and calming for Zachary. We still have more registering to do, but we were beat after round one!! If you want to see the registry, you can view it online at www.BabiesRUs.com and our registry number is 70424199.

Happy New Year and love to all!