Major Milestone

I'm 32 weeks 3 days pregnant today.  That is a huge milestone in my pregnancies because this is the point where I delivered Jack after a long night of hoping for the best, fearing the worst and taking steroid shots in the ass (which is Jack's favorite part of his birth story.)  So much could have gone wrong with a baby born so early but amazingly, nothing did.  My Boy is strong, healthy, smart and amazing.  You would never look at him and know there was a time that we worried he was deaf or blind or brain-damaged.  My Gram has been known to say, "Good thing he wasn't born on time -- he would have ended up a genius!"  (This is actually a compliment because she thinks he is very smart but not too smart.  To her, geniuses are weirdos with no social skills.  I know, God love her.)

If he had been born on time, who knows what would have been different about him?  Aside from his crazily shaped teeth which the dentist says are from being premature, I honestly have to say, "Probably not much."  He was a brave little fighter from the start, weighing an astonishing 4lbs110z and never needing more than oxygen through the nasal cannula to help him breathe for the first few days.  After that, he breathed unaided and quickly came out of the enclosed incubator to an open isolette where we could finally see his tiny, perfect face without the lights' reflection obstructing our view.  He looked like a cross between a plucked chicken and a giant frog with his fatless body and long dangly legs but once they got the feeding tube speed figured out, the breastmilk I pumped day and night did its magic and he put on weight like it was his vocation.  Although he lost 11 precious oz of weight after birth (How I pleaded with the heavens to keep him from dropping below 4 lbs!), he quickly gained it all back and then some.  If it wasn't for my still-healing incision, I probably would have done a cartwheel the day I walked into the NICU and saw a sign over his bed stating, "I weigh 5 lbs today!"  I immediately called Tom at work and we celebrated with more joy than we did when the Phillies won The World Series.

I probably don't remember most of the month that Jack was hospitalized because it was a waking nightmare.  When I think of it, I remember the amazing staff who cared for him and who will forever have a place in my heart for how gentle they were with tiny Jack and his terrified mother.  There was so much fear and uncertainty in my heart as well as such helplessness -- I felt like a visitor when all I wanted to be was his mother.  So as I mark this big day in my pregnancy and look back on the first time I was 32w3d pg, I thank all things good and holy for my son who is my miracle of strength and beating the odds; for my daughter who is my miracle in normalcy, born on time and healthy; and I hope with all my heart that Baby's birth story will mirror her sister's rather than her brother's.  I don't want to press my luck but so far, so good.