Baby Peanut Update

Hi everyone. It's been a very trying week but I wanted to give you an update on how the impending addition is doing, now that we're less than 5 weeks out from meeting Little Miss.

This past Saturday I went into pre-term labor and had to be treated at Beaumont. I have been having some growing Braxton-Hicks contracts which is to be expected at this stage of pregnancy, but they were getting pretty intense while I was visiting Eric and Laura and eventually started feeling some severe cramping as well. I stopped by home to find Brad (who was out running) and proceeded on to Beaumont Labor and Delivery where I ended up getting hooked up to an IV, pumped full of fluid (who knew I was dehydrated?) and given a shot of Turboline to stop the contractions which were erratic but at their worst, 6 minutes apart. Fortunately this worked and we were sent home.

Monday's recheck at the doctor went fine although she alerted me that I'm measuring small for the baby's growth and scheduled me for an ultrasound this morning, so I'm currently drafting this update from the food court at the hospital. Measuring small can be attributed to a number of different factors -- low amniotic fluid, low fetal weight or even just the way the baby is positioned, so had to just sit tight until today to find out the cause.

Baby looked good on the ultrasound and one of the profile photos is above. She has both of her hands up by her mouth in this photo so her profile is slightly obscured although you can see her little nose. She's currently around 4 1/2 pounds which is a bit small for this stage but I'm just thinking she'll end up being a petite little thing like her mommy. Seems only fair given Hunter is such a giant. They spent a lot of time doing measurements and will give me a call this afternoon with an update but overall things looked okay. The fun little tidbit is that she apparently has a lot of hair! It was even showing up on the ultrasound so the tech was laughing at that because it's not often she's able to pick it up.

I have been having a lot of cramping and Braxton Hicks since Saturday so please keep your fingers crossed and the prayers going that Baby Peanut is able to stay put until July 13th so we can ensure her some good development time in the cooker. Overall, any good thoughts you can send this way would be most appreciated.

With much love, Jeanine (and Baby Peanut)