24 Weeks

It's official. I am over 24 weeks pregnant. If you've ever had a miscarriage or a difficult pregnancy, you know what a milestone this is for our little family. Granted, it's still very early. It would not be good to go into labor today but just knowing that if I were to go into labor, the medical community would do all they could to save her and she would have a fighting chance of survival is more of a relief than I think can be said. This has been a week FULL of baby news for our friends and family. Three babies have been born with one more on the way...all four have amazing stories and equally amazing families.

Baby #1 came as quite a surprise for my old college friends. He's baby #3 for the family (the first boy) and he was a couple weeks early because mom had a placental abruption. They were in the middle of the mall and it sounds like it was pretty bloody and definitely scary. Thankfully, mom and baby are doing great...in fact baby boy is doing better than the doctors had expected and both will be home soon.

Baby #2 was also a surprise at least to me. An old childhood friend, he was the little brother of a guy I hung out with all the time and now, he's a dad. He has a beautiful little girl and I know he'll be a great dad...it's just a bit surreal.

Baby #3 came on Friday. He's my cousin's son and already has a special place in my heart. He's amazing...tons of hair and tons of him. He was born full term measuring 24 inches and weighing 10 lbs 7 oz. And she delivered vaginally. Yeah. That's a huge baby. He's apparently able to fit into some 3-6 month clothes already. When I heard his size, it dawned on me that he weighs just under TWICE what ALL three of the triplets weighed combined. (For those that don't know, before I got married, I was a live-in nanny for 3 years to a family with a set of triplets).

Baby #4 will most likely join us Wednesday. He or she already has a special story. Mom and dad have opted to be surprised with the gender but I'm hoping for a girl-their older two are boys and are great friends with our boy and selfishly, I'd love for them to have a girl to befriend our little girl. But gender surprise isn't the biggest surprise of this baby's birth. Mom is scheduled for a c-section. Dad is an Air National Guardsman on deployment. He was scheduled to come home today but as is so often the case, things changed. We're not sure when he'll be back now but baby 3.0 as the family has affectionately dubbed him or her will be born loved in that special way only a deployment family can know. My heart and prayers go out to dad and whatever mom needs, I'll be there. Even if it means dealing with a meconium diaper (something I've managed to avoid in all my years of both nanny and parenthood).

An amazing week to be sure. So many babies. So many stories.