[Big] Baby Six

It has been a while since I updated on our new baby, though it seems I complain about pregnancy every chance I get.  Today we are only eight short long weeks away from meeting our latest addition face-to-face!  It depends on who you talk to; some will say "Wow, so soon!" and others "Eight weeks still?  Gosh, it looks like that baby is ready to come NOW!"  Of course, I personally can't wait to get our Little Blessing out of my belly and into my arms.  I have never made it all the way to my due date...  Alex was born a month early and each of our subsequent children kept getting closer and closer until Zachary was induced just two days ahead of schedule!  So the trend predicts we may have to wait the full eight weeks, or perhaps even into the early part of April (ugh...)

On the health front, everything looks fabulous as far as we can tell.  Our sonogram months ago revealed a full four-chambered heart, and a follow-up echocardiogram a few weeks later showed nothing out of the ordinary.  This morning we had another sonogram to check baby's growth and "environmental conditions" in my tummy.  The good news, still, is that baby looks very healthy (though we can't necessarily rule out some defects).  The, well, surprising news is that baby is HUGE!!!  At our sono two months ago, he/she was measuring in the 75th percentile for gestational age, and today baby measured in the 90th!!!  That's right, folks, I'm told we have a 5 lb. 8 oz. baby swimming around in there, with still two months to cook!  This blows my mind, as our first son was born weighing a mere 5 lbs.  However, our babies progressively got bigger until Sammy tipped the scales at a whopping 9 lbs!  (Zachy was a little smaller at 6 lb. 12 oz. due to his heart condition.)  I guess the baby size makes me feel a bit more justified in complaining about how uncomfortable I've become; afterall, at 5' 2" I'M certainly not in the 90th percentile for size!  And I'm a little concerned that baby will actually be able to fit through the birth canal, but we have a great doctor and will be doing follow-up sonos just to be sure.

As far as pregnancy goes, I have been anything but graceful and comfortable the past seven months.  Once the nausea and vomiting subsided somewhere around 16-17 weeks, a terrible, untreatable heartburn settled in.  And once that went away, I was simply HUGE and uncomfortable.  I can tell my immune system is functioning in low gear, because I have suffered colds and sinus infections almost constantly since before Christmas.  While my children seem to be unstoppable by a little runny nose and cough, they seem to bring me to a grinding halt.

And then there's the big belly, the general discomfort, pressure, and sometimes outright pain of another human being taking up residence around my waist.  What they say must be true:  it's like stretching a rubber band.  The more kids you have, the bigger (faster) you become.  I'm not getting any younger, and this body of mine keeps reminding me day after day.

BUT...  I have to stop and shake a finger at myself for whining.  I'm uncomfortable and unproductive, but in reality things are going super.  The baby is healthy and strong, and I haven't suffered from diabetes, hypertension, anemia, edema, or any of the more serious complications that plague many women.  Unlike Zachary, the baby can be delivered here, in town, and come home to meet his brothers just a couple days later.  We have room in our home and lots of love to go around.  My hope of having a sixth child will soon be a reality!

We're still working on names, but have narrowed that down.  We jumped the "Christmas" hurdle and got a few more boxes unpacked and space cleared out over winter break.  We made it through Sammy's birthday celebration and have just two more birthdays to celebrate before baby comes.  I suppose the next step is to set up the bassinet, launder my sweet, soft baby sleepers, and buy a pack of newborn diapers (or maybe size 2 or 3 just in case...)  And then wait and pray for d-day to go off without a hitch.