The World According to Alisa: 28 weeks

28 weeks. For me this is the first big hurdle to get past. We lost Maren at 28 weeks. And of course the past week came with some drama and I haven't been relaxed this past week. TMI alert - read at your own comfort level! I got a UTI last week, which in itself is not that big of a deal. Except that this EXACT same gestational week with the twins I was admitted to the hospital with what they thought was a UTI. They put me on IV antibiotics and admitted me for a few days of monitoring. When I was released they said the tests came back negative so they weren't sure what it was. And then the next week we lost Maren. So this past week was a little too much of a coincidence for my taste. I was nervous to say the least. I'm better now and a little less nervous, but it still was creepy.

I have something else that people say that drives me nuts and if I hear it one more time.... They will ask how many weeks I am and when I answer, they say "oh good, you're in the safe time now" or "oh, so you're past the scary part". I want to scream every time they say that - who says so, I want to demand. Or I want to fill them in on my loss at 28 weeks - when it was supposed to be "safe". It's so stupid for people to assume that once you get past 12 weeks you are home free - are they idiots? Statistically your risk goes down after 12 weeks, I get it, but to just assume that all is well and is going to be well for the remainder is just annoying as hell. The same thing goes for "Well you don't have that much time left". No, I don't have that much time left and in fact, if we go by Gavin time, I have exactly 2 weeks and 4 days left. But I am praying very hard for AT LEAST another 8 weeks. Please God, I only need 8 more weeks - if this baby needs to come early, 36 weeks is what I can handle. Or when they ask my due date - I'm hoping for May is my typical answer. Of course they look at me strangely and wonder what I mean but I mean exactly that. I'm hoping for May. On time. Full term. Healthy.

Here's the baby at 26 weeks - estimating about 2 1/2 pounds at this point - pretty good face shot! Next ultrasound at 30 weeks (my next hurdle!).

Gavin has been testing his 3 year old powers as of late. I am sure my patience level is not where it needs to be, but he sure is pushing the limits on a daily basis. He has taken to screaming when he does not get his way and our response has been to tell him calmly that we don't talk to people that way and send him to his room until he calms down and can speak normally. Thursday night he screamed for 15 minutes in his room. 15 minutes!! How are you not just bored of screaming for that long? So not really sure that method is effective but it's all I've got for now so I'm hoping he realizes how boring it is to be sent to your room to scream it out - I mean there's no audience to capitalize on, so it can't be much fun....or can it?

His teacher has noticed that he does not seem to be playing with the other children and still likes to do his own thing. She has asked if I am ok with him being evaluated to see what is going on. I gave my ok, but I have to say that I really feel he is just delayed in social skills and really partly our fault. Working like I do, we don't get together with other kids very often and his two 1/2 days at school had been his only interaction. He is with adults 90% of the time and so I'm not sure if you are just automatically programmed to know how to play with kids, or if that is something you are taught? I have been paying more attention and he does struggle with knowing what to do with other kids. He'll watch them and ask me what they are doing and things like that, but he only interacts when shown what to do or asked to interact. So I guess we'll see what they say but I have been making a more conscious effort to have play dates and of course we joined My Gym to give him more exposure to kids.

A funny Gavin story - We were heading to/from a friends house for a play date on Thursday night and one of their neighbors has a small tree on their front porch lit with white Christmas lights. Gavin says to me "It's not Christmas time is it Mom?". So I tell him it's not and we go to play. So on the way home we pass that same house and Gavin says (apparently to the home owner) "It's not Christmas time silly guy, put that tree in your basement"! Ha ha - I guess even 3 year olds know that 2 months past Christmas is too long for lights to be up!

Other than that, all is well here and we are waiting for nice weather so we can be outside a bit more. We did have a few nice days last weekend so that was nice to refresh our spirits a bit.

Gavin finally got the chance to ride his scooter outside!