Another day later and we’ve got quite a few updates for you.

Erika received steroids last night and will again this evening or tomorrow (we think). The main reason for that it will speed up lung development just in case we need to get the baby out early. You should also know that a steroid shot has many added benefits that you wouldn’t even think of. For example, it tends to act as a stimulant to the body, which means that Erika gets to spend less time sleeping. Really, why would a woman need to spend any time sleeping during her 8th month of pregnancy? And since the room she is in has the temperature set at a frigid 75 degrees, the steroids help to keep Erika nice and warm. I asked her if she wanted me to bring her a blanket from home this morning, “No way. I’m dying it so hot in here.” Awesome!

As I was chatting with my mother this morning. It occured to me that many people may not understand why our doctor is taking so many precautions with us. Last pregnancy with Mira, Erika developed what’s known as “preeclampsia” and then later “HELLP syndrome”

You can find a nice article for Preeclampsia here: https://health.google.com/health/ref/Preeclampsia

You can find a nice short article for HELLP syndrome here: https://health.google.com/health/ref/HELLP+syndrome

Both of these conditions are incredibly dangerous, thus why they are watching Erika so closely. She has had enough symptoms now that we believe that the baby will come early. The big question is when. With a due date of Dec. 17th, we’ll probably be buying a lottery ticket if we make it to December 1st. But that’s just a guess at this point.

Right now we think that Erika will probably be going home to just rest tomorrow (Friday). Once again, that is also a guess.

That’s all the bad news. The good news is that Erika and the baby are really doing well. She just got back from her ultrasound and they estimated the baby to be about 4 lbs. 10 ounces. Which is fantastic. The baby has grown 1 pound in the past 2 weeks. They say that at this point in the pregnancy a baby should grow about 1/2 a pound every week, so we are right on schedule.

It also appears that all the blood vessels and everything in Erika’s body are functioning perfect. So, not only are both of them healthy, but the baby is still growing and getting all the nutrients it needs. The baby was showing signs of practicing breathing, which is very, very good! We are very encouraged.

We’ve got a few pictures that we took and a pic from the ultrasound that Erika has. I’ll post those tonight after I go and visit with Erika.

Look for another post sometime later this evening with some pics. And I’ll probably post one of our visit to the Cleveland Cavaliers game that we went to on Tuesday night!