Baby R -- week 35 update

It's been a whirlwind few weeks for us and thankfully we're still plugging along in spite of all of the craziness we've been facing.
This week our little boy is the size of a canary melon and according to my app, he's 19-22 inches long and approximately 5.5 lbs. He's still quite the active boy!  I constantly feel some part of him moving and grooving!  Starting this week, I'm visiting the doctor weekly until Declan is born. It's unimaginable that in just 5 short weeks we will be able to hold our miracle. Right now I'm a wave of emotions....excited and happy to finally meet him, scared to experience labor and delivery and worried I won't know how to care for my child once he makes his entrance into the world. It's been so easy to keep him protected in utero, I just hope I can do the same once he's out in the real world. This upcoming week we'll do a strep-B test and weeks 37, 38 and 39 I'll have ultrasounds to make sure everything is on point for delivery. Week 39 is also when we'll set up an induction date in case Declan doesn't arrive by his due date. Being 35, means I have a few more hurtles to jump to ensure that we have a healthy baby and my doctor won't let me go beyond my due date to ensure that we avoid some of the known medical issues for mothers of "advanced maternal age."

So over the last few weeks, D and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary and made a trip to Michigan for our Michigan family baby shower. We had a great time seeing everyone and got a lot of amazing gifts from our family and friends. We also got to spend a few days visiting with family and also visited the MSU Dairy Store for an afternoon ice cream date. We had one little hiccup when the rental SUV we had got a flat tire. We tried to take it back to the rental facility to have the swap out the SUV and unfortunately they did not have another SUV of similar size to replace it with but they could give us a compact car. At 7+ months pregnant, this was not the thing to tell me especially when we made the trip up with a bigger car since we were having our baby shower. Thankfully we were able to find a tire shop to plug where 2 nails caused the flat.
The baby shower was a success. It was far more over the top than what I had expected but we had a great time. Here are a few pics from our trip:

D's favorite gift, the Tula. He even convinced Eli to go for a ride!

After our trip to Michigan, the next weekend we attended Kirchenfest where D kept up his annual tradition of bartending at the picnic. I unfortunately was hit with Sciatica and was in severe back pain not only that day but for about 2 and a half weeks. I've heard some pregnant women face this in the 3rd trimester and while I was lucky to not have many other pregnancy issues, this one took the cake for me. I'm so glad that this week I've finally started feeling better and can walk almost normally again.

Last weekend was Labor Day and we had a huge to-do list to complete to get ready for Declan's arrival. We spent the entire weekend cleaning our house, buying the last of the baby essentials, packing my hospital bag, getting our carseats installed at the hospital, washing all of Declan's clothes, bedding, blankets, etc.
On top of that we had a medical scare with Kinny and spent part of the weekend visiting both the vet and the emergency pet hospital. Back at the end of July, we took Kinny in for her visit to the cardiologist for a echocardiogram follow up for her heart murmur. During that appointment they determined she has hyperthyroidism and would need meds to help her heart, blood pressure and thyroid get back to normal. We'd been giving her the meds, even with her putting up a fight some days but she seemed to be doing better. Last Sunday, she was extremely lethargic and not eating or drinking and it scared us. We got her into her vet in hopes that it was something easy and as our luck would have it, it was not. Her fever was super high and they recommended we get her into the emergency pet hospital ASAP. We drove straight there where they started tests to figure out what was wrong. It was so sad for us as we had to leave her there overnight for observation. A pregnant lady should never have to do such a thing...I was a basket-case. Kinny is my first baby and all I wanted was for her to be back to her normal, happy, sweet self.
We got to pick her up on Monday after they determined that she had a reaction to her thyroid medicine. We got antibiotics because her white blood cell count was super low and told that we needed to follow up with her vet in a few days and consider another therapy for her hyperthyroidism.
While she still wasn't eating much, she did seem to perk up as the week progressed and her counts were back to normal when we went to her follow up appointment on Thursday afternoon. We do still need to address her hyperthyroidism issue and the therapy they recommend since meds are not an option is Radiocat Iodine 131. That means she'd have to have radiation and be quarantined for a week because this treatment would make her radioactive. I'm beyond nervous and scared not only for the treatment but the fact that I can't see or touch my girl for at least that long. Not only that, but with being pregnant, I don't know what else this means for us. Obviously she needs the treatment sooner rather than later but we have a human child coming in less than 5 weeks and the thought of her being sick and me being pregnant these last few weeks is nerve-wracking. This week I'm faced with talking to my doctor about Kinny's treatment and what it means for me and then getting back with the specialty vet and figuring out when to start her treatment.
She still is the absolute best girl ever and we'll do everything we can to make sure she stays healthy.
I snapped a few pics of her helping us with prepping for her brother over the last few weeks:

Testing out the bed and sheets to make sure they are up to Declan's standards

Inspecting all of the baby essentials we picked up

We thought it was stressful for us 3 years ago switching jobs, buying our house and getting married all in a span of 3 months but I think everything going on now has been harder on us but somehow we'll find a way to get through it all!

This weekend has been a bit more normal and I was able to make a few freezer meals for postpartum and take care of some of the smaller items left on our list. I also have spent a good amount of time just cuddling with my girl and getting some much needed rest.