Week 16: Shots, Shots, Shots!

Shots x 16!!!! In my younger days, this catchy song would be a call to action. In my soon-to-be father days however, this is now a teachable moment, but not in regards to shots of the alcoholic kind, but those of the *ouchie* kind.

As an extra precaution to ensure the longest term pregnancy possible, our high-risk pregnancy docs have instituted a regiment of progesterone shots every week for the duration of Rachel's pregnancy. When we asked the doc what exactly progesterone does, he pretty much stated "we don't know, but we know it helps". The effectiveness of progesterone therapy for preventing pre-term birth is still being debated, but we figure we'll do whatever it takes to help see our baby girl come November. So, the only issue that remains is, actually administering the shot - eep!

Here are the actual needles. Shoot me up!

The shot is an intramuscular or IM injection, laymen translation: "we're going to stick this in your booty". I left the first shot to the care of a professional, namely my mother-in-law, who is a registered nurse. She did an awesome job on showing me the step-by-step procedure on how to shoot Rach up, but about 2 seconds into Shots 101, I made a mental note that this is a procedure best left to the pros. This point underscored by the fact that I have a penchant for phobias, shots being second only to roaches in my phobia list. Thankfully, we have a bullpen full of R.N.'s at our disposal (gotta love the Filipino nurse stereotype, cuz it's true!), and will be hitting my Mom up for week 17 as my mother-in-law will be out of town. The big caveat to progesterone therapy is that you must perform the injection at the same time every week, as any dip in progesterone level will result in pre-term labor.

Well, it's getting late and its time to ready a story to baby girl (apparently her ears are developed enough to hear us now). Have a great week everyone!