Lilypie Maternity tickers

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Moving In

Things have been looking better at my weekly appointments. Fluid was very slowly increasing, but increasing nonetheless. At my 25 week appt, I was at about 4.2cm of fluid. Things were going well, baby was growing, we were very optimistic that we'd be able to hang on for a while with no issues.

This Tuesday, 3/15, I went in for my weekly appointment with the high risk doctors. 26 weeks. As usual, they did an ultrasound. This week they did a longer ultrasound with measurements of the baby, to estimate his size. The measurements put him at about 1lb 15oz - so about 60th percentile again. Weight estimates can be off by quite a bit, but he is growing normally.

There was no measurable amount of amniotic fluid. The doctor advised that the best thing for the baby would be hospitalization. With no amniotic fluid, the risk of cord compression and losing the baby is increased. They wanted to admit me for the remainder of my pregnancy so we can monitor the baby and make sure he's doing ok. If I'm already in the hospital and something major happens that they can't help, they can do an emergency c-section.

When I was admitted Tuesday night, they hooked me up to IV fluids, gave me a steroid shot, and hooked me up to the monitors for baby's heart rate and contractions. He's looking good for the most part. He'll occasionally have a heart rate deceleration, especially during a contraction, but he comes back to normal on his own. Twice, once yesterday afternoon, and once around 3am, they had to give me oxygen to get his heart rate back up. Both times were during contractions. That was pretty scary. But since then, he's been doing fine. They came back in last night and gave me the second steroid shot, so now I'm good for a while. They disconnected my IV a bit ago, and just said to drink a lot of water so they don't have to hook it back up.

The goal is to make it four more weeks, to at least 30 weeks. At that point, if he requires dialysis, he'll likely be big enough to receive the treatment here. There is a possibility that he may need to be transferred to a larger facility - Birmingham, Atlanta, etc... if they don't feel that they can treat him here.

It's really hard for me to think of being here for so long. I can't think about four weeks, or six weeks, or ten weeks (which would be amazing for the baby!), or even a full week... I'm missing my husband, missing my kids, and missing spring break, Easter, Ry's birthday, both kids' field trips, Z's dance recital, Ry's tae kwondo belt graduation, and really missing hanging out with my crazy little sidekick. Luckily, Gary's command has been really supportive, telling him not to come back to work until after the baby's born. He'll be going in a few half days a week to stay caught up and in the loop, but he'll be able to be home with the kids, to try to keep their schedules and lives as normal as possible, which is awesome. Friends and people from church have also been amazing, volunteering to watch E while Gary has to go to work, volunteering to bring meals, etc...

I met with one of the high risk Dr's last night, saw my regular OB this morning, and my high risk Dr should be here later today. I have an awesome team, and total faith that they'll do what's best for me and the baby.

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