so, today was my growth scan... and we didn't exactly hear what we wanted to. we'll start with the good news:
wren's organs are all fine. kidneys, heart, brain etc. everything is where it should be, doing what it should be doing. :) what a blessing!!!
her stomach is measuring right on target for gestational age. the doctor (not the normal high risk i see, but the one over her who monitors my case) said that babies in stress typically measure small around the belly, and larger in the head. this is because all of the nutrients go to the brain/heart, and they don't put on the belly weight. so it's a good sign that her belly is round.
her blood flow to all of her organs is good. as well as the blood flow through the umbilical cord to her. (this was how we lost max, a blood clot in the umbilical cord.)
the placenta is fine, and all the fluid is at normal levels.
she measured in the 18% today. they said they don't start to worry until babies get under the 10% range.
thadd and i both were small babies... so she has this going for her. if she continues the "growth arc", and just stays a little smaller than normal, but growing... then everything is peachy!
my monitoring will now be a growth scan every other week... and doppler ultrasounds twice a week.
the bad news:
every other measurement (other than the stomach) is about 1-2 weeks under size. the doctor said that this is due to my APS. of course it is no surprise. we expected that she would have growth restriction at some point. we just wish it wasn't showing up so early. if you remember, at the first ultrasound she measured perfectly! which is think is one of the reasons they know that things aren't as they should be.
at my next ultrasound, in 2 weeks, should wren's growth not show the "arc" that they want they will decide a course of action. this could mean one of 2 things. 1) outpatient steroids, with even closer monitoring and possible c-section following at some time. 2) being admitted to the hospital for 24 hour monitoring and given steroids and having a c-section.
the other good news:
the doc said that she could totally make it. she seemed really positive that everything would be ok if they did have to take her so soon. (even now.) of course there are risks, and problems... but with wren having no other problems there's a good chance for her. especially at 27-28 weeks!
it is a bit of a shock for me though... to think... that i could have this little girl in 3 weeks... i don't really know how to process that information! i'm not all that worried about her, i think she'll be ok. i'm not letting myself think about all the complications of coming so early. but, more just the fact that i thought i was going to have about 3 more months... and now it could be 3 weeks! wow. (i need to unpack my house, clean, decorate, clean, buy baby stuff, clean, unpack some more, rest up, and get ready for a possible hospital stay, followed by weeks of visiting my little bird in the nicu. :/)
we got several really cute pictures. thadd's convinced that she has my chin-poor girl! and we even got a 3d one. the tech got some cute shots, but printed out one that wasn't my favorite. (thadd said that wren looked a little like the elephant man.hehe...) but it was really neat to see her in 3d! give me a week to get the pictures up. my house is a wreck (from moving this past weekend.) and i'm still having to use someone else's scanner to scan them in! (my stupid "all in one" clearly doesn't include "scanning" according to the common definition!)
i'll continue my lovenox at 60mg/day and baby aspirin. you guys continue in prayer...
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
4.21.2009
april 20- appointment today (on thadd's birthday-what a present)
so, here's the new news.
bp- good
fundal height- 21 (perfect)
weight- +5lbs (wow, better cut back on the cheetos!)
fetal heart rate-good
anti-D antibody update- it's continuing to go down. it's definitely because of the shot i got in jan. YAY!!!
today i had a TON of questions for my doctor. here's the overview:
-can i do shots in my butt? this was SO funny. when i asked her this question she sort of looked at me a little sad and said, "well, usually not because it has to go into fat, not muscle." to which i replied, "have you seen my butt?"... haha! like it's all muscled out or something. i assured her that, yes, i could find a chunk of fat on my butt to put the injection in. how hilarious! muscle. ha!
-what can i do for hemorrhoids? good 'ol tucks and prep H. here i come!
-what can i do about peeing myself when i sneeze? yeah. so this happened to me the other day. sheesh! i was like "isn't this supposed to be AFTER i have the kid????!!!" but, alas, she said it's really normal due to the shifting of my uterus on the urethra. apparently that weakens the mechanism which keeps us from regularly wetting ourselves. nice, huh? (don't worry, it was only a drop!) haha..
-how will my APS affect my labor? it shouldn't affect it at all! i should be able to have natural childbirth, (as natural as i want it :)... short of pitocin to induce the labor initially.
-why will i be induced? this is mainly for control of my blood thinners. they don't want me to go into labor unplanned and still be taking my regular dosage of blood thinner. being induced, in and of itself will raise my risk of having to have a c-section. i'm totally against this (unless it's necessary), and thadd's with me on it. we really want to do what we can to avoid this. we may decide not to be induced depending on wren's health, my health, and further research.
-sexy pelvic brace- it works like a charm!!! (not so much for sexiness, but for pelvic pain.) and yes, kate, i'm going to wear it! my pelvic pain has been intermittently TERRIBLE. i've heard from some of the ladies i know that this is just caused by the weight of the baby on my pelvic bone. i don't know if wren is just low or what, but sometimes i just can't get rid of this pain! i recommend this "hip band" for all ladies who have this pain. it's amazing!
-cystic fibrosis screening? i haven't taken it yet, but i'll take it this week.
-blood thinning test? did one test today, and will have one every few weeks.
-am i at risk for preterm labor? not any more likely than the average pregnant woman. which means be aware of my body, but i don't have to fret about it.
-at what weeks can i relax about the baby's health? she said that at 24 weeks i can breath a very small sigh of relief. this is when the baby is considered "viable". at 29 weeks the lungs are much more developed and wren will have a much better outlook for her health- this is a small sigh of relief. at 32 weeks i can breath a real sigh of relief! this is pretty much the same as 40 for the baby. all the organs will be developed and the prognosis is just as good! yay!
-should i make any preparations for early delivery? she said i should go ahead and do the walk-through at labor and delivery in the next month or so... so we're going to plan on that. also, we're doing hypno-babies... and we're ordering that this next week to get started early.
that's the new news! thanks for caring... thanks for prayers!
bp- good
fundal height- 21 (perfect)
weight- +5lbs (wow, better cut back on the cheetos!)
fetal heart rate-good
anti-D antibody update- it's continuing to go down. it's definitely because of the shot i got in jan. YAY!!!
today i had a TON of questions for my doctor. here's the overview:
-can i do shots in my butt? this was SO funny. when i asked her this question she sort of looked at me a little sad and said, "well, usually not because it has to go into fat, not muscle." to which i replied, "have you seen my butt?"... haha! like it's all muscled out or something. i assured her that, yes, i could find a chunk of fat on my butt to put the injection in. how hilarious! muscle. ha!
-what can i do for hemorrhoids? good 'ol tucks and prep H. here i come!
-what can i do about peeing myself when i sneeze? yeah. so this happened to me the other day. sheesh! i was like "isn't this supposed to be AFTER i have the kid????!!!" but, alas, she said it's really normal due to the shifting of my uterus on the urethra. apparently that weakens the mechanism which keeps us from regularly wetting ourselves. nice, huh? (don't worry, it was only a drop!) haha..
-how will my APS affect my labor? it shouldn't affect it at all! i should be able to have natural childbirth, (as natural as i want it :)... short of pitocin to induce the labor initially.
-why will i be induced? this is mainly for control of my blood thinners. they don't want me to go into labor unplanned and still be taking my regular dosage of blood thinner. being induced, in and of itself will raise my risk of having to have a c-section. i'm totally against this (unless it's necessary), and thadd's with me on it. we really want to do what we can to avoid this. we may decide not to be induced depending on wren's health, my health, and further research.
-sexy pelvic brace- it works like a charm!!! (not so much for sexiness, but for pelvic pain.) and yes, kate, i'm going to wear it! my pelvic pain has been intermittently TERRIBLE. i've heard from some of the ladies i know that this is just caused by the weight of the baby on my pelvic bone. i don't know if wren is just low or what, but sometimes i just can't get rid of this pain! i recommend this "hip band" for all ladies who have this pain. it's amazing!
-cystic fibrosis screening? i haven't taken it yet, but i'll take it this week.
-blood thinning test? did one test today, and will have one every few weeks.
-am i at risk for preterm labor? not any more likely than the average pregnant woman. which means be aware of my body, but i don't have to fret about it.
-at what weeks can i relax about the baby's health? she said that at 24 weeks i can breath a very small sigh of relief. this is when the baby is considered "viable". at 29 weeks the lungs are much more developed and wren will have a much better outlook for her health- this is a small sigh of relief. at 32 weeks i can breath a real sigh of relief! this is pretty much the same as 40 for the baby. all the organs will be developed and the prognosis is just as good! yay!
-should i make any preparations for early delivery? she said i should go ahead and do the walk-through at labor and delivery in the next month or so... so we're going to plan on that. also, we're doing hypno-babies... and we're ordering that this next week to get started early.
that's the new news! thanks for caring... thanks for prayers!
4.17.2009
april 16- get ready for pink!
today we found out you're a girl!
we've already transitioned in our minds to being the parents of a girl, and how that will be different. (although i'm sure there will be more adjusting mentally to be done over time.) we were really in the mindset of parenting a boy. just because that's what we'd always hoped to have first... and then knowing that max was a boy... it's just different to think "we're having a girl!
but it is also exciting. it comes with so many different opportunities and challenges. we can't wait to get started.
here's the overview:
-everything's PERFECT! literally every aspect of the ultrasound was 100% normal. as though i didn't have APS at all! we couldn't have asked for a better result.
-the quad screen came back negative. (it's not that trustworthy anyway... but good news nonetheless)
-the only thing that didn't measure over 20 weeks was the femur. when i asked if that was ok, the lady doing the ultrasound laughed and mentioned that neither one of us are very tall anyway. hehe.. so it makes sense that our kids would be shorter.
-all the organs were good. spinal cord good. brain good. placenta good. cord good.
- she weighs a pound now. how exciting! she weighs already more than max did when he was born. it's hard for me to think about... but... it makes me happy too. just to know that she's so much healthier than poor max was.
she spent the majority of the time doing flips and putting her hand to her face. she also had her mouth open almost the whole time! i guess she'll be like me someday! (or maybe like her daddy- singing all the time.)
we have some really cute pictures that i hope to have up by mid-next week. thadd says she looks like me already. (her feet definitely do! i have long skinny toes.. thadd's feet are...well... a bit more hobbit-ish. :) which is funny because max, even at 21 weeks really did look like a morris. we both think he looked a bit more like thadd's brother, titus, than thadd... but still, he looked a lot like his dad. (and he had hobbit feet and connected earlobes just like his dad for sure!) so i guess, time will tell. she would look a little weird if she came out looking just like her male relatives... i think there's some sort of general rule about that... hopefully the girls will look like girls, and the boys boys. :)
after the ultrasound we went to borders to pick out a book. for max we picked out "where the wild things are". (this was one of my favorites!) for this little girl we got "oh the places you'll go".... another favorite of ours. (though thadd is a little worried about gender ambiguity. it says "guy" a few times. i think it's probably ok for a girl too.)
thanks so much for all of your prayers and well wishes. i know that they truly made a difference. now i'm just taking it 4 weeks at a time from here. i'll have my next ultrasounds at 4 weeks apart. then after 30 weeks, i'll have non-stress tests twice weekly and ultrasounds weekly. they'll induce me if any clots show up to save the baby...or, on the terrible off chance i get eclampsia again, to save me. full term for me will be about 38-39 weeks... which will change my delivery date to somewhere close to the august 23.
we've already transitioned in our minds to being the parents of a girl, and how that will be different. (although i'm sure there will be more adjusting mentally to be done over time.) we were really in the mindset of parenting a boy. just because that's what we'd always hoped to have first... and then knowing that max was a boy... it's just different to think "we're having a girl!
but it is also exciting. it comes with so many different opportunities and challenges. we can't wait to get started.
here's the overview:
-everything's PERFECT! literally every aspect of the ultrasound was 100% normal. as though i didn't have APS at all! we couldn't have asked for a better result.
-the quad screen came back negative. (it's not that trustworthy anyway... but good news nonetheless)
-the only thing that didn't measure over 20 weeks was the femur. when i asked if that was ok, the lady doing the ultrasound laughed and mentioned that neither one of us are very tall anyway. hehe.. so it makes sense that our kids would be shorter.
-all the organs were good. spinal cord good. brain good. placenta good. cord good.
- she weighs a pound now. how exciting! she weighs already more than max did when he was born. it's hard for me to think about... but... it makes me happy too. just to know that she's so much healthier than poor max was.
she spent the majority of the time doing flips and putting her hand to her face. she also had her mouth open almost the whole time! i guess she'll be like me someday! (or maybe like her daddy- singing all the time.)
we have some really cute pictures that i hope to have up by mid-next week. thadd says she looks like me already. (her feet definitely do! i have long skinny toes.. thadd's feet are...well... a bit more hobbit-ish. :) which is funny because max, even at 21 weeks really did look like a morris. we both think he looked a bit more like thadd's brother, titus, than thadd... but still, he looked a lot like his dad. (and he had hobbit feet and connected earlobes just like his dad for sure!) so i guess, time will tell. she would look a little weird if she came out looking just like her male relatives... i think there's some sort of general rule about that... hopefully the girls will look like girls, and the boys boys. :)
after the ultrasound we went to borders to pick out a book. for max we picked out "where the wild things are". (this was one of my favorites!) for this little girl we got "oh the places you'll go".... another favorite of ours. (though thadd is a little worried about gender ambiguity. it says "guy" a few times. i think it's probably ok for a girl too.)
thanks so much for all of your prayers and well wishes. i know that they truly made a difference. now i'm just taking it 4 weeks at a time from here. i'll have my next ultrasounds at 4 weeks apart. then after 30 weeks, i'll have non-stress tests twice weekly and ultrasounds weekly. they'll induce me if any clots show up to save the baby...or, on the terrible off chance i get eclampsia again, to save me. full term for me will be about 38-39 weeks... which will change my delivery date to somewhere close to the august 23.
3.31.2009
april 1- anti-D update
i just got an email back from my doc. it seems it is the anti-D that i tested positive for after all. this can be caused by blood transfusion, miscarriage, birth, etc. but you can also test positive for it after the rhogam shot.
i had a rhogam shot in january when i was having the spotting... and it usually lasts about 12 weeks. the last 2 blood tests that i've had show that the levels are decreasing. according to the doc this lends itself to the possibility that i'm only testing positive due to the shot i received. i'll continue to have blood work monitoring the levels of anti-D in my system until they are at 0.
really, i'm already giving a pint every time i go in, i'm not too worried about one additional test at this point. right?
keep praying!
i had a rhogam shot in january when i was having the spotting... and it usually lasts about 12 weeks. the last 2 blood tests that i've had show that the levels are decreasing. according to the doc this lends itself to the possibility that i'm only testing positive due to the shot i received. i'll continue to have blood work monitoring the levels of anti-D in my system until they are at 0.
really, i'm already giving a pint every time i go in, i'm not too worried about one additional test at this point. right?
keep praying!
3.23.2009
march 20- doc's news
today i had my appointment... the last one until my ultrasound. here's the news:
bp- low and fine
weight- +3lbs (which the doc said is just about right)
heartrate- 150/minute healthy and strong
the bad news is that i have some sort of antibody. (yes, another one, other than the antiphospholipid antibody syndrome.) i'm working on finding out what it's called. i was a little shell shocked when she told me about it, and didn't get the name. apparently it's similar to the rh- antibody that women can get while pregnant. the doctor said that many women get similar antibodies, and as long as the level stays under 16 that it doesn't affect the baby. right now my level is at 1- the lowest it could register... so she didn't seem worried about it. if my levels rise then she said, worst case scenario, that they would give the baby blood transfusions through the umbilical cord. (but, she said that they'd never done that in the history of the hospital, that no one has ever needed it.)
apparently this antibody is caused most commonly by blood transfusions... which she assumed i had had. (i could be wrong, but i feel like i would remember that!) she said it less commonly can be caused by miscarriage. which, apparently happened when we lost max. (she checked back in my records and i didn't have the antibody during my pregnancy with him.)
looks like i'll be having more blood work done more frequently to monitor the antibody. i had several vials drawn on friday... haven't gotten the results back yet. i'll post when i have news.
seriously, how many obscure problems can i have? am i battling with natural selection here? :/
on the upside, if it weren't for the growing bulge in my belly i wouldn't even think i was pregnant. other than being a little more tired than usual, i'm almost completely free of side effects.
oh! but i did forget to mention i'm losing entire hand fulls of hair. eeek! i've heard that it will fill in a little more in the third trimester.. if not, i'm not above some hair plugs!
and.... i guess i also forgot to officially welcome- HEARTBURN! i'm bucking the system though... still eating all sorts of spicy food that i love. i mean, if a roll gives me heartburn, why not enjoy a burrito?:)
3.12.2009
march 12- the plan for the move
we found out today that thadd's officer candidate school date is set for november 22. YAY!!!
this means that while we have to stay here in hawaii a little longer than we want, thadd will be able to be with me to deliver... and have a few months as a family before he has to go away for training. this also means that i won't have to make a move by myself mid-pregnancy to arkansas and switch doctors.
we'll be moving to virginia, and we're really excited about having seasons again. (and being within a days drive home.)
march 12- not too much new news
still no word on my labs. my next appointment isn't until the 20th. so... i'm just anxiously awaiting that appointment. i'm thinking of buying a doppler. anyone had any good luck/bad luck with these? i'm going CRAZY not being able to check on the baby regularly. :/ my next ultrasound appointment won't be until probably the first week in april.
i'm going to put up a picture of my 38I bra. (it came in the mail... and it's a size too big... only a size- but you should see it!!! it's hilarious! thadd just laughed and laughed when i held it up... but then when it almost fit- he was sorta in shock!) i'm going to hang onto it- i'm sure i'll grow into it before too long!
i pretty much can't watch tv at all anymore. i just cry and cry... everything is either so happy or so sad.
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