29 Weeks, 2 Days

To begin, I'll briefly update everyone on exactly why I'm in the hospital this week, and what situation our baby is in. My mother in law suggested I write a blog to keep everyone informed and updated on the rest of my pregnancy, hospital stay and bed rest, and I thought it was a good idea! So, here's our story so far...sorry if it's a little long.

Travis and I are expecting our son in March, but there are complications with this pregnancy that will most likely make for an early delivery. To make a long story short, it was discovered several weeks ago at our 20 week ultrasound that the baby is small for his gestational age, or SGA as they call it around here. It's also known as IUGR, or Intrauterine Growth Restriction. The previous link will take you to a medical website that may better explain his situation, and provide a little bit more information for you.

SGA babies sometimes have a rough go of it as the pregnancy progresses, because sometimes these babies are small due to nutritional or oxygen deficiencies inside the womb. Often the best bet with these babies is to deliver them early, because with today's amazing medicine, they have a better chance of survival outside of the womb in NICU than in.

My OB is Dr. Susan Devine, and she's AMAZING. She's truly been a blessing throughout this pregnancy, and the six months I suffered from severe Hyperemisis Gravidarum. (Again, you can click on the link I've provided which will take you to the Help HER foundation website, an organization dedicated solely to supporting and assisting women with HG.)

When the IUGR was discovered, my case was sent primarily to the hands of Dr. Bill Atkinson, who handles high risk and complicated pregnancies. Dr. Atkinson has been a wonderful blessing as well. He's a very conservative and careful doctor who truly listens to his mothers and their intuition. He has carefully followed my progress and our baby's health since diagnosing him with SGA.

We have two appointments weekly in Dr. Atkinson's office to keep track of baby's progress and development. I have two NSTs (non-stress tests) a week, and one ultrasound which checks the doplers and blood flow in various parts of his body to make sure he's still getting the proper supply of oxygen. When those doplers start slowing down or becoming irregular, that's a sign that his environment is finally failing him, and he needs to be delivered. I had one appointment on Monday, Dec. 15th, and baby looked great! However, I noticed on Tuesday that the baby wasn't moving as much as I was used to, so I decided to go up to the hospital for another NST. They put him on the monitor, and he looked great again. Right before they took him off after 45 minutes or so, his heart rate dropped from the normal baseline range of 135ish to the 70's.

It was at that point they decided to admit me to the hospital. As Dr. A explained it to me, this drop (which went right back up) could have been the sign they've been looking for, indicating that baby was in distress and ready to come out. It could also have been an innocent phase of curiosity for him, and could be an indicator that he had finally noticed his umbilical cord and was squeezing it, thus slowing his blood supply.

That first night in the hospital was scary. They put an IV in my arm to have an emergency line open should I require an emergency C-section. There is no way they could deliver him naturally, as this would create far too much stress on his heart and lungs. They also put my thumb prints on the souvenir birth certificate that every baby takes home from the hospital. If he was born, his tiny foot prints would be joining my thumb prints. The reality that he could be delivered that night or that week hit me, and made me understandably emotional. A weird thing happened though, and once I got over the initial panic of him being born, I got excited about the thought of it, and then became anxious and started actually hoping that he'd be born sooner than later (maybe not that night, but soon!) I don't want a sick or weak baby, but this pregnancy has been SO hard, and so trying for both of us, I think we're both in that anxious phase already of just wanting him here as soon as possible.

They started off monitoring him for 24 hours around the clock, but by Wednesday he had stopped any decelerations, so Dr. A said we could move it to every four hours. I was glad, because having the monitors on for 24 hours actually irritates the uterus muscles, causing painful contractions, which were getting frustrating to deal with. They don't progress in any way, or show any signs of labor, but they still hurt. They're called labor pains for a reason! Dr. Devine has already said that if I'm going to go into preterm labor anytime soon, she's not going to stop the progress of it, because she trusts it's nature's way of saying that baby needs out NOW. Sometimes if you stop the progress of labor, even this early, it doesn't help baby as much as it hurts. I trust both of my doctors so much.

They've done three ultrasounds since I've been here in the hospital, and he looks great every time. He's looking perfect on the monitors, and hasn't appeared to have any more scary decelerations. Everyone seems very pleased with his progress. I'm still on strict bed rest, but Dr. Atkinson wants to keep me up here until I'm into the 30 weeks. I'm 29 weeks, 2 days today, and I'll be 30 weeks on Saturday. They've given me steroid shots to help progress baby's lung development in preparation for an early delivery. His odds of survival after 30 weeks go up substantially, and I think both of my doctors would just feel better sending me home after I'm in that ballpark. So, I anticipate I'll go home next Monday as long as he continues to look as great as he does now.

So for now, that's what we know. Everything looks really great and positive for baby, and I'm doing fine, just a little anxious. Please keep us all in your prayers. God has been so good at providing us with peace about this situation. He's been incredibly faithful in answering our prayers in our moments of doubt and distress, and I know in my heart that everything is going to be perfectly fine.

I'll continue to update this blog as often as possible, so please continue to check in with us.
God bless,
Kathleen and Travis