I need to post about having our sweet baby girl but I wanted to back up and talk about what happened leading up to her arrival. On December 15th, we had our last appointment with Dr. Jones. It started out like they all do…they took my vitals and then I had an ultrasound. We are always trying to read them and see if they have found something of concern or if everything is good. We could tell from the screen that she was growing right at the 40th percentile so we knew that was good. After the ultrasound, we met with Dr. Jones in his office. He had nothing but good news. He was amazed that my fluid levels were so good and said it had to be from all the rest (on my side) that I was getting. He told us that her growth looked good…it had dropped down a teeny tiny bit from the last time but still looked GREAT. Even her stomach measurement looked great. He told us that we were going to have to be very careful to watch for growth restriction because all of my issues that I have listed before. He said that if her growth dropped below the 10th percentile, we needed to deliver right after at 36 weeks. That kind of surprised me…I don’t know why, but it did. Dr. Jones told us, like with Campbell, we needed to start non-stress tests (NST’s) weekly. He then released us and told us that we could be in the care of Dr. Harper from here on out. YAY!!!!!
These are our pictures of our last ultrasound EVER with Dr. Jones!!!! Now that I’m thinking of it, I guess I shouldve taken a picture with Dr. Jones but we never really got along that great soooo….
Dr. Harper started seeing me weekly and sometimes more than that. I started going to the hospital for my weekly non stress tests. When I say NON stress test, they basically hook you up to a fetal heart monitor and measure the baby’s heartrate…they also give you this little button and you have to push it each time the baby moves. They want to see that they baby’s heartrate is reacting to the movement…like it should go up about 10 beats after a movement. If there isn’t a lot of reaction from the baby, your baby could be in stress for one reason or another. When I tell you that these NON stress test are THE most stressful things during my pregnancy, I am NOT joking. I truly hate them. I go in there…I always have a nurse that I know which Is so nice!!! I lay on the bed and pray that she is going to move….then I push the button when she finally does move and then I watch…obsessively WATCH her heartrate to see if it goes up like it’s suppose to. Well, the very first NST I had was done by my friend Susan. She came in after I had been on for awhile….gave me some juice and told me to drink it…I hate that because that means the baby isn’t cooperating. I drank the juice and Susan came back in…she tore off the sheet and said she was going to get michelle (another very close friend) to look at it because “it didn’t look bad but didn’t look great.” So I lay there wondering what that meant. She came back and said she had michelle (who was in a csection) and the dr who was performing the csection (not my dr) look at the strip…while in the middle of surgery! and he said it was FINE for me to go home…GREAT…the word “fine” is not what I wanted to hear when they are sending me home with a baby in my belly. Most of the NST’s went this way! In fact, I started having two a week and on one of the times, Dr. Harper came by and looked and said we need to do a contraction stress test. That is where they hook you up to pitocin and basically put you into labor and make you have contractions to watch how the baby reacts. After an IV and a long morning at the hospital, they released me with more of the “she doesn’t look bad but she doesn’t look great”. WONDERFUL! Well the last straw was on January 5th. I went in for my non stress test. Dr. Harper happened to be making rounds that morning and came in to see me. He asked me when my next appt was and it was actually right after I finished my nst that day. He told me that there was no reason for me to go over there to wait that he would measure my belly right then. So, he measured it and continued talking to me about other things. I asked him “how did my belly measure”…because if you remember, I had a long period of the pregnancy where my belly measured small (when I had low amniotic fluid) but it had finally gotten back on track. Well, he replied “it’s measuring small”. So, BECAUSE IM SUPER ANAL, I asked “do you think we should do an ultrasound to check her growth because Dr. Jones told us to be watching for IUGR (Intrauterine Growth Restriction). He agreed that that was a good idea. I laid around at the hospital until the ultrasound lady could make her way up. She did an awesome job measuring. After she finished, I asked her how she was measuring. She said she was measuring around 34 weeks on everything (head, limbs, belly, etc.). Well, at the time I was 37.5 weeks so I knew that was NOT good. She told me that she was measuring in the 3rd percentile. YIKES!!!! She handed me some pictures and left. I walked down the hall and talked to michelle and several other nurses who all agreed that I would definitely be delivering!!! I left in shock and a little overwhelmed. I went to get my boys from Liz and took them home for naps. I frantically pulled more things together…I did have most everything packed already! I kept texting Michelle and she finally called around 4 and said that she had talked to Dr. Harper and that I would need to be there at 5am for blood work and a csection. Stop all medicine…etc, etc. Then I got a phone call an hour later from Dr. harper. I could tell he was concerned. He said that the baby was showing that she only weighed 5lbs 5oz. and right at 34 weeks growth. He assured me that that did not mean that her lungs were not developed but that you just never know. He told me to be prepared for a NICU stay. Dr. Harper also told me that my stomach was only measuring at 26 weeks…and that he was quite concerned as soon as he measured me. I’m telling you…I was hit hard with the reality that my precious baby probably just completely stopped growing right after we left Dr. Jones appointment on December 15th because I was 34 weeks at that point. For some reason, I was so sad that my body had failed her. We know that it was probably a combination of my hypertension (which had become quite high…way higher than with either of the boys), 2 vessel cord, and the blood clotting disorders…I mean it really wasn’t a surprise but still sad.
Here are a few pictures from my NST’s…do you see how that line in the blue doesn’t really go up and down very much. It’s suppose to have more up and down movement.
I was concerned about my lovenox (blood thinning medicine). I am suppose to be off of it for 48 hours before surgery..definitely before a spinal. Dr. Harper told me they would do blood work and check to see if it was safe the morning of the surgery. My concern was that if I couldn’t have a spinal that they would put me to sleep. I really did NOT want to be knocked out for the birth.
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