34 Weeks

Merry (almost!) Christmas everyone! I can't believe the holidays are already here! The past few weeks have been a little rough in the Grinstead household healthwise. I got a call from our sitter last week on Wednesday that Ella had thrown up. I scrambled around to get coverage at work and my Dad picked her up at the sitter's in the meantime and I met him at home. Poor Ella ended up throwing up twelve times in four hours. It was awful. Thankfully, the virus was short lived and she was much better the next day and back to her normal self within 48 hours. Well wouldn't you know, then I came down with the flu on Friday. I felt like I had been hit by a truck. Luckily, just like Ella, I vomited a lot but only for a few hours and after a good night's rest I started to feel better. Unfortunately now Jeff isn't feeling well so E and I sent him to bed early in the hopes he can sleep it off. Ugh the flu is NO fun!

Today I had my 34 week OB appointment. It was a pretty standard appointment- weight, urine, blood pressure check and finger stick for hemoglobin. (Funny side note- the doctor was telling me that another patient had the finger stick this morning and was screaming and crying and had to lay on the table with a cold towel on her face afterwards. Imagine what she would have done had she had to get a PICC line inserted- yikes!) Anyway, everything checked out well and the heartbeat sounded sweet and strong in the 150s. The doctor measured me and noticed that I am measuring further behind now than I was before. In itself, that wouldn't necessarily be much to worry about, however, with my history it is more concerning.

We talked about my experience with Ella and I told him about her numbers from growth ultrasounds I had at 34 and 36 weeks (thank goodness I had it all written down from when I was pregnant the first time!). I have had a nagging worry in my head the past few weeks that I am going down the same path with Baby 2.0 as I did with Ella. He agreed that the situations are seeming a bit similar and suggested another growth ultrasound at 36 weeks- two weeks from now.

Basically the OB was very honest and straightforward with me. IUGR is a leading cause of fetal death in the womb and is something to be very careful with. He reminded me several times of the importance of kick counts and how essential it is that I do them frequently and regularly. Because I am steadily measuring further behind and because of my history, there is a concern that the baby is not getting adequate nutrients from the placenta which we need to keep a close eye on. At the 36 week growth ultrasound, the important thing they will look at is the measurement of the abdomen. It will be compared to the head and femur measurements and also to its measurement at my last growth scan and will be a good indicator as to how the baby is growing and thriving. Ella's abdomen dropped from the 17th to the 6th percentile between weeks 34-36.

The doctor reminded me that often people will wonder why having a small baby is a concern, and that many people would assume that it is best to keep the baby inside even longer to keep it growing. While this sounds good in theory, the reason for the concern is that the small abdomen is an indicator of poor growth and failure to thrive in the womb and it is often better to deliver the baby early because they often do better outside and it is of course easier to observe and deal with problems that arise in a baby that has been born as opposed to one still in utero.

The plan is that we will do the ultrasound and then make a decision. If baby's growth is steady and abdomen is not lagging far behind, I will progress as normal. However, if the growth is decreasing or showing a bigger discrepancy in the measurements, my OB said he will deliver at 37 weeks. Yikes! It is scary to think about being delivered early but at the same time it would be a relief to know that baby is safe and here.

Today was my last day of work before a much anticipated Winter Break so I am looking forward to a week and a half off! This weekend will be busy with family and Christmas which will be great. Next week I plan on relaxing, cleaning and getting last minute things ready for baby! My next OB appt will be in two weeks on January 5th and that's when we should know more so I will definitely update then! :)