26 Wks 4 days

We had another doctor's appointment today to check on Baby Gray. Eric and I got this great face profile shot, which is great because the baby is breach and not really cooperating right now! Things are progressing as Dr. Papa expected. My amniotic fluid is still really low, although the level went up just a bit since last visit. I have been drinking soooo.... much water to help increase the levels! I feel like I might float away! The baby weighs 1 lb. 6 oz. which is an increase of 7 oz in the last 3 weeks. Dr. Papa says that we have a small baby and she doesn't think it will be very big at birth either. I think it got the Huddleston height genes! The good news is that Baby Gray is still growing. Everything else looks great; heart, brains, kidneys, bladder, etc. We got to see a lot of the Gastroschisis this visit. The intestines are floating up by the Baby's chin area and it was the first really good look we have had. Another interesting thing that Dr. Papa noticed is that my placenta has split. It has a upper lobe and a lower lobe (as she called it) where there is a small section attaching the two parts. There is blood flow between the two areas and she says that this is mainly an issue when delivering and making sure we don't leave any of the placenta behind. This has a lot to do with Baby Gray's size. All in all, things just get a little more confusing and a little more detailed with every visit, but everything is going as expected so far.

Our next appointment is in 2 wks and then twice a week after that. Dr. Papa seems to think there is a high possibility of having a c-section around 32 wks (Sept. 6th). Smaller babies tend to not do as well during vaginal births, and with the low fluid levels and slow growth we probably won't make it to 36 wks as hoped for. All we can do is pray that Baby Gray stays inside as long as it safely can and that the delivery, which ever it may be, turns out safe and for the best.

I have been ordered to drink tons of water, and get lots of rest. Eric and I have been painting the nursery. I will post pics soon!
xoxo

FYI - Questions Answered

I have been getting a lot of questions about our due date and what exactly is going to happen when we have the baby. So I thought I would give everyone a run down of what we know so far.

I am currently 26 wks pregnant, at 32 wks, Eric and I will be going to to see Dr. Papa 2-3 times a week until the baby is born. Starting at 32 wks (Sept. 6th) the amniotic fluid could start becoming acidic and might start irritating the baby's bowels that are outside of the abdomen. Dr. Papa will closely watch the heat rate and make sure the baby isn't stressed in anyway and that the bowels aren't becoming dilated, which would make it harder for the surgeon to repair. If all goes well, and the baby is doing fine we will be induced the week of Oct. 4th and I will have the baby vaginally at 36 wks. If there are any problems or stress for the baby, I will have a c-section scheduled immediately. So generally we could be introducing Baby Gray to the world anywhere from Sept. 6th thru Oct. 4th. We are really praying for a vaginal birth. It would make it easier on the baby and on mommy:-) So we are hoping to make it all the way to October. The longer Baby Gray stays inside will ultimately make the recovery and hospital stay a much shorter process.

I am sure we will learn more as time goes on. I can't believe we have less than 10 wks to go! Our next doctor's appointment is on Mon. July 30th.

Much Love, xoxo

FYI: In the LINKS section (to the right of this post) I have added links to our baby registry, and information on Gastroschisis.

Surgeon & NICU Visit

Yesterday, Eric and I went to meet the surgeon that would be operating on our baby's gastroschisis. Dr. Black is with the Pediatric Surgical Associates of Fort Worth. He has been doing gastro surgeries since 1978 when they were very rare. He now has at least 2 in the NICU all the time that he has operated on and is watching over. He thinks the surgery will start 2-4 hours after birth. So we should be able to see our little one before they take him/her in. The surgery is fairly quick and Baby Gray should only be on a ventilator for 24 hours after the surgery to help with the pressure of putting the bowels back inside. I was worried about that :-) He was also very positive about our situation and explained a lot of the details we had questions about. We really liked him and we feel he will be a great addition to our doctors.

We then went over to Harris Methodist and did the pre-admission paperwork for the hospital. Now all we have to do is show up and have a baby! We stopped by the NICU hoping to get a tour of the facilities that we will be spending so much time in, but unfortunately they don't give tours anymore. Privacy reasons, busy facility, and not enough space were some of the reasons. Maybe someone should tell the doctors that sent us over? We did talk with one of the charge nurses, Sue, and she answered some of our questions, gave us visitation rules and the phone number if we think of any other questions. She was very nice and reassuring and had a great British sound! The NICU has a small waiting room and only one person can go into the facility with either me or Eric at a time. If they are admitting a baby or working on them in some way everyone has to leave. We can't have lots of toys or decorations, but we can bring hats and mittens from home and a cd player to play the classical music that I have been playing on my belly! They were discharging the gastro baby that we were hoping to see and they were expecting one in that afternoon. Even though we didn't get to 'go' in I still feel better knowing where we will be and a little bit about the operations.

So yesterday was a really long day! All we have to do now is meet with the hospital social worker about insurance and meet with a few pediatricians to pick one. Show up for our OB appointments and wait!

23 Weeks

Eric and I went to the doctor yesterday and finally got to see (what we could see) our little baby! Even though I can feel him/her moving it is still nice to see it move on the screen. Unfortunately, our baby was all curled up in a ball with legs over the top of its head. The doc said it was very hard to see the gastroschisis but it only looks to be intestines still and that the stomach and bladder are still inside. This will make the surgery easier. We still can't tell if it is a boy or girl and we may not get the chance. The doctor says that the amniotic fluid is relatively low and she will be watching that. So the baby doesn't have a great deal of room to move around. Also the weight is low about 15oz right now, but it is normal for a baby with gastro to weigh less. Should be a pound and a few oz's by now. So she wants us to come back in 3 wks to check up.

Our doctor was really positive and she answered tons of questions and set up the meeting with our surgeons. We go next week to meet them and we will tour the nicu then too. I'm excited because our doc just delivered a gastro baby and it's still in the nicu. So we might get to visit him and get a real sense of what it will be like for us. She says he is doing really well. After we meet the surgeons I think we will feel better and have most of our questions answered.

We learned alot and are a little bit more informed now. Just got to sit back and wait and drink lots of water!

Gastroschisis

A few days after we got back from vacation our doctor called us and said that some of the blood-work that I had done before we left came back abnormal. So we went in and they did a sono. I was 18 weeks pregnant at the time. Our doc wanted us to go to see a high risk pregnancy Dr. So we had to wait 4 days not knowing really what was wrong. We went to the new doctor (Dr. Papa) and she told us that our baby has Gastroschisis. Which is when the stomach is closing up, around 5-8 wks of pregnancy, and it doesn't close all the way leaving a hole with bowel outside of the belly. This isn't life threatening or a long term problem. They don't know what causes it either. It usually occurs in first time parents and young parents about 1 in 5000 births, but they just don't know what the cause is. Our baby will be born at least a month early if not sooner and it will go straight over to Cooks for surgery to put everything back inside and then to the NICU where it will stay for at least 4 weeks learning how to eat normally. Things have been pretty crazy lately, but we are staying really positive about everything. We have been shopping for nursery furniture and staying busy with everything baby! They think we are having a girl but aren't sure. Our little peanut isn't really cooperating. Our next appointment is on July 5th and I will let everyone know an update then.