I'm admitted at the hospital

After having some bad headaches last night and today, Aunt Mary brought over my Grandpas blood pressure machine to check my blood pressure. It was sky high, so I called my OB. He suggested Tylenol, and to lay down for 30 minutes and recheck and call him. There was no change so I found myself back at the hospital.

They admitted me for Preeclampsia, and to monitor me and do some testing for at least 24 hours, maybe longer depending on how I do. The Dr made it very clear he thinks this baby is coming in the next 10 days, but he also said he hope he is wrong. I told him I refuse to left him come any earlier than 2 weeks and 4 weeks sound better. He agreed.

He set up for the neonatal Dr's to come talk to us tomorrow about the baby so hopefully they give me some hope and optimism. We will now be missing our BIG cardiologist appointment AGAIN, I'm convinced this baby doesn't want us to see his little heart.

I'm going to go get some rest before they come back in for vitals in 3 hours. Keep the prayers coming. Thanks you EVERYONE!

26 weeks

A month ago today changed this whole pregnancy. It's probably been one of the most emotional months Chris and I have ever endured, but it has also brought out the strength in each other. I am getting through this because of him. I hope the news can only get better from here on out.

Tomorrow is the new cardiologist appointment. We have to drive 2 hours to Tampa, but it's worth it. We are hoping and praying the Dr gives us good news about the heart. Then we drive strait back to Ft Myers to go meet with the specialist again. He has to check the reversal flow on my arteries again. Hoping there is no change and I don't have to be admitted.

I'm still on bed rest. I really hope it's helping him. I miss work and miss having the freedom to go to the store to get my own stuff. BUT if this is what it takes to give this baby a chance I will do ANYTHING. I wanted to say THANK YOU to Aunt Mary and Cathy for bringing me homemade dinners on nights Chris has been at work. It takes a lot of stress off the both of us to find something healthy to eat and let alone prepare. I am so thankful we have you guys. And much thanks to Trisha, my sister in law for spending boring nights in front of the TV with me.

I am excited for this Thursday, Maggie is flying down a week earlier to hang out with me. THANK GOD, it will give Chris a break. LOL Then a week after that the whole family will be here, Mom, Dad and Molly. It will be nice to have everyone here. Now this baby just better stay put. (You hear that little one?)

Baby Shower Update:
(since a few of you have asked)
We were suppose to have our baby shower in 2 weeks while my family is here for my brother Charlies graduation, the invites were almost sent until we had another disappointing Dr's appointment early last week. We have decided to cancel the shower for the time being. Maybe there can be one after he is born and we can celebrate then. I'm bummed because they had the BEST baby shower invitations that I was soooooo excited about, you know me..anything with anchors and sailboats wins my heart over.

Wish us luck tomorrow. I will keep everyone updated as soon as we get home.

How far along? 26 weeks
Maternity clothes? Everything
Stretch marks? Not yet, thankfully
Sleep: Too much, being on bed rest gives you a lot of time for naps
Best moment this week: It was a crappy week, so i have to say the BEST moment was finding out I doubled my fluids. Any other news i take with a grain of salt and hope for the best.
Movement: He's been really quiet this week, but the Dr said it could be from the steroid shots. He said it makes the babies sluggish sometimes.
Food cravings: I've been craving free for a few weeks up until last night... I want anything I can put tarter sauce on.
Gender: It's a BOY!
Labor Signs: Had a scare, but Dr confirmed I'm okay for now. STAY THAT WAY!
Belly Button in or out? Almost out.
What I miss: Being anxiety free.
What I am looking forward to: The cardiologist in Tampa tomorrow morning. I hope and pray he gives us good news.
Weekly Wisdom: You can't give up hope
Milestones: He's 26 weeks, almost and maybe even 500g by now so everyday he stays in, the better chance he has at survival. He's our fighter.

Names?

We need your help! We still have NO name and this baby needs a name.
If you know me, you all know I have been in love with the name Nolan since day 1. Chris isn't too fond of it for 2 reasons...

1. Our dog is named Nola. we named her after the FSU Seminoles 6 years ago
2. Our favorite college team is, duh Florida State Seminoles.

NOW, I never ever thought about this when I came up with the name Nolan. We even asked his best friend Hunkins who went to Florida State and him and his girlfriend didn't think twice about it.

We never call Nola by her name...she gets called 50 other million names...Goober, Crap for brains, Numnuts, Nina Noo... So its not like Nola is going to be around in 50 years to haunt the baby because his name is similar, right?
So I gave up on this name because I knew Chris would never ever ever give in.

Chris's favorite name is Christopher Joseph D III, and we would call him Trey. It's the closest name we come anything close to agreeing on. We even kinda started calling the baby Trey. It's not a bad name by any means. It's been our front runner the past few months since it's honestly the ONLY name we semi agree on.

BUT....

Then I found out that Nolan means "little fighter" and that is exactly what he is and it's what everyone refers to him right now! The name is so fitting. So we want your opinions on your thoughts.

Do you think it would be weird if ONE DAY we were going to a FSU football game and the kid was wearing an FSU shirt and some guy says... Oh whats your kids name? And we respond...Nolan? (Because I am soooo sure this will happen)

I'm putting up a poll to the right to get what you guys all think. Be honest. Feel free to comment.

Video

Rollercoaster

Seriously, everyday is a roller coaster to us..it is running minute by minute even. I guess it's preparing us for the NICU life we will soon endure. Which we are hoping this baby grows a littl more to make it to that step.

We went to another Fetal maternal appointment. It's one of the bi-weekly scheduled ones. It started with the ultrasound tech asking if she could take an extra look at the heart. She said she knew I never made it to the cardiologist yesterday so she figured what was the harm.

She said she thinks we should get prepared for some good news because things are looking pretty decent. She thinks the enlarged heart is due to the placental insufficancy requiring the heart to overwork and grow bigger. She said the lung cavities are developing which is good. So we were crossing our fingers that the Dr would be optimistic on the heart too. She remeasured my amniotic fluid and she got a measurement of 6.9 So it has doubled in 3 days, thank god. Anything under 8 is critical but at least I am climbing back to where I was.

The Dr then came in. Keep in mind its the first time he had seen me so he is going off a lot of todays ultrasound and my chart. He said he is most concerned with his heart right now. He really needs me to go to a certain cardiologist in Tampa ASAP. He said we can't wait to see the local one that was SUPPOSE to happen yesterday and got rescheduled for next Wed. He promised this is one of the best in the SW area. He wants to rule out a VSD and Tetrolgy of Fallot. He is suspecting TOF because of a slightly enlarged aorta. So he must suspect something that either the u/s tech didn;t pick up or he is considering all my previous appointments and charts. He said he has treatment plans in mind for both but they both differ. We are all hoping the heart is ok and the u/s tech was correct.

Sooo, Monday we drive up to Tampa to see the cardiologist then right back to Ft Myers to see Fetal Maternal specialist right after. He did say I might be admitted next week for daily monitoring of the doppler flows in my uterine arteries but it all depends on what the cardiologist says. As of now, I'm still on bedrest, but I'm hoping its helping with my fluid levels as it seems to be.

No cardiologist today

We were SUPPOSE to go see the fetal cardiologist today but we had a slight change in plans. On the way to the cardiologist, my OB called to go over some lab stuff for tomorrow. I had asked who was on call because I wanted to talk to them when I came in today after the cardiologist for my 2nd steroid shot about decreased fetal movement since yesterday.

This boy had his off days but the fetal Dr made it a point that I should call if it continues now since my fluid had been so low. SO, my OB said skip the cardiologist and come straight in.

Here's for some better news....
They plopped me on the ultrasound machine after giving up with the NST. He's in there wiggling around and had a strong heartbeat. The tech was surprised that I couldn't feel him. My fluids went up a little to 5, YAY! Its better than 3. She said it looks better than 2 days ago.

She remeasured him and hes now a 1lb 1oz!! He grew in just 2 days! I think the bed rest is helping. So he is about 460-478g, which is soooooo close to 500!!! The ultrasound tech was amazed, as so are we.
The Dr also checked for ruptured membranes and preterm labor, NOTHING.

So even though we never made it to the cardiologist, at least we got a little extra hope today. Our cardiologist appointment is now next Wed so we have to wait one more week, but after finding out he grew just a little more I'm okay with that.

I got my second round of steroid shots before we left today to help mature his lungs, woo-hoo.

I just want to re-thank everyone who has sent messages, comments and prayers. I wish I had the energy to reply to them all. God works in mysterious ways and I'm a true believer this baby will be one of those miracles.

3 weeks?

So we went to the fetal specialist today. To the same office I was hoping we would never step foot back in but they made sure I saw a different Dr and I am so glad we saw this one. We did the ultrasound and we were hoping my amniotic fluid went up after the fluids they gave me yesterday in L&D and the fluids I drank last night...but it remained 3.7 So I was expecting bad news when the Dr came in. The tech tried so hard to get some extra fluid by his face so she could get me a 4D picture of his face, but there just isn't enough fluid.

The Dr came in and said the good news is he is still growing, slowly but he is. He said that everything still looks good with the head and legs and stomach growing. He said in a disease state those are the first to lag behind. He believes his size has to do with my placenta. He thinks my placenta isn't providing the baby with what he needs. I guess some evidence of this is I'm starting to get reversal flow in the umbilical cord. This is major. He needs to have me come in twice a week so monitor the flow because as soon as it's completely reversed we have to deliver. This why he thinks my amniotic fluid can't be fixed by drinking more fluids, damn. He also said even though the chromosomes looked good on one test doesn't mean that the placenta got some bad chromosomes. He said the baby COULD have an unknown syndrome but we wouldn't know that until later, and that is something that could be causing all of this.

He mentioned he hopes that I can make it another 5-10 days to get him to a closer viable weight. He said if he was born today, his survival rate is 5-10%, but if he DOES have a heart defect (which we find out tomorrow) it goes to pretty much nothing because he wouldn't be able to fight the surgeries.

So our plan is cardiologist tomorrow, back to fetal every Monday & Thursday. They are also now testing me for Preeclampsia, my blood pressures have been higher lately but I really think it has to do with stress, so they are just making sure. He thinks he might have me hospital bedrest by nest week.

He went ahead and have me the steroid shot to help mature his lungs because he really does think he is making an apperance in the next 2-3 weeks if he makes it that long.

This sucks, I can' even explain the emotions we go through. I know God does everything for a reason but it is so frusterating. I don't wish this on anybody or even a worst enemy. We want NOTHING more than to have this baby boy and hope he's a fighter and proves all these Dr's wrong.

It's not fair

I don't even know where to start.
We went in to the regular OB for another growth scan today. The appointment didn't go so well. He only grew 48g in the past 2 weeks and he should have grown twice that. On top of that, my amniotic fluid is dangerously low. I have been sitting around an AFI(amniotic fluid index) of 7-8 at previous appointments. I am now at 3.

My Dr's main concern is the amniotic fluid at this time. He said typically anything under 5 they go strait to be monitored and then deliver. So he said at this point he would usually admit me to the hospital for fluids and monitoring until further notice. But there's a problem, even though I am past 24 weeks (viability date) he isn't matching a size of a 24 weeker and he is about 368g. Babies need to be close to or over 500g to have a surviving chance. So he said if I decided to get admitted I have to be ready to deliver via c-section as soon as that heartrate drops- but he said I would have to be ready for a baby that wouldn't make it. We both decided it was better to go home and be on bed rest and hope for the best. I would hate to deliver prematurely just b/c his heart rate droped once. If our baby was bigger, I would probably be typing this from the hospital room.

Instead they sent me to OB triage to get an IV with some fluids, in hopes that it helps my fluid levels. I already drink CRAZY amounts of water so he doesn't think dehydration is an issue. He believes the placenta is getting ready to give up and the baby isn't able to keep up with the fluid. He also said the baby has a bright bowel on the ultrasound (echogenic bowel) which indicates a chromosomal abnormality or infection. He said the baby could still have an abnormality that wasn't tested for in the amnio. He said he thinks the baby has some sort of sydrome, minor or major is totally unknown.

He agrees my case is so rare and nothing makes sense with all the findings. He said the low amniotic fluid and the severe IUGR is very very critical and hes only seen it maybe once in 17 years of practice. Now that I am on bedrest for the time being, he didn't think going to see the specialist in Sarasota was the best idea. Instead he made me an appointment for tomorrow morning that I went to before but with a different doctor.

What he wants to know from them is when would be the right time to admit me given the baby has a fighting chance. He also gave me an option to meet with the NICU doctors and get their opinion. We're waiting until tomorrow to see what happens. My Dr truly thinks something is going to happen in the next 2 weeks, good or bad. Im hoping he is wrong (and he hopes he's wrong too) and our baby keeps growing as long as he can.

Any and all prayers are appreciated greatly, we need them. This whole thing is just so unfair. We have been so excited to start a family and then we get this handed on our plate. Why?
Sorry if this all makes no sense, I'm pretty overwhelmed right now and it hardly makes sense to me.

I would post the video from the ultrasound, but it's pretty blury since the amniotic fluid is so low its hard to get a good picture.