I know it's been FOREVER since I've blogged, and even added pictures; however in my defense it's been a very stressful time for our little family. A lot has happened- or "not" happened since I last blogged, and I've been fully informed of our situation as of late...but to give you a better picture of our last month I'll just go in chronological order of our prenatal adventures.
In my last blog I made the announcement that we're having a little girl, and that she was growing "slowly" and is considered small. I also mentioned that I wasn't going to announce her name yet... but a lot of things changed my perspective and guess what. She has a name, so I'm going to use it! :) We named her Shaylee Elizabeth. And she's a fighter.
Shaylee has what's called Inner Uterine Growth Restriction. (Well up until yesterday that is...) We had our third ultra sound three? weeks ago. The next day I got a call from a nurse who casually explained to me (over the friggin phone mind you) that our child is further behind (by one day) in her tracked growth rate and is considered to be in the 6th percentile. 50% is average and 100% is huge, so as you can imagine... my ears shut down and I didn't hear anything else she was saying. How can the radiologist say just the day before that our child is small but okay and then a nurse (NOT MY DOCTOR) calls and says that my child is falling further behind ... but not to worry. WRONG!
I went in the next morning after several different conversations with DIFFERENT NURSES. When my doctor entered the room I could have just imploded because she mentioned that she "called me in" to discuss the ultra sound with me. HELLO MISS DOCTOR LADY... I called MYSELF IN... you didn't even give me the courtesy of talking to me over the phone. You just handed me over to a nurse. Thanks for that. HUMPF. Anyway, tantrums aside, she explained to me that Shaylee has Inner Uterine Growth Restriction (IUGR) and that they are concerned about her getting enough nutrtition. Which in turn leads to more problems such as getting enough oxygen to her brain. Then she asked me questions like if I really do smoke, or do drugs. PFFF! Please. Now thats a funny thought. I can just picture me now, toking up in the bathroom. To tell you the truth... I don't even know what "toking up" means. HA!
So, IUGR is a term that kind of combines a million and one different problems into one fancy term. At this point all we know is that Shaylee is small and that many IUGR babies are delivered extremely early and put in NICU. The reason for the premature birth however isn't due to the mother going into labor. It's because the doctors have to take the baby out of the mother before inner uterine "demise". WHAT??? Needless to say, all this information turned me into a complete BASKET CASE for two weeks. I was then referred to a Perinatal Specialist at Swedish Hospital in Seattle.
And here we are up to date. I had my fourth ultra sound yesterday at Swedish Hospital, and then had a consultation with the nicest specialist in the world. They checked the input/ output of the blood supply (flow) in the umbilical cord, and also checked the placenta for any damage or implantation defects. They checked Shaylee's heart, brain, kidney's, and amniotic fluid. Which are all doing fine. Nothing scary or out of the ordinary going on there. Anyway, long agonizing story short... Shaylee's due date could honestly be off and so we're going to start anticipating July 30th instead of the 23rd. This moves Shaylee from critical to a more normal small size. That one week change jumps her up to 24% in size from the 6% she's been sitting at. She's still small, but this size is obviously better... and moves her out of the IUGR classification. (Meaning no C-section or NICU!!!! YAY!) Anyway, if her original due date really is the 23rd than she's still critically small and I don't really know where we go from there. We will have a better idea and confirmation June 5th when I have my 5th ultra sound.
My gut and motherly intuition tells me that Shaylee will be okay. She's small, but heck. My son was 9 pounds. I think maybe this could be a blessing right? :) Gotta think positive here! Plus, I've felt as if my due date was off the entire time ... and was getting frustrated with my doctor because she just doesn't seem to listen to me or my concerns. *Sigh.
Well, that's the news for now. Keep Shaylee in your prayers ... because this "little" girl is a fighter, and I can't wait to meet her ... whenever that date may be!
Love Nichole
