24 Weeks 4 Days, Day 5 in the Hospital, 9 Weeks 2 Days to Go

I'll jump right in and go over the conversation I had with the doctor this morning. In talking to her we figured out what went wrong yesterday. Here's the story...

When you check into the hospital as an antepartum patient they have you meet with everyone, it seems - the Neonatologist in included (I remember meeting with one when checking into the hospital with Avella). We hadn't met with one yet, so yesterday they had asked her to come talk to us. Let's backtrack to yesterday morning. During my NST they weren't quite satisfied with baby's heart rates. They want to see her have accelerations that are 10 beats above her baseline. She would have decelerations, but not accelerations. That's why they did the extra monitoring the last two days. Yesterday they sent me down to Labor and Delivery to do the extra monitoring (that's where they send everyone that requires extra monitoring).  I was there for 8.5 hours. 

Let's jump again to them having the Neonatologist meet with us. Since I was in Labor & Delivery she assumed we were having the baby that day. Talk about a HUGE miscommunication. It makes sense now why she was going over everything that could/would happen when she's born. My doctor apologized for that happening and said they weren't to that point at all of thinking we would have her yesterday. She said they were concerned enough by the decelerations and the fact that her baseline was higher than when we checked in on Saturday, but she said once they did the biometric scan last night they were happy with what they saw. She scored a 6 which was better than Monday. 

The scale they use to give the points isn't perfect. They use this same scale for a baby that is 24 weeks or 30 weeks. She said part of the problem is a 24 week baby is usually not going to be able to get as good of a score as a 30 week baby. But they have this one point system that they rate them all on. With my low fluid I may never get above a 6, but that is OK as long as it's normal for me and baby. That's why the longer they've been monitoring me the better able they are to see the bigger picture.

The reason they were worried about her baseline being higher is that it can mean there is an infection. Sometimes the baby will give you signs of an infection before your body will. She explained that they are still trying to figure out what's normal for my baby and me. Once I've been here longer they will have a little bit of a history to let them know that things are OK. It all made sense when she explained it and I'm grateful for the peace of mind that they are doing their best to help keep me pregnant.

She said that they aren't even close to thinking they'll have to deliver baby girl. They are just being very thorough and making sure they are checking everything. The good news is the NST went well today and I didn't even have to do the biometric scan. I'm grateful that today has been calm and that we feel reassured. I know that every day will be different and that we don't know what to expect. We can take one day at a time and do our best. 

Ryan and I were overwhelmed with the prayers, messages, phone calls, and texts we received yesterday. I know I keep saying that we appreciate all of the prayers and support. I keep thinking how else I can word it so that each one of you feel the love and appreciation I have for each of you and how much it means to me to know that just by me asking we have a huge support system praying for our family all at once. I wish everyone could feel the power in that. So, I hope when I say thank you that you all know and feel how much you mean to us.

Love,

Ella