Home from the Hospital!

It feels so good to be home – and home a day early, nonetheless! After my unexpected overnight stay in the hospital for additional monitoring of the baby’s heart rate I got the all-clear from the doctors to get discharged a bit early, but only with the promise of returning in the morning for a follow-up appointment, non-stress test {NST} and ultrasound.

The purpose of my stay in the hospital was to monitor the baby and make sure his heart rate was normal {110-160 BPM}. Overall, the baby’s heart rate looked really good over the 24 hour period that he was being monitored, so hopefully that keeps up!

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What’s next for us and baby Allen:

  • Twice weekly NSTs to measure the baby’s heart rate
  • Once weekly biophysical profile ultrasound to measure the fluid levels and cord flow
  • Bi-weekly growth ultrasound scans to measure baby’s growth
  • Weekly or bi-weekly doctor’s appointments with my doctor as well as the specialists

Once either the fluid starts to diminish or the baby stops passing his NSTs or the baby stops growing the doctors will make the call that the time has come for me to be induced. I expect it will be sudden and will happen directly following one of my appointments {which are scheduled on Tuesdays and Fridays}.

The team of doctors all still seem very confident that we can get the baby to 34 weeks gestation before induction, and the hope is to go even further, but 37 weeks is the ultimate cutoff.

At this point, we’re playing a funny waiting game. Our “plan” is to get as much ready and done as we can in advance and then be ready for “game day” as I started calling it. The nursery is basically complete, and thanks to a very generous father, we now have our car seat and stroller, too. We’re stocked up on preemie and newborn diapers and clothes, we’ve got burp cloths, hats and swaddles and we’re set to go with all necessary feeding supplies. It was tremendously helpful to receive so many generous gifts from family and friends over the last few months and at my two showers to help get us ready for this little guy.

The big things that are left are really to make a bunch of freezer meals that we can have on hand for when the babe arrives, acquire necessary mama recovery/postpartum items and clothes, and finish up any projects around the house. We are in really good shape for his early arrival and that makes the whole process seem a little bit more manageable.

We really appreciate the support and encouragement from friends and family and are grateful for that, as well as the care we received in the hospital. We are feeling so fortunate to be in such good hands during this time. We are both confident and positive about the ultimate outcome of the situation.

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