These last five days have been quite the rollercoaster, with most of them spent in the hospital. Since mid-evening on Friday, baby Allen has been super stable and has demonstrated that he’s happy and content via heart rate monitoring and a biophysical profile ultrasound this morning. The doctors were confident enough in his stability to send us home today!
The “plan” for going forward is twice weekly non-stress tests {NST} and biophysical profile {BPP} ultrasounds. These tests measure his heart rate, movement and fluid levels and make sure that he’s still safe on the inside. I’ll have another growth ultrasound around May 25th to make sure he’s still growing in there. If at any point during this next testing/monitoring period where baby’s heart rate drops I’ll likely get sent over for additional monitoring again. If and when the BPP is questionable or suggests that the fluid levels or the cord flow is being depleted, or if he stops growing, then the conversation of delivery will come up and likely be imminent. And if during the NSTs his heart rate drops significantly and has trouble recovering, that would/could constitute an emergency delivery. And for the record, at this point the kiddo is in in the breech position, which naturally constitutes a c-section, so that’s the delivery we are mentally preparing for.
At this point, we are taking things one day at a time, but we’re also holding out hope that this little guy can stay happy inside for another few weeks still. There were truly a few moments this weekend where we and the doctors thought we were going to be meeting him right away, but we are very thankful that did not happen. It is my absolute hope that we won’t find ourselves in an emergency delivery situation and that we’ll have even an hour before heading to the operating room. But, either way, we’ve come to terms with the difficult situation that we’ve found ourselves in.
We are so thankful for the care we’ve received here in the hospital and we really appreciate the diligence of the doctors here. While there were some moments of frustration on our part, wondering if they were being overly cautious and keeping us here unnecessarily {it’s possible that the heart rate drops were simply due to the baby laying on his umbilical cord}, we do value how much they care. Being in the hospital is a naturally stressful environment and the constant ups and downs didn’t make it any easier, but our nurses were really reassuring of overall how great the baby looked on the monitor, so that helped us keep our confidence up.
We are also extremely grateful for how many people are rooting for our little peanut and for the kind, consideration over the last several days. Thank you for all of the support!
For now, we’re looking forward to being home and getting rejuvenated. My priorities for the time-being are on making sure I’m passing as many good nutrients onto this kiddo as I can, staying calm and relaxed and getting the chance to finalize our physical preparations around the house.