Friday, July 11, 2008

Baby Update

We've had a bit of a rocky ride this week with baby updates. We went in for an ultrasound with the high risk specialist on Monday, scheduled to be the last one to make sure the baby is growing despite only having a single umbilical artery. The baby looked great, already weighs about 5 pounds, moving like he should, breathing, etc. However, I have suddenly started carrying extra fluid. A real, "what the heck!" kind of moment. Usually this turns out to be nothing, and Dr. Dolkart assured me that this was most likely the case, HOWEVER, he wanted me to do a 3 hr. glucose test to rule out gestational diabetes, and to have an amniocentesis, since there is a chance that the extra fluid could indicate a chromosomal disorder or a virus of some kind. I was okay with the glucose test -- the amnio was another story. So we set up the glucose test and I went through that torture (the stuff they make you drink is hideous, and who wants their blood drawn 4 times in 3 hours??) on Wednesday. I passed with flying colors, no trouble whatsoever. It was a catch-22: yay, no diabetes, boo, we still don't know why I have extra fluid! So I broke down and had an amnio today. I figured the likely result is that nothing is wrong and I can relax for the next 4 to 5 weeks until the baby is born, and in the event that there is something wrong, we can find out what we need to do to be prepared. If it's a virus, the pediatricians can treat it once he's born. If it's a chromosomal defect, there could be any number of issues and consequences, so we'll cross that bridge if we come to it. Right now we're just hoping for mystery fluid that has increased for no known reason, and a happy, healthy baby to be born in August (yeah, sometimes extra fluid means early labor -- wah!!). It was reassuring to see a couple of beautiful images of him though. The best ultrasound pictures I've ever seen!

I particularly love the second one, since it's so clear. You can see how he has a fist up next to his face on the right side. What a perfect little nose and mouth!

No comments: