So it's been a while since I've posted any pics of our little man. Little was the operative word there for a while. We initially went to the specialist because of the Previa (which completely resolved by our second visit). However, Baby O was measuring below the 10th percentile, which means we have to go to the specialist every week to make sure he is growing appropriately and to check that he has adequate blood flow from the cord and placenta. They measure his growth every other week and measure his blood flow on the alternate week. Initially, he was measuring in the 6th percentile. Then he had a bit of a growth spurt and made it to the 7th percentile. Two weeks later he dropped to the 4th percentile(Yikes!) Thankfully, the following two weeks he made it to the 8th percentile and just last week, he grew to the 9th percentile! It's been really nice because we've been able to have lots of guests join us for the ultrasounds. My mom was in town and able to go to one at around 25 weeks, Ellen's two youngest came to one around 28 weeks, her eldest came to one at 29 weeks, and Jason's mom and Ellen's mom both attended our most recent ultrasound at 30 weeks. Jason has had to miss about three ultrasounds, and all three of those happened to be ones where we got to see 3-D images of Baby O. Jason has yet to see a live 3-D image of Baby O (he is far less alien-esque on the monitor than he is in the photos) because he's always in a bad position (hand over his face, breach) so he has to settle for the regular images. I think he's starting to get a complex about this!
During the third trimester, they have begun doing weekly biophysical profiles (BFP) in which they measure fetal heart rate, movement, muscle tone, breathing, and fluid levels. If they are able to get an accurate measure of all these in 30 minutes, he earns 8 points. We only learned about this because one day he fell short. He earned all his points for everything but breathing. At around 30 weeks, he is supposed to be practicing his breathing, evidenced by movement of his diaphragm. Hiccups apparently count as breathing practice too. The week prior, we saw his breathing right away but this particular week, he was not showing off for us. The tech ended up pulling out the buzzer, which is a Taboo-like buzzer that makes a loud noise and vibration designed to startle/wake the baby. We definitely saw Baby O jolt when she used the buzzer the first time, but after that he was unimpressed and didn't really react. This meant he had to go on the heart monitor, so we could be sure that his heart rate was accelerating and decelerating appropriately. Of course, the minute he went on the monitor he began hiccuping, but we still had to monitor his heart rate for about 20 minutes. It was all good and he ended up earning 8/10 points. Better late than never I guess.
Here are pics of Baby O from the beginning up to where he is today:
Baby O went from this:
To this:
5w6d measuring right on time
To this:
6w6d measuring 6w1d Heartbeat 132 BPM (beats per minute)
But Yikes- why did it only grow 2 days worth in 7 days???
To this:
7w6d measuring 7w1d (still behind but at least its a week of growth!) HB 167
BPM
To this:
9w4d measuring 9w1d- HB 183 BPM
and in 3-D this:
9w4d- A bit alienesque- a face only a mother could love!
To this:
10w5d measuring 10w4d HB 167 BPM
To this:
13w measuring 12w4d HB 164 BPM
We had to wait 7 weeks but then we started getting weekly ultrasounds again
No comments:
Post a Comment