27 Weeks & 6 Days:

Three of my very good friends came last night so the evening went really well. I also was able to squeeze in some maternity pictures as I didn't have time to get this scheduled before being admitted on 12/7/15. 

Yesterday was the busiest days since being admitted, this made me think delivery was really around the corner! I had a NICU tour and consult, someone from the NICU social worker team stopped by to give me all the ins and outs of the culture there and what to expect (by far the most informative session yet), and I had some monitoring with baby.

Last night I kept the baby monitors on all night as it helps me sleep (the noise of her heartbeat is calming) and also allows me to see my little girl! The ultrasound tech came on schedule at 7:15am, I am starting to get to know all staff and their schedules. The ultrasound looked great today, no reversals.. just some periods of absent flow to the placenta. I asked the stages of cord flow and listed below is how I understand it (from best to worst case scenario)...

Normal -> Elevated -> Absent -> Reversal 

On Thursday, I was considered reversal, on Friday I was absent with a few reversals, and today I was only absent (getting better, but expected with the steroids I just took). The team of doctors (MFM specialist, Resident, Med Student, and Nurse) came for rounds around 9:30am (thankfully my nurse called the specialist to get my okay to eat right after the ultrasound, every night at 12am I can't eat or drink till the green light after the following day's ultrasound). The doctors said that all looks good, but pin pointing the delivery (via Csection) date is still very unknown... could be tomorrow or it could be sometime next week, the only thing all of us know is that time is not on our side. Every day we keep little lady in is a huge victory, I'm at ease knowing this is in gods hands and he will let us know with some strong signs when little lady is ready to enter the outside world. My blood pressure maintains to be be lower than 140/90 so I can stay off the BP meds, which I believe also helps the baby (I usually only have a few readings between 150/90 and 161/100 daily, and these tend to lower just by sitting and relaxing). Baby is officially diagnosed with Inter Uterine Growth Restriction (IUGR) as her belly is below the 10th percentile of all babies of her gestation (and she has that umbilical cord issue). I also have been diagnosed since 12/7/15 with preeclampsia based on my blood pressure readings higher than 140 and protein present in my urine. As of today, the doctors don't know if the IGUR is caused by the preeclampsia, uterine shape (I had an odd one), or just a bad placenta (all of these are risk factors and it's hard to pin point the real cause without looking at the placenta after birth).

Overall, we don't have much news today, which is just how we like it!!! Baby can stay place all day today unless she shows signs of distress on her monitoring cycles. We will see what tomorrow brings!

Today I will be visiting the postpartum unit and having a good dinner with Derek, Eleanor, and my mom (along with my exciting daily shower and hours of TV)... The medical team told me the weekend food here is not the best ;)

- Heather