A world of change.

The last few days in our household have been really interesting. Over Labor Day weekend the baby's movement decreased drastically. I felt that something was wrong, but I waited to call Peggy until September 2nd, this past Tuesday. She scheduled me for a biophysical ultrasound (which the pictures in the previous post are from), so we went to Portland Adventist Tuesday afternoon for that appointment.

The results of that ultrasound were enough to cause Peggy to meet us in the radiology department and then drag us back up to the Family Birth Place (where we delivered Nathaniel just about a year ago) to discuss the results. She ended up referring us to a perinatal specialist at Legacy Emmanuel because the ultrasound has raised some significant flags.

We had to wait until today to meet with the specialist and his results closely echoed those of the radiologist at Portland Adventist. What he told us is that there is a chunk of the placenta that is not working, therefore the part of the placenta that is working is working double-time, and so is our baby. She's as healthy as can be - that's the most important thing to keep in mind.

But how long she'll continue to be healthy with a placenta that isn't working is up in the air. We're now under the co-managed care of the perinatal specialist and midwife Peggy. We have an appointment to meet with the specialist for another ultrasound on September 18th. At that point, if she isn't growing like she should be and if the blood flow from the placenta has decreased, then he will likely want us to deliver her at that time. So we could deliver in two weeks - we'd be 31 weeks pregnant (7 months and 3 weeks along).

BUT we could make it as far as 36 weeks; he and Peggy don't want us to carry beyond that, though, and that date is October 24th. Right now I'm on modified bedrest. I'm taking a leave from both Starbucks and Bible Study Fellowship, so I have plenty of time for editing!

We're pretending that she'll be with us in two weeks, so we're now working toward readying her clothes and setting up her crib/room and figuring out a car seat. If we do deliver in two weeks, she'll be in the NICU for 6-8 weeks, which gives us some extra time to pull together her premie clothes.

Pray for our baby girl. We need her to stay in as long as possible. Everyday she stays where she is she grows and becomes stronger and healthier; the longer she stays in the fewer obstacles she'll have when she does finally come out.

Selfishly, I hope I carry her to 35 weeks at least - if that happens, I could probably have a vaginal birth and it would take place at Portland Adventist with Peggy. If we go into labor before then, I'll deliver cesarean at Legacy Emmanuel with a bunch of strange doctors and nurses that I don't know.

So that's the update for right now. Bottom line: She is very healthy right now. She's growing well and scoring well in her measurements. I'll be 29 weeks on Friday (9/5), but she's measuring at 30 weeks. We don't fear for her life by any means, just the battles she'll face if we deliver sooner rather than later.

So, yes, please pray for her! I'll keep posting as we have our appointments and new information comes our way.