Branden-Kaylea.Net

Okay, so we had an interesting visit with the docotor on Friday. Kaylea is still not close to going into labor, and this baby is big. I don’t think we are going to make it too much longer. The doctor told us that when we hit the magic number of just over 10lb, they will offer a C-Section, and Kaylea said she is going to take it. Taking the baby’s current weight of 8.5lbs, and the normal 1/2 lb a week growth rate (which he has been growing faster than already) we are pretty much there by our next set of measurements scheduled to be done on September 5th. So that is what we are expecting. Otherwise, they will deliever him (probably by C-Section) the following week (the 39 week – week of Sept 10) as scheduled.

I also have two great 3-D images of him. I have posted them below. The rest are available here.

We had a bit of a scare yesterday. Kaylea had an ultrasound done, and the baby measured approx 8.5lb. Yes at 36 weeks this baby was 8.5lb. When they did the ultrasound, his heart rate was up at 180, which is just a little too high, if it was there regularly. While his baseline runs around 150, if he is active, it is okay for it to go up to 180.  But, they don’t want it that high for a prolonged period of time. Finally, her aminotic fuild levels were elevated. While not a horrible thing, it can indicate problems, especially with bigger babies. Because of all of this, there was a discussion of induction yesterday. They decided againist it, mainly because the baby came off its sugar high, and his heart rate settled down. However, if this baby gets too much bigger, or the fuild level gets too high, or the heart rate gets too high or too low, they will deliever this baby.

We have ultrasounds and fetal heart monitoring scheduled every Monday and Thursday from now until she delievers, or until they decide to induce.

Well we had another appointment, and now we have some info. First, the baby has turned. He decided he doesn’t like to be head down. He is now transverse, or lying cross-wise. We talked to the docotor about when Kaylea would be induced, but they don’t want to set a date yet because they want to wait until her body is ready, and we figure out what the baby is going to do. Basicly, they need very little notice to get her on the schedule for either an induction or C-Section.
She has been having contractions sometimes frequent and barely noticable, and sometimes strong, however the docotor told us that contractions alone do not labor make, there must at least be some dialation, which there isn’t any. So that isn’t a concern right now. It looks like we are going to make it to the week of September 10 after all!

Well, nothing has changed significantly, from last week. Kaylea and I still don’t think she is going to make it to 39 weeks. There was one development this week. No more work. Kaylea isn’t suppose to work, or do much of anything, from now until either 6 or 8 weeks after delievery, depending on how she delievers. We are still going to the hospital twice a week for fetal monitoring, and once a week office visits. We should have an ultrasound again in the next couple of weeks, too. All that is left is for the paperwork shuffle, for her work, and short term disability insurance, and for this baby to come. T-minus 5 weeks to induction!

Okay I realize i didn’t post anything about last weeks office visit basicly because there wasn’t much to post. Due to some delay at the OB’s office with getting reports from specialists to Kaylea’s chart they didn’t really have anything to tell us, we told them what we could remember from the maternial/fetal medicine consult because we were not really prepared for that visit. This past Monday we went in for our last ultrasound (for now) and the maternal/fetal medicine people were nice enough to give me a copy of the report so that we could have it in case there was any question was to what was to happen next. So after this week’s visit (this morning), here is what is going on:

• Ultrasounds will now be every 3 weeks
• We are now going to Mercy every Monday and Thursday morning for fetal monitoring
• They are going to induce at 39 weeks (now looking at or around Sept 10, 2006)
• While they can put Kaylea on bed rest at any point and time they really don’t want to until 38 weeks (to prepare for induction).
• Her blood pressure was excellent (in the 120’s/80’s for the first time ever in the office)
• The OB wrote a note for Kaylea’s boss she is to take a 15 min break every 2 hours no questions asked!

The good news is that everything is still going well, and while Kaylea may not agree with me, she is still working (they want to keep her active). The bad news is no more frequent pictures. I think that was really the only upside to this blood pressure complication.