Week 4 (June 2, 2009)

Yesterday was the beginning of week 4 of our extended stay here at Wesley. Since last week, really no changes but the last 24 hours have had a little more excitement. They decided to do another sonogram yesterday just to check the status of the placenta and amniotic fluid. Just as last week, the fluid still isn’t accumulating – it’s leaking out about as fast as it is being produced. They also said our baby girl is “measuring small”, but not small enough to move the due date. They did find that the placenta had “moved up” a little bit (more likely that the uterus grew down), which means it is no longer blocking the cervix. However, the way the baby was positioned they were worried about an arm or leg actually protruding through the cervix and down the birth canal (I know, creepy isn’t it??). They did a pelvic exam, and luckily there wasn’t a little infant hand waving or anything. They will keep a close eye on it however, because that can complicate things and force an immediate c-section. If the baby is able to turn, and the placenta stays out of the way, it is possible Pam could still have a natural birth instead of a c-section.

Today started out a little crazy too. Pam woke up shortly before 4am with some light contractions (about every 5 minutes). By 7am they had slowed down quite a bit, to about 10 minutes apart. They gave her some muscle relaxants (a combination of Tylenol and Benadryl) to calm the cramping. It has made her quite tired though, so she’s been napping all day. They did the normal NST (Neonatal Stress Test) that they do every day, and it still showed normal heart rhythm and movement, with no signs of real contractions. Since then she’s been having a light cramping/contraction feeling about every hour for about 10 seconds. No word on what this means or what we can expect. We are hoping that the contractions continue to slow-down and subside so we can get back to “being boring” like we have been the last few weeks. If the baby were to be born now, we are at 27 ½ weeks gestation (about 12 ½ weeks early – due date is August 29th). She should be about 2-2.5 lbs, and according to the statistics a baby at this premature has about a 90-95% survival rate (much higher than the 55% we were at when we came here). She would still be in the NICU for quite some time, probably pretty close to the original due date. Needless to say, we prefer to prolong the birth as long as possible, but if it does happen we feel real good about the situation and have hope she would be okay.

Please continue to pray for us. We all appreciate the kind words and well-wishes we have received – and I apologize to all those I haven’t responded to…