Ultrasound

We just came back from our ultrasound and non-stress test (NST) on the third floor.  As usual, my stretch limo (i.e., my stretcher) arrived at my door and took me down to the third floor for testing.  I always feel like an Egyptian royalty gliding down the hallways of Brigham in my stretcher.

The baby did well on his NST, and the ultrasound looked good… for the most part.  This was not like the “cute” ultrasounds I got early on in pregnancy, where I saw my entire baby, distinct body parts, and even him waving at me when I said “hi baby”.  This time, I didn’t even see “the baby”.  First of all, at this point he is pretty tightly curled up in there, so it’s hard to tell what’s what with an untrained eye.  And second, there is not much fluid there surrounding him, so the contrast is pretty horrible. The sonographer mostly poked around *inside the baby* making sure his heart, brain, and lungs were developing properly. 

The good news.  The baby looks normal, and I’m told that he is “practicing breathing like crazy”.  The baby is gaining weight: he gained 6 oz based on his estimated weight from ~2 weeks ago.  He is now 3 lbs and 14 oz (+/- 10 oz), which puts him in the 67th percentile by weight (he is bigger than 67 percent of fetuses of his gestational age).  Look at the margin of error on this measurement though (+/- 10 oz)!  That’s a big uncertainty!  I guess that’s the reason they don’t do these measurements less than two weeks apart.  The margin of error still exceeds the weight gain this case…

The not so good news.  The baby is still breech.  His butt sits right at the cervix, his head is at the top of my uterus, and his feet are by his head. There are several negative consequences of this position.  The first one is the high likelihood of C-section for me (unless he turns).  Vaginal birth is particularly risky for a premature baby in a breech position (the negative consequences of which are much worse than those of a C-section for me).  The second one is the inability to build up the level of amniotic fluid. It’s true that the baby continuously produces more fluid (by urination). But, if his butt sits at the cervix, right where the rupture of the amniotic sac occurred, the fluid that he produces can’t really accumulate and leaks out.  Also, the fact that the level of amniotic fluid is low makes it hard for him to turn and get out of the breech position.  Oh well.  I still have faith and hope that he might turn around.

I guess the most important thing is that both the baby and I are healthy, and my uterus is still better for him than NICU!