Keep on keeping on...

Yep, that's the story of this pregnancy. Keep on keeping on...

Today we are 28 weeks and 1 day and things are looking good. I passed my gestational diabetes test and my blood pressure is great. Eating a million calories a day has added a teensy bit of weight on me, so that's good too. We had another biophysical profile today (today was the start of twice weekly tests...ugh) and we got another perfect score. 8/8.


So all is well in our little world. :-)

My newest nephew is born!

Mr. Thomas George Betz was born on March 23rd somewhere in the 9 am hour (I just don't remember the exact details...sorry!). My baby brother and his wife (high school sweetheart) had their first baby last week (in Austin) and I am super excited for them. Kate is a rockstar! She did the whole thing natural and got their big ole baby out in perfect condition. I'm pretty confident that our baby will not be nearly as big as Thomas (or Tom or Tommy), but that's ok. ;-)  

I forgot to ask why they named him what they named him, but I do know that George is my dad's name. So sweet! Brad and I both love the name Thomas!!

27 weeks 1 day growth scan and biophysical profile test

This morning we went to see the MFM specialist at Emory for our growth scan and biophysical profile. We are super pleased with her growth and weight (although it would be nice if she was bigger). She currently weighs 587 grams (1 lb 4 oz) and is averaging 24 weeks. An average 27 week baby weighs 1055 grams (2 lb 5 oz), so obviously she is very small (less than the 5th%). One way to look at it is that she is about 3 weeks and 1 day behind on her growth. Her growth was almost 3 weeks behind at 24 weeks, so we haven't lost too much time between 24 and 27 weeks. We will continue to do growth scans every 3 weeks, so we're hoping for big growth (inside the womb!!) in the next three weeks.

The next thing they did was the biophysical profile test. The biophysical test is an ultrasound basically consisting of five parts. Each of the five components — body movements, muscle tone, breathing movements, amniotic fluid, and heartbeat — is assigned a score of either 0 (abnormal) or 2 (normal). These scores are added up for a total score ranging from 0 to 10. In general, a total score of 8 or 10 is normal, 6 is considered borderline, and below 6 is worrisome. If everything is perfect on the ultrasound part, you don't have to do the heartrate evaluation. Our numbers were perfect, so we didn't have to sit around longer for the heart rate evaluation, so 8/8 for us! Woo hoo!


We want to keep up this growth and numbers on our biophysical profile tests. I thought we would have a break from doctors for a couple of weeks, but it looks like we'll be doing a weekly biophysical profile test next week and then we will start twice weekly (every Monday and Thursday) after that.


Of course, we want to keep her inside until 37 weeks, so let's hope for the best. Also an important date to keep in mind is that Brad takes his radiology board exam sometime the week of May 21st. I will be 36 weeks pregnant then (hopefully!). We really would like to have the baby AFTER his exam! :

OB Appt: 26 weeks + 3 day

Today was just a regular OB appt with Dr. Horton at Emory Midtown. We were not anticipating learning anything new today because we weren't doing any scans or measurements, just a go in and check your blood pressure, weight, and baby heart rate kind of appointment. Unfortunately, I had to do my one hour glucose test...yuck!

Everything looks good. Her heartrate was in the 140s-150s, she's moving well, overall looking good - just small. Dr. Horton reiterated that none of our scans showed anything abnormal to be concerned about, so we were relieved to hear that again.

Obviously with her being so small, we are going to monitor her more. Starting now, I'll see the OB every 2 weeks and have a growth scan every 3 week. At 30 weeks, I will go in twice a week (probably Monday and Thursday) to do a biophysical profile test and non-stress test on the baby.  Basically, we are just looking for growth. As long as she continues to grow and is not in distress, she can stay inside of me.

Next Thursday is my next growth scan, so let's hope this baby grows, grows, and GROWS!

It's been awhile

Well, hello again. Seeing that we've been working on this blog off and on since 2005, I guess it's time for another post. Just to update y'all a little. Ben is 3 1/2, Sadie is 1 1/2, and we are due with our third baby (it's a girl!) in June. I think this is the best way to keep people up to date on our baby girl, who is not growing like she should. As of today, I am 26 weeks pregnant and below is the email Brad and I wrote to people after our 24 week growth scan. We will continue to update people as we progress further along.

As many of you know, when Brad and I went in for our 20 week anatomical ultrasound, we found out that our babygirl was behind on her growth. She was measuring about 2 weeks too small. The dates could not have been incorrect at this point because we had two earlier ultrasounds to determine dates.  On the positive side, on that ultrasound everything else looked good; placenta, cord, fluid, and anatomy. It seemed as though the baby was just small (very very small). 

Our physicians wanted us to come in today (4 weeks later) for a follow up scan. Today we found out that the baby is still very small and is falling a little bit farther behind, close to 3 weeks behind compared to gestational age. The baby is about 440 grams. For those of you with medical background, the baby is symmetrically growth restricted.  The ultrasound is still not picking up any anatomical problems or placental problems, so that is good. It is definitely possible that the baby is just destined to be small. Of course, there are other possibilities such as chromosomal problems, environmental or maternal factors, infections that could have happened early on, pretty much anything. At this point, it is nearly impossible to know why this is happening. 

So what does this mean? Well, it means that we will go in for more growth scans, extra monitoring (twice weekly starting around 30 weeks), and more appointments more often. Our next growth scan is in 3 weeks (we will be 27 weeks). From what we understand, if the baby is not in distress and continues to grow, the hope is that the babywill stay in utero until 37 weeks. If the baby stops growing at some point, delivery will be imminent. Unfortunately, the baby has a higher risk of stillbirth because of this issue and has to make it to at least 600 grams to survive outside the womb.  We are preparing ourselves (as much as we can) for lots of doctors appointments and for a highly likely NICU stay with this baby.

Thank you for all your prayers and please continue to pray for this baby to GROW! We will keep you all updated as we go along further in the pregnancy.