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.