"Interesting"

27 weeks + 5 days, 11 weeks post rupture, day 30 at my parent's place

Sheesh, just keeping track of the above numbers is starting to tax my brain which has turned to mush after watching so much crap TV and doing nothing more strenuous than showering these past few weeks.

But anyway, on to the update.

I'm now going for weekly biophysical profile ultrasounds. Basically they measure the baby, make sure Acorn is still continuing grow and isn't showing signs of distress, measure my fluid index and then we get to see Dr. Eeyore and find out what he has to stay about it all.

To sum up, baby is still growing, although still on the small side. Last week was measuring about the 40th%, but today is about the 20th%, although I take all these measurements with a grain of salt because the low fluid levels make it hard to see. I've been told they don't really worry about babies until they get below the 3rd% so I figure we're okay. The baby's weight based on their calculations is 894 grams, up 70 grams from last week, and is *just* below 2 lbs.

Fluid level was pretty decent at 7.1. Of course I had a bit of a gush when I got home so that always makes me kind of anxious and stressed and probably dropped my fluid levels a bit.

Otherwise blood flow continues to be good and the nurse doing my ultrasound said that she could reasonably give me a biophysical profile score of 8/8, however that doesn't really 'capture' the pPROM and slightly low fluid levels, so she gave a 6/8 with 2 off for 'low fluid'. I get what she's saying...it's not really 'fair' to give a pPROM mom a perfect score, which is the same score a normal pregnant woman would get. I'm also not really too concerned about 'scores' at this point. I was just happy to hear that Acorn was moving well, had good tone and was showing breathing motions (diaphragm movement) and had some fluid...those are the major things I like to see.

After that we ran into Dr. K. He was so happy to hear that I was doing well and was really positive when he saw how much fluid I have. When he asked how far along I was now and I said almost 28 weeks, he said "oh that great, that's just what I was hoping for you guys". Yeah, us too Dr. K.

Then it was on to Dr. Eeyore. When he went over my ultrasound report today he said "Well, now you're getting interesting". I know he meant this as a compliment, and I suppose I am becoming more 'interesting' obstetrically...but I felt like smacking his face! OH, I INTEREST you now do I? So what, I've just been 'dull' these last 11 weeks have I? Uncertain outcomes not your style Dr. Eeyore? Like those happy yummy mommies who only run into any sort of 'difficulty' after 24 weeks? Sorry jackass, pregnancy is 40 weeks...it doesn't start when you could 'do something' at 24 weeks and sometimes shit happens earlier than you would 'approve'. Now that you actually might have to step up and make decisions (hospitalize or not?, C/S or not?, deliver the baby now or wait?), I INTEREST you do I? Awesome. Glad my kid and I have got your attention.

As an aside: this is one thing that I like about nursing. Patients are considered 'whole people' and therefore don't become more or less 'interesting' based on their health conditions. In fact the patients I remember most, cared the most about, want to help the most, are the ones whose outcomes are uncertain or poor. Just because I couldn't always "DO" for these patients what they wanted (have a health child), I could at least be extra caring towards them.

Anyway I digress...

He went on to explain how when I ruptured he would have given me a 0% chance of bringing home a baby and now he's more optimistic. He's thinking that my rupture is likely 'higher up' in the sac, rather than over my cervix. This has been a good thing in terms of latency, preventing infection, and for keeping fluid in. He says having fluid levels of 7 mean that I'm not their typical pPROM patient who generally has next to none. He's actually not looking to hospitalize me, although he said it was up to us. He feels I'm doing well at home, I 'live' (or am shacking up) near by, and generally the bigger the baby gets the less likely you are to have a 'speedy' delivery necessitating emergency care. Acorn is also bum down in a frank breech position, which helps block the cervix and would help to prevent cord prolapse. This is all good news, but my husband and I are still nervous. The farther we get, (we hope) the more 'chance' the baby has of doing well and we'd feel awful if our 'chances' were lowered by being at home. Plus it's scary as hell to imagine another emergency ride to the hospital in pain or bleeding or both. So this might take some thought and decision making on our part.

I also had an ECHO, but we didn't want to stick around to discuss the results with my cardiologist. They were going to make me wait all morning to see her, so we said no, just call us if anything is wrong. Then we headed home. I've been a bit worried about how my heart is doing, based on the pregnancy and lack of any exercise at all so I hope those results are status quo too. I would have liked to hear the results today so I could stop worrying about my heart, but I wasn't willing to stick around for over 2 hours sitting in their waiting room.

All in all a fairly good day.

So the waiting continues...thank goodness.