MFM visit, 05/07/07

U/S tech, Janet
Weight - 4 lb 1 oz (1844 g)
Right ventricle - either 2.14 or 2.61 (two varying readings)
Left ventricle - either 2.51 or 2.74 (two varying readings)
3rd ventricle - no reading
Head circumference - 30.80 cm (85.2%)
Abdominal circumference - 27.46 cm (46.3%)
Femur length - 5.99 cm (25.7%)
Overall growth percentile - 46.3%
Heart rate, 160
8 of 8 on fetal well being (BPP)
Fluid level 9

My weight - 163
my BP - 98/56

there is some dilation of the bowel near the cord insertion (near the belly), so the doctor (the main one) has changed the appointments to weekly to more closely monitor the bowels.

And, now, the pictures!

a nice profile picture with her sweet nose and lips.
If you look closely at the chest, you can see her little heart.

She's got both hands in her face, one in her mouth and one rubbing her eye.

Her hand is again near her eye, and she is sucking on the other one.

how cute is her nose and her mouth?

This one may have fuzzy details, but the important thing is that she has her eye open.
I actually saw her blinking on the 4-D animation.

So, I'm a little freaked out by the change in appointments to every week, but I have to trust the doctors. The change means that, should something (either the intestines or the enlarged brain ventricles) change, she may have to come out sooner than I'd like.

Something else great came out of this visit. I asked my favorite nurse there to call the children's hospital and help me arrange a tour of the NICU. By the next day, I had a phone call from the NICU director, who agreed to give me and mom and my youngest sister a tour of the NICU / hospital at 8 PM on a Saturday while they are here on a visit. Now we just have to have all our questions prepared and ready.

MFM visit, 04/23/07

U/S tech, Janet
(T wasn't there, so Janet gave me a screen print of the stats)
Weight - 3 lb 2 oz (1426 g)
Right ventricle - 2.16
Left ventricle - 2.33
3rd ventricle - 6.4 mm
Head circumference - 28.52 cm (67.6)
Abdominal circumference - 25.82 cm (57.1%)
Femur length - 5.36 cm (9.8%)
Overall growth percentile - 38.8%
and she has hair on the back of her head, 1.1 cm

8 of 8 on fetal well being (BPP) - she was practicing breathing like a champ, moving and grooving, and generally not staying still long enough to get readings or good pictures.

Actually, to get all these pictures, I had to keep rolling from side to side so we could get a decent angle, and maybe trick her into unblocking her face and showing her cuteness.

a regular U/S profile, with some of the exposed bowel near her face.
She was all rolled up on herself for most of the exam, with her chin tucked into her chest and her mouth near the exposed intestines.

FOOT! See the pointed out big toe.

FOOTPRINT! So, so cute.

There's the hair on the back of her head.
There is measurement thingie, showing 1.1 cm of hair.
(So, she hopefully won't be a bald baby like her mommy was.)

It's kind of alien baby looking.
But you can clearly see her hand and her nose across her face.
And, I believe you can sort of see a little intestine too.

She's got her finger and thumb across her nose.
(during this series of photos, the tech said she was opening and closing her eyes.)

She's wiping her nose with her thumb.

now she's blocking her face with her forearm.
I call this series of pictures, "No paparazzi photos, please."
It's like she knows we are trying to get pictures, and is blocking our efforts.

Met with Jedi doctor again. Asked a bunch of questions. He told me I should go into medicine, what with my knowledge and the questions I asked. I like Jedi doctor. He's funny and friendly.

(and the next day I had an appointment at the Pediatric Surgery Center to meet the doctor who will be performing the gastroschisis repair. This particular doc came recommended by both the MFM office and my OB. He was good, and was young, but not too young, knowledgeable, a parent of two, and from a two-doctor family. He answered most of my questions, and reassured me. He said she could wear normal clothing once she was out of the hospital, and would have minimal scarring, and be basically a normal child. That's the gastroschisis part; now I just have to meet the neuro and take two hospital tours.)

OB visit, 04/18/07

Biophysical Profile, score 8 of 8
AFI - 9.9
weight - 2 lbs 10 oz (1191 grams)
overall - 42%

BPP / ultrasound performed by the sonographer who has bad beside manner.
She was nice enough to print ALL SORTS of pictures, and to take requests as to photos I wanted.

cute little foot. :)

another shot of a cute little foot.

the exposed bowel (gastroschisis).

profile, with her little face and everything.

more of her face.

I can't get enough shots of her face.

you can see the nose and lips and everything in this one.

that sweet little face, lips, nose, eyes.
and her hands are near her face.

now she looks like she's smiling and sleeping.

Also, the doc I saw was not my normal OB. I liked this woman, though. She trained in NY, and worked with midwives, and said when she moved to Memphis, she didn't understand why there weren't midwives here. When I asked about being backed up (they put me on iron pills for pregnancy-related anemia, and that's what happens, thank you very much), rather than recommmend pills, she recommended adding flax seed to my diet.

MFM visit, 04/09/07

(from T's wonderful notes)
New U/S tech, Janet
head down (position changed)
hair on back of scalp
placenta still anterior
Fluid level 7
Blood flow through cord is good
Heart rate 148 (perfect!)
right ventricle - 1.9
left ventricle - 1.7
3rd ventricle - 5.4 mm
gastroschisis - fluid in the loops
weight - 2 lb, 1 oz
8 of 8 on fetal well being
growth percentile, overall - 31%
femur - 8th percentile
head - 54th percentile

Now, the pictures!

not sure why this is sideways, it happened in the scan.
great profile, and you can see a little of the exposed intestines.

another great profile. That nose just always gets to me.

Sort of alien baby, sort of really cute face shot.

eyes closed, great nose, paused animation. Little adorable nose again.

profile with nose and lips. darling.

profile with face, placenta (at top), a view of her beating heart, and a little bit of the exposed intestine.

A successful visit, at which we started the Fetal Well Being / Bio-Physical Profile assessments. They look at four factors, and score a total of 8 points.

A description of the BPP / Fetal Well-Being assessment:
The biophysical profile (BPP) is an ultrasound scan that evaluates your baby's well being. It looks at your baby's body movement (body rolls from side to side), tone (movement of the arms and legs), breathing movements (movement of the diaphragm or "practice breathing") and the amount of amniotic fluid. Each of the observations is assigned two possible points (8 total).

You'll notice that Emma scored an 8 of 8.

Met with normal doctor, who insisted on giving me a hug when we left. I love the people at that office. Every single one of them is nice.

(one side note observation - you would think people who worked in health care would know about the risks of tanning, but one of the U/S techs and one of the RNPs look like they've spent a little too much time getting brown.)

Pictures of a Flexible and Active Baby

Pictures from the bi-weekly (or is it bi-monthly) visit to the Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM) doctor.

Props to T for coming along to all my doctors' visits and taking notes. She said at this visit that she is just a secretary, but she's much more than that. I appreciate her support at every visit, and she's there watching Emma grow right alongside me, and asking the good questions.

This visit was Monday March 23, and here are the vitals:
Heart rate 146
She is practicing breathing, and they don't expect to see that until 28 weeks, so she is ahead of schedule (the visit was at 25 weeks).
Right brain ventricle: 1.68
Left brain ventricle: 2.0
Third brain ventricle: .43
"prominent anterior horns" in the brain
no measurements at this visit, but she was on schedule with weight
Cord looks good
She is still breech, and is expected to stay that way
gastroschisis is stable

Onto the ultrasound pictures

a great profile, and you can see her little heart in the picture.
Can you also see the cute little nose and lips?

another sweet profile.

that limb? the tech said it was her leg.

the tech really liked her profile. another beautiful one.

that's her arm by her head (again).

see that little hand by her (alien-looking) head?

another angle on the hand-head shot. A little fuzzier, but still sweet.

a regular resolution shot of her foot. She wouldn't cooperate to let us get the picture of her feet. She barely cooperated to let the tech get the pictures she needed of the gastroschisis. (Which she was very protective of. Which is a very common reaction from gastro babies; they don't want to show the tech the exposed bowels.)

oh, the U/S tech changed back to the first one I had at this doctor's office. All the U/S techs and nurses and office staff at this doctor's office are GREAT!

We met the partner doctor at this visit. He's a funny guy, and started out making us laugh. He also tried to use a Jedi mind trick, and I caught on. He recommended against doing steroid shots at 28 weeks.

Another fine set of pictures of a beautiful girl

I had a whole post written, and blogger ate it... Hopefully, I can re-write this...

Went to the High Risk OB on Monday, March 12th.
Everything seems to be going okay. They are watching the gastroschisis and the enlarged ventricles.
Measurements from Monday:
Heartrate, 143
Brain ventricles - 1.6 cm right, 1.5 cm left, third ventricle 2mm.
Head circumference is 24.5. Head measured at 23 weeks, 1 day (gestational age on the day was 23 weeks, 4 days).
Weight - 1 lb, 5 oz.
Femur length is right on, 23 mm

At the appointment, I asked the sonographer for a few souvenir pictures. At the end of the exam, when she grabbed the printout, she realized she had printed too many, and told me to hide them so she didn't get in trouble.

Oh, and I almost passed out at the exam. Emma wasn't cooperating with the sonographer, so it took a long time. (My friend said that she's stubborn like me.) I apparently was on my back too long, as I started getting faint and flushed. I had to sit up, they turned on the fan, and I had to lay on my side for the remainder of the exam.

Her adorable legs and feet, in 3D.

A great profile shot, in normal ultrasound resolution.


I swear she's not an alien. It's the 3D!


Normal ultrasound picture, but she's a little curled up. Look at that skull!


She's all curled up, with her legs by her head. A gymnast!


the rest is blurry... but look at that face!


It looks like she's smiling, and there's the hand by the face!


those lips, that nose... and that hand!


is that a smile, or what?

That face is so precious. Those lips, that nose, and the hand by the face.
She's definitely my daughter!


In the rest of the week in pregnancy:
I'm definitely showing. But I'm holding out on taking out my belly button ring until i absolutely have to. But I barely have an innie anymore, it's almost an outie.
I had a prenatal massage on Thursday. Wonderful, relaxing, and well-worth it. I highly recommend. I followed the massage with a nice stroll around a bookstore, at which I met a woman near the pregnancy books and recommended a few titles to her.
Prenatal Yoga on Thursday nights. Love it! And one of the women, a Bradley instructor, is about 2 weeks from delivery, and she's huge.
Today, I went to my attorney's office and completed a Will and Medical Power of Attorney. If (God forbid) something were to happen to me, Emma will go to my parents, her grandparents.

Ultrasound pictures 02-26-07

the most recent ultrasound pictures of Emma, from yesterday's visit to the Maternal Fetal Medicine Doc (aka, the High Risk OB):

(above) Normal ultrasound, but you can totally see her facial features.

3-D image, she's got her hand to her head.

My boss said she's saying, "Oh, god, my mom is in radio!"

3-D image, a little freaky looking, but look at that cute little nose and lips!

She has the most adorable feet!

Also, please link through to mom's summary:
emma update