23 Weeks - Viability!

I will be 23 weeks on Sunday which is considered the point of viability. If baby was born next week he'd have a chance of survival (although also a lot of health issues). Fortunately the likelihood of such an early delivery is very low. However there is about a 30% chance of my water breaking early due to the bleeding I had. Hopefully I'll make it to 37 weeks at which point he'll be full term. I asked about induction dates today at my appointment and Dr. P. said her hunch is that he will be early, but we will try to get to January 5th. After that she will deliver him for any reason.

Everything looked really good today! Baby grew a lot more than he has been and isn't showing signs of severe growth restriction at this point. My fluid levels are also good and much better than we expected at this point. Dr. P. said the only explanation she can think of is that the prednisone is really making a difference. She said typically by the time women who would benefit from it get it, the baby is already so growth restricted and the fluid is so low that it doesn't make much of a difference. But since I started it pretty early, it's had time to reverse that trend. So I guess the bad UC flare has a silver lining afterall. I've started tapering off the pred since my flare finally resolved, so we will watch over the next few weeks to see if maybe I should stay on it longer to support the pregnancy.

Stats:
Gestational Age: 22weeks 5 days
Weight: 1lb1 oz (28%)
Heartrate: 153bmp
My weight: +6lbs

19 weeks Update

We made it through a very exhausting long weekend of 95+ degree temperatures and no air conditioning since it conveniently stopped working last week. I wanted to write this update on Friday, but since I took the day off from work and it was over ninety degrees in our home office, it wasn't going to happen.

We had a really good ultrasound on Friday as well as meeting with the geneticist to go over our AFP test results. Fortunately both the geneticist and Dr. P. agreed that an amnio probably wasn't worth the risks since bleeding can cause elevated results and we hadn't seen any signs of a neural tube defect on ultrasound. Additionally, subchorionic hematomas like the one I have often leak into the amniotic fluid, so there would be a good chance that we would still get elevated results from the amniocentesis without getting any additional information. Both Chad and I had come to the same conclusion after doing our own research, so it was good that we were all in agreement.

After meeting with the geneticist we had another ultrasound. And for the first time in the pregnancy, everything looked much more normal! It appears that the prednisone is really helping my placenta out as baby finally has normal fluid levels. Usually he looks pretty squished since his amniotic sac has been so small, but this time he had a lot more room to move around. We were starting to get concerned about the potential for growth restriction or kidney issues, but it looks like the problem all along has been with me and not with him. Dr. P. also thoroughly checked his brain, spine, and other organs and said everything looks completely normal. Also, she confirmed that he is most definitely a boy. :-)

Third leg!

I'm starting to feel more regular movement, which is very reassuring. And I still haven't gained any weight, but since the little guy is growing at his usual pace that isn't a problem.

Everyone else is doing well too. I bought Eli a little doll stroller for the baby doll our friends Alicia and Scott got him for his birthday and he is constantly pushing it around the house and wants to take it everywhere when we go out. Here's a video of him playing with it: Eli and his baby doll