Sprout news

Well, it seems that the Sprout has decided that we need to pay more attention to him already. I had an appointment with the perinatologist for an ultrasound today, and this is what we learned. The Sprout is small, but not terribly so. Just sort of skinny. The ultrasound actually measured him at 4 lbs 14 oz, which is great - bigger than we expected. If that’s accurate, he'll probably be bigger than Viv was when she was born by the time he gets here. However, the ultrasound isn’t much more accurate than Dr. Ryan’s hands-to-the-belly method of guesstimating fetal weight, so we really don’t know much more about his weight than we had before.

The other thing we learned is that there is a decrease in blood flow to certain areas of his body. The doctor said that you want it to measure below a 3 (whatever that means) and that some areas were below a 3 but some were at a 3 exactly, so not ideal. The umbilical cord is around his neck, but it looks like it’s only wrapped once and it is very loose, so that is not the problem. Fortunately, the blood flow to his brain is looking fine. Because of this decreased-flow situation I am supposed to have non stress tests 2x/week now - once at the hospital and once at my OB’s office. This is when they put a fetal heartbeat monitor belt on me and I click a button every time he moves. If his heart rate goes up when he moves, it means he’s reactive, which is good. I am also supposed to pay extra attention to my kick counts. This is when, after a meal, I count the first 10 movements he makes. If there are fewer than 10 movements in two hours, it could indicate a problem. The Sprout has never come close to taking that long to move 10 times.

I told the perinatologist that we were probably looking at an induction at 39 weeks b/c of Dr. Ryan going out of town. She said that it was fine to continue with that goal in mind, but, if the Sprout’s blood flow does not improve, she wants the Sprout out of there at 37 weeks. That would be in the May 19-21 range. I am really hopeful that everything improves. I am not mentally prepared for a May baby. Although emeralds are nice.