34 Weeks & A Good Report!!!

Hi Everyone!!

Sorry this update is coming a little late after our big appointment on Thursday but we ended up getting some very good news for a change!!

First of all, we made it through the 34 week mark last week on Wednesday and come to find out, we are pretty much right back on track with Jackson's weight!!

The estimate we got for Jackson's weight on Thursday was 4 lbs 11 ozs. Even though it's not an exact science, I feel pretty good knowing that the technician that was doing our sonogram was only 2 ounces off of her previous guess for a baby. And given all the worrying we have done the past few weeks, even if it's wrong, it feels good to just think that he is right on track. According to Baby Center he should weigh about 4 3/4 pounds (like a cantaloupe) so that sounds good to me!

Jackson did a great job putting on some weight over the past two weeks, which will help him regulate his body temperature. His central nervous system is maturing and his lungs are continuing to mature as well.

So on to what happened on Thursday....

I was a nervous wreck the night before and that morning. So much so, that I pretty much had my hand on the phone getting ready to call the doctor because I took my blood pressure on Wednesday night and I was convinced that the pre-eclampsia that I had with Emma was back with Jackson. Wes convinced me to wait for a while, keep taking my blood pressure and if it was still high in a few then to call. Well, I feel asleep. Ha! It was still higher then normal in the morning, but a much more manageable range so off to the appointment we went. It seemed like forever waiting in the waiting room of the Fetal Assessment Center that morning but finally we headed back to our growth sonogram first. We had a new technician that I hadn't had before but she was very good. At first I got nervous though because she was really fast at what she was doing, but then I realized it was because she was good at what she does. :) She was very sweet and answered a lot of questions for us and immediately told us how he was measuring as soon as she found out.

Jackson was still measuring two weeks behind in his belly area, so he was measuring just about 32 weeks but the good thing was is that although he was still measuring small, he had actually grown a good amount in the past two weeks. During our last growth sonogram, his belly measurement was in the 5th percentile (which we didn't know last time and is probably exactly why the doctors reacted like they did) but this time around he was in the 28th percentile because the little man hit a growth spurt! His head and everything else were once again measuring pretty much right on track at 34 weeks. So he went from the overall 28th percentile to up in the 40th percentile for weight!! It's still a bit confusing on how he can still be measuring two weeks behind, but almost average for weight, but basically that means he is just tall and skinny...just like Emma and just like Daddy. Ha!

So after getting some good news, we were off to another room for our next NST which Jackson passed. It took him two rounds this time, but then ended up showing off in the end almost to say "Oh yeah...take this! I'll pass this test and any other test you can throw at me lady!!" Haha! During that time, we were talking to the nurse about the results of the sonogram and we did get one piece of not-so-great news which was that my amniotic fluid level had a pretty drastic drop since Monday. I was already getting that checked once a week, and had that done on Monday, but they measured again while doing the sonogram and I had gone from a 13 (in whatever units they measure it in) to a 7. So pretty much almost cut in half. The nurse actually said that I wouldn't have to come in for anymore NSTs since Jackson got such a good report if it wasn't for the fluid level drop. So, we are still going in twice a week for NSTs and instead of getting my fluids checked once a week, it's up to twice a week. The nurse said that if I had measured a 5 or a 6, I would have been upstairs in the hospital hooked to an IV. So I narrowly dodged that bullet!

The plan was to send me home and basically drink as much water as humanly possible to get those fluid levels back up. On Monday, we will have a better idea of whether the fluid drop was from my fluid intake or something else (like the placenta not functioning properly). I'm pretty convinced that it has to do with my fluid intake...I don't know why because I didn't drastically change my drinking habits (at least not that I know of) between Monday and Thursday, but maybe my brain and body are just tired of worrying all the time and tired of the emotional roller coaster that this  has been, so my brain is convincing me we will be back to normal levels on Monday.