24 weeks + 1 day

WE MADE IT!  24 weeks, our baby bean is now considered viable.  How exciting.

Chris and I attended our appointments today of course, anticipating that we were going to start steroids, be admitted the hospital till I deliver and get going on those antibiotics.

Well another ultrasound reveals only 2 cm of fluid this week, down 1 cm from last week. :(

Starting to realize I am not going to be one of those lucky ladies who's membranes heal and the fluid refills.

This week we have a new perinatal doc and an NICU doc at the perinatal clinic, as all the docs rotate every 4 weeks or so.  Chris and I are very sad to see Dr. Chandra and Dr. Ikea (i know this will now always be his name) go.  But they promise they are back the second week of August, and know they will still see me pregnant then.   THANK FOR THE VOTE OF CONFIDENCE!!!

So now we have Dr. D and Dr. Kumar (NICU).  Hmmmmm...... not sure on my assessment of early first impressions yet.

Dr. D is still good and to the point, letting us know that yes we made it to 24 weeks, but we still have a long way to go.

He recommends no hospitalization at this point, no steroids either (WHAT!!  HOLD THE BUS), here we thought if we made it to 24 weeks, we would get the steroids to assist babies lungs.

Well it is then explained that the steroids are only a benefit for about a weeks.  And there is no research to show that giving a second round later on down the road if I do continue to carry is beneficial. 

So we all decide week 25 will be steroid week.   NICU doc once again gives us the grim stats.

Now on to meet the new OBGYN

Well..... Of course your first encounter is with the OB's nurse.  Who let me tell you does not compare in the slightest to my other OBs nurse.   This nurse for some reason ( i guess just being stuck in the day to day mundane duties of her job) decides that there is no reason to do any patient research on why I am there, and what I am in store first.   Let me tell you, my husband being a nurse was not impressed in the slightest.

She brings us in the room and starts giving us the "regular spiel", thinking this was the first time I had seen an OB.   So we stongly suggest you take prenatal courses.   As I am thinking "no really?",  as I am trying to explain we are already booked in for Sept but we may not make it that far.  She continues to not hear me and tries to sell tha classes.

Then proceeds to discuss my gestational diabetes test around week 26.  Great, but who knows if I will be in the hospital by then to be monitored.

Finally, Chris had to stop her from talking and let her know, that my membranes had ruptured 2 weeks ago, and we were well beyond the concerns of prenatal classes.

Happy to say though that the OB was great!

She recommended starting antibiotics at least, as I had managed to make 2 weeks with no infection.  Then we would do the steroids the following week and decide on being admitted to the hospital or not.

Perfect!!

She said that everything was looking good as far as not going into labour anytime soon (unless an infection creeps up).  Cervix is still long, baby is still doing good.

See you next week Doc!

day by day, week by week, baby steps!