I now live at the University of Louisville hospital, and hopefully will be here for 10 weeks or so. The babies need to monitored closely, even though I and they are healthy and doing well so far.
Luckily I am able to work from the hospital, so that will keep me busy!
Yesterday was my first day and it went relatively smoothly. I didn't actually check in until late in the afternoon so that made it go faster.
I had a consultation with a nurse practitioner from the NICU last night. She gave me a couple of books to read and shared with me some general information about premature babies, and specifically what our babies chances & hurdles would be if they were born this week. She said a good rule of thumb is to expect to go home 2 weeks before your actual expected due date - which is May 9th. Hopefully I can keep them growing for as long as possible.
Everything looks fine with the girls today. I had my second growth ultrasound and they also looked at the cords. The babies estimated weights are 1.25 and 1.5 pounds, which puts them in the 21st and 46th percentiles. The doctor said that's great, they are both in the normal range. We also looked at the cords and didn't see any serious entanglement issues although they are tangled - you can tell where their cords start, but you can't tell whose is whose in between.
I haven't had my first monitoring session yet, so I will update everyone on how that goes. Our current plan, since it's still early in the pregnancy and very hard to monitor the babies, is to have 2 short monitoring sessions each day, really only looking for major problems at this point. I'll have increased monitoring after next week & they will start doing BPP's (Biophysical Profiles) which is an ultrasound exam where they are really looking at the health of the baby. I got this info from WebMD:
A biophysical profile (BPP) test is done to:
Learn about and keep track of your baby's health. Special ultrasound methods are used to keep track of movement, increases in heart rate with movement (nonstress test), muscle tone, breathing rate, and the amount of amniotic fluid surrounding your baby. If these five areas are within a normal range, your baby is considered to be in good health.
Learn about and keep track of your baby's health. Special ultrasound methods are used to keep track of movement, increases in heart rate with movement (nonstress test), muscle tone, breathing rate, and the amount of amniotic fluid surrounding your baby. If these five areas are within a normal range, your baby is considered to be in good health.
And for those of you who are interested, here are a few photos of my hospital room.
2 comments:
Great, a room with a view! How's the room service?
Hang in there Sandy. I will be thinking of you every minute of the day.
Did that guy in the chair come with your room? heh
Bless your bones! Please know that you can contact me anytime day or night if you want to chat or something. I am 3 hours behind you(PST) so you won't be bothering me. Sending some good energy your way sweets. Glad things are going well.
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