Operation Make Baby Fatter - 32 week ultrasound Results

Another day, another appointment, but its all for a good cause so its peachy!

Yesterday was filled with my regular weekly monitoring at Day Stay in Maternity Unit and also my weekly Doctor's appointment. Thankfully a lovely friend watched my 2 little ones and my big boy played basketball at the park with his mate. This allowed me to go and attend these appointments without having to worry about the kids. This reduces my stress levels immensely and I am so glad I have such beautiful friends here! Thank you so much Eliza.

After dropping the kids off in the various places I made my way over to the hospital.
On my way though I had the oddest feeling, it was similar to a contraction pain I guess...
It has been almost 12 years since I was induced with my big boy, so to be honest, I didn't quite know?  All I know is I was glad I was on my way to the hospital as it hurt quite a bit and I was a bit concerned it was labour or that the baby wasn't okay. When I got into the hospital for monitoring I told them of my pain and I checked there was no bleeding.(I was a bit freaked out!)
I then gave them a urine sample which they checked, good news!  there was no protein in the urine (this is a sign of pre eclampsia) but this time there were traces of blood! Just my luck to have something else I guess. My blood pressure was checked and that was all good as well. After the CTG got a good reading I waited for my paperwork and then met my husband at the antenatal clinic where I checked in and we waited to see the Doctor. 


Now I know people hate to wait, but honestly some people need a reality check! A woman spent most of the time on her phone complaining loudly about how she could have stayed at work longer getting other things done blah blah blah. We did meet the coolest little 3 year boy though who was telling me how to use You-Tube on his Dad's iPhone, so that drowned out the cranky lady a bit. Probably lucky he drowned her out or I might have suggested she do something she might not have liked! Due to my pregnancies being complicated since having Airlie premature at 27 weeks gestation, I have come to learn that waiting is all apart of this process when it comes to doctors and especially antenatal appointments. To be honest I don't mind waiting and there are times where you just can no help this. The fact you are there to make sure your unborn baby is okay should be a priority not something to complain about. I guess I look at this experience a bit differently to others but I honestly don't  know why people carry on the way they do? I think some people really do believe that their time is so more important then others, which as you can probably guess quite annoys me! Still the 3 year old boy was very cool and I learnt some great tips from him regarding You-Tube!


When we got in to see the Dr. we were given the results of the ultrasound from Monday. We discussed the results against those from 2 weeks ago and we are happy to say we have seen an increase in growth!  I did however tell the doctor I was unhappy with the AC (abdominal circumference) measurement and didn't feel 100% confident that it had been taken correctly. I explained that the first lady who did my ultrasound on Monday seemed to over measure the first measurement which seen the baby jump from 5th-50th % in that area. I didn't know if this was something that would actually happened so I questioned her about it.  When I asked the lady about this she said it was normal but seemed unsure about really why we were there and why it was so important to get correct measurements? When I explained to her well we are here getting these things checked due to the growth of the baby and the concerns around this she remeasured again only to get a much smaller measurement. I knew then and there I would be asking the Dr. further about this as I did not feel comfortable at all. 


After all the measurements had been taken I decided to go the cafe at the hospital and take a break.  I knew the kids were having fun with their uncle who was here from interstate, so I was going to take a little time to just sit...isn't it funny how just sitting can be enjoyable. Lucky I hung around as the ultrasound area called me back about 1hour later asking me to come back in as they had forgotten to take a measurement ( I personally think this was code for "we stuffed up and need to remeasure!" When I said this to the doctor she actually laughed at me lol). I headed back and had the second ultrasound, which was preformed by another lady. The first lady was in the room however, it seemed as if she was being told how to do it correctly and did seem like she was 'being told' by the other lady. The second lady got another measurement completely different to the first two measurements taken but she said she was 'happy' with that and I was told I could go again. I wasn't feeling that confident by any of this to be honest. I don't someone to be 'happy' I want to know it is right! I then spent the next few days between the appointments even more worried then I have been previously.  


After explaining all this to the Doctor I told her I wasn't trying to say the ultrasound technician didn't know what she was doing, it was just I didn't think the measurement for that particular area seemed right. The Dr said= I had seen my fair share of them by now and that it was completely fine to say something about it. Thankfully she has an ultrasound machine in her clinic and rechecked the size of bubs abdomen, which to she agreed it has been over measured and retook the measurements again.  The current ultrasound report had bub on the 25% but retaking the measurements the doctor did we are on approximately around the 15%. This is good news that we have had growth increase but it was defiantly not as much as what the ultrasound techs were reporting.  Again I am thankful that my Dr. is so open with me and that I feel comfortable to talk with her openly.  


I explained to the Dr that over the past few days I have started to really worry that if the growth is being restricted by nutrients not getting through then maybe the oxygen is being compromised too? In my experiences with pre eclampsia (PE) this is a real threat to the baby and one that really scares me. The Dr. explained that if this were the case then we would be able to see this on the placenta Doppler with reduced flow. At the moment this looks good,  and in the first instance of this happening they would consider delivering the baby premature and fattening up the bub on the outside instead of on the inside.  I appreciated her talking with me about this as its been really playing my mind. In most cases if a baby is underweight we can bring it out and fatten it up, but if there is oxygen deprivation, there is no way of fixing this. Oxygen deprivation is very serious and can cause so many things for your baby to deal with,  so I am really aware of this. 


I also told the Dr. of my pain and the blood in my urine, she told me that the baby could have been laying on something (i can't remember the name right now) which could cause the pain and bleeding. If it continued to happen to go straight back in. (thankfully nothing has happened!) While we were also having the ultrasound done in the Dr. clinic she told me I had an irritable uterus. She was amazed that it went so tight by just rubbing gel on it for the ultrasound. 
A couple of other things she also mentioned were that my fundal height is also still quite low and the baby already seems be head down and possibly stuck in my pelvis, waiting ready to go! However, I still have 8 weeks till the due date and we want to go as close as possible to that date! 


So The Plan is to still have have weekly monitoring at the Maternity Day Stay and weekly visits with my Obstetrician. Also on a  fortnightly basis I will continue to have ultrasounds to measure the growth of bub and Doppler blood flow from the placenta to the baby. 

Sorry this wasn't posted yesterday but by the time I finish these appointments, pick up the kids, do the dinner and bath routine I end up collapsing on the lounge to watch my fave show Offspring 
on Ch10, which also happens to have a baby born at 29 weeks in the story line at the moment. 

Last nights show was particularly sad and I cried at the end.  When baby Alfie was rushed off to do tests after an infection was detected which I got upset about and then the actress playing Zara was a mess and I completely lost it. Remembering what it was like to be in a NICU, never really taking time for yourself, worrying if you did that something might happen really reminded me of this late night. Watching Zara upset and blaming herself, saying she should never have left him was just gutt wrenching!  I remember when Airlie once wasn't acting herself and her nurse heard me talking to her asking he wasn't acting her usual self? The nurse got straight onto the phone and Airlie started having tests and was treated for a suspect infection. It was one of the scariest times of my life and one that I won't ever forget. 

Then Yesterday (Thursday) I have spent almost the entire day laying in bed as I have felt quite exhausted, also that pain and movement of my uterus scared me yesterday so I decided to just rest extremely well over the next few days. 

Thank you all again for the messages of support! I've linked up my social networking pages so you can follow/like/comment etc I love interacting so please make sure you say Hi so I can make sure I am following you back too.

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So all in all operation #makebabyfatter is well on its way to being successful!
Results so far are:
Week 30 - bub was appox 1200grams & on the 5%
Week 32 - bub was appox 1500grams & on the 15%
Week 34 - will be updated on the 18th July.

If you have any good recipes to share please feel free to share them as I am looking for lots of yummy things to eat. Also if you have been though something similar to this and have any top tips for bed rest I'd really love to hear them too.

Offspring Photo Source

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