First, let me just say that over the last few weeks I've developed a profound appreciation for what nurses do on a daily basis. Whatever your are paid is not enough and all of you are deserving of praise for the sorts of situations you face every day. It didn't take long to realize that neither my wife nor I have the sort of mettle needed to be a member of this profession.
I hope nobody minds this outsider posting to your forum. Here's our situation.
My wife is pregnant with our first. During a routine exam at 24 weeks 0 days, her doctor (who we both really like) discovered she was 1 cm dialated. She was immediately admited to the hospital. Here's what has gone down so far:
Day 1: given steroid shot should baby arrive early, strict bedrest starts.
Day 2: another shot. Ultrasound revealed cervix at 1.7cm with some funneling
Day 4: Ultrasound shows 2.76 cm with minimal funneling
Day 7: ultrasound shows 3.1 cm with almost no funneling. Doctor allows my wife to get up for bathroom breaks and to take 3 minute showers.
Day 14: ultrasound shows 2.74 cm with minor funneling, wife put back on strict bedrest (only allowed up to for BMs)
We are now at 26weeks and 2 days. During this time, there has been no change in dialation, still 1 cm. She has had no contractions other than the occasional Braxton Hicks and those are few and far between. She's pregnant with a girl, which I understand can be a plus.
After the last ultrasound, our doctor decided against sending her home until at least week 28. Her opinion at that time (now 3 days ago) was this:
"...28 weeks is extremely likely at this point and I think 32 weeks is very do-able."
I've done a lot of research and my concerns are what sort of long term problems we can expect depending on how far along we get. My feeling right now is that I don't want to subject a tiny baby to the tortures of heroic, life saving efforts.
I guess my question for those in the know is this:
- given the info I provided, what's your gut feel for a likely outcome, both number of weeks we can hope to get and the sorts of short and long term problems for our little girl?
You've already gotten to a good point in gestation. At this point, the odds are well in your favor. But, every baby is different. Let's hope that the in utero stress along with the shots will have your little girl coming home healthy with Mom after the birth. NICU sucks when it's your kid inside that incubator.
Wanted to make one closing post in case anyone stumbled across the thread at some point looking for some re-assurance should they find themselves in the same shoes my wife and I did.
My wife's due date was April 13th. After one month of hospital bedrest and two months of home bedrest, she went back to being fully mobile at 36 weeks.
April 13th came and went and no baby. On April 14th we thought her water may have broken. Went to the hospital on the morning of the 15th for an ultrasound. Water had not broken but was very low, her doctor admitted her for induction.
After 4.5 hours of labor, our daughter arrived (pitocin brought her out)...two days late after months of worry over pre-term delivery.
We had a scare during delivery, the epidural caused my wife's blood pressure to drop, and the baby's heart rate fell as well. They both stabilized after some quick action by the docs and nurses (O2 mask and I think ephedrine shots?).
We had a much bigger scare the next morning. Our daughter's heart rate was in the 80s-90s and her blood-oxygen levels were low. Full chest X-ray came up fine. She was under an O2 hood for a few hours and a transport team came up from the closest NICU.
The neonatologist and NICU nurse observed her for an hour or so and did some tests. My wife and I stayed cribside and did our best to comfort her. Things normalized. They took her off the O2 hood. No problems and we all went back to my wife's room. There was an anomoly in her EKG that the neonatologist insisted we follow up on. We saw a cardiologist last week and whatever potential disorder they were concerned about is not present, EKG came back perfectly normal. Cardiologist chalked everything up to our daughter's body being in a state of flux after the birth and assured us that everything looked just fine.
So we're all home now. Other than a recent case of constipation, our little girl is doing great.
I have no input in this post, but would like to say to those who have and will input a response, thank you for helping this poster. What a difficult time. Keep those ideas and encouragement coming!
Congratulations on the new arrival. I have been following the post and feel as if I know you and your little one. Enjoy every minute for she will grow up too fast.
On a whim I thought I'd see if anyone has added to this thread since I last posted a number of months ago. As had been requested, I'm putting up a few pics of the little munchkin we named Molly. The first was taken at a few hours old. The second was taken at three weeks old. And the last was taken when she was three months old.
dansamy
672 Posts
Dad,
You've already gotten to a good point in gestation. At this point, the odds are well in your favor. But, every baby is different. Let's hope that the in utero stress along with the shots will have your little girl coming home healthy with Mom after the birth. NICU sucks when it's your kid inside that incubator.