A Perfect Heart but a Small Baby

So its been awhile since I checked in. Oops. About a month ago we went to the Riverside campus over in St. Paul to have a fetal EKG done by a cardio specialist so they could rule out any signs of cardiac disease. In a normal pregnancy the risk of the fetus developing cardiac disease in the womb is zero percent. In a two vessel fetus that risk is elevated to one percent. That does not sound like a big deal but the Dr at MFM that is working with my OB Dr at the clinic said this is above the threshold and they want to rule it out. So we went to Riverside and had a normal ultrasound first where they looked at the baby and he was very active and they said there he looked fine. Then we got moved to another room and had another ultrasound done where they only looked at the heart. We had a special ultrasound tech trained in the heart doing it and then we had two medical students watching and learning. I thought that was pretty cool. So the tech took a bunch of ultrasound pictures for the cardiac specialist and then she came in and reviewed the pictures and told us the heart looked perfect, it had formed the way it was supposed to and had a good strong beat. So then she used the pictures to further teach the medical students which was pretty neat. I wish I had more interesting things to say about the heart ultrasound but I didn't even get to see it. They didn't put it up on the TV like they normally do for a regular ultrasound. Mike was able to see but said it didn't look like a heart or really anything. This ultrasound was so in depth they were going into each ventricle and seeing how the veins and arteries had formed. There was a lot of high tech medical language being tossed around. So from there we went to our regular clinic and had a growth check ultrasound. All that consists of is a 10 or so minutes ultrasound where they measure the length of the limbs and the circumference of the head and abdomen. After that, the Dr came in and went over that with us. The baby has grown since the 20 week ultrasound but was measuring about 2 weeks smaller than he should be for his gestational age, which at that appointment was 27 weeks 5 days. He does have long legs but the areas of greater concern, the head and abdomen were too small. The baby only weighed 2 lbs 2 oz! That just seems sooo tiny!!! So we had a discussion with the Dr about possible reasons for this. He said it could be due to the two vessel cord issue and this would be the beginnings of the placenta not fully supporting the baby. Or it could be the fact that since I am a small person that I could just be growing a small baby. Or he is just on the slow side of growing but could still be progressing just fine. He said at this point it was too early to tell what was contributing to the small size of the baby. I go this coming Wednesday for another growth check with him and I will be 31 weeks and 5 days so we will see where he is at. As long as he is showing some sort of progress, no matter how small, things should be OK. Its once he stops growing or even starts losing weight that we will become more concerned. So I asked my burning question. . .does this mean automatic C-Section if they determine he needs to come out early? And the answer right now is no. The Dr said he would much prefer to induce me than have me go thru the C-Section if at all possible. He said at this point there is no reason why I couldn't be induced. So I thought that was good news. When I had my gallbladder removed almost 2 years ago after it attacked me, I really struggled recovering from that. I was trying to do too much too soon and Mike has been very vocal about his concern that I would do that again with a C-Section recovery which is a little more major than the 4 little incisions they did all around my tummy to take the gallbladder. I agree, I know recovery times are different for everyone but I would not want to go thru another abdomen related recovery. I don't even want to think about it! So at that same appointment I got a RhoGam shot because my blood type is A- and this will present a problem in any future pregnancies. My blood would recognize the blood of a new fetus as an infection and try to kill it off. I am not sure why this doesn't happen with the first pregnancy but I guess subsequent pregnancies are prone to this problem. So that shot was gigantic and went in my ass. Which Mike got quite a kick out of. :P I will also require another shot of this at 72 hours after delivery and I now have to carry a medical card in my wallet stating that I have RhoGam in my system in case I ever need a blood transfusion they know they can't really mix any other blood types with me I guess. And if that wasn't enough, I also had my one hour glucose test at that appointment. I of course failed that so had to go back and do the three hour fasting test which I also failed, but not by very much. I passed the fasting and was one point over after the one hour which they said was my "freebie" and then I failed the second hour. The nurse told me that if I had passed the first hour and then failed the second hour, I probably would have passed the third hour and then been just fine. That one damn point!!! She said most people fail the second hour and then come right back down to where they should be in the last hour. Damn her for telling me that!!! I bawled after I failed that test and got out of the office. I really did not want gestational diabetes. I had to go to a diabetes education class with other moms that had just been diagnosed with it and it was interesting, we learned how to use our glucose meters and learned what our new diet would be. Which really isn't all that bad. I just have to be mindful of carbs at every meal and have a snack between every meal. I also have to get up at 2:30 every morning and have a glass of milk and a graham cracker or some cheese. And make sure I am getting daily exercise (which is always a good thing anyway). I don't really have to cut anything out, I can still have cookies and ice cream, and even McDonald's, I just have to watch the portion size and the carb count. I don't have nearly as much as I did before because when you are hungry for snack time 4 Girl Scout cookies isn't as satisfying as graham crackers or a protein bar. :) I haven't gained any weight since I have been doing the diabetic diet which is also a nice little plus. I have been very afraid of needing to go on insulin but thankfully I have not needed to, I have been able to keep my numbers within the range just by diet and exercise alone. So it has been pretty easy to manage overall. I just want to get thru this last couple months without needing insulin, which I should be able to do. So that is what has happened since I last checked in. I will have to write after we find out where he is growth wise on Wednesday. He moves around a lot and it is fun to see my stomach move when he gets pretty active. He also gets the hiccups almost every time I eat. :) So I'm thinking he's still doing OK in there. We are getting pretty excited now that we are in the home stretch!!