Countdown

This morning we had a 20 minute Fetal Non-Stress Test (NST). One of the reasons a NST is performed is if a baby appears to be small or not growing properly. A NST monitors (and records on paper) a baby's heart rate and activity/movement as well as any contractions a mother may be having. In addition, they may ask the mother to press a button every time she feels the baby move.

We were told our son is small, in the 15th percentile, due to his femur (leg) and humerus (arm) bones measuring 6 weeks behind his gestational age. The nurse asked me to press the button every time I felt him move and after 10 movements I could stop. I had to smile knowing this would not be an area of concern/issue. He has always been very active. :) And like I thought, the nurse returned shortly and said that was enough of that. :) The result of the NST was normal, or "reactive" meaning our son is getting plenty of oxygen, there are no problems with the placenta or umbilical cord, and he appears to still be doing well in the womb. :)

The Maternal-Fetal Medicine physician would like us to have NST's and ultrasounds done every 3 weeks for the remainder of the pregnancy. (8 weeks from now is the due date: April 7th). Today's NST will serve as a baseline with which to compare the follow-up NST results to watch for any decline in his well being/signs of fetal distress.

President's Day, Mon. Feb. 16th at 10:15am, I have my routine OB visit at which time they will do another NST. And these will be done as part of every OB visit hereafter.
Mon. Feb. 23rd we are scheduled for another ultrasound to follow-up on our son's femur (leg) and humerus (arm) bone measurements.

Again, the doctor does not know the cause/reason behind why our son appears to have short extremities. But the doctor's hunch is that our son's short extremities are still part of a more "global" issue indicative of a chromosomal abnormality. However, he is not concerned that it would have a fatal/lethal outcome! :)

Below is the doctor's response to my many questions about how we should be planning and preparing for our son's arrival.
His best guess is that it is unlikely that we will go until the due date of April 7th. He feels a more likely scenario is that our son will need to be taken sometime in March, that he will be small, and will be immediately whisked away to the NICU to be evaluated by a Neonatologist. They will want to take blood samples as soon as possible to test for chromosomal abnormalities. Depending on how he does after birth will determine what types of interventions, therapies and/or treatments are needed - if any. The doctor did say that he hopes he is just being overly cautious - that when our son is born everything would turn out to be fine/normal but he did not think this was likely to be the case.

Of course, it is our hope and prayer that he will simply be born with club feet; absent of any other issues related to his extremities. But we do not know how he will join our family...Now we wait - expectantly - for his addition to our family, for the special place he already has...

We so appreciate your conintued prayers for our miraculous and precious son! We thank you for praying with and for our family.
~Joy