The last few weeks have been kind of crazy.
At our 20 week check-up the doc said there were a few red flags that they were concerned about. One was that I had half the amount of fluids that I should. The second was that part of Everly's heart looked underdeveloped. And last was that there was a concern with the umbilical cord. All of these things combined were not a good sign. We were told all of the possibilities and it was all pretty scary. We needed to go in for more testing at the hospital but they were scheduled out for three weeks, gah. Those were the longest three weeks of our lives.
Finally the day arrived and we went in. One of the red flags was confirmed, and the other two dismissed. Amazingly, my fluid level is much better and will hopefully no longer be a concern. Which is stellar because I really would hate to be put on bed rest. Also her heart looks perfectly healthy. But the umbilical cord is a two vessel cord when normally there are three. So normally you have two arteries and one vein. The arteries taking junk away from the baby and the vein taking nutrients in. So the fluids get a little bottle necked which stunts her growth because not all the junk is taken away.
What this means is that she is small. Also I will likely be induced early because she will stop getting the nutrients she needs so it would be better to have her out than in. Starting at 32 weeks I have to go to the hospital weekly to have non-stress tests done to determine when she needs to come out. Some of the common problems linked to this are kidney or heart problems, down syndrome, and Trisomy 18. At the hospital they informed us that her kidneys and heart look great. Trisomy 18 was also said to not be a concern because you can tell at this stage in an ultrasound if the babies have it or not. She still has a chance of having down syndrome but we don't want to do the testing because it just tells us what the % chance she has of having it.
We were prepared for much worse and are so glad the risks are much lower now. What we are expecting is that she will just be slightly smaller when she is born and she might have to be in the NICU for a short while. But hopefully that is all.
I am now almost 25 weeks, which is kind of crazy. Just three more months and we will be a 4 person family!
