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| sorry, no belly in this photo... |
Gender: In the words of the ultrasound-tech-of-the-week: "no boy parts!"
Weight gain: About 14 pounds.
Maternity clothes: Sort of.
Stretch marks: Nope.
Belly button in or out: In. Maybe this one should be "Rings on or off" because it's more likely I'll lose the ability to wear my wedding ring than lose the innards of my belly button...
Sleep: Good, except when my brain won't shut off after my bladder has woken it up.
Best moment this week: Seeing baby girl on another ultrasound and feeling more bonded with her. (but it's allowed me to hope this could really be real for us, which is scary!) And being told that because we are so well-researched, we get to see the neonatologist earlier than we normally would.
Worst moment this week: Having the perinatologist list the gamut of tests she wants to run on me and the amount of appointments we'll be having. And realizing how closed off my body language was and how much I was saying about how I felt about all that... As M said, we might as well get used to it; it's going to be the way it is for us for a long while.
Miss anything: Normal OB visits.
Movement: Every day now! Hooray!
Cravings: Still chocolate. (Why can't it be apples?)
Queasy or sick: Feeling good!
Looking forward to: Still looking forward to May!
**More about the perinatologist visit: I was relieved they did an ultrasound right off, so that we could all be on the same page and I didn't have to guess at what they knew or didn't know. Everything still looks good, but baby is definitely transverse (sideways). She was wiggling up a storm, and we *think* we saw her open her mouth - which would be good news because it would mean her jaw joint is not affected and feeding won't be as much of a problem (fingers crossed!). With every ultrasound, she gets a new nickname: so far she's been called space cadet (14 wks), little mermaid (19 wks) and now the karate kid (because of the way her legs are positioned: looks a lot like the Karate Kid crane stance - I'll wait while you google that....). I asked the (very young) rady tech if she'd ever scanned a baby with contractures like ours. She said what I expected: no.
Then we went to meet with the nurse and had the first semblance of a normal OB visit that I've had for about, oh, 10 or 12 weeks... Then came the perinatologist. Her first words, after introductions all around, were "you'll probably never see me again since I work out of our Scottsdale office," followed immediately by a push for us to get an amniocentesis. I think that's when I crossed my arms and legs and leaned as far back in my chair as I could. She then zinged us with news that Arthrogryposis could be just a symptom of another underlying disorder (I seriously thought we were past this?) such as a neuromuscular disorder that could be degenerative, and that an amniocentesis would allow us to be prepared. Way to scare us, doc! So, she said she wants us to see the genetic specialist in their office. I'm going to let him go ahead and try to convince us...
I asked her about turning the baby and attempting a normal (non-cesaerean delivery) and she essentially said she didn't think the positioning of the baby's legs would allow her to turn the way she needs to be born vaginally. I mentioned the research I'd read about it being better to delivery babies with Arthrogryposis at 38 weeks to get them out and moving sooner. She looked at me like I suddenly had three eyes. She basically said there's a question of lung development at 38 weeks and "we don't want to add anything to what we're already looking at". (Curiously, she looked at me the same way - three eyes! - when I mentioned in-utero therapy to help baby move.) She was not all bad: she was nice and set us up with the neonatologist that will be attending the delivery about 6-8 weeks sooner than she normally would. (Go research!) So, there's that. I told her our genetic specialist told us he only sees about 5 cases of this a year. And she said "that sounds about right". Which means their practice sees only 4-5 a year. I'm pretty sure she doesn't.
Long (long!) story short: I get to have an extra Rhogam shot, an extra glucose test, a 24-hour urine test, at least one non-stress test, scans and appointments every 2 weeks, and a partridge in a pear tree. By the end, I was feeling pretty impatient with being treated more like a sick person than I ever have in my life. {Don't get me wrong: I do believe they want best outcomes for me and baby. But they are definitely practicing CYA-centered care (and it's not my "A" they want to "C"!).} Still, I'm glad they're being cautious. Ultimately, more scans mean more information and more opportunities to make sure this baby girl's doing well.
~Nichole
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