Latest Baby News

Joel got a job offer to write for a PAC here in Utah so we decided to stay for January to see if it's something he wants to do. If it is something he wants to do we're going to move back to Utah for this year. Because of this our original plan of staying for three weeks was extended to staying through the end of January. So I made a baby appointment with the same midwives Kelsey goes to so I could have a checkup while I was here.
The first thing the midwife did was listen to the baby's heartbeat, which sounded good. Then she measured me with the tape measure to find that at 31 weeks I was measuring a 26, which is what I measured at my last appointment a month ago. She immediately took me to get an ultrasound there at the clinic where they found my baby was in the 10th percentile, compared to being in the 27th percentile at my last ultrasound more than a month ago. They also found in this ultrasound that the blood flow from the cord was cutting in and out which meant the baby wasn't getting a constant flow of blood. Perhaps because of that the abdomen and femur measurements were small (the head was good though). The midwife said when a body needs something it sends it to the most important places first, like the head, and the other parts of the body suffer, like the abdomen. So it seemed like the baby wasn't getting enough from the placenta, causing him to be small.
Next she sent us up to the maternal fetal medicine section of the hospital at St. Mark's in Salt Lake. On the way there we stopped at Joel's parents house where Joel and his dad gave me a blessing. At this point I was feeling terrible and figured that we would have to deliver the baby not only early but soon. The midwife had told me that he was probably going to have to come early but he would be okay.
Once we got to the hospital they did another ultrasound where they essentially found the same things except with their measurements he was in the 15th percentile. Next they took me into another room where they strapped me to the monitor to check the baby's heart rate. The doctor said it was okay but not as good as she wanted it to be. While the heart rate was being monitored they gave me a shot to help the baby's lungs develop in the case that he would have to come early he would be farther along. Then they looked at the baby on an ultrasound again to see three good movements from him before they would let me go.
Today we have to go back again so they can monitor his heart rate again and give me the second steroid shot for the baby's lungs. Unless things drastically increase we're going to have to go back every week for the next 9 weeks to check on him. Along with that I have a fetal kick sheet where I have to monitor the movements of the baby and write them down.
All in all I feel a lot better about things. I've realized that if he comes early it obviously wouldn't be ideal but it would be okay. He would have to be in the hospital a while but hopefully he would still be healthy and he would grow like he needs to. I'm not a fan of worrying myself to death the next 9 weeks monitoring the movements but that's better than a premature baby. I already had a freak out early this morning where I didn't feel him for a while and thought something was terribly wrong. Luckily I have Joel who calmed me down, made me eat something and lie down to count the baby's movements. I felt 10 movements in 15 minutes so everything was okay.
So there is the whole situation. Joel and I have recently tentatively decided that we will stay in Utah until the baby comes because it's probably not smart to travel back to California in this state, plus the doctors here are so nice and a much shorter drive than they would be in California. Please keep us in our prayers and especially keep praying for the little Guy.