My wife and I decided we were going to try for another baby. Late in 2009 we got the great news that she was indeed pregnant with our third child. Any time you start the ball rolling to bring a new life into this world you get flooded with uncertainties and fears. I’m already dealing with some anxiety and panic issues so while I was naturally very excited I also started to panic. Talk to anyone with three or more kids and you’ll find out that as my friend Josh put it, “When you have two, you can split them up, the mom takes one and the dad takes one. When you have three, it all just comes down to damage control.” If I think I have very little time for myself now, I’m anticipating needing to spend some “my time” in the bathroom, with the door locked and my iPod or newspaper. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself.

Over the first few months everything was going great with the pregnancy. We would go to the “Baby Doctor” and hear the baby’s heart beating and belly measurements were taken. Sue and I would discuss baby names and we finally settled on a few. Our other boys knew about the new baby and seemed to be very excited. Explaining to them that they will have a baby brother or sister is a priceless experience. When it finally sinks in they seem to light up and ask a million questions.

About 29 weeks into the pregnancy Sue did not feel that she had the belly of a 29 week pregnancy. Clueless to the whole thing I did not think it was a big deal. Our first baby was 7lbs 9oz. and our second one was 10lbs 6oz. A smaller baby would probably be a welcome sight. During a scheduled ultrasound it was confirmed that the baby was measuring a little smaller than he should be at this stage. Thankfully, Sue was very vigilant and expressed her concern to the baby doctor. To any mother-to-be’s out there, make sure you have a baby doctor that really cares about your well being and does not just brush off your questions or concerns. We are blessed with a baby doctor that took our concern and immediately got us to a specialist (maternal fetal medicine).

We got to our specialist’s appointment with a little concern on our minds but we were hopeful when we left we’d be reassured that everything was going to be alright. Unfortunately, after the specialist analyzed the Level 2 ultrasound images he did not have a very cheerful face. The baby was weighing in at about 2 lbs. and was approximately 3 to 4 weeks behind in development. The specialist recognized that the placenta was showing signs of slowing down in it’s production much earlier than normal. We instantly got ushered into another room where the specialist’s assistant put sensors on Sue’s belly to conduct a “Stress Test”. This test monitors the baby’s heart rate and any contractions that may happen. Over the next twenty minutes we sat there looking at the paper that was scrolling out of the test machine. The baby was not really reacting at all which escalated our worry. During the Level 2 ultrasound the baby was kicking and moving around so maybe he was just resting.

The specialist came back in after the test was done with an even more concerned look on his face. He held a number of charts in his hand with the “average” baby marked as an inclining line. On each chart there was a little dot below each “average” baby’s line. These dots were where our baby was at this point in gestation. The only dot that was on the average was his head size. Which, according to the specialist and other doctors later, is a good thing since your brain is the most important organ. After pointing out the baby’s progress and reiterating that the placenta was not going to last very long, the specialist ordered us to drive immediately to a hospital with a NICU (neonatal intensive care unit).

Needless to say we did not expect to leave the specialist and rush down to this hospital. I think I was still shocked that we were in this position. Sue and I were both worried and we talked in small bursts about what we just found out. The times we weren’t talking I was trying to think of some positive things and I did a lot of praying. The hospital is two hours away so that gave us a lot of time in silence.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 24th, 2010 at 2:05 am and is filed under Daily Life, Preemie. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.