He is here!

Kyle Erik was born December 11, 2008 at 12:18am. He weighed 6 pounds 11 ounces and was 22 inches long. More to follow.

Almost there...

We went in today for our weekly appointment. He passed the biophysical profile, but his numbers on the non stress test were a little off. The Dr. had me come back this afternoon to re-run the NST and he passed in 20 minutes... So all is well. I will be going back next Monday for another biophysical profile and non stress test. We will then go in on Thursday to repeat as well as get measurements to estimate size. THEN I will be admitted on Sunday December 14th in the evening to get my cytotec to help prepare for the induction which will begin on Monday morning the 15th. Hopefully he will be born sometime on the 15th. She did warn us that since he is head is still pretty high, there is a greater risk that an induction will end up in a c-section. However with my blood pressure and immunological issues, the risk of waiting is higher. Plus I'm now at the point I was with Zack when my placenta stopped working, so I would never risk it.

Update

We had an appointment today. Everything was fine. Blood pressure is still good and baby is now head down! Who knows what he has been up to! Now I'm just hoping he stays put for the next couple of weeks. I am now 60% effaced and a fingertip dilated which means...nothing. I could go into labor at anytime, or not. The labs that I had last week came back great. The liver function number was down to 17 from the high of 44 a few weeks ago. I guess the bed rest is working.

Doing fine

Another appointment today. Baby is doing great. He measured in at 5 lbs. 11 oz. The ultrasound readout said that was +/- 8 oz. My blood pressure was good and he passed his test again with perfect scores. The only bad news is that the little stinker is no longer head down. He is now transverse, basically sideways. I couldn't believe it! Dr. Baker said he still has some time to get back into position. If he doesn't go back to head down before 39 weeks that means he will be born by c-section. That is not my first choice, but if that's the way things go so be it. The only reason I wouldn't want to have the c-section is the recovery time is longer. Anyway I hope he flips back into place in the next 3 weeks. Keep your fingers crossed for us!! Next appointment is on next Tuesday due to Thanksgiving. I can't believe the latest he will be here is 3 weeks from Monday!

34 Weeks 4 Day

Another appointment today. Baby passed his biophysical profile and non stress test with flying colors. He has been on the stretch today as well. I keep feeling him pushing into my rib cage and the Nurse said that what I'm feeling is his hiney. Even Erik could feel it from the outside. We spoke to the Dr. about what the expectation are in terms of how long we will go before getting induced. She is still waiting to shoot for 39 week (December 15) but it all depends on how things go. My blood pressure has been good on bed rest and the labs are now back to normal, so there is no reason to have him born any earlier. I want to avoid him a stay in the NICU so I'm happy with waiting, even if the bed rest is getting old at only 3 days in. I'll do whatever it takes.

Next week we will do another growth ultrasound to get an idea about how big he'll be. Of course it's can be off up to a pound (it was with Zack) but it at least gives us a little peace of mind as one of the problems with high blood pressure is growth restriction. I probably won't have any updates until next weeks as I will be laying on my left side watching TV until then.

34 Weeks 1 Day

We went back to the hospital on Saturday and got the second steroid shot. The labs were better and my blood pressure was good so they let us go home. Baby was not very active on Sunday so I freaked out a bit and went into the clinic today to get a non stress test to make sure he was ok. Of course he passed with flying colors! Stinker. My Blood pressure was high when I went in, so I know I need to do a better job with then bed rest. I was trying to work from home instead of starting FMLA, but that's not possible. Some of the people that I work with make my blood pressure go up when I'm NOT having issues, probably not a good idea to try to deal with them now. Luckily my management is very supportive so they were encouraging me to do what is best for me and the baby, the work will get done. It's nice to have that support and not have extra things to worry about.

We will be going in again on Thursday for a check and will get more information form the Dr. about what happened and what we can expect going forward. I'm not sure if 39 weeks is the goal any longer, may be 37 (Dec 1st) but we will wait to see what she says.

Update

I was supposed to update yesterday, but things went a little fast after the appointment and I have not had the chance until now. My blood pressure was still elevated and the labs they drew on Thursday came back with elevated numbers for liver function. The Dr. on call wanted me to go to Labor & Delivery to get the labs redrawn and have my blood pressure checked. They also had the heartbeat monitor on the baby to make sure he was doing ok. We were there for about 3 hours. My blood pressure reading were very good. It probably had something to do with the fact that I was laying down on my left side and I had just take a double dose of my BP meds. The labs came back with my liver function within normal range, but just barely. The cutoff for normal is 45 and mine was 44. My Dr. had them give me the first of two steroid shots to help develop his lungs and is having me come back in 24 hours to get the second one. They will also re-draw the labs to see where the numbers are today. I have also been ordered to bedrest, at least for now. I have a BP monitor at home ands have been checking it throughout the day. Everything has been good today. He is a little less active today, but he tends to have days where that is just the case... Maybe he is too busy working on getting his lungs developed. Either way he will be checked out in a few hours when we go back to the hospital.

We are not panicking yet, just really glad I have a Dr. who is always on the side of caution when it comes to health of both the baby and me. Will update when we are back from L&D.