1st appointment went well. I got a little annoyed going over my history, again, but it is what it is. I'm liking Dr. D more each time I meet with her and am feeling like she's listening to me and my concerns. She said she read over the dictation from Jordan's delivery and based on that, she's till leaning toward a c/s. I'm still leaning toward a vaginal delivery. I get that there is an increased risk of Norah getting stuck like Jordan did (upwards of 25% according to Dr. D, but my research says it's closer to <10%) and there's a risk of nerve damage (about 5% of the above risk of Erb's Palsy), but I don't want to jump on the operating table for a small risk if delivering vaginally is better for her. If I'm told that a c/s is the best and safest way for her to enter the world -- sign me up. As it stands now, if I go into labor within the next 3 week, I'll deliver vaginally, but I'll have another growth u/s in about 2 weeks and we'll discuss a c/s then.
B/c my appointment ran long, my nst was canceled (boo hoo hoo), but I still had the bpp scheduled at 1, so at least we got a break for lunch.
bpp at 1 went fine. She was moving and practice breathing and has plenty of fluid. The u/s tech was able to get me in with the cardiac tech early for my fetal echo so that was nice.
Fetal echo went very well. Well, except for the whole blacking out thing, but whatever. Her condition seems to be holding steady. There was no increased leakiness of the valves, organs are still where they're supposed to be (mostly) and she's growing.
The NICU consult is where today really shined. We were nervous about it b/c of our experience at WIH. I don't want my kid to need a NICU, but I'm happy about the one she'll be going to. They're very family centered, with toys in the waiting/family room, a small library to learn about a lot of the conditions/complications that caused your child to end up there, and - my most favorite part - parents are encouraged to attend rounds. You aren't banished off the ward. You're actually there, listening and learning about your child and, if need be, offering input as to what you think your baby needs. The pods were so serene, even with the monitors and visitors, and we never experienced anything like that at WIH. It always felt like chaos, a slightly controlled chaos, but chaos none the less.
At WIH (in our experience), the drs/nurses didn't care what the parents said, they didn't want parents to access their child's records (it HAD TO BE word of mouth - there were no charts for us to read), and getting information was like pulling teeth. They made us feel bad about everything from not delivering there to the fact that they ALWAYS called the wrong number when trying to reach us and, oh yeah, it was our fault when Jordy's nurse went on break and her covering nurse refused to update us on our child's condition. Our experience there sucked. Sucked big, hairy goat balls.
And... and... and...
If Norah is as "healthy" as we're predicting (everything can change once she's on the outside breathing air and her heart is working without the help of the umbilicus)... she could be in the NICU as little as 12-24 hours. I totally side-eyed the neonatalogist at that point, but he went on to explain that a baby presenting as she is, born at term, that shows no signs of bowel damage after her first feed, would only need to be observed long enough to get a cardiac consult in before they'd move her to either the special care unit or the general nursery. Granted, she could be there a lot longer, and I'm not getting my hopes up of her having a 12 hr stay, but it was really nice to hear that there's a plan, already in place, for her to be released from the NICU. We never had that with Jordan.
Oh, and if she does as well as predicted, and I do have a c/s - she'd most likely be released from the hospital before I would be. I didn't even know what to say to that! She would/could stay in the general nursery until my release, but technically, if he wanted to, Nick could take her home and leave me there to recover.
So there's todays update. I'm still so in shock over the NICU consult. I'm so excited that we know what has to happen for her to come home and that there's no reason to think she'll need a ventilator or special equipment or anything in order to come home. Down the line, she'll need to be medicated in order to help her heart/lungs until she needs surgery, but it won't be right away. She'll get to be a normal-ish baby for a little while and we'll get to hold her and love her and see her with Jordan AT HOME.
Today was a good day :)
No comments:
Post a Comment