33w4d

Well, this afternoon's MFM appointment pretty much shaved a year off my life.

It started out really well, actually. My lab work came back and I don't have choleostasis, so apparently I just itch. That's fine. My BP was 104/63. I lost a pound, but I think it's just normal fluctuation now that I'm going in twice a week (putting me at 28 lbs gained total). I had no protein, and only trace ketones in my urine. My NST also went well. TONS of movement and reactive babies. Baby A did have a few decels, but because her baseline is so low, they don't actually count as decels even though they were in the upper 90s. So, I went into the BPP thinking that all was well.

Both babies were practicing their breathing and moving around. It was difficult to get a good fluid measurement on Baby A, but eventually they got one and it was totally normal. Then, we moved on to the dopplers. Baby A was fine. Baby B showed absent flow from the cord insertion. Absent flow is one of the potential delivery triggers, so we started to freak out. A lot. The tech took measurement after measurement after measurement and every single one showed absent flow except one (she literally did it about 8 times). I thought that meant that the flow was categorically absent. Robert and I (and Jared, who was with us because he had an ENT appt right before mine) sat there waiting for Dr. Wall pretty much sure that we were about to hear that it was delivery time. But, nope. Apparently, it is easy to get a reading that there is absent flow based on the angle of the wand, but it is impossible to get a reading that there IS flow unless there actually is flow. So, even though only 1 measurement showed flow, it meant that there IS flow. And, the flow that it showed was elevated more than Monday, but still in a stable range (if stable means not ready for delivery). So, basically, it was this huge, stressful, OMG we're about to deliver moment... for no reason. Awesome.

That said, we're not really in the clear. The doppler is elevated more at cord insertion and I think that it was also a bit elevated at mid cord for the first time (but, frankly, I was too worried about the absent flow at the time to really know for sure). It definitely looks like we're headed in the wrong direction now. As to how quickly we get there, no one really knows. But, Dr. Wall is having me stop the baby aspirin/Heparin the night before my Wednesday growth scan, and come in to the office on a completely empty stomach so that, if it's time to deliver, we're totally ready to do so. I think that is pretty darn serious. I mean, seriously, by the time that your doctor is having you come in on an empty stomach, it seems like he is pretty sure that we're nearing delivery. He also said that he is fairly certain that we're looking at a late next week delivery.

However, all of this still depends on what we see. I have another NST/BPP on Monday that could trigger delivery (or be reassuring). And, well, it's still possible that Wednesday's growth scan and BPP will look ok and we'll keep going. No one really knows what we're going to see, but at 34w3d (next Wednesday), I suspect that Dr. Wall will err on the side of delivery if the placental issue looks any worse at all. That said, we were completely stable for 3 weeks before, so maybe we'll remain stable for another week or two.

I swear, this is what I get for making crazy 36 week predictions.