24 week ultrasound and a visit to the NICU

Yesterday morning, Edward and I trundled off to our bi-weekly OB appointment. We started off with another very thorough ultrasound - the babies have been on the move, yet again! At this juncture, Baby B is along my left side, Baby A is curled up on my right side, and yes, Baby C is still lying across my ribs. In fact, Baby C is SO high up that the technician ran out of room trying to get a clearer picture of its spine. She looked rather apologetic as we all recognized that 1) Baby C will likely stay put, and 2) Baby C will be growing a LOT bigger in the coming weeks. It's actually getting quite painful for me to lie on my back for an hour during the scan, particularly as I have a permanent sharp pain where Baby C's back and my right upper rib coexist. They will allow me to roll over onto one side or another in an effort to keep me comfortable, but they really get the best results when I'm on my back so I'll tolerate it as long as I can.

Speaking of growth, we were extremely pleased to hear that Babies A & C are weighing in at 1lb5 ounces each and Baby B is 1lb7 ounces. The average ranges from 1lb2 to 1lb5, depending on what internet site you believe, but most importantly, the OB was very pleased with their size and their high level of activity. They are busy in there!! I've been packing in the protein, so I'd like to believe that their current growth rate has benefitted, and will be a continuing trend. My cervix hasn't budged, and my blood pressure was an "excellent" 100 over 58. That would be normally classified as low, but in pregnancy this is considered desirable and normal. We'll see how things look at 26 weeks, but at this moment, they could not ask for a better result.

After the appointment, we took a quick tour of the Neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU), where the babies will be placed if they are born after 30 weeks - before 30 weeks, we will be delivering at the General, as it has a higher level NICU. It was an emotional experience for me... They have a wonderful staff, and all the babies we saw appeared to be doing very well, but it's heartbreaking to see babies attached to all that machinery, looking so tiny and fragile.

The first baby we saw was in an isolette (basically an incubator). He was 3 days old, and I guessed by looking at him that he must have been born around 30 weeks. In fact, he was born at 34 weeks. We also saw twins born at 28 weeks, who are now 35 weeks. The little boy was going home today. Both were in the same cot (once ours are stable, they'll put all three in one), and they were still absolutely tiny. The last set of twins we saw were 8 days old, and had been born at 32 weeks. The boy was still in an isolette, receiving oxygen and the girl had graduated to a heated waterbed cot. Their mother was in, providing the girl with "kangaroo care", which is skin to skin contact that has been proven to be of huge benefit to preemies. The baby's back was literally the length of my (very small!) hand. Mind you, we don't know the circumstances that brought each of these babies to the NICU, other than they were premature, so perhaps their birth weights were on the low side to begin with. Of course, going in there, I could not have already been more committed to keeping our babies "in utero" for as long as humanely possible, but our visit just reconfirmed my resolve. Ultimately, their delivery date is not in my hands. I can rest all I want, but the truth of the matter is that if my body decides it's time before the 34 week mark, it's time for the doctors to intervene and I'll have to place myself in their hands. Until then, I'm very grateful for all of the support we've received - particularly, over the last week, from Edward's mother - that makes this challenging time a lot more bearable!