Its been an action packed 24 hours to say the least and now that I'm finally catching my breath I want to get this all down so I don't forget. The short beginning: got pregnant in June with our second baby. Pretty uneventful summer and fall - I went on Lovenox as I had done when I was pregnant with Molly. Was being monitored by MFM because Molly was so small. Went in for an u/s at 30 weeks and McDeuce was starting to look small - no surprise.....little did we know. Once thing we did find out at that u/s was that the blood flow in the umbilical cord was slightly below normal. Nothing that would require intervention just yet, but something to keep an eye one. At that point we set up growth u/s every 2 weeks. But I thought for sure we'd get to 37 weeks just like we did with Molly. At 32 weeks McDeuce was healthy but still small and was starting to drop dramatically on the growth chart - we upped the MFM visits to twice a week with another growth u/s at 34 weeks. Still, I thought, no problem....maybe we won't get to 37, but we'll get to 36 weeks, ALMOST full term. McDeuce was looking great at all the NSTs and doppler u/s. The umbilical cord blood flow was still diminished but was stable.
January 26, 2011 went in for a growth u/s at 34 weeks and discovered that McDeuce hasn't gained any weight in 2 weeks - not so good. Dr. Dunn decided it was time for McDeuce to come out. Clearly s/he would be safer on the outside then inside. After consulting with the NICU team at NWH it was decided it would be best for McDeuce to be born at the Brigham to have access to the Level 3 NICU. That decision earned me a trip to the Brigham in an Ambulance! What a wild ride down Route 9 during rush hour in a snow storm! Matt went home to tuck Molly into bed and pick up some clothes for me and then meet me at the Brigham.
Once at the Brigham and reunited with Matt we started a Pitocin Challenge to see if McDeuce could handle the stress of labor. I had one contraction and the heart rate went from 145 to 50 and the room went from me and Matt to 6 people....crazy. Needless to say I would be having a c section. Because I had taken a lovenox that morning the anesthesiologist didn't feel comfortable giving me a spinal until 24 hours after the shot was administered. After some discussion we decided to wait until the morning to have the surgery and let the lovenox wear off. It was all good until 2AM when McDeuce's heart rate dropped again - at this point the Dr. didn't feel comfortable waiting anymore.....so off to the OR we went.
Anne Paterson McDonald was born at 3:31 AM on 1/27/2011 weighing 2lbs 12ozs and 15 in long. She came out pink and crying, which was a relief!! The NICU team checked her out for a little while before taking her to the nursery.
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