It's a New Week!

Good news...WE all survived my first few days in the hospital.  I say WE, because this is totally going to be a WE effort.  We had a pretty good idea I was going to wind up in the hospital this early (I'm 25 weeks along), and tried to mentally prepare ourselves, but quickly learned that isn't possible until you are right in the middle of it.  So, as WE get adjusted to our new reality for the next few months, let me catch you up on why WE are here.

First off...let's have a look at this sweet little guy! Isn't he the cutest already? ;)  This was taken last Friday at the appointment before I was admitted.  One good thing about being a high risk pregnancy is you get tons of looks at your growing little one.  We have so many pictures of him already, that we are sure he'll be ready for the camera when he arrives.

The best news in this whole situation is that little man is healthy and growing like crazy.  On Friday, they estimated his weight at 2lbs 4oz already!  His weight combined with all of his other measurements put him in the above 97 percentile for gestational age, which is great news!  

Now, on to the reason I am sitting in a hospital bed.  I have been diagnosed with vasa previa and a velamentous cord.  Do yourself a favor and don't consult Dr. Google on this one...its not pretty.  Let me try to spin a positive light on it :)
Basically what it all that means, is the umbilical cord vessels, which are the life line for the baby are exposed and unsupported (velamentous cord).  This is bad for obvious reasons, mainly because it makes them vulnerable to rupture.  To complicate matters, the exposed vessels run right over my cervix (vasa previa).  Thus, giving us a recipe for disaster.  

While not trying to be dramatic, the reality of the situation is, if one of those vessels rupture, they will have less than 5 minutes to get the baby out and and give it the best possible chance for survival.  So, that is why I'm here.  I'm here, because being anywhere else is too risky for me or the baby.  I'm here because if I start having contractions, they can do a c-section to prevent rupture of the vessels.  I'm here because bed rest and constant monitoring gives me the best chance of staying pregnant for as long as possible. 

The game plan is to try and get to 34 weeks.  Even if everything is still looking great (no contractions, bleeding, etc) they will still do a c-section at that time.  The reason being that the further you get along in the pregnancy, the more likely a rupture is to happen.  And as my Dr. has said several times, "In this situation, taking the baby a week early, is better than a day late."

As far as I understand it, this is a tricky condition to manage, because you just don't know what is going to happen.  So, we are putting our faith in our Dr.'s and relying on their experience and knowledge as to when is the right time to bring this little guy in to the world.  Hopefully baby W will let it be on our terms, which would mean 34 weeks, which would mean less time for him in the NICU.

There's the long and the short of it.  Is this scary; you have no idea.  Do we want to be in this situation; no.  Is this going to be the hardest thing we've ever been through; definitely yes.  But, we are so lucky and have the most amazing support system of family and friends that anyone could ask for.  We couldn't survive this without all of your love and support.  So, together WE will get through this!

I promise to keep you updated...but hopefully my life stays pretty boring and there isn't much to report ;)  And I also promise this will hopefully be last of my Debbie Downer posts...positive thinking and humor will be the key to my mental health:)  I'm off to eat a yummy hospital lunch...ha!