Our little guy will make his debut tomorrow around 4 PM when I go in for my scheduled C section. He will be 31 weeks, 2 days. We are nervous, excited and scared all at the same time. There is also a sense of relief because Andy and I have both been worried about how he's doing with all of the bleeding that I have been experiencing since Saturday. He has always looked really good when they have him on the monitors but when you are in the "holding area" of the maternity ward they only monitor you three times a day for 20 minutes so my mind was left to wander the rest of the time hoping he was doing okay. I should say that if the doctor was concerned she would have had me on those monitors more but they always said he looked great, so me worrying about him was probably unfounded but still there none the less.
Today when Dr. Renfroe rounded she decided that she wanted an ultrasound done to check for a possible partial placental abruption, she was looking to see if she could find the source of the bleeding. Fortunately we had enough time for Andy to make it over here so he could be here for the ultrasound. She couldn't see any signs of an abruption but the images are so distorted since I have virtually no amniotic fluid I don't think she felt like she could get a clear enough view to rule it out. We left with her telling me not to eat lunch and that she'd have my blood drawn to check for signs of infection and take it from there. After a few hours my results were back and my blood counts all looked okay, slightly elevated but not to the point that would indicate an infection. A couple hours later our nurse came in and the doctor had decided to proceed with the c section tomorrow. We haven't had a chance to talk to her since so I'm not sure exactly what caused her to make the call. She did explain during the ultrasound though that once you are experiencing bleeding that it only increases your chance of infection and she wants to give baby as much time as possible but make sure she delivers him before an infection were to set in. I'm guessing she decided we had approached that gray in between area and it was time.
Once we knew that tomorrow was the day Andy got a tour of the NICU and I received a photo album of the NICU to give me an idea of what to expect when I am able to go visit Drake for the first time. We also had the chance to meet with one of the neonatologists from the NICU and he went over what all we can expect with both the best and worse case scenarios. Overall he was very positive and said that to the NICU staff a 31 weeker is usually pretty well off. Drake's main challenge initially will be getting his lungs stabilized and him breathing. He will either be on a ventilator (the most assistance), CPAP, or nasal cannula. I thought it was interesting that he will also get caffeine though his IV to help his brain remember to breathe. I think he and I both will be partaking in some caffeine the rest of this week, I've got a diet coke with my name on it :) He also told us that most babies go home around 36 weeks gestational age, so about 5 weeks for Drake assuming he doesn't have any major setbacks.
We're as ready as we'll ever be and SO excited to finally meet our new little guy. We trust that God has a plan for our little man and we will be here to love on and support Drake in any way we can while he works on growing bigger and stronger. We are so thankful to have had these 2 weeks for him to grow and mature.
From what they tell me I'll be pretty out of it tomorrow night but I'm sure the proud new Daddy will post an update on Facebook once Drake is here. We are so thankful for all the prayers, well wishes, and help we have received over the past two weeks. We can't wait to share pictures of our little guy with you all! I should add that Kellan is pretty excited to be promoted to "big brother" he has requested to wear his big brother shirt several times these past two weeks. :)
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