It’s now two weeks since we learned of Julie’s condition. Each day feels like a victory in a race against time. Julie needs as many days to develop before birth as she can get. This stage of life involves important brain and lung development. The shots at the hospital last week should accelerate this process, but Julie still needs time for her body to complete its work.
This update sounds more upbeat despite our exhaustion…
Got done with the specialist yesterday. Julie is now FIVE POUNDS! She gained nearly two lbs in 2 weeks. The cyst and fluid on the abdomen are no worse since Friday (good news). We added an MRI to our list of appts for the week (six and climbing). Sarah is sleeping a lot, but still having occasional contractions and nausea.
The specialist estimated Julie’s weight based on several factors which he measured via ultrasound. The increased weight will help Julie survive should she come early since babies normally lose a little weight in their first couple days until they learn to eat enough. Julie’s weight increase indicated that she was winning against the cyst in her chest and the fluid it caused.
Julie was also winning against time. If she could wait another five or six weeks, she would be full-term. Three or four weeks would decrease complications dramatically. Anything less than that and she would face numerous potential problems. The specialist gave us a list of these problems, but couldn’t say which Julie might face.
Sarah was just surviving day to day. She started experiencing nausea almost immediately after she confirmed her pregnancy. It continued non-stop throughout the pregnancy as Sarah managed her symptoms with ginger ale, ginger snap cookies, ginger mints, etc. The nausea seemed worse now as Sarah encountered more difficulty sleeping and our schedule increased with more appointments.
Sarah also seemed to have more difficulty getting around. I began noticing that she seemed much bigger than even a week before. During the course of the pregnancy, Sarah had been close to developing diabetes and high blood pressure. So far, she had held up well, but we both realized the toll that the situation had on her.
I balanced my days trying to get as many hours at work as possible, while getting Sarah to/from each appointment. I kept track of our schedule which helped distract me from any discouraging thoughts. Although very tired myself, I maintained a positive attitude. After all, we had the best of care and the CCAM wasn’t critical.
With the amount of fluid remaining the same, things seemed stable. Just two or three appointments a day, 8-hours working from home, a trip or two to the grocery store or fast-food, and some laundry. Stable is good. Stable means more time.