MFM Appointment

I know I promised to update yesterday and tell you all about my appointment, but....well, that just didn't happen, as you know.

The appointment went really, really good.  I am so happy with where we are at right now.  It actually seems quite unbelievable how well things have been going, minus a few minor hiccups here and there.

We got to see both the babies, although now that they are bigger, the image seemed very obscure to Hubby and I on the screen.  The u/s tech said it may seem that way to us, but to her, she is able to see what she needs to a million times better.  She is able to zoom into each organ and see details so much more clearly now.  For us, we are just lucky she is telling us what she is looking at or we would never know!  How would we know that little line on the screen was the diaphragm?  Or that certain blob was the kidneys?  You get the idea. We can tell the heart, since you can see it beating.  And of course we could make out their profiles... barely. ha!

Anyway, both babies look good.  The tech still wasn't able to see the one arch in the heart that has been eluding us every time on Baby A.  Baby girl is just not in a good position for the tech to see it.  The MFM doctor says that there is no reason to suspect any abnormality there though because everything else looks so good.

Both babies are head down.  Baby A has been head down every single time, but Baby B seems to go back and forth. As of Wednesday, he was also head down.  Hopefully he stays that way.  Initially, only Baby A had to be head down to attempt a vaginal birth.  However, Baby B appears to be ginormous!  His head measures 3 WEEKS bigger than his gestational age!  Dr. MFM says that is okay, because it's symmetrical to the rest of his measurements.  However, if he ends up breech, they do not want to attempt a vaginal birth because that would risk his head getting stuck.  That just makes me shudder to think of his little (giant) body being delivered, but his head stuck inside.  I mean, what the heck do they DO in that situation.  I agree with her assessment.  I don't want to find out.  As much as the thought of a c-section terrifies me, the other scenario is much more terrifying.  But, maybe he will behave and stay head down and we won't even have to worry about it.

Right now, Baby A is 2 lbs, 4 oz.  Baby B is 2 lbs, 15 oz.  He's basically 3 pounds already!!!  I have no idea what percentile these measurements put the babies in, but I know they are on the upper end, especially our linebacker.  When Dr. MFM was talking to us about delivery scenarios, she mentioned our due date being Feb. 7th.  I corrected her and told her it's the 8th.  She laughed and said, "oh my gosh that makes Baby B even BIGGER!"  We all thought that was pretty funny.

She talked to us about how if/when we make it to 38 weeks, that will be January 25th, and they will want to induce at that point.  She said they would be very comfortable if we can even just make it to the 36 week mark, which would be January 11th.  It was so exciting to be talking about all this.  It still seems so far away, but yet, it's really not.  I just hope things continue to go smoothly and we actually can keep these babies cooking until that point.

I was very pleased that Dr. MFM also took the time to talk about my liver issue and the rash I have.  At this point, I only have one liver marker that is elevated.  Not a lot, but enough to just keep an eye on.  She talked about how they have ruled out the 3 serious situations that could be the cause for my rash.  It's difficult to diagnose the rash, other than it just being a straight up pregnancy rash due to the stretching of the skin and hormonal changes my body is going through.  It could be PUPPPs, but it would be a very mild case at this point.  She called it a mystery rash that seems to be nothing serious, just annoying.  They did prescribe a steroid cream that I can use, but I have hesitated on rushing to get it.  I haven't even taken Tylenol this whole pregnancy.  I've always been one to take medicine only as a last resort if absolutely necessary.  She assured me that the topical steroid is safe, and we are far enough along in our pregnancy that everything is already formed in the babies and we don't need to worry about birth defects.  At this point, their (the babies) job is to just keep growing!

That made sense to me, but I asked her, what about autism and things like that.  I loved her answer in that Dr. MFM explained that there is not conclusive evidence as to what the specific causes of autism are.  She talked about several studies she has participated in, and all the research that is being done on autism, but there just aren't solid answers at this point.  I appreciated the fact that she didn't just come out and say it's nothing to worry about.  She doesn't THINK that it is a concern, but she couldn't guarantee it either.  Her final recommendation was, if one of the babies were to come out and ended up with something like autism, to ask myself if I would look back and regret using the cream and always wonder if it was to blame?  My thoughts at this point:  I don't know.  For now, I am choosing to suffer through the itching.

Also, I passed my glucose test that I took on Tuesday!  Wooooo Hooooooo!  I am soooo happy that I don't have to worry about that!  Dr. MFM said she was very impressed and that I had an outstanding pancreas.  Go me :)

We got a few profile pics of the babies, although, as I mentioned earlier, they aren't the best or most clear images.

Baby A's profile

Baby B's profile

Both heads together.  You can see how much BIGGER baby B's head is!  Holy cow!