36 wk. update

Well, I went in for my 36 week appointment yesterday(Wednesday). I had a scheduled growth scan and an appointment following the ultrasound. The appointment went fine and Dr. did a cervix check, it still very high with no dilating or softening, my BP was high at 128/90 But Dr. is not too worried about it. She put me on the NST as I have been having and still do have a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions and it appears the baby handles all that great. After the NST I asked her what she thought of the results of my ultrasound and she viewed them for the first time with me. She said the only alarming thing about the findings is that the baby's head is measuring small but the abdomen and femur are right on target. She guessed that because the baby is heads down now and in a lower position that the sonographer wasn't able to get a good enough picture to measure it accurately. My fluid levels were good showing that baby is getting nutrients and urinating. So I left the appointment feeling pretty good.

However...at 5:30PM I received a call from Dr.'s nurse and she tells me that I need to call the office at 8:30AM to schedule a biophysical profile scan for this Friday (today is now Thursday...that would be tomorrow). My doctor and the sonographer reviewed the results together and feel they need to check agian. All the appointment schedulers had left the office for the day so the nurse wasn't sure if an appointment would be available for this Friday or not...I asked her want if no appoinment is available and she said that she sure hoped it was because if not they would have to send me some place else for one Friday. So now I am nervous!!! I wonder what the urgency is? What can we now do about this if my baby does have a condition such as microcephally...(I've been doing some late night research on fetuses with small head measurements.) Should I request that my Dr. refer me to the perinatoligist for a level 3 ultrasound? What about what she said about the baby's head being too low to get a good image to measure? Would a transvaginal scan show a better image of the head or tell us that it is indeed to low and now engaged in the birth canal?

What do you ladies think? What would you do? Have any of you had this happen? Just for some more info...my little boy has a huge head...in the 100 percentiles and my little girl is very tiny (now at four years old she is in the 5th percentile for weight and 57th for height) and her head (like the rest of her body) has always in the lower percentiles 30% at a year and under when a smaller baby. Maybe I'm having a girl and she just has a small head?

I hate all this worry!!! Tonight I have a baby shower and I want to be excited and happy...not to be worried!! Any suggestions on how to let this go, so I can have a good time tonight with my family and friends...sure wish I could have a glass of wine or cocktail...but that is off limits.

Thanks ladies for letting me "purge" this all out of my system this morning. I really appreciated you listening (I guess I should say reading If you have managed to read all of this THANK YOU for taking the time and sorry it is so long.

Take Care and I hope you all are doing well today!

 

I don't have any specific advice, but an U/S can be off by quite a large percent. I would guess that your Dr wants the scan done ASAP because the baby is going through a fast rate of growth right now. In a week's time, the measurements will be even more difficult to obtain.

 

I wish I had the words to take away the worry but I don't. My DH always tells me there is no need to worry about "what if's"...does that help.

Your baby needs you at your best, which means you to be relaxed. You need to enjoy your shower and being surronded by people who love you will help.

Let us know how you make out. :hug99:

 

Honey, I know how hard it is NOT to worry... impossible in fact. But, it's GREAT that your doctor made arrangements to get you in ASAP. That tells me that they want to figure this out so that you do not have to spend nights worrying. U/S's are never 100% accurate. They told me Tyce was going to weigh 7 lbs.. he weighed 8lbs4oz. I would ask for a transvaginal u/s if I were you to see if they can get a more accurate measurement, and I would also go out and get a 4d u/s out of my own pocket to ease my worry. It never hurts to get a second or third opinion.

If the baby's head is small, I do not know the first thing about what can be done for the condition - but I do know that the power of prayer is remarkable. I will pray for you okay? Allow for your doctors to check more into this and if they tell you what you do not want to hear, ask them a million questions so that you know exactly how things should pan out in the long run.

You need to ENJOY your shower tonight and know that no matter what, your baby is being well taken care of by you and by your doctors. WE cannot control things like this but we can think positively.

 

:hug99: There are sooo many things to find to worry about. The internet (when you are guessing) can be a scary place. I hope the shower went well. :hug99: Please update us! Like the PP's have stated, ultrasounds are not perfect.

 

I wouldn't worry about the BPP which is the sono they want to schedule you for. I have one EVERY tuesday with my NST. They just check breathing patterns, 3 gross motor movements, and pockets of fluid. It's just a sono with specific things besides measuring length of bones and etc. My bp is almost right on track with yours on a weekly basis. Just calm down before that bp rises and they admitt you for something such as preeclampsia!

 

OK...OK...OK...you are exactly right!!! All the sonographer did was the biophysical profile and didn't even have instructions from my Dr. to measure the head. I did ask her to measure it but without instructions from my Dr. she said she wasn't supposed to...but she did save a picture of it just incase my Dr. would change her mind so it is on file. Gosh...that nurse who called me Wednesday evening had me all worried something serious may be happening. Just like you all have said, the sonographer agreed that the measurements can be off as much as 3 - 4 weeks, so for something to all of a sudden measure off at this late stage is not that likely. I didn't hear from my Dr. as she was on call and off at a delivery but the sonographer said I passed the BPP and all looked great to her. Hopefully at my appointment next week my Dr. will confim this to be true The BPP was a really neat ultrasound because we got to "play" with the baby and see it do all kinds on neat things, open and close it's mouth, the chest doing breathing practice and it looks like my baby has a lot of hair on the back of it's head! Also, the sonographer was great as she anserwerd all my many questions and gave me quite a few good pics. Now I'm back to being happy!

Thank you to all for your support, positive thoughts and prayers! It was great to have the opportunity to vent and be vulnerable when in my "real world" I try and not be too emotional (very hard these days.) This was a good lesson in learning to try and not worry about things which are not in your control. Again thanks so much for listening!

I hope you all are doing well! Take care!

 

I am glad to hear that the BPP went well and that everything looks good!