Nice & Quiet!

Today was a nice & quiet day for our little guy. Not much happened, which is a great thing! He was nice and relaxed all day. No tests, no heel pricks for blood tests - just relaxing. Ahhhhh....

Since it was such a nice and quiet day for our little guy, I thought I would take the opportunity to update everyone on my 2 week postpartum appointment. I met with the high risk OBGYN that delivered Owen via cesarean section last Thursday. When Owen was delivered, they sent the placenta off to be tested to try and figure out exactly what happened to cause the early delivery.

At our appointment, the doctor explained that the placenta actually looked OK. He believes the umbilical cord being wrapped multiple times around Owen's neck (and twisted several times he says) was the issue. He said the umbilical cord being wrapped (and twisted) most likely cut off the supply for one of the vessels. Remember, Owen has a three vessel cord when we did the 20-week ultrasound, but the tech only saw two vessels the day of the delivery. This resulted in a big decrease in oxygen supply for our little guy and overall treacherous conditions that led to the emergency c-section!

I am going back in a month for a six-week check-up, where they are going to draw blood and conduct some more tests to see if there were any other pre-existing conditions that would lend themselves to this scenario. Our main concern is to try and determine what the odds are of this situation happening again if we decide to have a second baby down the road. The doc gave me recommendations of OBGYNs (non-high risk) that he works with regularly. If we do decide to have another baby, we will need to do much more testing throughout the pregnancy and, unfortunately, it looks like we'll be doing another cesarean section. Goodbye natural birth!

The scariest part of the meeting was when the doctor reinforced the fact that had I waited one more day to be checked out, our little guy wouldn't have made it. It really made us feel so, so fortunate to have a little guy in the NICU. It may be a long road ahead before he get to come home with us, but at least he will come home one day!


Owen is 20 days old today!