As you well know if you have been following us we are planning on having Noah at home, well mother nature has her own plans maybe. It seems there is a possibility we may have to have Noah at the hospital. We can still do everything natural and with our mid-wife, just need to have everything well monitored. This is because Noah’s growth is not where it needs to be, he is a little small according to the normal scale. He started out at 27% in relation to other babies, fell to 11% and is now sitting in the 4th percentage of size after our latest ultrasound. When they told us I could see the heartbreak come across Sharon’s face when the realization hit that he might be in trouble and need to be born in the hospital.
The problem they believe is the placenta is not functioning efficiently enough. It is not transferring enough nutrients over to Noah as he is getting bigger and requiring more now than he did throughout the pregnancy. This is fairly common at the end of pregnancies they say.
“If his growth rate drops any more, we need to get him out” Dr. Maher said. HUh?!?! “What does that mean?” I asked. Thinking the worst… a c-section :( But he re-assured us, he just meant we would induce and get him out naturally. Just not at home.
But now if his growth rate does not drop much and he is gaining weight still (which he grew over a pound in two weeks already) we may still be on track. We just need to have him be 6 pounds on ultrasound so he is for sure over the legal weight for a home birth. But there is one more issue. Amniotic fluid. It is running low, which is another sign the placenta is not keeping up.
We are going to stay positive because we know the power of positive thinking. Which essentially is on par with prayers. So maybe the power of prayer rings true to me more these days. We have gotten all of our supplies for home birth lined up ready to go. Noah, if you can hear us, “just hang in there and just get bigger still for a couple more weeks okay buddy”
Note: When sterilizing towels and such in an oven, do not let the paper bag touch the top of the oven as it will ignite.