Prayers for Our Little Luke

Now I need to ask for prayer for our own little Luke.

I don’t think I shared this before, but there were a slight concern at my ultrasound a few weeks ago. Not with the baby, but with the actual pregnancy. Luke is doing fantastic, but at the time, a small area of “blood pooling behind the placenta” was noticed. It was very small, so small the tech almost missed it, and my doctor was not very concerned. She felt it would probably go away on its own, but she did consult with the perinatologist (high risk doctor) and they decided to send me for a repeat ultrasound in a month.

I had the repeat ultrasound yesterday.

Before the ultrasound, I had my prenatal appointment, which went well. My doctor is going to schedule our c-section date and it looks like the date will be January 25th, 2011! It’s not “official” yet because it has to be put on the schedule, but I should hear back about that soon. Everything else went great at the appointment.

Then I had the ultrasound. Luke continues to do very well. It was reassuring to once again see that he’s healthy & looking great. He’s measuring a week ahead and is 1 pound 8 ounces already. The tech was surprised at how much his feet are already up in my ribs – he loves stretching them out! He didn’t want to cooperate, so we didn’t get any really good pictures, but here’s one:
Luke is doing well. However the bleed did not disappear/resolve as we had thought it would. Instead, it’s gotten larger. Quite a bit larger. It’s grown from 2 cm to over 10 cm in just 5 weeks’ time. I noticed it right away on the ultrasound screen and we could even see the blood “swirling” around.

The technician finished the scan and then went to talk to the peri. They were gone for about 15 minutes and then my own OB & the peri came into the room together. They explained together what was happening. The bleed has grown quite a lot and is a definite concern. The biggest risk is premature rupture of membranes – in plain English, my water is at increased risk of breaking early. This can happen because the “pooled blood” may weaken the sack. The peri said there is no way to say what the chances are of this happening or when. I could go full term or my water could break early, which would mean little Luke would come early. We don’t know.

The doctors discussed putting me on bedrest, but the peri didn’t think it would do much good. I have to say I’m very thankful for that – I can’t imagine being on bedrest with 3 kids running around! However I do need to take it easy and be more careful to not do too much.

The bleed is not actually “behind the placenta” as I had previously been told – that would be called an “abruption.” It’s between the amniotic sack and the uterine wall. The peri explained that they don’t know what caused this bleed. It could just be a freak thing. It could be because I’ve had 3 c-sections and the scar tissue from the repeat incisions caused “abnormal tissue growth” and started a bleed. They do not think this has anything to do with my Von Willebrands bleeding disorder. They just don’t know. There is nothing I did or anyone did to cause this, nor was there anyway to prevent it. There is nothing they can do to “fix” it now either.

All the doctors can do is keep a close eye on me and the baby.

From now on, I will have every other week ultrasounds and appointments. If I have any spotting, bleeding, or any fluid leaking, I’m to go straight to the hospital.

The peri said that at some point, the pressure from the growing baby & amniotic fluid acts as a stopper for the blood and the amount of bleeding stops increasing. He said he is surprised this hasn’t happened already given Luke’s size, but hopefully it will happen soon. At this point, the bleeding isn’t going to go away – there’s just too much – however, they hope it will slow down & just “maintain.”

The good news – again – is that Luke is doing well. Whenever there is bleeding, there is concern that the baby is getting enough nutrients and clearly Luke is. So that is a real blessing.

The other (much smaller) issue is that I’m RH negative. My blood type is negative, so that means if there’s any chance my blood could mix with the baby’s blood (a definite chance with this situation), I need to get the Rhogam shot to prevent my blood from building antibodies against the baby’s probable +blood type.

After my consultation with my doctors, they sent me to the lab to get blood drawn, so they can see if there has been any mixing of our blood yet and to what extent. They are also checking to see if I’m anemic because I’ve been exhausted.

Once that was done, I had to go back upstairs to OB to get a Rhogam shot. And OUCH do those things hurt! My bottom is still sore more than 24 hours later and last night, I tossed and turned all night because I kept rolling over on my poor bruised bottom and waking up! But that’s the least of our worries right now.

I’m waiting to hear back from my doctor on the lab results. If there is a significant amount of blood mixing, they will have me come back for yet another Rhogam shot. (I’m hoping not!)

I was high risk before due to my Von Willebrands – although it was well “managed” and I’ve had no issues at all with this or my last two pregnancies. But now, I’m really high risk. It’s kind of scary. There is still a good chance that everything will be just fine and Luke will make it to our scheduled c-section date of January 25th. But there’s also now a good chance he will come early and that’s scary to think about.

But I know the Lord has a plan in all this and we are trusting Him.

Specific prayer requests:
*That Luke will continue to grow strong and healthy
*That my water does not break and stays strong and intact and most of all, that little Luke will make it to full term

Thank you all so much and I will keep you updated. I have much to update you on, with general family life, but that will come a bit later! Like I said before, my wonderful sister is visiting and we are enjoying our time with her. I’ll be “back” soon!