Pediatrician Appointment

Yesterday I had my long day at the hospital for my prenatal appointment and the appointment with the pediatrician. I was out of the house by 8:30 to get to the hospital by 9:30 - then my tedious prenatal appointment took until 11:30, during which time I actually saw a doctor for maybe 5-10 minutes. The rest of the time was just waiting for the slow cogs of the public health system to turn ;) I did manage to persuade the doctor though that I didn't "need" to come back in 2 weeks for another prenatal check up and would prefer to come back in 3 weeks (when I'll be 39 weeks pregnant) instead so at least I don't have to go through that so soon. When I was pregnant with Lana, I did these prenatal check ups at the Maternal Health Clinic 2 minutes from my house - and things there seemed to happen a bit faster as well. But because this is a more complicated pregnancy, I must go to the hospital instead. Although I don't really understand why because all the complications are with the baby, not with me.

Fortunately for me (not so for her), a friend of mine who lives 5 minutes from the hospital broke her foot a couple of weeks ago so she was off work - so at least I could go visit her and have lunch with her in between 11:30 and 2 when my pediatrician's appointment was scheduled.

At 2 I was back at the hospital for my next appointment - and I actually had to go and get admitted to the hospital for that appointment, although I never got given a bed or even got to wear that wrist bracelet they print up - I was actually only there for an hour. 

It was really good to be able to meet with the pediatrician and talk with him about his expectations of what would happen after the birth of our baby. When she is born, the most immediate concern will be her breathing. Her ribs are still slightly restricted but it's impossible to tell before birth exactly how well she will be able to breath. If when she is born, her breathing is very affected, she will need to be immediately rushed to the NICU and we won't have any time with her in the delivery room. She may need to be intubated or put on oxygen to help with her breathing. However if her breathing is pretty stable, she will be allowed to stay with us in the delivery room for about an hour or so, during which time we can try to breastfeed or just cuddle and get used to each other a bit. Obviously we're hoping that her breathing is stable at birth! 

Regardless of whether or not her breathing is stable though, she will need to spend probably at least 1-2 days in NICU/special care for observation and tests. The pediatric team will be looking after her most of the time but she will also have an orthopedist (bone doctor) who will do a lot of the x rays etc. Her feet are still appearing to be mildly clubbed so most probably pretty much from birth, she will need to have her feet splinted/put in casts to try and mould the feet back into a better position. This is usually done pretty soon after birth because the tendons and muscles are more relaxed then and can be manipulated easier.

The good thing is that the pediatrician does expect for her to be relatively stable and he expects that she most probably will only need to be in the hospital for less than a week. Of course all that depends on her condition when she is born - but it's still a nicer alternative than what we heard earlier in the pregnancy. Then the doctors couldn't even assure us that we would be bringing her home at all.

From the ultrasound, the doctor estimated her weight to be around 2.2kg or 4.8lb - which is still on the small side (average for 36 weeks is 2.6kg/5.8lb). I don't put too much trust in the accuracy of weight measured by ultrasound though - particularly in situations like this where the baby is not proportioned the same as an average baby. But hopefully she puts on a bit more weight before she is born - because generally speaking, larger babies at birth are healthier. I know that NICU often has "target weights" at which they will release a baby - and if a baby is small, even if everything else is looking ok, they will sometimes keep the baby in for a bit longer until they reach their "target weight".

I asked the pediatrician how often they had cases like this at their hospital. The hospital that I am going to is the one hospital in Hong Kong that has a great NICU and also specialises in high risk pregnancies, and the private hospitals would not accept cases as complicated as this - so pretty much, this hospital is where 90+% of these kinds of cases in Hong Kong would end up. The pediatrician said that they have milder cases of this kind of thing maybe 1-2 times a year (maybe something like Achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism) - but in our case, the limb shortening is much more severe. I think that this is a once in a few years (or even less than that) kind of situation for them. We're somewhat celebrities over there and a lot of our doctors appointments will have all kinds of interns at them, because it is not often that they have the chance to learn about this kind of situation.

This was our last appointment for an ultrasound, and our last appointment with the prenatal diagnostic clinic. Everything else now is just "wait and see when the baby is born". I'm 36 weeks today and have another 4 weeks until my due date. Lana came 4 days early and I'm really hoping that this one comes a bit early too. Maybe she can come on the date of my next prenatal appointment so I don't need to go to that ;)

A few prayer points for the last couple of weeks:

• Please pray that when our daughter is born, that her breathing will be stable and that she won't be in any immediate danger. Pray that she surprises the doctors by how healthy she is and is able to leave the NICU quickly
• Please continue to pray that she doesn't have a cleft palate - it's one complication that I'd rather not deal with. It would make breastfeeding (and feeding in general) so much easier if we don't need to worry about that - and it will mean one less surgery down the road
• Please pray for me - I am preparing myself that I almost definitely will need to be separated from her at birth. I know that medically, it is in her best interest but that doesn't necessarily make it easier for me. I'm not looking forward to that. I'll be separated from BOTH my girls and I'm not looking forward to being separated from Lana either.

I'm really glad that this pregnancy is coming to an end - it has been a long, hard, emotional pregnancy and I'm ready for our little one to be here. I want to start our life together as a family of four :) Even so, little one, come quickly :)