the LONG awaited ultrasound results

So, I apologize for the long lag time in posting an update, I literally just got to talk w/ Dr.Brady(yes--my ultrasound was at 10am and I didnt get any news until 5:45pm--it was torture). So the final verdict is....2 more weeks strict hospital bed rest. Little Buddy has gained some weight in the past 2 weeks, at my ultrasound on Jan 4th he was 1lb 13oz (830grams), the goal was for him to have grown to 1000grams by this ultrasound. Well today he measured 2lbs 2oz (964grams) so he didnt quite make it to the size they were hoping for but he did grow.

They compare his growth (from all the ultrasounds I have had) to a growth chart that shows the average growth rates of a baby at the different gestational ages. The picture below is a sample (courtesy of Donnie haha) of little buddy's growth.

As you can see he has gradually fallen off the low end of the curve (this isnt quite what the real growth chart looks since the lower blue line is the 10th percentile and little buddy is in the 2nd percentile) but you can see that he hasnt quite followed the curve with the past two ultrasounds....The dr's said though that ultrasounds have roughly a 10% margin of error (which they think it was a fluke that his growth even got above the curve for the 1 measurement you can see above) but they wanted to be sure that this growth from today's ultrasound wasnt a fluke either so they said that I will get another ultrasound in 2 weeks which will confirm that he isnt going to be back up to the 10th percentile and at that point the next step will be induction.

So for the time being they said they arent comfortable letting me do bed rest at home because I would have to be coming back to the hospital for monitoring and they arent comfortable w/ me moving that much (getting in the car, coming to the hospital, etc.) So I will be here on strict bed rest for another 2 weeks.

Some positives:

1)after my ultrasound in 2 weeks the dr's will be deciding for us what to do (it wont be a situation where we are presented with the decision of whether little buddy is better in or out--it will be that if he continues to grow so little they will induce)

2) the nurses are talking with the care coordinator for me to try and get the fee for my private room waived (I had a little bit of a meltdown in realizing that we couldnt afford the private for 2 more weeks and honestly my small bit of sanity would be lost if I had to share a room for the next 2 weeks) so getting that waived would be a huge blessing and nurses seem to think they can get the care coordinator to sign off on it

3) the spa people are starting to give facials as an option starting this friday so now I will have nice nails and good skin ha

4) I get to have 2 more weeks of being pregnant, this may seem strange since I'm not exactly comfortable being pregnant (clearly my body doesnt like having little buddy in--between the nausea and vomitting, to aches and pains, low blood pressure and headaches I'm basically a disaster) but I feel like I am already going to be missing out on alot of the "pregnancy experience" being that I will be induced early so it will be nice to reach as many milestones as I can while I am pregnant

5) if I am induced in 2 weeks it will be a much easier situation for my sister to be able to come and act as my doula, she was prepared to leave wisconsin and drive down today with her youngest if I ended up being induced but I know that this week is hectic for her and I will be happy knowing that if I go in 2 weeks it will be less stressful for her to be able to come (less stress for all involved is what I'm going for)

So that is what is going on--hopefully the above chart helped the situation make sense--its kinda confusing not having a picture of the real growth chart that shows his growth each week vs. where it should be, etc. but that pic is the best we could do (please note: I wanted to steal my chart out of the hallway and take an actual picture of the growth chart from my ultrasound results but my 'goody goody' husband wouldnt do it and Im not supposed to be out of bed so I will have to wait until I have a visitor who is willing to do my dirty work haha)