Neonatologist Update

Met with on of the neonatologists of baby Pumkin's team. He was very nice, but also positive and hopeful of the possible prognosis. Our goal obviously remains the same, keep the baby in as long as possible. Moms are better incubators than are the ones in the NICU. But he did say a lot of things that make me happy.

Please note that below I keep saying "29 weeks" this does not indicate that I will be delivering anytime soon. At this point there is no indication that I will deliver any time earlier than our long term goal of 34 weeks. He just wanted to emphasize that 29 weeks is good, but any day or week after this is better and eliminates more and more of any possible issues. The older baby is gestationally (longer he/she stays in) the better and less severe any of the possible complications are.

I will try my best to summarize his thoughts:

• Babies born at 29 weeks have the same survival rate as full term newborns, thus this is not a risk factor.
• Babies born at 29 weeks have very little risk for any cognitive or sensory issues.
• Babies born at 29 weeks will most likely stay in the hospital until roughly their due date (about 6-9 weeks after birth)
• The main two risks are respiratory issues (which is why I am getting the steriods to mature the baby's lungs) and inability to feed until 34 weeks (thus before 34 weeks tube feeding would be the order)

1. The repiratory issues could be severe or mild. Varying from mild, needs some assistance and then can breathe on own to moderate needing a nasal tube with oxygen to severe needing a breathing tube. They will also possibly use surfactant (synthetic lung maturer)
2. The feeding issue: babies don't have the appropriate reflexes or interest in traditional feeding until 34 weeks

Now Mommy:

• my blood pressure is good, last reading was very normal for me, which is normal to a little low
• sugar is off due to the steroids and gestational diabetes, but being treated with insulin untile the steriods wear off (about 3-5 days)
• No contractions whatsoever...due to antibiotics and good hydration
• baby is head down preventing leak of new amniotic fluid, which is good as there is no sign of infection at all

I will be posting again later after the second monitoring of baby