More About Peeper

I'm sorry that yesterday's report was so brief, but I was just borrowing a computer at OldWorkCenter (which is literally next door to Dr. Peri's office - in the same building) to make a quick post and send a quick email to non-blog-reading-folks and let everyone know that Peeper's exam had gone well, before we headed off to DC (more on that in a moment).

Here's a bit more detail about what we learned:

First of all, Dr. Peri was very happy with what he saw of Peeper's brain and spine this time, and said that there are no signs of any neural tube defects. Woo-Hoo!!!

Also, my AFP level was down a tiny bit, but pretty much within the margin of error (from 2.94 (?) the first time down to 2.5), so he's considering that to be the same.

It would've been even better for it to have gone down into the normal range, but if there were a problem, he would've expected it to have risen significantly over a couple of weeks, and it didn't, so that's great.

Her overall measurements put her measuring about 17w2d, which is a week larger than a week ago, so that's great to see. Although she's not "caught up," she's not lost any ground, which is most important.

When we looked at the individual measurements, most of them (head circumference, abdomen circumference, etc) came out to about 17w3d - 17w5d. Her femur and humerus lengths, were in the mid-16week range, bringing down the overall measurement.

I asked the doc about that and I think that at first he thought I was worried about her limbs being short, so he reassured me that, while they are proportionally shorter than the rest of her, everything else is normal, and they're not that short, so there are no indications of any of the sorts of concerns that extremely short limbs might be associated with (some trisomies - which we've already ruled out, dwarfism, etc.)

What's funny though, is that when I asked, "Are her arms and legs short?" the answer I was actually looking for - because it would be reassuring, was "Yes, they are."

As I pointed out to him, Shrike (and pretty much all the women, at least, in her family) are rather less than tall, and most of their lack of height is in (or is not in) their legs.

For example, Shrike is 5'0" and I'm 5'4". I am short-waisted and long-legged (proportionally), whereas she is just the opposite. When we are seated, we are the same height. Or maybe she's a bit taller than me.

(Maybe more than a bit - when we first noticed that, it was before I'd lost weight, so I was sitting on quite a "cushion" at the time. I'm probably a good bit shorter when seated now than I was back then.)

Anyway, the doc said that, yes, her "long bones" are proportionally smaller than the rest of her, and that it's probably "constitutional" because she's just going to be built like Shrike. (I saw him actually type this into his comments on the computer.)

The other concern from last week, which I think I mentioned briefly, is that Peeper's umbilical cord only has one artery going from the placenta into her, rather than the usual two. (Plus the vein, going back from her to the placenta, thus it's often referred to as a "two-vessel cord.")

This is something that, in and of itself, is not necessarily a concern, but it can be associated with some other things (including neural tube defects, which was kind of freaking us out).

As you can imagine, it can also sometimes contribute to slow growth, but that's certainly not a given.

It can also be associated with heart defects, so, although everything we've seen of her heart to date has looked fine, she will be having an echocardiogram, evaluated by a fetal cardiologist, at her 25-week ultrasound, just to make sure that all is well there.

I have an appointment on July 7 with K the midwife (the one that I drink liberally with) and we go back to Dr Peri on July 16 for our next ultrasound. That will be a general check of everything, and then on August 13, we have the echocardiogram and another overall ultrasound.

Oh, and we got a great photo of her yesterday (a few actually, but most were just like the ones from last week - feet that are too blurry to see, profile, crotch-shot), all curled up with her feet up by her head. Shrike will scan that at work tomorrow, and I'll post it as soon as she sends it to me.

Given all the things we'd feared when we walked into that office yesterday morning, to come away with the "worst" news being that Peeper is likely to be shopping in the "petites" department with her Mommy was quite a victory - and there are no words to express the level of our relief.

There are also no words to express how much we appreciate all of the supportive comments and emails, good vibes, positive energy, prayers and healthy-baby-mojo that we've received.

I guess we'll never really know whether it made an actual difference for her, but I certainly know that it made a huge difference for us.

We've really been holding on to every comment, every email, every encouraging word that we've received over the past week, and have been quite literally, and quite deliberately envisioning all that love and energy surrounding and embracing our family, making Peeper strong and healthy, and helping her to grow.

Your kind words - and that image - have been incredibly helpful in keeping us (relatively) sane while we've waited for more information, and we will continue to keep them foremost in our minds, as we face the many uncertainties that still remain - not just with this pregnancy, but with parenthood in general.

Thank you.