Rebecca's First Mother's Day
Hello to you all and Happy Mother's Day to all you moms!
Xavier has been very well-behaved today; he even brought his mommy flowers and a cute card. His gifts, strangely, matched with the colors of his nursery, which Rebecca and I only decided upon yesterday.
Let me back up a bit, because I don't want you to miss some of the exciting news (at least I hope you will find it exciting). Rebecca had difficulty getting to sleep yesterday. Whenever she would doze off, Xavier would escape his monitor or the monitor would slip. The rhythmic drum of his 140ish bpm heart beat would go silent and Rebecca would wake up. Her "Mother's Hearing" has started!
The exciting news I mentioned is this: late last night, the doctors decided Xavier was doing well enough he only needed to be monitored the standard three times a day. All of the wires and gizmos attached to Rebecca's tummy were removed. Praise God! Xavier's marathon NST of 29 hours ended and he crossed the finish line like a champion! All the chaos which began Friday night has settled down as the doctors grow more comfortable. For that, we also praise God!
With the monitors quiet, Rebecca could sleep without distraction. Also, the results of Rebecca's 24-hour urine came back negative. This is the test looking for pre-eclampsia protein markers. Further, the blood tests done on Friday's blood draw all returned negative.
Xavier has had two of his three hour-long NSTs today. Both of them look really good. I can't speak for the morning run, but his afternoon's run only showed one variable decel. Nothing to get concerned over.
His Doppler exam today was interesting. What we noticed was one of his two umbilical arteries did not have any absences about 70 percent of the time. This was not the case yesterday; both arteries showed consistent absences. We asked about this and the doctor agreed with what we were seeing. She stated he did not show that yesterday. The lack of absences in his Doppler means Xavier is not having to work as hard against the placenta, at least in one of his umbilical arteries, as he was working yesterday. We will be looking closely to see if those absences remain absent (and we pray that they will!). No reverse flow observed, also wonderful to see and hear. Xavier was doing well.
After reading Xavier's goal list from yesterday, so many people wrote to us or spoke with us to tell us they are pulling for Xavier to go full term! Thank you all for your encouragement and faith! That would be the ultimate "your baby continues to prove me wrong" action.
Always, we thank you for your prayers.
Mom's flowers. The yellow vase came from Xavier. He chose the colors to match with his nursery color scheme. The purples and reds were a gift from a friend who stopped by to visit. Behind, Rebecca glows on the day set aside for her honor (actually, she is being gracious as I take a photo for which she was unprepared)