Hi all
I've had a crazy day and would like to ask all of you to pray for our baby. I went into antenatal for a follow up after the heart checks that they did last week, all was OK. I have also been in twice this week as since Saturday I haven't felt the baby moving, so they had done 2 traces on the baby's heartbeat, one on Monday and another on Tuesday, yesterday I felt her moving more.
Today at my appointment I mentioned that again I hadn't felt her moving, so the doctor wanted to put me on another trace. To cut a very, very long story short. After a couple of hours trying they couldn't pick up a satisfactory trace on the baby's heart, and so I saw the on-call registrar on the maternity ward. He felt me & the baby and asked me how many weeks I am, when I told him 29 he was shocked as he said I felt more like 36. At that point was my first freak out! He decided to scan me there and then to check baby's heart, movement and also see how she is measuring. He said that I have a high level of amniotic fluid, he said baby was measuring on track. Heart was fine. He didn't want me to go home though and wanted to keep me in to keep an eye on the baby's heart rate and scan every couple of hours to check movement, then book me in for an emergency proper scan in the morning to check all is OK.
So they were just about to admit me, and then my midwife came through and said that I was in luck as the consultant obstetrician was there and she could perform the more thorough scan there and then. She scanned me and has picked up on a few things. She confirmed that I have too much amniotic fluid, the baby is measuring small and also she saw something called echogenic bowel on the baby. She said that these markers combined could possibly indicate a chromosomal abnormality i.e. Down's Syndrome, or it could be an indicator for Cystic Fibrosis, or it could be that I have contracted a virus during my pregnancy and this is causing that. I had bloods taken for virology this evening, and then we're booked in on Monday for a full 30 minute abnormality scan to further investigate the bowel thing and I guess other parts of the baby, we have also been offered Cystic Fibrosis screening to see whether we are both carriers. If one is but the other isn't then there isn't a risk to the baby, however if we both are then there is apparently a 1 in 4 chance that the baby could have CF.
So basically it's been a bit of a crappy evening! I was very upset initially when we realised something could be wrong, but have calmed since and feel much better & more peaceful - I'm just praying so hard that our baby is OK. Please can I ask you to stand with us in prayer that all of these things they have picked up on will turn out to be nothing, and that our baby will be healthy. It would be awesome to have the scan on Monday and for the echogenic bowel to have disappeared! I truly believe that God can make that happen. Please pray for the amniotic fluid to go back to the correct level and for the baby to measure in accordance with its dates. Can you also please pray for wisdom for us in deciding whether to have the CF screen (we can choose not to, DH is keen I am undecided). And just pray for strength for us and for us to know God's hand on us at this time.
Thanks so much ladies, your support and prayers mean so much x