Fluid Check #3

Once again we had the wonderful joy of seeing Keagan today, and once again, he is just as adorable and perfect as ever. His heart rate today was 143. We got to see the four chambers of his heart again and for the first time got to see that his umbilical cord has three vessels. Beth, the same wonderful ultrasound technician we have had every time, pointed out that there are two arteries and one vein in the cord which is perfect, but not all babies have two arteries. That means that Keagan is getting ample nourishment, which explains the next part - he is still measuring big! His stomach, arms and legs are measuring at 32 weeks (we will be 31 weeks on Wednesday). Again, I love that we were worried that he would be small and if he stays at this rate, that will be no concern at all! We asked Beth if she could estimate how much he weighed. Her response was 4 pounds 3 ounces! This is higher than average for babies at nearly 31 weeks, and we LOVE that! I am not entirely sure how this weight was determined, but I know that the measurements  have to be entered into the calculation. I believe one of the measurements is supposed to be a measurement of the baby's head. It is very difficult to measure Keagan's head so I'm not sure if an estimate was used or maybe an average...but regardless, we were so glad to hear those numbers.
My fluid is still measuring at 20, which is the same as last month so that was also great news. I was worried that it would be higher and that would increase my chances of pre-term labor which would not be an ideal situation for Keagan's first family vacation that is coming up. So, thankfully it is still in the normal range! The doctor did say that she would like us to come back in three weeks as opposed to four since I am still at the higher end of the normal range and because we are nearing the end of the pregnancy. Less time to wait to see our baby - we'll take it!
Keagan was not being very photogenic today - he didn't even show that he's "still a boy" which is rare :) But towards the end, Beth was able to get some adorable pictures of him while he was sleeping. We got to see one of his ears and the opposite side of his face than we normally see, both in the 3D view. She did mention he was right up against me which was making it a little difficult to get a good picture. I said that that has been the case every time and asked if that was common. Interestingly, Beth told us that babies have some sort of instinct that if something is wrong they usually keep that part of their body close to the uterine lining or the placenta or will use their hands to cover up that part of their body. So it makes sense that Keagan constantly has head right up against me, but (being extra emotional right now) it made me a little sad. My thought when she said that was he wanted to hide an imperfection so that we wouldn't have to see it or that he was embarrassed of it. I know this sounds silly and is not the case, but I just want him to know that we love him so much and that love is unconditional - he is loved so much just the way he is!

Kissy lips! Gosh - just so adorable!

Happy to see five little toes! I noticed when looking at these pictures tonight, that his second toe is a little longer than his first. Roy said he gets that from me... :)

One of his ears (if you look at 2013 at the top of the image, it is directly below that). He also has his mouth open in this picture.

Precious sleeping baby - to the left of his face are his hands. This is the same way I sleep which brings me joy. Having a degree in deaf education, I was trying to figure out what he may be signing - Amber, what do you think?!

Profile view showing him right up against me.

This is probably one of the best front views we have ever gotten of him. He has the cutest little chubby cheeks! (Just FYI - there is nothing wrong with his one eye, it is just the view that we had)

 

After our appointment, we met with a team from the hospital. The point of this meeting was to talk about the day of delivery and what to expect after Keagan was born. Papaw and Gramma came with us to the appointment and meeting to see sweet baby Keagan and support us during the meeting as Roy and I were not looking forward to this at all. We know we had to process these things, but the conversations we had today was the first time Roy and I had even talked about these things in front of one another, simply because we didn't want to talk about any of this.  I had already started working on a birth plan but what this involved for me was copying and pasting ideas from the birth plans of some other wonderful moms of babies with anencephaly. I still have to work on this and make it our own, but to get started it seemed to be easier to deal with to just find things I agreed with on other birth plans rather than generate these thoughts myself. The conversations that were had today were so much better than we anticipated. All of the team members were thoughtful and sensitive with their words, they were open to our questions and thoughts, and most importantly to us, they never once talked like it was a guarantee or known-fact that Keagan would not survive birth or that he would live for just a few moments. This made everything so much easier for us and we are truly thankful for all of these people. Several times in our conversation it was said "We can do whatever you would like." This too was very meaningful to us. It seems everyone we have come into contact, we have liked and I have asked if there is any way they can be the person from their department there on the day of Keagan's birth. They all say they will try :) If by chance those individuals make it to this website, please know we are so incredibly thankful for you and appreciate your sincerity, your thoughtfulness, your understanding and your contribution to our journey.