Hey, everyone! I just wanted to pop on the blog and give an update to where we are with things since admission this past Wednesday. So far, so good. There haven’t really been any changes with the baby or my diagnosis at all. I have finished my first round of steroids which started on Thursday to kickstart Chandler’s lung development. I have also been on an IV antibiotic every six hours since then as well, and have just transitioned to oral antibiotics as of this morning which will span a total of five days. I have my vitals taken every six hours, along with my blood sugar checked before and after every meal since the steroids can cause high blood sugars – I will be so excited for when that part is over!

Starting yesterday Chandler is observed daily with a non-stress test (a.k.a. NST) where they monitor her heart rate and movement for 30m-1hr, and also check for any contractions. So far, so good. She doesn’t like being on the monitors and anytime there’s any pushing on my belly she will move away which is very sassy and cute, but not so cute for the nurses who have to work twice as hard to keep her on the monitor.

My mental health has been hit and miss so far however things are getting easier. The first two days (Wednesday and Thursday) were hard for me to be alone, and then John’s birthday was yesterday which I was also really sorry to not being able to spend with him. The nurses here at OHSU are all so incredibly nice and will spend time chatting with me if they aren’t too busy with their work. I have done my fair share of watching all the reality trash TV that I have ever dreamt of watching, and I also have some books to read as well. John brought me some flowers this morning which I LOVE because they’re beautiful to look at and make my room smell really nice.

Outside of what I just shared there aren’t any further updates or changes. The plan in place is still to have baby Chandler delivered at or before 34 weeks gestation, however this will all depend on how she is doing in utero. We got to speak with the NICU team again yesterday since our initial consultation with them last week. We got some positive news that Chandler has “graduated” to the 500g club which basically means she is now big enough where the NICU is confident they will be able to care for her when she is born. That was a big relief to us because when she was only 11oz, one of the concerns was them not having small enough instruments to take care of her with. We did still have to have some difficult conversations surrounding resuscitation and quality of life, but hopefully as we move forward and find out more about her lungs those conversations can start to change.

I will have an MRI in the next few weeks to look at her lung development and will continue to have the same weekly ultrasounds that I had when I would come in for the weekly visits with the fetal therapy team. Thanks for everyone checking in on me and for all of the love and support. I will be back on the blog soon for another update in a couple of days.