Another Appointment with "Scary Doctor"

Adam and I had another appointment today, and even though I requested not to be seen by Dr. Danilenko, we still saw her today. The ultrasound technician (Karen) wasn't nearly as skilled at getting good pictures (baby also wasn't cooperating very well... she seemed to have her face cuddled into the placenta and was moving her arms & legs all over the place). But the tech was very good in explaining what she was looking at and measuring. It's amazing that she can look at her grey abdomen and say here are her kidneys and this little spot here is urine. We got one good profile picture of her, but this tech wasn't as comfortable doing 3D u/s, so we didn't get any of those. But we did see her open her mouth and stick out her tongue twice.

Opening mouth to stick out her tongue

(we could actually see the tongue,

but didn't get a good picture of it!)

Another profile (she's getting so big!
No wonder I feel her kicking all the time!)

After she was finished, Dr. Danilenko came in and took another look at her heart. Her heart rate was 60 bpm (where usually it's at 120-180 bpm) and there was some swelling around her heart. She was concerned and started talking about giving me steroids to develop her lungs in case they needed to deliver her early, and went on about a couple other things. She said she would put a call into Dr. Gremmels (the cardiologist that we saw last time) to ask him. But said that she wanted to do another u/s next week, and another OB appointment the following week. Then sent us on our way.

I asked the lady, Wendy, at the front desk though, because I was pretty sure we were supposed to have an OB appointment today. I was right, so we sat in the waiting room for about another half hour waiting for that. The good news is that I gained weight (last time I hadn't), but the bad news is not enough (not even half of what I should have). The nurse (whose name I can't remember, but she was very nice and wore braces - Kris -) seemed to think we could put off seeing a dietitian for now though, since I've had a history of having problems gaining weight, and since the baby seems to be growing alright.

Then Dr. Danilenko came in and she she talked to Dr. Gremmels, who said that delivering early would be bad, because trying to do heart surgery on a preemie is very difficult. He also said that a low heart rate was common, so he wasn't worried about that, but did want to see me in two weeks (instead of three, which is when my next appointment with him was scheduled). She also mentioned (which Dr. Gremmels had already mentioned at our last appointment), that she will probably also need a pacemaker.

We finished the OB appointment by talking about pre-term labor and talking about my due date. The nurse said that Dr. Danilenko is still going by May 22nd. I am still counting as June 1st though. She also asked me a few other questions. Adam was sitting where he could see her computer screen, and saw that she clicked the "could not ask: spouse/ family was present" box for the question, "Do you get abused?" Good thing they weren't looking at my legs where I have two huge bruises from dropping a piece of 3/4 inch plywood (when we were working on the closet), with another permanent bruise from playing paintball in college with Charlie & Tommy!

I seem to have my ups and downs with this pregnancy, but it seems after appointments with Dr. Danilenko I always cry at least once, and I did pretty much as soon as we got in the car. I asked Adam through my tears that if Dr. Gremmels says that a low heart rate is normal with this kind of thing, then we shouldn't be worried. He agreed, which made me feel a little bit better, but I'm still afraid for our little girl. Please keep praying for her! We need her as strong as she can be so that she can make it through all of these surgeries.