Our Last Ultrasound?

As Carlton and I walked into the doctor's office this afternoon for our last scheduled ultrasound appointment, we were joking about how crazy it was that it may be the last time we would be seeing Will before we meet him face-to-face when he's born.  Of course I couldn't let the conversation end without reminding Carlton that our boy likes to throw us tons of curveballs.  Just when we think things are going according to plan, something else pops up that sends us in another direction.  It happened again today.

Will is taking up a lot of space in my belly, so it's becoming harder and harder to see all of his body parts. The same held true for today and we didn't get any good looks at his bones.  We did remeasure his chest and abdomen quickly, though, and came up with a very rough chest to abdomen ratio of 0.7.  If you've been following for awhile, you'll know that we're very relieved to see that this number has crept up over the past few months.  We continue to pray that Will's lungs and chest are developed enough to support his breathing outside of the womb.  This is our #1 concern heading into delivery.

Because this pregnancy has also been all about the numbers, we were shocked today to learn that my amniotic fluid levels are low.  They have been normal the whole pregnancy, so frankly, I hadn't even let the thought creep into my mind that they may become an issue down the road.  I know we look at the levels during each ultrasound, but they have never been notable.  Today, the levels were seven and the doctor said if they would have been a five or lower, she would have sent me in for immediate delivery.  Instead, I have been ordered off my feet and have instructions to drink at least a gallon of water each day. There are lots of reasons you can have low amniotic fluid and thankfully it is something that you can usually get to increase with rest and lots of water.  Sooooo, I guess I'll be resting up the last two weeks of this pregnancy and praying that Will doesn't go into any kind of distress because of this low fluid.

We have to go back again next Wednesday for another ultrasound to check on the fluid, and I guess if it hasn't increased, we'll probably be headed in for an even earlier delivery.  Until then, I guess I will be spending lots of time laying around being lazy.  It's not like I've been staying super busy the last few weeks with projects around the house.  ;)  Maybe I'll finally get around to blogging about all those thing, as long as you promise not to tell the doctor (or Carlton!) exactly how much I've been doing...

Thanks for your continued prayers for our family.  Please continue thinking of us and praying for Will's breathing and that these levels come back up so we can stay pregnant longer and give his lungs an even better opportunity to develop further.

PS - Couldn't help but include this cartoon.  I've totally been nesting lately (as you'll see from my projects I'll soon be blogging about), but I guess now I'll start laying around eating and drinking!