Soooo....You're Saying There's a Chance

Yesterday, we celebrated Baby Bales' 28 week "birthday" along with his Aunt Greta's birthday.  It has been so nice to have my sister here with us.  She is spending a week of her limited vacation time doting on us, doing laundry, cooking, cleaning, hanging out with me, and being a super fun aunt to Jeremiah.  He adores her!  With Greta here, my parents got a well deserved break, so they flew back to MN for a few days to get caught up on stuff at home before returning here tomorrow.  Have I mentioned yet how thankful I am for all of the help we have gotten?  It has taken a team approach keeping the baby in utero because I have been completely stress-free, able to relax and channel that blood flow to my uterus, thanks to the loving, helpful people around me!

Today we had another ultrasound, and guess what, folks!  Two weeks after taking the steroids, we are still seeing NORMAL blood flow.  I saw "Dr. Pessimist" today, and I'm thinking of renaming her "Dr. Optimist" after this appointment.  Since the steroid honeymoon usually lasts 3-7 days, and we are now at two weeks, there's a chance the blood flow may be correcting itself.  The reason the blood flow has been bad is because of the unhealthy placenta (directly related to the hemorrhage/bleeding between the placenta and the uterus).  Sometimes, as the baby grows, the placenta grows, and the new growth may be healthy and take over the bad part of the placenta.  Here's her analogy: 

If you fall and scrape your knee, it bleeds and tries to scab over.  If you immobilize the knee, a scab forms and eventually, new skin growth occurs under the scab, and it heals up.  If you keep moving the knee, the wound keeps opening up, and the scab doesn't get a chance to form.  Well, when they noticed my placental abruption (the placenta tore off of the uterine wall) and put me on bedrest, it was like we were immobilizing the uterus.  After 4 weeks, the metaphorical healing "scab" has had a chance to form, and now new vessels and placenta have been able to form to take over the work from the bad placenta. 

I can't get up and dance in celebration because we now have to be as vigilant as ever, nursing the new placental growth, staying on bed rest and allowing it to grow into the uterine wall.  But I can still celebrate without getting up. 

Keep in mind, a week ago, Dr. Pessimist said we will definitely get another round of steroids today (14 days after the first round, using up our total of two rounds of steroids in pregnancy).  I asked her if things are still looking great at that time (today), can we hold off until we really need the steroids.  She half-chuckled and said, "it won't look this good a week from now!"  I persisted, saying I'm feeling optimistic, and IF it looks good, can we hold off..." and she said, "fine, if things look good, we'll wait for the second round until we really need it."  Well, she didn't even mention steroids today because she thinks we may not need them. 

By the way, for those of you who may not know me very well, I am totally Lloyd Christmas in the movie Dumb and Dumber, when he asks the hot girl, "what are the chances of a guy like you, and a girl like me getting together?  Go ahead, give it to me straight.  Hit me with it.  One in a hundred?  One in a thousand?"  She bluntly replies, "No...more like one in a million."  To which he gets this hopeful, dreamy look and says, "Sooooo...you're saying there's a chance!"  That's how I feel about all this. 

Here's why Dr. Pessimist may deserve to be renamed Dr. Optimist.  After the above discussion with her, I said, "Great!  Our next goal is now 32 weeks since we have surpassed 28 weeks!"  To which she replied, "Forget 32 weeks!  Let's shoot for 38!  You may be able to carry this baby to term!"  Quick reminder, when I asked her 4 weeks ago what are our chances of carrying the baby to term, she looked at me incredulous for even asking, and she said, "you may not make it to this weekend!  We'll be lucky to make 28 weeks."

Yes, things are looking up.  If you haven't read our first blog post, go ahead and check out how scary the situation was a month ago.  January 18, 2012, Our Life Changing Day  We can't let our guard down yet, but we are encouraged with each visit.  If things remain normal on Wednesday and Friday this week, we'll be able to drop down to having scans twice a week instead of three times a week. 

I just can't stop thinking how this is all so miraculous.  Amazing!  Thank you so much for all of your continued prayers.  I don't know how God works, but I sure like what He's doing so far.  As the saying goes, "Only God can turn a mess into a message, a test into a testimony, a trial into a triumph, a victim into a victory."