(Ruby looks a little crazy with her wild hair, I left too early to get us both ready.)
Today was my OB appointment and my Perinatologist appointment. I went to the OB and told him all about SLC and how the Cardiologist didn't see any irregular beats and everything looked good. My NST from the previous week also had perfect beats so all was happy until he checked the heartbeat with his doppler and we could all hear the arrhythmia very clearly. I couldn't believe it, less than 24 hrs earlier and 5 hrs away in SLC at a specialist and nothing, but now we were home it was back. The cardiologist had told us it could come and go and the only reason to worry would be if the heart started beating too fast (tachycardia) but it wasn't so everything was still okay.
Then I went to the Peri and got an awesome ultrasound. It is totally worth the 50 min drive to get to see the baby and get new pictures. (I am VERY grateful for awesome insurance and my husband who has to put up with so much crap from the Air Force Reserve for us to have that insurance.) The ultrasound technicians at the Peri are so nice, they show you everything and tell you exactly what they are measuring and checking. So here is my first ever 4D ultrasound picture:
I really have never thought of this baby as a real baby but when I saw this picture of his nose and lips it was real. I will have to wait until he is born but those look like kissy lips to me! I also found out that this is a big baby. Considering all the problems I have had so far it is reassuring to know that he is thriving but my husband was a really big baby (9lbs 10oz) and now I am scared. The baby weighed 5lbs. 2oz. at 32 weeks 5 days, that is 10 days ahead of what he should be weighing! Luckily the ultrasound weights are give or take a pound and the OB said he would induce me a week early.
So I love diagrams and I am a total visual learner so here is my version on the diagram Dr. Puchalski drew for us. Also as a disclaimer this is my interpretation of what he told us and I am definately not a dr. so I hope I get it right.
The baby's heart is figuring out how to work and what cells do what. A regular beat starts with the sinoatrial node (SA Node - has strongest electrical pulse) and it sends a signal to the Atrioventricular node (AV Node) to contract the ventricles. The baby's heart has a cell that thinks it is the SA Node so it will sometimes send a signal to the AV Node to contract the ventricles but the AV Node blocks it. Then the heart has to repolarize (this happens normally between each beat and means it is recharging). The real SA Node then starts a regular beat all over again by sending a signal to the AV Node and the ventricles contract. 
From normal beat to normal beat the heart rate is about 140 BPM but when an irregular beat happens then the heart rate is about 90 BPM for that one beat.
I just reread this and it is kind of random but I dont think my brain can think logically through the story so all over the place-
Sam and I decided we would rather be safe then sorry about the baby's cardiac arrhythmia so we scheduled an appointment with the Pediatric Cardiologist at Primary Children's Medical Center. In our town we dont really have a NICU so if there was anything wrong with the baby's heart he would be flown out right away. If we knew about anything ahead of time I would just delivery where there is a NICU so we went to SLC to make sure he was okay.
We made reservations at a nice hotel that Sam use to work at like 10 years ago that we knew would have a good breakfast so we wouldn't have to worry in the morning before the appointment. The hotel was really close to my Aunt Ruthie's house so I asked if she and the GG (my grandma who is visiting Ruthie's house) would watch my kids while we had our appointment. My grandma is very blunt and will tell you like it is even if it is not very nice so I was expecting her to tell me that I was huge but the first thing she said is "Your not very big." Thank you Grandma!
Sam and I got totally lost trying to find Primary Children's. I didn't realize there were so many hospitals and big building so close to each other and that half the streets on the map were really parking lots. We knew we were in the right place and we would see a building and drive to it and see another name on it and then try to find the name on the next building and it wasn't it either. Luckily the person I talked to at registration had told us to be there 30 mins early to find parking and I think she really meant 30 min to find the building.
We went inside and I was really sad to see the kids inside the building and know they all had something wrong and since I am prego and emotional I almost cried. We waited only a few minutes and got taken to an ultrasound room with a technician. The tech did a long ultrasound only looking at the heart and the baby's heart sounded great, a perfect rhythm. The tech told us she could see anything wrong but didn't want to get in trouble by saying too much. Then a student Dr. came in and did more with the ultrasound but really didn't say anything. Then the real Dr, (Michael D. Puchalski, MD), helped the student Dr. and looked some more at the heart but told use he hadn't seen even one missed beat so they wanted to just keep checking to make sure they didn't miss anything.
They finished up the ultrasound and Dr. Puchalski took us to a room and used a diagram to explain to us all about Premature Atrial Contractions. Even though they hadn't seen anything that day the Perinatologist had seen PAC's and it could come and go and it had hopefully cleared but just in case we should know what was going on. We were really happy nothing else was wrong with the baby's heart and even the PAC look like it had cleared.
Sam and I left feeling great and went to Olive Garden to celebrate (haha that rhymes). My sister, Trisha, picked up my kids and meet us in SLC, we all headed to Cabella's before we went home. The kids loved all the fish tanks and the stuffed animals, Ruby calls it the animal store. Sam drove us home and we made it in really good time. Mission accomplished, the baby's heart looks good and we were home.
Some people have said that Porter is/was articulate for his age and pretty easy to understand, I really dont know because every mother can understand their own kids. From the time he could talk we would have conversations in the car and I think that is why he talks well. I love talking with my kids in the car, or even just listening to them talk to each other. The things kids come up with are hilarious.
Today we were talking about Porter's cousin Parker who is only 7 months older than him but probably 12 inches taller because the kid looks like a 7-8 year old. Anyway our conversation went like this:
Porter: "Whenever I see Parker he always says 'Hey Little Buddy'."
Me: "Do you think Parker is taller than you? or are you two the same?"
Porter: "Parker is really tall."
Me: "Do you think Parker will play basketball?"
Porter: "Maybe. He might be a police officer." He paused and than with complete confidence he finished, "You gotta follow your dreams."
I agree Porter you gotta follow your dreams! What a funny kid, I love that little man, I just hope he doesn't grow up too fast and start following his dreams. His Dad wants him to be an ultimate fighter or whatever they are called but he told me the other day that he wanted to be a firefighter. I personally dont care what he wants to do/be as long as he is a respectful, polite, and caring person who follows his dreams. I will have to check back in 16 years and remember this when he is trying to decide what do do with his life.
Just when my placenta moved and I was feeling like the end of this pregnancy would be normal and the next 8.5 weeks would fly then Baby No Name decides to show us he is the boss around here. I went to the Dr. and as soon as he checked the heart rate he said "I dont like that." Okay so I started to get nervous and he said he wanted to send me to Labor & Delivery to be monitored. I started to ask him about something else and he told me just go to L&D.
I started calling Sam, who mostly always answers his phone, no answer. Text Sam 911 to call, no response. Got hooked up to machines and the L&D nurses watched the heart rate and said thats weird. Called Sam, parent's house, Mom, Lacy, Trisha, Sam's parents house, and Sam's Mom's cell, no answer from ANYONE. Luckily my friend was waiting to see the Dr. and came to hang out with me so I didn't freak out too much.
Finally got ahold of Sam and he rushed to the hospital and we hung out with the best ultrasound tech ever from my previous post did a 30-40 min bio physical ultrasound. L&D released me and told me to go to my Dr. office because he needed to talk to me. Dr. said I needed to go to St. George to see perinatologist and they had made me an appt in a couple of hours. I got some blood drawn and Sam went home to get the kids and pack up them up to send them to their grandparents while we figured out what was going on.
We waited and got two more ultrasounds at the perinatologist and the Dr. told us this:
-the baby has a benign cardiac arrhythmia
-no structural cardiac problems
-no signs of heart failure
-his ultrasound ruled out 90% of heart problems
-baby should be fine but I now get to be friends with the perinatologist (weekly non-stress tests and appts in St. G every two weeks)
Really that news was the best possible outcome but doesn't mean I wont be stressing out. We also got the option of driving to SLC to see a pediatric cardiologist to rule out the other 10% of problems and since Sam drives to Layton once a month we decided to do it and are working on getting an appt in April.
I now get to wait it out and see how it goes. Hoping to get to have the baby here but may have to go to St. G and worst case will have to have him in SLC. Thx to Keri for watching my kids for over 3 hrs when I should have only been gone less than 1 hr. Thx to all my family and friends for worrying about us all day!!!
Sam and I are having a hard time coming up with a name for this little boy. I still have 8.5 weeks so I am not too worried but we need to start finding a few names that we like. I am extremely picky about names and I just havent felt like I have loved any names so far. I like old normal names that aren't popular anymore, like Ruby (even though I have heard its coming back) not contemporary names. I dont like any names that people have to figure out how to pronounce but I do not want them to be one of 10 with that name at their school. For boys I like rough/tough, manly, cowboy, strong, or gunfighter sounding names like Porter (Rockwell).
So with all those catergories why can't I find a name? I think classic boy names stay strong and dont really fade like girl names do because the names that do fade become girl names (like Carol, Tracey, Cary....)
We are taking suggestions. Sam and I like Byron, but I am sure in a moment of rushing he will get called By, which I dont like. My sister Carri had Remington on her list. We both like it (Sam likes it because its a gun) but its too long, imagine a poor 4 year old having to spell that on his preschool papers. I like Oliver and we almost named Porter that but this time around Sam doesn't like it. Sam likes Joshua but that is way too normal and boring for me.
I look at baby name websites and just get frustrated and give up, but I can't keep giving up because at some point this baby will need a name! I am hoping that one day it will just come to me and I will know it is right, but I only have 60 days left for it to magically appear!!!
