We were called back after our 19 week ultrasound because apparently some of our images were “unclear.” I was assured that nothing was out of the ordinary and the baby was developing normally, but she was in an unclear position and the ultrasound technician could not properly capture a few of the images of baby’s liver and lips. I tried not to have anxiety about this because I was told that the perinatologist (or as my DH calls him the “reader” of the ultrasounds) was a perfectionist, and simply would not give his okay of the images until they were crystal clear to his expectations.

Fast forward 4 wks and we were in for a full ultrasound once more to get these unclear images resolved and generally check on baby Summer. These ultrasounds are incredibly long as many of you may know, and as a very pregnant woman they are somewhat uncomfortable, especially when the ultrasound technician says nothing to you for the full almost hour. After the scan I went home and tried not to worry, after all I had a toddler to take care of.

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I was resting with Gemma when I got a call back the Monday after my appointment. The phone rang mid-afternoon and my husband happened to be home; he answered it, said I wasn’t available and that I’d call back. He innocently thought it was just an appointment reminder call, but I knew it wasn’t good. My OB office never called randomly in the afternoon unless they really needed to say something.

I immediately called them back but I couldn’t reach anyone. Soon they returned my call and I answered it. My husband was nearby listening to my tone. The woman on the other side of the phone was someone from my OB’s office that I was unfamiliar with. She said, “I am calling to start scheduling your once a week AFI’s and twice weekly NST’s.” I paused for a moment and then said, “I haven’t heard anything about any of this.”  Knowing this was bad, I stood up and let my heart fall to the floor. I walked out of earshot of my husband because I didn’t want to upset him.

Now, I just have to say my OB’s office really is amazing and full of great women. They are people you want to be there for you through pregnancy. But I thought they handled this particular call horribly. It must have been an off day.

I walked outside and the woman on the line said, “Oh… would you like to speak with your doctor?”

I replied, “Yes of course.”

But my doctor wasn’t around so another nurse practitioner got on the phone and said, “It appears your baby’s growth is slowing so we will have to monitor you closely throughout the rest of your pregnancy.”

At this point I guess my OB was finally within range and they got her on the phone. My conversation with her was a blur, but through tears I asked her things like, “Is the baby okay? Is this common?”

She told me that the scan showed the baby was healthy, but that her abdomen was measuring two weeks behind her head. I had no idea what that meant or how serious it was. I asked her how concerned she was, and she assured me that this happened sometimes and that we would just monitor the pregnancy more closely through twice weekly NST’s to check the baby’s heart rate and AFI’s to monitor my amniotic fluid. She said I was a “victim of statistics.” Our number were just off in regard to growth charts and scientific statistics.

Even if this was not a grave diagnosis, I still wondered what I was up against. What was going wrong, what would happen to my little girl and how this pregnancy and delivery would go. My husband and I were both shaken, but we tried to find the positive light of our second little girl and focus on not being stressed for the sake of my body and little Summer. I consciously put the worry in a box, deep inside my heart and relied on faith that somehow everything was going to work out.

I had never heard of the condition I had — IUGR (Intrauterine Growth Restriction) — before. But this is the diagnosis you get when measurements such as the abdomen measurement are not consistent with the gestational age of the baby. My husband and I spent the next weeks scouring the internet  and our baby books reading all we could on the subject of IUGR. We read all we could find. I even read obscure medical journals published on the subject, and I still didn’t get the kind of answers that were definitive in any way. Part of the reason I am writing this post is because we did not find too much that fit our case. I want to help all of you mommas out there that ever come up against this diagnosis with what we found out.

There are two types of IUGR: symmetrical and asymmetrical. Ours was considered asymmetrical because Summer’s head was measuring on time but her abdomen was measuring two weeks behind. Symmetrical IUGR is even more serious and involves the entire body measuring behind in gestational growth as compared to age. Typically if there is an IUGR problem, the baby will have a low birth weight which could lead to complications when born; other times the pregnancy is induced in order to deliver the baby before the placenta fully fails.

There are a few reasons why this could happen in a pregnancy, most of which involve an unhealthy mother (ie: high blood pressure, diabetes, substance abuse, malnutrition, anemia, infections, etc.). I didn’t fit any of these categories, and I considered myself extremely healthy so I couldn’t understand why my body wasn’t functioning properly. The only thing that my doctors could do was monitor the functioning of my placenta to see if it was it failing in some way and whether the baby was under stress.

We began the twice weekly NST’s and AFI’s to monitor baby Summer’s heart rate, check the functioning of the placenta and the amount of amniotic fluid. This was not easy, as it meant a lot of early morning doctor’s appointments with my toddler Gemma, and a lot of waiting and praying. Twice weekly, I would get hooked up to a monitor and Gemma and I would draw pictures, she’d eat snacks and we would play games on my tablet to pass the time. She was such a trooper. This went on for 10 weeks.

Summer

One of the great things was, amidst this frightening period of time, we were given so many ultrasounds that I knew exactly what little Summer looked like as she was growing in my belly. It was amazing to see her every week and it made me calm to be able to check on her. I knew that even if she was very small, there would be no limit on the love her father, sister and I would give her. And even if she developed health issues or we had a complicated delivery, I could never love her less. I would always fight for her so I was at peace. I needed to be peaceful for her.

At 34 weeks of pregnancy my ultrasound came back with results that allowed Summer to be considered “caught up” in growth and all of the testing was discontinued.

I will never know what happened. While surfing forum threads on IUGR, I read that some babies simply appeared to catch up. I am left questioning if this is just how she grew, in her specific way. Did Gemma grow this way as well, but we just happened to catch it in Summer because we were called back to get clearer images?

Summer

Summer was actually not delivered early. In fact she was 9 days late and I was induced with her. She also came out 9lbs 9oz! She is big, and chubby and healthy. She is such a little blessing but I’ll never forget this pregnancy and how lucky I am to have her.

Did you have any unexpected pregnancy complications?