Dr. Who?

I figured I should update, it's been a couple of days (see? I told you I was bad at this!). Went to the doctor's on Tuesday, for the entire day I might add, to see how Baby Madison was doing. We got the ultrasound done, and it looks like she is hanging in there. Her head is a little on the small side the doctor said, but she said it was also normal for babies with gastroschisis as they tend to be a little on the small side. She said it might also be because she is breeched and her head just might be squished from the way she is in utero. Her amnionitc fluid is also a little on the low side, but is right in that category of being between normal and abnormal, so they aren't too concerned with it right now. They said it looks like she is doing fine considering. She's around 1lb 9oz now.

We also met with the pediatric surgeon yesterday (all in all, I saw a ultrasound technician, 4 doctors, 1 nurse, and 2 residents) who explained what was going to happen after she was born. Basically, after she is born they evalute to see how much of the bowel is actually outside of the abdomen and see if they aren't able to push it all back in at once. What happens with the bowel being outside of the body like it is with her, is that it is pinched off due to the small size of the hole in the abdomen and the part of the bowel that is outside of the body becomes englarged and they may not all fit back inside the abdomen at one time. This is also due to the fact that the abdomen itself isn't big enough to hold everything because it doesn't stretch out as much as it usually does if the bowel were to develop within the body. Okay, back to what I was saying. If they are able to push the bowel back in all at one time, they will do so and she will go into surgery right away. However, if they aren't able to do that then they will see how everything is and depending on that, she will either once again go into surgery right away to put a cone over the bowel or they will wait to do it the next morning and just keep the outside bowel moist until then. With the cone, they surgically attach it to her muscle and everyday push the intestine back in a little at a time. This takes anywhere from 7-14 days to be able to fit all the bowel back into the abdomen. Then, when they are finally able to fit everything back in, they will take her back into surgery to put it back in, and fix the hole that was formed and try to recreate a belly button. She then needs to learn how to feed again, as the bowel has to adjust to being back inside the body again and passing food and nutrients through everything. All in all, she will be in the NICU for about 6-8 weeks, depending on how long it takes for them to be able to put the bowel back in and how long it takes for her to be able to feed normally.

I would add some pictures of babies with gastroschisis, but I looked them up the other day and they are quite gross to be honest, so I will spare you the image details. Instead, here's an ultrasound picture of Baby Madison.