Birth-8/24/17

After a regularly scheduled checkup appointment on Thursday, the doctor feared Stacy might go into labor over the weekend and decided to send us to UM.  At UofM,  Dr. Treadwell  performed a C-section, and on 8/24/17  at 4:27 PM  Mae Pearl Welser was born (21", 10 ponds 4 oz).  Initial evaluation was best case scenario. She was breathing and swallowing well on her own and no  obvious malformations of the head/skull.  Due to these factors, she spent very little time with the neonatologist and was able to be back to Stacy from the NICU within two hours and breast-feeding well. Stacy is doing great. Mae has had the first 48 hours flooded with  appointments/scans/tests by  specialists and medical students.  Besides her typical newborn scan/blood surgar checks/etc,  she has had a cranial ultrasound, geneticists evaluation, Echocardiogram, renal ultrasound, and an MRI.  In spite of all the pre natal diagnosis/birth defects being confirmed (and status the same) we  are all very optimistic that we will be coming home in the next day or so.  The neurosurgeon is awaiting results from the MRI, but is confident that we can delay any procedures/surgeries. We will have our next follow up evaluation with him in 1 month (and the rest of the specialists in 6 months). We are very encouraged about the long term potential outcomes for Mae's health and quality of life! But as we know it now, it is years and years of "wait and see". Thank you for all of your prayers. We know there are so many people more worthy of them. We are overwhelmed by love. It's hard to believe there could ever be anything wrong with baby Mae with how beautiful and perfect she looks right now.

37 Week Update

37 weeks 0 days- Stacy went to Dr. McCarren for a checkup on Thursday, her blood pressure was good. However, when they took Mae's heart rate there was an 'acceleration' and her beats per minute were at 185 (WAY higher than the past few readings of 130s). This caused the doctor to request an NST (non-stress test) to measure Mae's heart rate to ensure that it was staying in the range of 120-160. During the NST Stacy was having contractions that were not painful but were present on the test readings. After two hours of testing, we learned that Mae's heart rate was normal and nothing to be alarmed about, however, the doctor was concerned that Stacy was having contractions that could lead to early labor. Due to the heart rate acceleration and contractions showing up on the NST, we'll be going for twice a week monitoring until the baby's arrival.

36 week update

We had a doctors appointment this morning at UofM. They did an ultrasound for a recheck on everything. Nothing has changed more than was expected with the 4 main issues. The baby is estimated to currently be 8lbs 3 oz (see cheeks!) with nearly 4 weeks to go. Head size is allready above  the parameters of when they would allow natural birth. Therefore C-section has been scheduled for Tuesday,  August 29th.