Our First 'Regular' Appointment

On June 4th, I went in for my first regular appointment with maternal fetal medicine (MFM) after finding out about the baby's gastroschisis.  The ultrasound was pretty short, but they were able to get the images they wanted.  After the ultrasound, I met shortly with one of the nurse practitioners in MFM.  She didn't really have much to say, but told me that I was going to be meeting with the head of neonatalogy from Carle (our local hospital) that day.  I was somewhat confused because at this point, we were planning on delivering and doing everything in Peoria.

The neonatalogist was very nice.  I tried to remember all of our questions (I didn't realize I was meeting with him and so I didn't bring my questions for him or have Eric along).  He brought some relief to us.  The pediatric surgeons from the children's hospital in Peoria are working with Carle Hospital (where both Oliver & Parker were born) and so the baby will be able to have the surgery done at Carle and then stay in the NICU here (it is a level III NICU).  He went through some of the logistics of what will happen.  He said I will have a C-Section sometime after 37 weeks and that the baby would go immediately to surgery.  Basically, they will get the baby out, then show us the baby, take the baby to NICU if any stabilization if needed, and then on to surgery.  He said the baby will be intubated and will likely be for a few days after surgery while the lungs get used to a smaller amount of space in the abdomen.

He confirmed that the typical NICU stay is 1 month to 1 1/2 months.  He also said that I should eventually be able to breastfeed the baby, but obviously not right away so they will provide me with a pump while I'm in the hospital and will store milk in the NICU for when the baby is able to eat.  He said that the typical reason babies have to stay longer is that their intestines are not able to handle eating formula or breastmilk and they have to be able to eat on their own before going home. 

I think I hit all the key points from this appointment.  I am working on getting this caught up before my next appointment on July 2nd so that I can just do a quick update after each appointment and stay on top of things :)