This will be somewhat brief because I’m physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted.

But…

1) I’m writing this from HOME.   As I mentioned last time, Nolan was starting to fall behind in size. Not only was he behind, but the discordance had grown from 17% to 25% to 35% over the last few weeks and he just wasn’t growing nearly enough.  (Thus the Doctor’s fear that we were on our way to losing him.)  Her expectation was that gap would continue to grow, but we weren’t sure at what rate.   If that gap held or barely grew today, we would try to monitor him and hold on until Sept 4th.  If that gap grew at an alarming rate, or if other indicators showed he wasn’t thriving, we would deliver today or tomorrow.

The gap lessened.

Nolan took a cue from his mama and packed on some weight.  In fact, he knocked the gap down to 25%.  Less important than the exact percentage is the fact that he gained weight in general.  He demonstrated that he IS still growing.  In addition, he nailed all of his other checks.  We saw a strong heartbeat, active limbs and reflexes, and even saw him practicing taking breaths.  All in all…he showed us he’s still fighting.

The doctor was so pleased she entered the room with some fist pumps.  🙂  She also said…if he’s going to show us he’s fighting and growing…let’s try to give them more time.  And with the understanding I am to take it easy and pick up the monitoring (kick count, NST, etc), we were allowed to return home.

2) The new plan is for me to be on modified bed rest.  She didn’t give me specific hours to be off of my feet, or give me specific restrictions, but I’m not returning to work, and will be “taking it easy” as much as possible.  We will monitor both boys as indicated above, and return to Columbus on Sept 11th.  We’ll take packed bags once again…only this time we are going in to it knowing that if Nolan has continued to fight…we will once again get to come home for a few more days.

We have a scheduled C-section now.  Sept 17th at noon.  That puts us right at 34 weeks.  There’s still a concern that on the 11th she’ll say…”let’s do this now”.  There’s also a chance that due to fluid or other issues I’ll go in to labor sooner.   But as long as the boys will let us…we’re trying to make it to Sept 17th.

J and I couldn’t be happier.   We are holding out hope that there can still be a little progress in their brains.  And giving them more time feels good.  We are also happy that as we add time in utero, we lessen some of the typical preemie risks.  Breathing and feeding will still be early goals, as with any 34 week baby.  But we like that we’re giving them every chance we can to grow and develop a bit more, and giving God a little more time too.

3) This was a LONG day.  I’ve been up since 4:00 am and haven’t stopped.  In addition to an ultrasound and DR visit we met with pediatric neurology, neonatal, and toured two NICUs.  There were some tough, long, but informative conversations today.  We felt prepared for the tough side of that, and felt they did a good job explaining and answering questions.  That’s all we can ask for now as we continue this waiting game.

In summary…our prayer warriors are amazing.   Landon is continuing to play the role of “big” brother.  Nolan is proving to be a little fighter.    And we couldn’t be more proud.