Growth Scan Today - and a few more things

Before I provide much info on the growth scan I want to clarify a few things because I realized after a few comments with friends that I'm confusing things  (sorry, it all makes sense in my brain).

There are two families I'm thinking about today:

Mom: Lisa
Baby: Maddie

Maddie is due to arrive via c-section at 10am PST today.  We wish them well and that the next few weeks see more joy and hope than fear and stress.

Mom: Maggie
Baby: Elisea

Baby Elisea was born early last week and put on ECMO after a few days.  Right at the point where they thought to take her off ECMO (because she was doing so well) she developed a bleed into her lung.  As of last night they were on an hourly watch not knowning if Elisea would make it off ECMO alive.  I haven't seen an update on Elisea yet this morning but we keep her in our thoughts and wish her family only the very best.  Anything less then that at this point is not on our radar and we'll deal with that if it happens (which of course we're hoping with all our hearts it does not).

As for us, today we learn how Payton is doing in her more detailed growth scan.  The last 2 weeks she's been doing well with her fluid and doppler scans as well as performing like a champ on her non stress tests.

We're a few hours away to finding out how these equate to her abdominal growth.  Recall Payton dropped to the 4th percentile and I later learned that her abdominal circumference was 261 cm.  In order to stay on that 4th percentile curve, we need her abdominal circumference to be at a minimum 278 cm.  We're hoping for more.

We're also hoping that my cervix stays long and closed and that our amniotic fluid is plenty.

Last night I started having very rare somewhat painful contractions.  I did notice the correlation between a full bladder and these very few contractions and I do very much remember these from when pregnant with Livy.  They were NOT labour contractions, just practice ones though it does potentially signify that changes in my cervix may be happening (again, totally normal but may possibly have an impact on bleeding) so we'll be looking at our scan to see what, if any cervix changes are noted.

I'll ensure to update later today when we have results.

On another note, I have had one friend comment on a blog I have removed from our list of Other Blogs we Love. I did send a request to each family before adding their blog to our list of blogs to respect their privacy and desire to be added.  While, no one objected not everyone replied with a direct yes.  About a week ago one family posted that their blog was private and while they never directly made any request, I felt strongly about ensuring that their blog remained private.  Thus, while we still keep them in our thoughts we also respect that this is a difficult road and sometimes it can feel like your a trainwreck that others are 'rubber necking' thus we will do what we can to make their road easier and if its simply keeping their request for privacy then that's what we'll do.    We do continue to wish the family the very best.