Well, things definitely changed today. At our last visit to CHOP we learned that Liam was not growing all that well and they wanted to keep a close eye on his development. We traveled up to Philly last night for an appointment this morning, hoping that for once we would get some good news. Well, that wasn't the case. Liam's growth is not good at all and they believe it may be attributed to problems with blood flow in and out of the placenta. Essentially, there's too much resistance to blood flow, which is causing his slow growth. While they were monitoring the blood flow through the umbilical cord, they noticed periods when flow was absent and even reversed due to too much resistance.
We are now staying the night at CHOP. Allison was admitted so they can monitor Liam's heart rate overnight. If everything looks OK, we'll be discharged tomorrow (Saturday) but we'll be required to stay here in Philly for good to be close at hand for more check-ups. If things don't look so great, we could be new parents in the next 24-48 hours. While we're anxious to finally meet our little boy, we would prefer if he continues to cook for as long as possible. However, there's a lot more they can do for him once he's delivered than they can while he's still in the womb.
We think they're going to deliver him within the next few weeks. They gave Allison a steroid to help kick-start Liam's lungs to get them ready in case he is born early in an attempt to help prevent respiratory problems. They said that if we make it through the next few days, they'd like to deliver him somewhere around week 34, which is just two weeks away!
To say the least, we were completely taken by surprise by all of this. We only packed clothes for one night, hoping we would be back in Virginia later today. We don't have anything packed for a long term stay in Philly and we have none of Liam's things up here with us. Given all the uncertainty, Ian doesn't want to leave and be on the road for 12-plus hours to go home and get things packed and risk missing Liam's birth if he decides he needs to come early. Luckily, Allison's mom is going to pack some things for us and bring them up over the weekend.
We also just met with the social worker to discuss housing while we're here. We'd like to stay in the Ronald McDonald house, but unfortunately it's full and there's a waiting list. Our only other option is to stay in a hotel until a spot opens up or stay with a host family. The good thing about the Ronald McDonald house is that we'd have a room for as long as we're up here. But that also makes it difficult to get into it; the openings they have on any given day changes since a lot of families stay for long periods of time without knowing exactly when they'll be able to leave.
We are a little bummed that we'll miss the shower that was planned for us tomorrow. We know our friends put a lot of hard work into planning it, and we're disappointed we can't make it. However, we're sure there will be plenty of opportunities to celebrate with them once Liam is here and healthy.
Please continue to pray for us as we face these new challenges. We'll post another update as we learn more.
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