My Pregnancy with IUGR (Intra Uterine Growth Restriction)

I found out that I was pregnant in the beginning of 2006. This was a pregnancy that I was waiting for, me and my husband had been trying for quite some time. When I finally found out that I was pregnant we were ecstatic. Not knowing that this was going to be one of the most difficult pregnancies yet.

I was going to see my midwife routinely and in the beginning all of my appointments were going well. It wasn't until I was about 22 weeks pregnant, when my midwife started seeing something she wasn't happy with. I wasn't gaining enough weight. So she sent me for a bio physical profile, which is a more in depth ultrasound. During the ultrasound they were checking how much the baby was moving, my amniotic fluid level and taking all of the measurements of the baby.

I went back to see my midwife a few days later to get the results of the ultrasound. When I walked I was very nervous to see that everything was going alright with the baby. My midwife tells me that my amniotic fluid level is below normal and that the baby wasn't growing well enough, so my due date had to be changed according to my babies measurements. I went from being due on Christmas day to going all the way to January 27^th of the next year.

At this point I wasn't sure what was going on with my baby, my midwife started to change my appointments to every week already. I was getting a bio physical profile done once a week and had to see my midwife once a week on top of that. There were occasions' were I was put in the hospital to be put on an IV to pump in fluids to try to get my water fluid up for a little while.

There were so many things that were going wrong with my pregnancy, I had no idea what was going on in my body. I just wanted my baby to be ok. I reached about 34 ½ weeks along in my pregnancy and my midwife decided to send me to the hospital to get two steroid shots to develop the babies lungs faster then what they normally would in case of early delivery. Maybe a day or two later, after my last bio physical profile, my midwife tells me that she wants me to have an amniocentesis done to check the maturity of the baby's lungs. I was then told that if the baby's lungs were developed enough I was going to have to be induced.

Mind you I am only just about to be 35 weeks pregnant. It was way too early to deliver the baby and I was being told that I had to have the baby. While after about 6 hours of waiting for my results, I am told that the baby's lung aren't mature enough and we will hold off for another couple of days. I then am sent for another bio physical profile just a few days later. This time my midwife calls me at home and asks me to come into the office to get these results. When I get there and she starts telling the problems that are going on with the baby, and that we have to deliver early. I am 35 ½ weeks pregnant and am thinking if I deliver this baby now there could be major complications. Then I find out that my baby isn't growing at all in the womb, and there could be even worse complications with the baby's health if I don't deliver now.

My Midwife has already setup everything, I go into the hospital the evening of December 21^st 2006. My Gorgeous Daughter was born at 4:10 pm on December 22^nd 2006. She weighed in at 5 lbs and 6 ounces, way more than anyone expected. She is sent off the nursery, her pediatrician comes and to tell me that she is classified with IUGR. Which is Intra Uterine Growth Restriction. Which is where the baby was not growing properly in the womb. The only to help the baby grow properly is to deliver.

I had no idea that what was going on was that serious. Right now my daughter is about to turn 2, and I couldn't ask for a healthier child. Though she is small for her age, and she will probably be smaller then all of the other kids her age. At least she is healthy and was able to come out of a diagnosis of IUGR this wonderfully.