October 18, 2005

My Whereabouts and What's Going On

Well, the situation with the unborn one is a bit ... vague... at the moment. On a happy note, the baby has turned and is no longer breech. On a not so happy note, the doctor is concerned about the variability of the heart rate and is consulting with the high-risk pregnancy unit right now. It could be nothing; it could be the baby grabbing onto the umbilical cord; or it could be as serious as the cord being around the baby's neck. Not the kind of thing an expectant father wants to hear.

At a minimum, they say Mrs. WWR will be in hospital for another night of observation. It could be a few days if they feel the need. Or it could be a c-section earlier than planned, and my child will enter the world at 34 weeks of development.

I'm a bit nervous at the moment, quite unsure what to do or think or how to react. I just want my wife and child to be ok.

And now I'm going to go have a beer.

Update: OK, fine, so it was more than "a beer."

But I'm back, having made a couple of visits to the hospital, gone to dinner with wee Fiona, and have just put her to bed for the night. They're keeping Mrs. WWR overnight to observe the baby. They want to, from what I can understand, find out why they are getting funky (honestly, that's a medical term) readings every now and then on the baby's heartrate.

Since they haven't rushed into surgery to extract the new wee one, I'm assuming it's not a cord around the neck, so that's good news (you know, if I'm right).

I'm going to have an early night, retire to bed with a book, and see you good folks in the morning. A million thanks for your thoughts, well-wishes, and even your prayers (because, hey, you mean well).

Update 2: Well, I thought we were getting discharged today, but apparently not. The baby did fine through the night but had one more abnormal heartrate this morning, so they still want to get to the bottom of what is causing it (leading theory right now seems to be the baby is playing with the umbilical cord). Having seen and cut an umbilical cord, I can tell you it's really not something you'd want to make a toy from.

Also, Mrs. WWR is still having minor contractions, something they're calling uterine irritation, so they want to make sure that doesn't grow into pre-term labor while we're home.

Looks like it'll be another night at the hospital for her and the unborn wee one. Yay fun.

I'm off to get my first shower since Monday 5am.