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I wanted to post tonight quickly about our week 24 appointment with the perinatalogist today. No funny pictures; no ultrasounds. The situation for baby A, Pooh, is trending further downhill. Thankfully, he is continuing to grow; however, he is a more that a week behind in gestational age and is weighing 1 pound, 1 ounce, while baby B, Tigger, is actually half a week ahead of his gestational age and weighing 1 pound, 8 ounces. Although this may not sound like much of a discrepancy, it is considerable. The main problem lies in the amount of blood flow reaching Pooh on every heartbeat. He is now in absent-end diastolic flow, where no blood is flowing into the placenta, and baby, while the heart is at rest. This is causing his heart to work extra hard for the blood that he actually receives. We are praying that this condition will improve over the next three weeks or that the little guy can hold on. Unfortunately, at this point, there is little we can do medically.

The scenarios that we are foreseeing appear bleak. It has been hard on us today coming to grips with this realization. We can only wait until our next appointment with the perinatalogist. At that point, we will have to start making decisions about which course to traverse. From then on, we will probably be seeing the doctor weekly for more frequent updates on their well-being. It will be extremely risky for both babies to come this early. We hope and pray that we have two fighters. I personally feel this is harder to struggle through with them in the womb than if they were already here. At least then, we could try to comfort them. Right now they are still perfect and unblemished.

On the positive side, Randi is doing very well, except for some swelling and carpal tunnel coming on. She has gained precisely 24 pounds in 24 weeks; our goal. She does not appear to be having increased contractions or showing signs of a shortening cervix. Also, Tigger, is progressing along extremely well. The blood flow problems do not appear to be affecting him at all. We will post more ultrasounds early next week and we will be having a 3D/4D ultrasound in a couple of weeks. Hopefully, we will get some eye-opening views of the two boys. In the meantime, please keep Pooh in your prayers.

POST SCRIPT:
Although we have heard much doom and gloom recently, we give thanks to people like the Bolline family for their inspiring story.
www.thebollines.blogspot.com