34 weeks

Eric, Eliza and I went up to Grand Rapids on the 24th to meet with the perinatologist, see the NICU and as least know where we are going when I have this baby.

The perinatologist comes down to St. Joe's once a week, so I have been seeing them down here, but last time I went they suggested I come to Grand Rapids. We have had the mildest winter in years, but of course we woke up to 10+ inches of snow on the 24th. Eric was bound and determined that we still go since it had taken a lot to arrange everyone's schedule. So we braved it. Luckily we gave ourselves plenty of time and were able to make it safely. We did see about 8 cars off the road on the way. By the time we got there Eric was asking me, "WHY are you delivering in Grand Rapids?????"  Luckily by the time the day was over we both realized it is the best place for us to have this baby even if it is 90 miles from home. Our little hospital doesn't have a NICU. South Bend is a lot closer, but is a problem with our insurance because it is across the State line and the hospital in Kalamazoo is better, but still at least 50 miles away. Plus I would have had to drive up to Kalamazoo for all of my prenatal care which would have taken a lot of time and energy. So I picked the best Children's Hospital on this side of the State. Once we were done with all of our appointments we felt like we had made a good decision. 

First we meet with the perinatologist and had another ultrasound. We still haven't gotten a great picture of her, but it does look like her chin is small. These pictures aren't the best 3D/4D ones I have ever seen, but a lot of that is because is always moving and isn't at a great angle. 

 .Does she look more like Gretta or Eliza? It's hard to tell. Her hand is in front of her face in this picture.

Because her chin does look small we are going to assume she has a cleft palate at this point. I am still hoping we are wrong. I am having a little more faith that we could be wrong after finding an baby picture of Eliza and realizing she had really chubby cheeks and a small chin too as a baby. Also we watched her fetal breath with the dopler and it didn't look like any fluid was going into her mouth. That might be a good sign too. 

We still feel it is safer to assume she has one until proven otherwise. 

So after the ultrasound we headed over to the hospital to meet with one NICU doctor and a social worker at the NICU. 

They were super helpful and have had a baby with Sticklers before. This is great news because most NICU doctors have never seen it before and they seem very capable of handling the situation. 

 There maybe an issue if she isn't able to maintain an open airway without help because the Plastic Surgeon in Grand Rapids doesn't feel that comfortable with the surgery I would like her to have if that is a problem, but I know they do it at University of Michigan, so if the worst case scenario plays out then she might have to be transferred to U of M. Lets hope that doesn't happen for lots of reasons. 

The NICU is brand new. They have 40 private rooms and then about 50 spaces for babies in the old wing that is in wards. They are doing a big study, about the differences in outcomes of babies in private rooms vs wards, so they draw out of a hat to see your placement when the baby is born. At first I thought it might be weird to have your baby in a room all by itself. That isn't a model I am used to, but after seeing how nice the rooms are and how close the nurses sit to the rooms I think it would be nice. I am not going to get my hopes up because we will be lucky if we do get a private room. 

They scheduled my induction for March 27th. Now lets hope I make it to that date without going into labor myself. Lets also hope we don't have a massive snow storm on the 27th.