Elaine I have a vital question!

[Guest guest]

Hi All and particularly Elaine (you are a life saver),

Okay this may seem long and even too technical to some but bare with me.

I had my 35 week ultrasound today and all looks okay physiologically. But my

big concern: I had four previous scans where the baby was slightly below 90%

for size. My last at 30 weeks was 3lb. 10 oz. At a normal continuation of

growth the baby should be about 6 and 1/2 lbs. even a little bigger (based on

75-90%) In my previous four pregnancies my babies all grew at expected rate on

the growth curve. Now for my dilemma: Today the scan at 35 weeks showed 5 lb.

10 oz. This is only 2 lb increase in 5 weeks versus typical growth at the

previous rate of 2 1/2 to 3 lb range. The baby is now reading just below 50%

for age. I found it strange that the baby would grow at constant , although big

, rate for 30 weeks and now be growing much more slowly. The ultra sound tech

didn't flag it because she said 50 % is normal but to me not if previous growth

was so much faster and all of my other four kids grew at constant rates. I have

no hypertension, havent lost weight, no diabetes, my Ft4 is 1.1 and Ft3 is 254.

Just no TSH as usual. Tomorrow my regular OB will call me when he gets the

report but my gut feeling is maybe this baby has mild transient fetal

hyperthyroidism. My endo mentioned to me on Mon about a fetal thyroid

ultrasound but she forgot to mention rerunning the TSH antis. My TSi in April

was 47 % which the norm is 10 or less. But as the pregnancy progresses this

should go down. But I have read in the literature that sometimes even mildly

elevated antis could cross the placenta and cause hypert in the fetus. The rate

is anywhere from 2- 5% of Grave's moms giving to the baby. Maybe small but I

have Graves.The baby's heart rate has been in the 140's to 150's not

tachycardic. But I was reading few case studies on the web where the mom's had

Graves but either had RAI or was on low PTU and the babies had no tachy in the

womb, just insidiously slightly lower growth. They were born between 10-50% for

age. The problem showed up after the birth. I am quite concerned right now.

If I wasn't a nurse and a person who is constantly a problem solver maybe this

would just blow over my head, but I would rather dealve deeper and be wrong than

to have my baby born and then 2 days later have severe tachy and resp problems.

I need to have some knowledge if I need a pediatric endo to handle the problem

at birth. May be I read into things too much but when something doesn't make

sense it eats at me. As a nurse too many times things go bad because someone

like a dr. or nurse didn't pick up on early warning sign.

I would like to have my OB run thyroid antis and have an ultrasound of the

baby's thyroid done. I also think that I probably should have an ultrasound in

a week or 1/2 so see if there is better growth. The tech was going to

recommend3weeks but that puts me almost at birth or even after with my history

of contractions. I guess I need reassurance. Sometimes you wonder if you are

going crazy with all that is going on. I am so exhausted from all the

contractions and poor sleep now I am could just drop. I want what is good for

the baby you know.

Any advice is so much appreciated. I feel like sometimes we are more educated

than some professionals. Thanks, I.