Nora’s third IUT went very well today. Thank you all so much for praying for us!

Right before they took me back to the operating room they did an ultrasound to check Nora’s position and where the umbilical cord was. The umbilical cord insertion (where it attaches to the placenta) was right under Nora’s cute little bottom. She’s definitely taking up more space in there now! They said it might be kind of hard to get to the cord with the needle if she was sitting on it, so that was kind of scary. I asked what they would do if they couldn’t get to it and they said (very casually) that they would just move her. I asked them how in the world they could move her and they said, “Oh, we have our ways.” I did not want to find out what those ways were. Thankfully she wasn’t in the way of the needle once they started the procedure and they were able to access the cord.

Nora’s starting hematocrit was 31, the highest it’s ever been (her starting hematocrit was around 24-25 for the first two transfusions.) They got it up to 45, which is really good! I asked why she wasn’t that anemic this time even though she went a whole three weeks between transfusions. Dr. Moise said that after the second transfusion most of the blood in her body was donor blood, which is kell negative. Since it was kell negative my body had nothing to attack besides the small amount of remaining kell positive blood in her system, hence the mild anemia. Nora’s body has completely stopped making it’s own red blood cells now and after today’s transfusion she is completely kell negative. All of the blood in her body is donor blood. How amazing (and slightly confusing) is that?! Now, we don’t have to worry about my antibodies making her anemic, we just have to give her more blood every three weeks to keep up with her growth (bigger baby = more blood needed.) Dr. Moise plans to do another blood transfusion at 32 weeks and then another one at 35 weeks. He will wait the normal three weeks after the last transfusion and then deliver her at 38 weeks. 38 WEEKS! I never thought I would make it to full term! What an exciting possibility. Nora will still need a NICU stay because she will be anemic and have jaundice and her body will need to start remaking it’s own red blood cells. She will need to be on the bilirubin lights for a while and possibly have a few blood transfusions and maybe some rounds of IVIG. Hopefully she will only be in the NICU for a week or two after birth. I will be having a NICU tour tomorrow afternoon to get acquainted with everything before my girl arrives.

Thank you again, to everyone who prayed for us today. Nora is moving well tonight and my contractions aren’t too frequent. The doctors will check her again tomorrow at 11:00 to make sure she still looks ok. The boys did a great job sitting in the hospital and not getting into TOO much trouble while they waited for me 🙂 We are glad today is over and we can relax a little until the next transfusion.