New MFM Appt - Dr Perni - 3/15/2017 | These Unexpected Miracles Of Life

I met with Dr. Perni today, on 3/15/2017. She was a very nice doctor, she went over my entire medical history in detail. My Doula, Vivi, also attended the meeting and was happy that this doctor took the time to go over my in depth complicated medical history. It was decided at this meeting the following:

- Fetal Echo DOES NOT need to be repeated; Will Run Lupus Antibodies SSA and SSB to check to see if baby has these, as they can cause issues with a rare form of heart block, which occurs in 1% of lupus pregnancies. Also encouraged to follow-up with pulse-ox, echo and EKG after baby is born.

- 28 week Growth Ultrasound, and then every 2 weeks thereafter. These are referred to as "serial growth ultrasounds" because they happen so frequently. They will be checking things like babies anatomy, babies weight, babies positioning, and anything like IUGR that may show up and potentially complicate the already high risk pregnancy.

- Antenatal testing starting at 32 weeks. This basically is where they will do NSTs, Biophysical Profiles, Monitor for Pre-Eclampsia, and any additional testing.

- Strep B Swab at 36 Weeks.

- Plan to Induce (if no other complications occur) at 38-39 weeks. 38 weeks is June 1st, and 39 weeks is June 8th.

- We discussed options of continuation of Lovenox with scheduled delivery vs changing to Heparin at 36 weeks. I advised I would discuss this with my Hematologist at my appointment on April 6th and see what her preference is.

Overall, a wonderful appointment with this doctor. The only complaint I have is that because Cleveland Clinic is a larger practice, it may not be Dr. Perni who delivers me. This makes me a bit nervous, because I don't really like the idea of going into a scheduled induction with a plan, and having some random doctor who I don't have history with, delivering me.

I will also re-verify with Pediatric Cardiology that Dr. Komarlu does not want a follow up fetal echo to be done.

I also finalized what I think will be my birth plan and what I want to have happen with the help and assistance of my doula, and of course Matthew, on March 16th, and I am pretty happy about this.

Most people don't know what a birth plan is...

Basically, its a plan of action for what you want to have happen in labor and delivery. It gives you control over this. Since I have a scheduled induction, the only real thing I am adamant about is that it is kept as natural as possibly can be, and the ability to move around and eat/drink is important to me. Of course there are a few other things in there, that are specific to me like holding off on vaccines until we know MTHFR status, as well as the heart related tests and whatnot, and we decided that visual helps the nursing staff a lot more, so that is why we chose to do visual.

Here is what my birth plan currently looks like:

Gabriella-Marie

Born: June 25th 2009

My First Child (Who did not result in miscarriage or stillbirth) She has 22Q Deletion Syndrome (DiGeorges) She was born with an underdeveloped left ventricle that was fixed in utero. She also has a Heart murmur, Atrial Septal Defect and PFO (which resolved in 12/5/2018). She also has Aspergers Syndrome (High Functioning Autism, Level 1 Autism ect.), Sensory Processing Disorder, DMDD, ODD, ADHD-Combined and several other behavioral and physical health issues. She is my CHD and 22Q Warrior. She is my world, my life, my meaning for existence. She has my attitude, combined with her fathers stubbornness. She certainly shows us that she will accomplish anything and everything.