Itchy for a reason

So Heidi has been itching horribly for several weeks now. We thought that she was allergic to her medication that was used to slow down the contractions. She has now been off of the pills for over a week and has continued to itch. To make a very long story short, Heidi was doing some online research to try and determine the cause of all of her itching and came across some info about a condition called Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy (ICP). This is a condition that only happens in 1-2 out of 1,000 pregnant women. She saw the doctor today for a previously unscheduled appointment to discuss this issue. The doctor had the same feeling and ordered another non-stress test as well as some blood drawn to confirm the condition. After about 20 minutes with the baby being hyperactive with a very high heart rate during the non-stress test, he calmed down for the next 20 or 30 minutes to a normal heart rate. Heidi continued to have contractions as usual with nothing to be of concern to report.

The blood tests will take several days to come back, probably sometime between Monday and Wednesday of next week. Once they come back positive, the c-section will be done. We asked the doctor what would happen if the test results came back negative. He just shook his head 'no' and said that Heidi was a textbook case of this condition.

ICP can result in stillbirth if the baby is not taken in enough time. It is important for the doctor to have confirmation of the condition so that the mother and baby can be monitored and treated properly, especially right before and after the birth. Please check out this website for more detailed information about the condition: http://www.itchymoms.com/ It was the best source Heidi found about ICP.

Please keep Asher and Heidi in prayer as we await the test results. For now Heidi is supposed to do kick counts twice a day as well as just generally paying attention to how Asher is moving and if there are any general changes in the pregnancy. This is especially difficult to handle with our loss of Xander and the problems during the pregnancy with Tatiana. Please pray for continued peace and fast test results.