Baby measuring small

[Leigh2332]

I'm 34 weeks and my baby's measuring small, I have been getting regular scans and got two steroid shots last week to help mature baby's lungs. The doctors are thinking baby may grow better outside of me rather than inside and are thinking about giving me an elective section in the next couple of weeks. According to the scans he is measuring just over 3.5lbs and apart from his growth tailing off he seems to be in good health.
I'm just wandering if anyone else has been through something similar before and can tell me their story.

[BeautifulLiar]

Same here. The consultant was all doom and gloom but the midwives/sonographers have been much more positive. I'm still pregnant now (36 weeks tomorrow) and will probably be induced at 40 weeks. The baby is always about two weeks smaller than average but I think that's normal for me - I'm 5ft tall and a size 8, and my biggest baby out of three was 6lb on her due date.

[Jamarama]

I had the same. Had steroids weekly scans and monitoring baby's was putting on weight but was still tiny. I was induced at 39 weeks and he weighed 4.12 but perfectly healthy.

[Jamarama]

Baby not babies

[Machine123]

This happened with me. We first noticed at the 18 week anomaly scan the abdomen circumference was almost off the chart (as in small) while everything else was average. But not much attention was paid to this and I carried on seeing midwife who was measuring fundal height every couple of weeks and kept telling me it's just a small baby because I'm small (I'm 5ft 5). It wasnt until I went for a scan with an obstetrician friend of the family at 28 weeks that we realised baby was not growing. The obstetrician monitored fetal heartbeat weekly and carried out scans to check blood flow in the chord. At 33 weeks he noticed blood flow along the chord was intermittent and amniotic fluid was reducing and so asked me to come in every other day for scans. I had steroid shots at 34 weeks and then at 35 weeks an elective section because braxton hicks were causing baby heart rate to plummet and there was also danger of reverse blood flow from placenta. Baby was born weighing 1.6 kilos and stayed in special care unit for 4 weeks to help gain weight. Thankfully no problems with breathing and didn't have to be in an incubator.

Little one is now a crazy 3 year old. He was tiny until 3 months old and then he turned into a little fatty having been drinking high calorie infant formula that was prescribed. He caught up with his peers in less than 6 months in terms of size.

Good luck with everything, good job it's been picked up and you're being monitored closely. A friend of mine went through this recently and, like you, her baby was not significantly small/underweight and didn't have to stay in hospital.

[Machine123]

Sorry I read your baby's weight wrong, he/she about the same size that my baby was at birth.