The Popping Butt Indicator

For the first two weeks of Mercy’s life, most of the medical folks held any potential bad news about Mercy close to their chest. “She’s doing well for her weight,” “This is exactly what we’d expect for her situation,” “We’re not worried right now.”

Now that Mercy has hit the two-week mark, some of the nurses that we have bonded with have broached the subject of how tenuous Mercy’s health actually is, and we’re worried. Since she was small for 27 weeks, also known as IUGR (Intrauterine Growth Restriction), this period of heightened concern will last until she roughly doubles her weight. Her left lung isn’t doing so well right now. She has had a few oxygen desaturation events over the past 24 hours. She’s been pale and anemic. And she’s still under 2lbs.

Despite our increasing realization of how scary things are, there are several things we try to remember that give us a bit of peace right now. First, God has poured out mercy after mercy on our little baby girl to get her here. She made it through really traumatic pre-birth and birth circumstances, she hasn’t required intubation, her brain and lungs look mostly healthy, and there are so many complications that have not occurred to this point. Praise God!

Second, the popping butt indicator (PBI). Mercy cracks us up by popping her butt in the air and trying to scoot around. Our doctor noticed this and recalled that when his own set of twins were in the ISCU, one of the twins also popped her butt. Another doctor coined the term “popping butt indicator” and it stuck. Not necessarily the most trusted of all the medical indications out there, but it does show muscle tone and some general health. Plus it’s hilarious.

Keep poppin' it, little baby girl!!