Alex in NYC to be a daddy!

Although I don't have experience of this particular condition, I suffered severe pre-eclampsia in my second pregnancy. This is something which can cause the mother's liver and kidney to stop functioning and is altogether A Very Bad Thing.

Your wife is in her eighth month now, so if the doctors think there is any danger to either her or your baby then they will probably get her into hospital and induce her labour early. At 8 months, your baby is fully formed and has all its vital bits - it just spends the last few weeks getting a bit bigger.

The hospital will probably suggest that your wife has an ultrasound scan so they can measure the size of your baby, and wire her up to a monitor which records the baby's heartbeat. From that they'll be able to decide whether the baby is in any distress or not, and whether s/he would be better off staying put or the birth being induced.

Early babies sometimes get a bit jaundiced and hospitals will treat this with photo-therapy (letting your baby bask under a sun lamp for a few minutes a day).

My daughter was born at 34 weeks and everything was fine. I'm sure it will be for you, your wife and your baby too, and I wish you all the best :)

As a quick update, we went back to the hospital today for more tests. While the blood tests still reflect the problem, a fetal monitoring showed that everything is fine at the moment.....but they now want us to come back to the hospital once a week to check the progress. I believe that in the majority of instances of this disorder, the worst case scenario happened when the problem went unchecked. We're hoping that since they've pinpointed it (we think), they can take whatever necessary precautions to make sure the worst doesn't occur.

Anyway, that's really all we know right now. Thanks once again for your best wishes and all your positive thoughts.

That should've read: I really wouldn't wish this....

We're still hanging in there. We're at the hospital now twice a week for fetal monitorings and injections of vitamin K (which, I believe, bolsters the liver). Unfortunately, the itchyness has seemingly gotten worse, and none of their proposed remedies seem to be having any effect. My wife is finding it nearly impossible to sleep, which causes her extra anxiety and she is now going to stop working (a few weeks earlier than initially expected/planned). At the recent doctor visit, we were informed that they want to induce the delivery ealier (we were initially due on the 19th, now they want to pre-empt any possible cholestasis-related difficulties by inducing labor on April 5th or 6th.) The most recent blood test show no signs of improvement, unfortunately. Signs are also showing (without getting too graphic here) that the way is already being paved for delivery (i.e. we were informed that due to certain conditions, my wife's body is alredy preparing....which could mean weeks or days...information we don't really know what to do with). We're hoping we make it to the proposed date of induction (about seventeen days away), as we want our little one to make it to the 38th week. Meanwhile, the weight and heartrate and movement of the baby are all fine so far.

Anyway, thanks for reading/listening and all your kind thoughts and words. At this point, I cannot begin to speculate the relief my wife and I will feel upon delivery of this little one.

Please take care, all of you.