Monday, September 28, 2009

36 weeks No news is good news right?

So after our little scare going to L&D for the night I’ve been laying low. I had another weekly appointment last Monday and today.

Last week my OB checked me and said I was 2cm and 50%. This was kind of irritating after I was told in L&D that I was 3 and 75%. He brought up the meds and said to stay on them for a while longer. Granted he says this after the day before we went and walked around Bridge Street and I was really hurting later that night. After talking to W about it all we decided that I would stop taking the meds. They were causing more side effects and they were getting worse.

So it’s been a week and I seriously think I’ve had fewer contractions off the meds than I did on them. On Sunday I didn’t even feel one. This is after I took Butters to Rainbow Mountain and we went exploring on a hiking trail and played on the playground for about an hour. Also that morning I took the infant swing out of his closet which meant removing the crib pieces and the hanging organizer. After all this activity during the day all I felt was a little tired that night. No major cramps or anything.

So today I went back for another weekly appointment. The stats so far are:
My BP 130/70 ( a little high for me)
Her HR 137 (a little lower than normal for her)
Weight 157lbs
My doctor checked again and I’m about the same as last week. I asked him about her size since at this point with Butters he was worried about his size. He said she is pretty small still and measuring a couple of weeks behind. He said in a couple of weeks she might be around Butters birth weight but at the moment not even close.

He would like me to hold out one more week but at this point we are in the clear if I go into labor on my own. He wants to see me again in a week or as he put it “I’ll see you in a week assuming you make it that far”.

I’m trying to not get my hopes up. We’ve spent the last few months on edge about when she would arrive. Now it is officially a waiting game.

I’m going to end this post on a positive note. We have now officially reached the point where our chances of seeing the NICU are very small with her. Boys born at this point still have a good chance, but girls tend to do much better. The running joke is that if she doesn’t end up in the NICU W and I will be kind of lost and not sure what to think. We know how the NICU works but being discharged with her will be a very welcome but odd adventure.

Anyway things are still good and we are all just anxious to meet her.

Friday, September 18, 2009

34 weeks going to Labor and Delivery and Antepartum Units

So let me start by saying earlier this week I was having a lot of prelabor. Meaning I was up half the night with contractions that were between 4 and 7 minutes apart but not getting any stronger. Thursday at work things started to pick up a little but I still thought nothing of it. Finally round noon I called W and said I might need him to come get me if things didn't calm down. At this point the contractions were between 4 and 5 minutes apart. Well I guess I just got used to them until about 2 when they started getting between 2 and 3 minutes apart. At 2:30pm I decided I needed to go home. I called W and told him I was on my way.

I got home and even after laying down they were steady. So I called my OB's office and they said to go onto L&D. We left around 3:30 after getting the last few things together. Once we got to the hospital we checked in and were taken back to a room. After being hooked up to monitors there was no doubt that I was in labor. The contractions were coming about 1.5 minutes a part. They were varying in intensity but felt pretty uncomfortable to me. When I was checked I was 3cm, 70%effaced and -2 station.

The on call doctor came in to talk to me while W took Butters out and told me they were going to do what they could to stop the contractions and after a couple of hours re-evaluate. I was given a shot of terbutaline and an IV was started. The terbutaline did very little and once my bloodwork came back I was given procardia again. After a little while longer the nurses did shift change and my new nurse came in and gave us the news. The on call doctor wanted to keep me over night in the antepartum unit and give me a cocktail of terbutaline, procardia and ambien to help me sleep and see if I progressed any further.

So we were taken to the new room around 2030. The nurse there was shocked I never ate dinner and grabbed me a sandwhich before I had to take my meds.

Ok let me say this. Ambien was no fun. I'm not sure how much I got but after about 5 minutes I started seeing double and passed out. Not my kind of drug.

The rest of the night was filled with having to constantly get up to go to the bathroom due to all the fluids they were pumping into me and having to call my nurse to reset the pump. Where the IV was placed in my arm cause the pump to go nuts everytime I bent it.

Around 0800 this morning I was checked again and had made no progress so they decided to send me home. More procardia was given and I was told to make an appointment with my normal OB very early in the week next week. I have an appointment Monday morning assuming I don't end up back in the hospital.

The last thing the OB on call told me was that he didn't think it would be much longer.

So we are home now. The procardia is having about the same effect it did in the hospital. I still have contractions about every 8 to 10 minutes. Now though I have developed the lovely problem of very bad low back pain. The only way to describe this as gross as it may seem is like being very consitpated and you can not go. The pain comes and goes but is pretty constant all the time. I have no appetite and have to remind myself that I need to eat at times.

I'm incredibly frustrated and I am doing all I can to just tell W how I feel and not take it all out on him or Butters. I'm frustrated with this mess that keeps happening. I hate being on drugs and developing a tolerace to them and people not believing me. I hated being discharged today without having held her in my arms.

So now we wait again. Right now I just keep thinking about what the on call doctor said to keep me going. It won't be too much longer and I really hope he was right.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

33 week stats

So I went for my appointment today and here is what I found out.

weight 156lbs
blood pressure 116/70
Dot's heart rate 151 bpm (normal for her)
She is measuring right at 33 weeks

My doctor wanted to go ahead and do an internal exam this week due to all the contractions, cramps and pressure I have been having this week. Here's the verdict:
70% effaced
1.5cm dilated

When I heard this I had to go back and look at where I was with Butter's at 36 weeks:
2cm dilated
50% effaced
We found this out on Thursday and he was born on Sunday.

So what does it all mean for Dot? Well it could mean nothing other than my body is preparing for labor. Or if she follows the same pattern that Butters did it could be fairly soon. Also it turns out that she had one major growth spurt these past 2 weeks and dropped in the process.

As far as when things will really pick up, we don't know. My doctor said that at this point if I have steady contractions 7 minutes apart for 30 minutes to go ahead and call. She said to go ahead and have our bags ready just incase.

So now we wait. When my doctor left the room today she said that she would see me next week if not sooner. I still have to rest as much as I can. I have an appointment scheduled for next Friday if I make it that far.

So that's about it for now. If something major happens in the next week it will more than likely be on twitter before I get a chance to post it here, but I will post an update as soon as I can.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Frustration

That’s about the only word I can use to describe how I felt this past weekend. I’m not frustrated at W, Mac or Butters, but more with things that keep happening with this pregnancy.

I know the longer she stays put the better, but this past weekend really continued to test my patience.

For the past 3 days, I’ve had contractions off and on. I’m not talking about just Braxton hicks, but real ones. They come between every 10 and 15 minutes for a couple of hours then stop. This happens normally about 3 times a day.

So when I get them I do what I’ve been told to do to stop them. Rest, eat something and drink plenty of fluids. I do this and they get worse but when I’m just a little dehydrated or hungry I don’t get them at all.

Between those and the waves of nausea that hit for no reason it was a rough weekend for me. The nausea is normally triggered by the smell of cooking food which just seems really odd. At times it feels like the same mess that happened in my first trimester is happening again.

I’m at the point where I am emotionally spent right now. I can’t seem to trust the signals my body is giving me anymore. I’m tired of feeling the contractions get closer and thinking we might end up in the hospital just to have them die off. Its exhausting to have them at work and still try and concentrate on what I need to do while getting up a few dozen times to deal with them.

Ok sorry for yet another post where I complain but I just had to vent yet again.

Monday, September 7, 2009

33 Weeks

So we had another appointment at 31 weeks but nothing much changed so I didn’t do a post about it. Things are still about the same. He increased the frequency of my medication, which has caused more side effects. Due to the increased amount of the drug in my system, my feet stay really red and swollen. Other than that, he wants me to stay on the med until 36 weeks. The longer she stays put the better our chances are of limited intervention after her birth actually are.

I think the medication though is losing its effectiveness. I still have contractions break through during the day and more at night. I’m averaging about one strong one an hour. Also, these are getting to the point where sometimes I can’t just sit down in my chair at work and get through them. I have to get up and walk around or do something else to get through them.

One thing did happen this past week. I felt her drop and even W could feel the change in position of her. She is down very low and at this point I feel like things could start at any time. I mean it could be 3 days from now or 3 weeks, but we just don’t know.

This past week I finally got all the paperwork squared away for my maternity leave. Last time that I had it all done Butters decided to make his arrival a couple of days later. Hopefully getting all this done isn’t a sign to Dot to do the same thing.

So right now mine and Butters bag’s are packed. W hasn’t packed his bag, but he proved last time that it will take him all of 10 minutes to pack his clothes and the electronics we will need.



Now we are officially in a waiting game. There are baby showers planned for us on the 12th and 13th and hopefully we will make it to those! My next appointment is this week with my nurse practitioner since my doctor will be out of town. Hopefully she will be able to give us some good news such as I’m not progressing like I feel like I am and how big Dot is now.

We still think about the possibilities of her ending up in the NICU due to being born early. W and I were talking about it one night this past week after someone said something to me at work about it and we figured out how feel about it all. We are both just numb to it at this point. We both know that the chances are good that she will end up there for a little while, but we still hope for the best. If she does have to go to the NICU we know what to expect and we know what it will take mentally, emotionally and physically to deal with it. We joke that if she does get to room in with us it will be shocking!