October 9, 2009

Down to the Wire

My 38-week prenatal appointment was Wednesday morning.  The receptionist checked me in, I gave my urine sample to the nurse, and was promptly taken back to an exam room where I waited 20 minutes for my doctor to see me.

I could hear him talking to the patient in the room next door.  At first I was annoyed because I was tired and sitting half-naked on the exam table with a paper sheet covering my nether regions.  But then I heard the words “ovarian cancer” and “thought I should have a pap” and realized whomever was being seen next door probably needed my fabulous doctor’s attention more than I did at that moment.

When my doctor finally came into the room, I was practically nodding off.

“How are we doing?” he asked.

“Oh, you know. I’m just exhausted now.  I went through the nesting stage and now I’m just too tired to do anything else.  I want this baby out.” I told him.

Dr. F commended me for my blood pressure, my reading was 128/78.  He said I must have been resting well since Friday’s hospital stay, and I nodded.

Next he checked my cervix.  I am now only 3 cm dilated and 60% effaced.  Dr. F did an external palpation and estimates that Monster Baby is between 8 and 8 1/2 pounds.  He ordered another ultrasound for this coming Wednesday to confirm the size, and my 39 week appointment will be afterward.  He says he could be off the mark by a pound either way, so the u/s will provide more accuracy.

The concern is that the longer I am pregnant, the bigger the baby will get, and if this little large one gets to 9+ pounds, I may have difficulty delivering naturally.  The risk of having a cesarean section is high due to the baby’s size.

Dr. F wants to schedule induction for next week if the baby does not arrive on his own before Wednesday’s appointment.  He did say that with this type of intervention (induction via pitocin) the risk of C-section increases, but he says trying to push a large baby out can be painful and can cause complications like shoulder dystocia and we want to avoid such things.

I agree with the idea of induction, simply because I have a horrible fear of surgeries, especially ones that require cutting open my abdomen.  When I had gall bladder surgery six years ago, I had a panic attack before they put me under.  I have this irrational fear about dying under the knife.  I know it’s crazy, but I can’t seem to get over it.

The last two days have been long.  I’m so tired.  I don’t sleep at night.  I nod off several times during the day.  I practically live in the bathroom.  And the thirst!  I’m always so thirsty.  I swear I drink more than 8 glasses each day, which explains the bathroom visits and waking up six times each night.

Walking has become unbelievably painful.  Worse than the round ligament pain I was experiencing a few weeks ago.  Now it seems like I’m walking with a bowling ball between my legs, and several times a day I have this feeling as though the baby is just going to fall out. Add some mild lower back pain and menstrual-like cramps to the mix and I am one crabby, hugely pregnant woman.

Tomorrow Dawson has soccer in the morning, and then he’s going to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for the weekend.  Doug and I have a wedding to attend and I’m looking forward to one last night out before my life changes forever.  Unless a baby happens to arrive, I plan on enjoying myself for a few hours.

I promise to keep you posted throughout the next five days.  You can also follow me on Twitter and Facebook if you’d like.  Stay tuned.  Baby should be here any day now.

October 5, 2009

More Nesting and Another ER Visit (This Time Not For Me)

Remember when I told you I was nesting?  Yeah, that was just a trial run, because the real nesting began Saturday, the second I got home from the hospital.  It’s like a fire has been lit under my bum.

It started with this intense desire to start organizing the bedroom that Dawson and his baby brother will share for awhile.  Doug took the doors off the closet and I went through every single item in that space.  The urge to purge hit me like a ton of bricks.

Three large boxes of stuff were sealed up and are now ready for donation to the Easter Seals.  I got rid of toys no one has played with in years.  Clothes that Dawson cannot wear and the baby wouldn’t be able to wear for years were packed for others to use.  Anything that had not been worn or used in a year or more was tossed into the boxes as well.  I realized that Dawson had a lot of clothes when he was born, more than the new baby could ever wear.  Gone it is.

It took a few hours to figure out the correct floor plan for the room.  The furniture was arranged with efficiency in mind.  I delegated while Doug moved things around several times.  It’s very functional now.  I should have taken before and after photos.

Next, we took a trip to Target and bought one of these awesome toy organizers:

All of the most played-with toys were sorted into these 12 magic bins.  Because I had sorted through everything first, we ended up with two smaller bins being empty.

After the kids’ room was complete I crashed into bed and slept like a rock.  It was a long, rough day.

Sunday morning we went to church and after we got home Doug made a delicious breakfast of eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and toast.  It was delicious.  I decided to tackle our closet after that, and 5 more boxes of clothes, shoes, purses and other miscellaneous items were donated.

I finally got rid of all those clothes that had sentimental value or emotional feelings attached them.  I haven’t worn them in more than five years.  Someone else can use them.  It was tough to let go of some of those things, but I noticed that an uncluttered house has also cleared my psyche.

Doug did all the grunt work and heavy lifting, and I’m so grateful for his help.  After tackling closets we cleaned out the pantry together, as well as the linen and coat closets, too.  My house is almost perfect.

Shortly after we finished our work, my mother-in-law called to say that my father-in-law was having health issues.  He has been feeling disoriented, experiencing hallucinations and memory loss, as well as sleeping a lot and not wanting to get out of bed.  I’m not sure what the medical condition is, but it reminds me of dementia.  My grandfather suffered from the disease.  I also wonder if my FIL was experiencing a mini-stroke.

We went to Doug’s parents’ house to help get my FIL to the hospital, but later decided an ambulance was a better choice.  Doug’s dad was taken to the ER and later admitted to the hospital for observation.  We got home a few hours later.  Doug’s brother and uncle stayed to help my MIL.  Doug wanted to stay longer, but he had to work very early this morning, and his mom said not to miss work until they know exactly what my FIL’s condition is.  We’re praying that he recovers from whatever it is that is ailing him.

After we got home last night, we all crashed into bed.  Another long day under our belts.

I’m hoping today is uneventful, and that no one else is admitted to the ER.  They say bad things happen in threes.  Here’s hoping that’s just an old wives tale, or a myth.

Later this afternoon I’m taking Dawson to see a free matinee showing of Transformers 2.  The theater is offering this show for customer appreciation week, and my little guy cannot wait for the DVD to come out on October 20th.  It’s our last mommy/son “date” before little Baby O arrives.  I plan to treasure every second of it.

October 3, 2009

Overnight in the Hospital

I failed to mention that at Thursday’s doctor’s appointment, I was given a flu shot.  Not the H1N1 vaccine, but the regular ol’ Influenza A vaccine.  My doctor highly recommended the vaccination since I will be giving birth at the height of flu season, which began this fall.

The last time I had a flu shot was five years ago, and after it was done I felt so sick, as if I had contracted the flu immediately.  And the injection itself hurt terribly.  I vowed never to have that vaccination again.

I don’t know why I changed my mind this time (and my mother now believes my baby is going to be born autistic, based on all the articles she’s read about the links and risks and THANKS MOM for making me even more nervous about this subject), but now I wish I’d have said no to the shot.

Right after I got home from the appointment I felt fatigued and took a 3 hour nap.  Exactly 24 hours after the injection was given, I was experiencing upper abdominal pain, shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat and elevated blood pressure.  I thought I was having an episode similar to when I had pre-eclampsia with my first pregnancy.

I felt winded as I walked from living room to kitchen.  I had to sit down and my heart was racing.  The sudden onset of these symptoms made me panic.  Pre-eclampsia usually does not “happen” so quickly, but over the course of several weeks instead.

I called Doug at work first.  He was in a meeting.  I waited half an hour and then called my doctor’s office.  The on-call doctor told me to head to the emergency room right away, just to have the pain checked out.  I interrupted Doug from his meeting and he rushed home to drive me to the hospital.

Once there, the nurses and doctors sent me to the OB/GYN area and started asking millions of questions.  I answered accordingly, blood was drawn, a urine sample was collected, and over the course of three hours we waited for results.

The ER doctor came back and said my protein levels were fine, blood work is good, no liver problems, and after he consulted with the OB/GYN on call upstairs in the maternity ward, I would be free to go home.

Except, I wasn’t.  Dr. J was on call and she wanted to keep me overnight at the hospital for observation, simply because my blood pressure was still higher than she liked.  I tried to reason with her, to tell her it was probably panic or anxiety, but she insisted that monitoring be done and I was too tired (and hungry!) to argue.

While I was getting situated in room 307, my nurse was getting all the monitors ready.  Suddenly, another nurse came in and yelled, “308 needs pain meds, NOW!”  Off my nurse went.  I soon discovered why she ran out in a hurry.

Thirty minutes later, I witnessed the screaming of the woman who was delivering her baby in the room next door.  She was in a lot of pain, that’s all I can gather.  I had to turn the television on with the volume a little bit higher than normal just to try to drown out the painful screams.  At one point I heard her scream, “Get it out!  GET IT OUT! PLEASE GET IT OUT!”  I seriously thought I was going to faint, and I wasn’t the one in labor.

Doug was still at the hospital with me when this was happening, and he told me, “I don’t ever remember you screaming like that.  You looked so calm.”

“Probably because I had an epidural,” I told him. “I was too drugged up to scream.”

After several hours of monitoring and blood pressure checks, my pressures came down, especially when laying on my left side.  I didn’t get much sleep while there, however, and I’m so glad to be home this morning.

Another 24-hour urine collection has been ordered, and results will be received later this evening after I drop off the jug of pee.  Ugh.  I hate these collections.  Such a gross thing to carry around.

The doctor still isn’t certain why I was having such a hard time last night, but thank God it’s over and I can rest at home.  Dorothy was right when she said there’s no place like it.

October 1, 2009

37 Weeks: In the Home Stretch

Today, I am 37 weeks pregnant.  I had a doctor’s appointment today.  This week I had to have my lady parts swabbed for Group B Strep (GBS), and my cervix checked for further dilation.  My fabulous doctor shared the great news that I’m two centimeters dilated and 50% effaced, and he believes labor will progress and my baby boy will be born sometime next week.  Let’s hope so, because Dr. F is on call that week.  I’d kind of like to have him deliver this huge (now over 7 pounds) baby.

My other doctor (I’ve got two because of my history with high risk pregnancies), Dr. B, wanted to induce labor at 38 weeks (NEXT WEEK!) but Dr. F has said he prefers to wait until 39 weeks because ultrasounds can be off as much as 8 ounces to one pound (either way) and induction can put me at risk for other medical complications and interventions.

My fundal height (from pubic bone to the top of my uterus) is measuring 44 cm, which is a large measurement for only 37 weeks gestation, so the odds are in favor of this baby being on the larger side.  However, I’m not a petite gal and part of that measurement needs to allow for my “extra padding” (a polite way of putting it, I suppose).

After the appointment I was thinking about this pregnancy.  While there have been some rough moments, it hasn’t been as horrible as I thought it would be, nor as bad as other doctors and nurses predicted.  Still no real symptoms of pre-eclampsia, which makes me very happy, but the risk of sudden onset in these last few weeks is still high.  I’m doing my best to drink lots of water, to keep taking my blood pressure pill (I forgot one day last week) and to rest as much as possible.

The rest part of pregnancy is the hardest for me to accomplish.  I no longer sleep at night due to the tossing, turning, getting up to pee, getting up for a drink of water and constant poking and prodding by the little person living inside of me.

My husband and other family members are taking bets as to when I’ll deliver.  One friend thinks I’m going to give birth during the Monday night, Packers vs. Vikings, football game.  My Packers face-off with Brett Favre and the Vikings.  This is a huge game.  I hope I don’t spend my time laboring and watching from a hospital delivery room.

Another friend believes I’ll deliver on my wedding anniversary on October 13th.  I really don’t want to share that day with a baby’s birth, so I’ll just cross my legs that day.

Doug thinks the baby will arrive at the end of next week, causing us to miss our neighbor’s daughter’s wedding that we RSVP’d to over a month ago.  That would be just like our luck; to make plans and have God decide that this baby will be born then.  If this happens, I will laugh.  Laugh hysterically.  I find it funny.

Speaking of funny, when Dr. F checked my reflexes today, I could not stop giggling.  He used the side of his palm instead of that reflex instrument.  When he checked the left leg first, it looked like he was karate-chopping my knee and I broke into a fit of giggles.  I have no idea why.  My doctor was laughing, too, and it was just hysterical.

“Vhat is so funny?” he said in his Ukranian accent.

“I have no idea,” I said.  “I just can’t stop laughing.”

“Ah…yes.  Pregnancy does funny things to vimmen.” he replied.

And the giggling continued.

I’m in good spirits today.  This is a good thing because just a few days ago I was a raging lunatic yelling at everyone in my path.  I’m blaming hormones.

Thank God I’m in a better mood.  Perhaps it’s because the end of this pregnancy and the birth of my beautiful baby is near!

Here’s hoping…