Preclampsia

Well, I guess that this will be the last of my pregnancy posts. Then we will have to start a new trend with NICU updates.

This adventure started before I even knew it was happening. Sunday I had a couple times when I was seeing spots, but I just figured that I had been up too long and needed to rest. Gavin and I had slept in that morning and weren't extremely tired when we tried to go to bed. We stayed up late talking and I had to get up in the morning because we had people coming to clean our house. I hadn't slept well, but got up and waited for them to come.

As the day continued I started to get a headache. It wasn't horrible, but wasn't pleasant either. I was laying on the couch trying to get some work done, but having a hard time. Gavin got off work around 5 and had to run some errands. He picked up bread bowls at Kiwi Loco. I had eaten about half of mine and wasn't really feeling well. Out of no where I started to get some really bad chest pain. I progressed quickly and I was bent over the couch in extreme pain. Gavin called the hospital and they told him that is sounded like heart burn. They told me to take some tums and see if it would resolve. I took two and it lessened my symptoms for about an hour. As the pain started to come back we knew that we weren't staying home this time.

Gavin drove me to the emergency room and eventually they got me up to labor and delivery in a room. I had taken two more tums before we had come up so my pain was under control as they were setting up the monitors. They weren't really all that concerned with my chest pain or my contractions after they started to monitor my blood pressure. It was pretty high. I think the first one they took was 150/104. They continued to take my blood pressure ever 5 minutes. At one point it had gone up to 175/106. They did some blood tests and after they results came back the doctor came in to talk to us.

While Jack was doing well, I on the other hand was not. The doctor told us that I had severe preclampsia. My blood pressure was extremely high, my liver enzymes were elevated and my platelets were very low. Preclampsia put you at risk for seizures, stroke and puts both me and the baby at risk of death. The only cure for preclampsia is delivering the baby. The plan was to give me a steroid shot and start me on a magnesium drip. That would make sure I didn't go into labor long enough for the steroids to due Jack some good.

So we started the adventure again of hourly vital checks and getting up every two hours to use the bathroom. They were collecting my fluids for 24 hours. I wasn't allowed to eat anything, not fun. In the morning I was pretty tired, but really I was hungry. I figured that I wasn't going to be induced until the next day so they would let me eat breakfast. Turns out that wasn't going to happen.

The doctor came in again and let us know that my labs from the morning had come back and my liver was shutting down. They didn't have time to wait until the next day. So at nine a.m. Tuesday morning they started a pitocin drip.

Week 32!

Well all the doctors get excited about week 32, so YAY for week 32! My doctor said that none of them really expected me to get this far. I guess all this laying around has done something (or has it). My appointment was really short because the doctor got a call to go deliver a baby and I didn't want to wait around for who knows how long for him to come back.

I'm still off my medication. My contractions vary sometimes I'll get 11 in an hour and sometimes I'll have 3. There were a couple times I probably could have gone to the hospital, but I'm sick of them giving me that nasty drug, so usually I just wait it out. Some of my contractions have been a little uncomfortable, as in I can feel them, but they aren't really painful.

My doctor said that I still can't increase my activity level yet. They want to keep me on my progesterone gel until 36 weeks. My next appointment isn't for two weeks. That seems like an eternity. Hopefully we won't have to go in before that point. We will see what the Christmas excitement brings. So pretty much an uneventful week.

31 weeks

As per my previous post, the last week has been more drama than it was worth. Today I made it to 31 weeks! I woke up having contractions which just continued clear through my appointment. I think I had close to 24 in 2 hours. I got a lot more attention at my appointment than expected.  A lot more test than were first scheduled. They did a fetal non-stress. (I'm not sure why because I've has six hours of monitoring in the last six weeks). Just like normal Jack was doing fine. The thing it did pick up was the fact that I was having a good amount of contractions.

Next, we ventured to the ultra sound room. I've had so many of them at this point that I'm getting pretty good at knowing what they are finding before the doctor tells me. This is nice because I hate waiting and they don't always tell me all the details I want to know. On a good note my cervical length hasn't changed. I'm still sitting pretty at 1.4 c.m. Then they checked my fluid level. It increased from last time, but only to 9.  As a reference, I increased back to 14 the last time they took me off the medicine.

After the ultra sound, they moved us to an exam room. I sat on the table for probably 25-30 minutes before the doctor came in. Good thing I had Gavin with me to entertain me. They repeated my fetal fibronectin test (the one that says if I'm in labor or not). It came back negative. This was probably the most informative appointment we have had. They didn't put me back on the sulindac. I was going to ask them not to anyway. We are continuing with the progersterone gel until 36 weeks. The plan is to get me to 32 weeks and then to 37 weeks. The doctor said that really I'm not in true labor until I'm having 15-20 contractions an hour. So unless my contractions start to feel uncomfortable or painful I don't need to go to the hospital.

So we get to continue with the bed rest. Instructions to drink lots of water and take it easy. The thought of being on bed rest for another 6 weeks doesn't sound fun, but it seems more do-able at this point. Plus the less time Jack has to spend in the NICU the better.

Nothing good on TV in the middle of the night

Well I'm just going to make this post short and sweet, because let's face it every time I go to the hospital the story is the same. I was having contractions about 3 minutes apart. It take an hour for them to decide what to do once I get there, even though I've been having them for the past three hours. They put me on the awful medicine. My contractions slow down and they send me home after checking my cervix. Of course I'm not dilated at all. Why would contractions shorten my cervix and do nothing to dilate it? I don't know the answer, but I'm guess it is because of the progesterone they have me on. So we were at the hospital from 2:00 a.m. to 5:15 a.m. Not exciting. Some time I wish I would have all these contractions during the day so I could get some sleep.

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow. So hopefully we will get some information on what the plan is at this point. The hospital staff keep throwing out "let's get you to full term." And to be honest with you a part of me is hoping that it won't be that long. I don't know if I can do this for another 7 weeks.

An extra visit

I'm sorry if all this hospital talk is getting redundant, but it is pretty much all that consumes my life right now. Yesterday, only one day since I stopped taking my medicine, I laid on the couch while Gavin and our friend Greg worked on the windows. I had been having contractions like usual all day long, but around five they shot up to 6 in a hour. The next hour I had 8 and they continued about that rate while we got ready to go to the hospital. I was hoping we were going to make it a few more days without having to go in, but no such luck.

I'm always frustrated with how long it takes to get things going once we get checked in. I feel like even at 30 weeks they would be in more of a hurry to get the situation assessed and start some intervention to get my contractions stopped. By the time they got everything working right I was having contractions every 3-5 minutes. The nurse came in and said they were going to start terbutaline. This was the medicine they gave me the last time I was in the hospital. It is not my favorite drug and I really didn't feel like it was very effective. I told the nurse this, but she said they would try three doses and if it still wasn't working they would try something else.

I thought it was weird that the doctor hadn't come in to talk to me about what he was thinking, turns out he wasn't even at the hospital. I understand it is the weekend, but I was really irritated. What if there was an emergency? How long would it take the doctor to get to the hospital. So they started the first dose. It worked for about an hour and then my contractions started again. They gave me another dose. This one lasted about two hours. So they started the third dose. 30 minutes later the nurse came back in. I had not had a contraction yet. She had called the doctor and he said to check me for dilation. If I wasn't dilated then I could go home.

I feel like some people are just better than others at checking your cervix. The last doctor who check my cervix was awesome and it didn't even hurt. I wish that I could show them how it feels to have fingers shoved into soft tissue. Maybe I should just poke their eye and see how they like it. Needless to say, it was not comfortable. I wasn't dilated and they promptly gave me my discharge instructions and had me shipped out the door. I went home knowing full well that I will end up going back. Although, maybe it will keep my contractions down for a couple days.

Gavin and I left for the hospital around 7:30 and go home around 2:30 a.m. The medicine they gave me makes me super shaky and increases my heart rate. They didn't even let it calm down before they sent me packing. I was sure with my contractions being that consistent I would start dilating, but apparently not. I told Gavin when I woke up this morning that maybe my cervix would never dilate and I would have to have a c-section. I was only joking....but what if that could actually happen.

So here's to hoping I don't end up back at the hospital again today!

On the happy side, the Boise State game was on and they won the Championship!

Week 30

Another doctor's visit down. This visit went about how I expected it to. We got to have  a full ultra sound this week to check the growth of the baby. We got a couple pictures of his feet and hands. For some reason every time we get the ultra sound done Jack has his arms covering his face. But who can blame him? My fluid was really low this week in the 4.5 range. As a reference it was 10 last week and 8 is at the bottom of the normal range. Needless to say he doesn't have a lot of room in there.

Because amniotic fluid is needed for proper lung development the doctor has once gain taken me off my medication. Last time this happened my contractions increased and my cervix shortened almost a centimeter within a week. Now that I'm past the 30 week mark they aren't measuring my cervical length anymore. I guess that means they are okay with him coming if that is what happens.

Everything on the ultra sound, except my fluid level, looked really good. Jack is still measuring about a week ahead of my due date. He has always been a little ahead this whole pregnancy. Gavin is convinced Jack will have his big head, as his head is measuring 2 weeks ahead. Jack in now weighing in at 3.5 lbs.

I really want to last as long a Jack needs me to on bed rest, but my body is really hating me right now. The past few days have been rough. My back and neck are just begging me to stop laying around on the couch. My hips hate me for all of this sleeping on my side business. My arms and legs continue to atrophy and it might be a good thing Jack is little when he is born so that I will be able to hold him. I've already started planning my recovery program in my head. It is going to take a lot of work.

I asked the doctor how long Jack would be in the NICU if I had him within the next week. He said probably around 4-5 weeks. We've got to fatten him up. I'll try to keep you updated on any developments. Hopefully we can make it to my next appointment with no trips to the hospital.