quick update

I realize I haven’t posted an update, but I had forgotten how much you forget about a newborn sucking your life force. . I love every minute of it. Worth it!

Gwen is finally eating well on her own without the use of her feeding tube. They even removed the blasted thing around 2:30am today! We are praying and optimistic the doctor will tell us she can come home when he comes in later.

Healing from her birth has been AMAZINGLY easier than it was with JD. I didn’t feel this good after his birth for months! Emotionally I’ve already had some challenges I didn’t have with him, but it is worth it and we’ll get through it.

Oh and the lung issue ended up being under development not infection. After a few days hooked up to a CPAP machine she was able to breath on her own.

I need to go feed her now so I’ll post more later, hopefully from home.

Long First Day

Since I was in labor all night I didn’t get a lot of sleep but once I got down to my room on the Mother and Baby floor all I could think about was Gwen, and if she’d be able to be in the room with us.  JD never was, he stayed in the NICU.

Just a couple hours later the nurse wheeled in my precious baby girl!  I was so excited I stayed awake most of the day to look at her, love her and feed her.  I’m glad now that I did.

Around 8:00pm the nurse came in to check Gwen’s vitals.  She was just asleep in her little bed but her breathing had turned rapid since I had put her there.  They took her back to the nursery to see if she would calm down but it didn’t and they ended up having to call a doctor.

2 doctors, and one neonatal specialist later our little Gwen is in the Level 2 NICU.  In the bed right next to the one her brother was in almost 23 months ago.

We are waiting on lab work to figure out if it’s an infection or immature lungs.  She is on a CPAP machine now and her lung x-ray “wasn’t great, but wasn’t horrible” according to the doctors.  They have also started her on antibiotics incase it is an infection.  The antibiotics will require her to stay in the NICU for at least 48 hours.

Later this morning I hope to get more information about the situation.  I went in and checked on her about an hour ago and she was sleeping, all hooked up to the monitors and machines.  Brought back a lot of memories from JD’s birth.  At least this time I feel a bit more prepared.

I’ll keep you all posted.

Our Baby Girl

Monday morning I went to my first of two 35 week  NST/AFT appointments alone.  We figured she wasn’t going to come till next week so Jeremy needed to save his time off.  At that appointment we found out that my fluid had dropped to 5.6 cm (anything lower than a 5 your classified as having a condition called Oligohydramnis).  The appointment that morning lasted quite a while since the doctors were trying to decide if they should induce me a week earlier than they had planned the amniocentesis.

They finally sent me home but I had to go back the next morning and have another NST/AFI done instead of waiting till Wednesday.

Mom went with me Tuesday morning.  We dropped JD off at Trish’s house (THANKS AGAIN) and headed down to UVRMC in Provo.  When they checked my fluid this time it was at a 3.7-9? (can’t remember the exact number).  Sure enough within 30 minutes or so we were sent to AF Hospital to be induced.  With her fluid that low the risk of a cord injury or growth restriction is high.

Mom and I headed north and I called Jeremy to let him know he needed to leave work and meet me at the hospital.  We stopped by the house to grab a bag since I’d refused to put one together ahead of time.  We got to the hospital around 10:30am.

At first things went pretty quickly.  The same doctor that was on call during JD’s delivery was on call for this one so he knew the plan.  They started me on Pitocin at noon and I quickly dilated from 1cm to 3+cm by about 3pm.  At this point I was given the epidural.   Oh that blasted epidural…

I am not given an option with the epidural.   I am required to have one because of my heart.  With an epidural they usually pump a mom full of liquids to compensate for your blood vessels dilating after you get the pain medication.  They restrict my liquids so I have to be started on a very low dose of pain medication and then they will gradually increase it throughout the labor.  It was all explained VERY well to us this time around.  About 30 minutes after getting the epidural I was chatting with the nurse and immediately knew something wasn’t right.  I’d had my blood pressure dip once during JD’s labor and I knew what it felt like.  The nurse said I went white as a sheet very suddenly and sure enough I was at 77/44 and dropping(normal is 90/60-130/80).  Within minutes I was flat on my back getting oxygen and I was getting my first shot (of 3 during the next 24 hours) of ephedrine to bring my blood pressure back up.  The effect is almost instant and within 10 minutes I felt fine.  He ended up turning down the epidural even a little more so I honestly could have walked around if they would have let me.  My legs were not really numb at all.  He explained that if I started to feel pain with the contractions to tell him and he would gradually increase the dose.

After that whole fiasco the doctor came in and broke my water, at this point I was almost at 4cm dilated and we expected things to go quickly.  With JD’s labor it took me much longer to get to 4cm and once I hit 5cm he was born within 2 hours.

My pitocin was eventually turned all the way up as high as they go, and finally at 5pm I was dialated to 4cm.  Since the contractions weren’t really close together they didn’t check me again till 9pm and there had been no change at all.

At 12:30am I had “maybe” changed 1/2 a cm.  By this point in time we were on our 3rd nurse since we kept getting the 6 hour shift nurses and not the 12 hour ones (I don’t think they expected us to be there this long).  The doctor ordered my Pitocin stopped and then restarted 30 minutes to “kick start” things a little.

My contractions started to get stronger but every time I’d ask a nurse to call about increasing the epidural .  Around 4am I finally got a nurse to call and they did increase the epidural slightly.  This was the only time I got it turned up at all.  At that point in time I was still hanging out around 4cm and starting to get very discouraged.

My nurse came in and decided to check me at 5:45am since she would be switching with another nurse soon.  I was at 4+cm still.

At 6pm I told Jeremy to go get mom and Trish who were down the hall since the contractions were getting really painful.  I figured we had about 2 hours left maybe.  As soon as he got back I told him to grab a nurse because I was feeling a ton of pressure.

At 6:10am I was 8cm dilated.  She was shocked since they had JUST been talking about delivering me c-section.  She left the room and no more than 2 minutes after she left I told Jer to get another nurse that I felt the need to push.

At 6:15am I was fully dilated and ready to go.  The new nurse that JUST got there told me to “hold on” while she got the doctor and extra staff since Gwen was 5 weeks early.  I was not pleased and wanted to just tell her to catch since I was sure Gwen was coming out even if I tried to hold on.

Lucky for all of us my doctor happened to be at the hospital already.  When he was ready for me to start pushing I asked him about the forceps and he said he wasn’t going to use them.  I was THRILLED at this point and only 3 contractions later Gwen came screaming into the world.

Gwendolyn Olive Brierley M. was born at 6:40am and weighed 6 lbs. 6 oz. and was 19.5 inches long.  Her head is full of dark hair and while she still has her daddy’s eyes a little I believe she’s going to look more like mommy.

She was born just one day further into the pregnancy than JD was.  Weighed 3 oz less than him and was 1/2 an inch taller.

Since this post is already very long I’ll tell you about the rest of her fist day in this world in a new one.

 

The Final Countdown

At today’s high risk appointment we got the final details for when to expect Gwen.

All the lab work I had done over the weekend looks great, and my blood pressure has actually dropped.  The amniotic fluid has risen and her umbilical cord is functioning well.  All of these things are GREAT signs.   Today the doctor decided that on November 30th she’ll do an amniocentesis and make sure that Gwen’s lungs are developed.  As long as they are we’ll be induced that day!!  If they aren’t then she’ll have me induced the next week with no amniocentesis.  We are all very doubtful that her lungs will be underdeveloped since she’s had the steroids to speed the development and JD’s were good at 35 weeks without the help of steroids.

After all that good news we had the NST.  For the first time ever she wasn’t a lazy baby.  As a matter of fact, she was too active.  Did you know that they can be too active?  I didn’t.  Her heart rate was pretty high and so we ended up staying for a while till they could get it to come down and stay down.  If they hadn’t been able to then she might have been born tonight.    Never a dull moment with this one.

I’m still stuck on strict bed rest but at least now there is an end in sight.

Strict Bed Rest

Maybe I shouldn’t have posted my super optimistic post about making it to 37 weeks. Apparently it jinxed me.

Today at my scheduled NST/AFI Gwen wasn’t moving around. I’ve now gotten used to this and we call he a lazy baby. Today she was so lazy they had to do another BPP. During the ultrasound they found out that my amniotic fluid had dropped down to a 5. Anything below 5 can mean immediate delivery, apparently normal is above 10.

She passed her BPP thanks to the fact that she has breathing movements and started to kick. The doctor however told me I couldn’t do any more of my NST at that hospital. I now have to go to UVRMC for all of them since that’s where they could handle a baby born before 34 weeks. I asked if next week (I’ll be 34 weeks then) I can come back to AF hospital and she said no. Ya sure, the Periantologist is stationed at UVRMC but my OB’s don’t deliver there so if she does have to be taken I’d have a doctor I don’t know delivering her. I’m going to ask one of the other high risk doc’s about it on Friday.

When I got home I called to schedule all the tests. I found out that this friday they not only want the normal NST/AFI but a full ultrasound to make sure she is still growing. The nurse also asked if the doctor had mentioned that I’m on strict bed rest now. NO, she didn’t. I was not thrilled and cried when I got off the phone. Just getting out of bed to go to the restroom is no ones idea of fun. I can “prop” up to eat then I have to lay back down on either side. This will be great for the heartburn.

Jeremy is now going to start going to all my NST appointments with me just in case they do have to do a c-section, otherwise he’d miss her birth. While I want to stay optimistic about making it to 37 weeks the doctor today made it sound like she just wanted me to get past Saturday. At this rate with all this roller coaster stuff, friday they may decide to let me go overdue!!! Okay, probably not.

Knee Pain and Pregnancy

For about a week or so I’ve been having some weird knee pain at night.  It will literally wake me up wanting to scream if I’m trying to roll over.  Rather than freak out and call a doctor I decided to find out if this is one of those weird pregnancy things.  You know the things that don’t always happen to people but can so you don’t hear about it.  Guess what.  IT IS.  Lucky me.  Here is what I found out.

“Hormonal changes during pregnancy also play a role in knee pain. During the third trimester, hormones are released to loosen up the pelvic ligaments and tendons in preparation for childbirth. But the hormones don’t just trigger looseness in the pelvic area — they can also cause other ligaments and tendons to loosen, including those around the knees, says Dr. Stuchin. “This can make things a little unstable.” As a result, the kneecap may not track exactly right, resulting in knee pain.” – To read full article click here.  I also found a lot of medical studies on the subject but they can be hard to understand unless you actually know all the medical terminology.

I figured it was something to do with the ligaments because when it woke me up for the 3rd time last night I took some time to massage it and the sides of my knee were quite sore.  I also had to manipulate the patella back into place.  Yep, you read that right, my knee cap wasn’t in the right place.  I think it’s because I’m sleeping on my side so the weight of the top leg pressing on my knee is screwing things up.  I may make an appointment with my family doctor just to get some knee braces to sleep in if it gets any worse.

Hopefully some tricky changes during sleep will help the problem.  It’s become sore during the days too so Tylenol is going to become my friend until I deliver. 

37 week optimism

I have started to be optimistic that we will have a full term baby girl at 37 weeks.  This week I’ve felt better than I have the entire pregnancy.  I’m dreaming about what it would be like to have a normal delivery with out all the extra garbage.  To be able to see her for more than 2 seconds before they whisk her away to a NICU and to be able to have the hospital stay be over for both of us at the same time.  JD was never in my room with me, and so that would be a whole new experience.

My cardiology appointment yesterday was quick and uneventful.  I have another one in 2 weeks where they will do another heart echo.

The OB today was joking with me and also optimistic that we’d have no problem making it to 37 weeks for the amniocentesis and delivery.  He said I didn’t need to do a 24 hour urine collection like they had planned on because my blood pressure was still looking spectacular!  I’m even 10 pounds lighter than I was with JD’s pregnancy at this point.

My NST’s are interesting since Gwen really loves to use that time to sleep.  So far I’ve only had one where they haven’t had to try and wake her up.  During todays test they checked my amniotic fluid levels and they are almost double what they were last week when I was in the hospital.    I’ve been really good about drinking a lot of water the past week and so maybe that’s helped.   The high risk doctor I see during the tests is also really optimistic we’ll make it to the week after Thanksgiving.

Don’t get me wrong with all this new found optimism.  I still hate being pregnant, but if the entire pregnancy were like this past week has been I’d be a HAPPY camper!  The only real problems I’ve had this week is some sciatica acting up again but I think that’s because I didn’t spend much time down in bed this week.   Even my heartburn has seemed to tone down.

I have a big appointment with the high risk specialists the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  While I’d love them to do the amniocentesis then since Jer has off Thanksgiving,  I believe they will wait until the following week.  I don’t have a lot of doubt that she’ll be ready since JD’s lungs were at 35 weeks and he never got the steroid shots she did.