Further down the road

So I'm now almost 31 weeks pregnant (depending on who you ask) and things are much better than they were in my last post. I am no longer a lunatic pregnant woman, I'm much more stable and sane! A lot has happened since my last post which has led to me being on bedrest and being watched like a hawk by doctors, nurses and midwives. So I'll just bring you up to date.

I had done the genetic screening just like I did with my last pregnancy and had a feeling it would come back with the same result as it did with my son, Emery's pregnancy even though the chances are pretty slim of this happening twice. Well I was right; my alpha fetoprotien levels came back elevated again. This could mean a number of things; the most obvious being the baby could have spina bifida. Other possible outcomes include: fetal demise, poor fetal growth, high blood pressure or preeclampsia, preterm labor, bleeding during pregnancy; all of these can be linked to a faulty placenta.

So the first thing that happens when you "pass" this genetic test is a detailed ultrasound on the baby to check for spina bifida, baby looked wonderful! We had a second ultrasound 2 weeks later and a third 2 weeks after that with a perinatologist. We came back for another ultrasound 5 weeks later and baby still looked healthy but I had mentioned to the perinatologist that I had been having very strong and frequent braxton hicks contractions. I was 27 weeks pregnant at the time and was immediately sent up to labor and delivery for observation.

So we (my friend and I) waited while I was hooked up to the monitoring machine while listening to women moan and cry in labor all around me. An incompetent resident came in to ask me questions that I had already been asked 8 times by 8 other people; any bleeding, allergies, problems, contractions, bla bla bla. While he was there I had 2 or 3 contractions where I had to stop conversation with them because they were overwhelmingly uncomfortable and full of pressure on my lungs. I told him when I was having them so I figured he had caught on. Well I was wrong, ten minutes after he left, he came back and asked me if I had had any contractions since being there. I just looked at him with amazement and said, " Umm I had like 2 while you were talking with me, I even told you when I had them!" He looked at the monitor and said he saw absolutely no contractions. I was mad at this point and told him that I have had a child before and know what they feel like. He then told me that he is not implying that I don't know what I'm feeling, he's just trying to figure out what else these might be. Anyway so they sent me home and that was that...Until the next day

I was on the skytrain on my way to work and sure enough contractions started up ever 6-7 minutes. I knew something was up but was afraid to even acknowledge it because of the crappy experience I had the day before. I made it all the way to South Vancouver and worked for half an hour before paging my midwife. She told me to get Surrey memorial asap. By the time I got back to surrey, the contractions were 3-5 minutes apart and I might have been freaking out a bit in my mind. My midwife met me there and did a few swabs to test for things one of which being the fetal fibronectin swab. How this test works is if it comes back negative then you have a 99.9% chance of NOT going into labor in the next 2 weeks. If it comes back positive it's sort of inconclusive. Well mine came back positive so I was given a steroid shot, something to slow contractions and then transferred by ambulance to the same horrid hospital I was at the day before.

This time I was taken more seriously, and put in a tiny room with no windows and back on the monitors. contractions slowed but only for a while. After 3 days of being in this itty bitty room and having roller coaster contractions and being told baby is a -2 station I'm 1.5 cm dilated and my cervix had gone from  3.5 cm in length to  1 cm in length, I was moved upstairs to maternity to a lovely spacious room with many windows and other people to talk to. That lasted a day and a half and then my blood pressure shot up and I felt very ill and my contractions were 1 minute apart and painful. I was brought back down to L&D where I was told that nothing had changed but they were going to keep me down for the night. Another tiny room with the smallest bed I could have possibly fit on and thankfully being brought back up to my 5 star room the next morning.

Then another ultrasound revealing, ITS A GIRL!!! and that my cervix was actually 2.8 cm long. During the next week I had another exciting trip to L&D, the worlds most disgusting medication to again attempt to stop things and my cervix re shortened itself to a 1. I thought I was never going home, but I was wrong. after 10 days of being in the hospital, I was sent home to be on bedrest with nurses coming over twice a week to monitor baby and me as well as call me everyday. Contractions are quite a bit More crampy since I've been home but otherwise fine. I have an ultrasound today to check on baby and my pesky cervix which will bring my grand total of ultrasounds so far to 7!

Being home is amazing, but harder to just sit around when I see things that need to be done. On top of that, Emery got a strange stomach bug that had him vomiting for 3 days and scared the crap out of us. He's okay now though thank god! We also had our one year wedding anniversary which was very nice even though it was not what I had pictured. I love my husband and our little guy and this little woman who has already put us through such turmoil, See I knew it was a girl!!

Atasha