Monday, November 25, 2013

Week 35: What's Happening

How Far Along:  35 weeks 1 day (though she seems to be in a hurry to come out!)

Baby's size: approx 18" around 5 lbs - the size of a large Coconut.

Total Weight Gain: 30 lbs 

Maternity Clothes? No other choice. 

Stretch Marks? YES. 

Best Moment this Week: This week held more bad than good. I guess the best moment was when the doctor was able to stop early labor and we were able to come home... twice. :)

Miss Anything? Right now I am missing my freedom. I've been on bed rest since Friday and Jeremy is taking the 'bed rest' term quite literally. Either I'm in bed, on the couch or in the bathroom. LOL. Gee thanks!

Movement: Still moving like a superstar! Doctor checked today and she still has quite a bit of amniotic fluid in her space so there is room to move around and she is all about swimming!

Food Cravings: I was craving chinese food after the hospital visit - and though we tried to drive thru Panda - Jeremy got lost and we ended up having to eat in at Sanam Thai by our house. At least the food was good - however they gave me chicken on my plate so I had to send it back. It was only then that they realized that I was pregnant. LOL. Sorry to the servers... I am sure that they weren't expecting that sort of reaction to chicken!

What Makes you Queasy: Chicken. Empty stomach.  

Gender: It's a girl!

Labor signs? YES! Scary but true. On Wednesday night I started having pains and just went to bed. On Thursday morning they were still present. I called and left a message for Dr. Medrano saying if he thought it was urgent to give me a call back. At about 130 I called him again because they still hadn't subsided. At 4:30 (close to 24 hours after the pain started) he told me to go to the hospital. He had a few deliveries happening that evening so he would come and check on me as much as possible. So I cleaned up at the office and headed home to get Jeremy. 

When we got to the hospital, the nurses hooked me up to the monitors and could see contractions happening. They checked my cervix and she said I was dilated to 1cm and effaced. (Not words you want to hear before your 37th week!)  The doctor ordered the shot, Terbutaline which can stop labor early on because it relaxes the soft muscles (uterus) and stops contractions. They also were going to hook me up to an IV for fluids. 

The terbutaline has a side effect of adrenaline and anxiety feeling right after administered. The nurses warned me of that and I was fine... until the girl started poking me for an IV. After the 2nd try (in the places I told her didn't work in the past), I started to feel woozy - and instead of stopping and giving me a moment to recover - she continued to poke around for another spot. NOTE - I have had more than my share of needles and IVs in my lifetime, so they do not phase me in the slightest. It was the combination of the anxiety side effect and the needless over poking that caused me to feel this way. 

I passed out for a moment, causing the blood flow to help me (the host) and pulled away from the baby, which made her heart stop for a moment - and then all of a sudden there were 15 nurses in my room screaming about a gurney and the operating room for a 'crash c-section'. When I realized they were talking about me I started saying "NO I'm fine," over and over again until one of the nurses finally heard me - and saw that the baby was recovering - and told everyone to wait. Right at that second Dr. Medrano came in - it took him a second to realize what was happening and then he scolded the nurses and told them that mom and baby look fine and to get the gurney out of there. They had to do some bloodwork after that but this one nurse, I didn't get her name but she was really smart - she told the other nurses that they shouldn't poke me again, and she was able to take the blood out of the IV that had been set in place with an iddy biddy baby needle. 

Anyways, thankfully Dr. Medrano came in and saved the day. Seeing him calmed me down quite a bit and made both Jeremy and I feel more confident. It was our first time ever going into Labor & Delivery - and this happens right away! 

After a few hours and another shot of the terbutaline my contractions stopped and Dr Medrano said that my cervix had closed. He sent us home - I was to be on bedrest until Monday and come in if ANYTHING else happens. 

And on Saturday the contractions returned so off to the hospital we went.... AGAIN. Same thing, dilated with contractions and effacing. Dr Medrano ordered more of the shots and again after 2 of them we were able to go home. He also ordered some tests this time and found out that I have an infection that is causing me to go into early labor. I was able to have the antibiotics at the hospital via IV which last 48 hours - but am allergic to the pill forms of anything that they can give me to treat this late in pregnancy - so we were at a standstill. 

This morning we went in to see him and he put me on bedrest for the rest of the pregnancy. We are trying one pill form antibiotic that he hopes will help with the infection, its risky this late as well, but it increases her odds of staying put for a few more weeks so the Doctor just wants us to go in at any sign of change. Hopefully they will work. 

Symptoms: Swollen feet, Aches, Pains, Labored Breathing, Lower Back Pain, lack of sleep and contractions. :(

Wedding Rings On or Off?  Off.

Mood: I was worried on Thursday. I felt really unprepared too! We hadn't packed our hospital bag or put the carseat in yet. Jeremy and I did that on Friday (mostly him doing the hard stuff, me just telling him what I needed). Now we are all set and the car is packed. When we went back on Saturday we felt much more prepared. We had had a test run - we failed it, lol - but our second test run was much better!

What's the Daddy-to-be Doing? I was so proud of him in the hospital. He is the one who is scared of needles and doctors and hospitals but he kept his game face the whole time and was the alert, strong one when it was needed. While we were waiting for the contractions to stop on Thursday, he started asking what stuff we had left to do before she came, so we opened up my Todoist app and started going through the list. It's only been 3 days but we have already finished most of it! He even emailed his office to let them know I was on bedrest and that he would not be able to do a lot of the onsite visits that he has been doing, but he will continue to monitor everything remotely. 

Notes to the Little One: Okay kiddo, so I know that I said that we COULDN'T WAIT to meet you, but please don't misunderstand! We CAN wait until you are 100% ready to meet us ;) Which won't be for at least 2 more weeks. So stay put! We all want you to be ready - your daddy was early and he has had terrible asthma and allergies as a result. We need you to stay put until your lungs are fully formed - so no earlier than week 37! We promise to give you the same amount of love as you would get now :) so there is no reason you can't wait a little bit longer!

Besides its Elizabeth Claire and Baby Irwin's week to come. Stop trying to steal their birthdays! 

Sorry no pics this week - with all the commotion we didn't have time to take a picture, and when we saw the doctor this morning we were so distracted with what the plan was that he didn't push the button for the print outs. Next week we should have a photo. :)