Two More Weeks!

I saw my OB on Tuesday. She was actually there….well, she was late, but I still saw her! The receptionist didn't ask me if I was pregnant this time, phew!!! (roll eyes) The visit went well. She said that in the end, it turns out that my waters didn't rupture after all!!!! (uhm, isn't that what I said???? LOL) But I still leaked, so I'm still on Bed Rest. (well, she called it "lounging"!!!!) But just for two more weeks!!! She said that after 34 weeks, all should be fine and if I get up and Woosh, I go into labor, it's all fine, I'll likely be taking a baby home! Yay!!! She predicts that this baby is already over 4lbs….which would be so strange! Let's not get it TOO big, sheesh, I don't know if my body can actually HAVE a typical baby!!!!!! I don't know what she is basing this guestimation on… my size??? I'm measuring on target, I haven't gained much weight at all. I'm reminded that we also though Kai would be over 5lbs too….. ;) I need to see the dietician just to see if we can get my numbers tweaked, although things are looking pretty good for my Gestational Diabetes. My numbers are a little high still, but not drastic, in her opinion.

I saw my doctor at the Mat Clinic this afternoon and it was more of a "catch up" visit since I hadn't seen her in a month. She also discussed the Antibody Thing with me a bit more, which is what I was wondering she wanted to see me about. The OB tried to tell me about it. Apparently it is VERY rare (since I am Positive, not negative, in blood type) (Antibody -JKA) which is why there is practically No information out there on it! It means that this baby will likely be jaundiced (anemic), but the bigger worry is on me. If anything were to happen to me and I needed a blood transfusion, it is Imperative that they know of the antibodies as if I am given the wrong blood type (even the universal donor)….well, yeah, it's not good. The OB mentioned that I should consider getting a medic alert bracelet. I thought that was interesting. I was thinking then, "what for? I mean, if I'm only going to be pregnant for another 2-4 weeks…the bracelet won't get to me in time! And it's not like I'm left on my own much…." But then my Wonderful, Beautiful, Extremely Smart and Helpful Sister (*big grin* all true) said that she wondered if it meant that I'll have this the rest of my life. H'mm…that hadn't occurred to me (obviously) We still don't even know HOW I have this!!! The OB speculated that maybe it could've happened during a previous pregnancy…. that maybe some blood mixed? I don't know. All I know is that this is VERY RARE and there is NO info out there (that I could find). *roll eyes* only me!


My doctor mentioned that my Antibody Thing is going to be with me forever, so I'll need to get a bracelet in case I were in a car accident and needed a transfusion or something. If I'm given the wrong type of blood it would be fatal, which is a scary thought. But I don't plan on being in any accidents and needing transfusions, LOL :) She also said that I MAY need to see a pediatrician before the baby is born, but I can't remember why. I'll be seeing one after baby arrives just to keep an eye on this antibody thing and the anemia. I guess the baby could be jaundiced for longer than normal and we don't want it to reach dangerous levels. I had my blood test to check to see if my antibodies are increasing or not today. I'm not too sure what that would mean though. (UGH, I have SUCH a case of Pregnancy Brain lately!!!!)


Also, the doctor is going to let me know if she will order another ultrasound for me or not. (ooh, what fun!!!) But things are looking good. I've gained 10lbs so far, which is good but I have to see the dietician for my Gestational Diabetes.
 
And that was about it for the two doctor's appointments.

I still get intense Braxton Hicks daily, and sharp pains occasionally, but nothing like contractions or on a regular basis. I'm supposed to go up to the Mat Ward if I leak again, and call her if I get CX. Every night I go to bed feeling like I've swollowed a watermelon (or "waterlemon" as Kai calls them) whole. UGH! I feel sore and achey, like this could happen any time, but then another day goes by…. But Two More Weeks…!!!! Eeek! I'm happy to think this will soon be "over", and I must admit that having been told Two Weeks makes me think that's when the baby will come, because I'm silly! My Hunny seems to think I could go until 37 weeks. How cruel of him!!! :) I'm just happy if I make it past 34 weeks! After that, the baby can come anytime! :)

To be honest, being OFF Bed Rest makes me fearful. It's just that I like being lazy. I'll be honest. It fits me! :) I'm doing more stuff as the days go by, spending more time stamping and sleeping (goodness, I was so Exhausted today) and spending more "quiet" times with the boys (or attempting to) but not doing the HARD work like cleaning or important things like that. Julie has been an INCREDIBILE help for me. She has cleaned and organized so much in my house… it surprises me! I'm hoping that one day she will eventually find nothing left to clean, LOL *wink* Sometimes I feel badly about all the work she's put in and I wonder if she thinks I'm messy or dirty or gross by my bad disorganized habits, but then I tell myself that she likes to do these neurotic cleaning (really!!!) and that she's doing this out of love. And if she had those thoughts about me, she surely wouldn't tell me, LOL :) *sigh* I'm never going to be able to repay her, am I? :( I was thinking about it the other night and the Veggie Tales video "Esther" (I can't remember the whole title– preggo brain, remember?) and how Haman tells the King that he should throw a parade and put this Wonderful Man on the King's horse and have someone announce real loudly, "this is a really neat guy!" (He thought the King wanted to honor him, not his nemesis, Mordecai!!!!) ….I was thinking I should parade my sister around and shout, "This is a really neat girl!" Think she'd like that?
Anyways, I digress….what was I talking about???


Oh, right, going OFF bed rest… I'm really nervous about it b/c suddenly after 5 weeks I'll be expected to pick up on everything I haven't done? Suddenly I'll have to get up, get the kids ready and off to school, speech therapy, etc, and then pick up Abi and get dinner ready and prepare them for bedtime… plus cleaning and such… the whole thing really makes me feel Terrified. :( I don't know if I can handle it all. I'm afraid of collapsing, that I'll be too tired, that I won't be able to cope. :( So while I don't want to Over Use my sister and I really don't want this whole thing to go on forever for everyone's health & sanity and I don't want people to feel that we're taking advantage of them or expecting too much or whatnot…. *sigh* …the whole thing is a bit scary to me! The idea of having to deal with a newborn, and three very active children and a husband is starting to scare me too!!!! Eep! Maybe that's why I'm not sleeping well lately…I've got so many worries on my mind. Silly me. I should trust God that things will work out and that those who love us will continue to help out willingly where they can and be honest about their limitations.
One day at a time, right? Aside from my worries, things ARE going well. I AM still blessed.

OWT Prediction

I came across this website that uses Old Wives' Tales to predict the gender of your baby back when I was pregnant with Bryn. In 2006, it predicted that I had a 30% chance of having a BOY and a 70% chance of having a GIRL….seeing how Bryn turned out to be a BOY, I would say they were a *bit* wrong! LOL But it's still fun. Here are my results tonight:


Congratulations!

You have a 35% chance of having a boy.
And you have a 65% chance of having a girl.

And Here's Why…
You are carrying the extra weight out front, so it's a boy.
The hair on your legs is not growing any faster during your preganacy, so it's a girl.
Boys are carried low. You are going to have a boy.
Your feet are not colder than they were before pregnancy. You are having a girl.
You refuse to eat the heel of a loaf of bread. You are having a girl.
Dad-to-be hasn't been gaining weight along with Mom-to-be, so it will be a girl.
The maternal grandmother doesn't have gray hair (dyed or natural), so a girl will be born.
You had morning sickness early in pregnancy, so you are expecting a girl.
You are looking particularly good during pregnancy. Therefore, it must be a boy, because girls steal their mother's looks.
Your chest development has not been very dramatic during pregnancy. You should expect a boy.
Since the sum of the mother's age at conception and the number of the month of conception is even, it will be a boy.
Your urine is a bright neon yellow color, so you will have a boy.
You are craving sweets, which means that it is a girl.
Your nose hasn't changed during pregnancy, which indicates a girl.
You have been craving fruits, so it is a girl.
You have no desire for orange juice, so it's a boy.
You are not having headaches, so it's a girl.
Your belly looks like a watermelon, so it's a girl.
You show them the palm of your hand, so it's a girl.
You use the body of the mug, so it's a girl.


Copyright © 1997, 1998 by Childbirth.org All rights reserved.
http://www.childbirth.org/cgi-bin/boyorgirl.pl

confusing message

So, while I was napping today (being on bedrest sure gets tiring!), there was a phone call for me from the coordinators of this home care group. At the hospital, the nurses mentioned how they were going to sign me up for this thing where they come to my house to check on me and do the tests needed and such, except at the time they didn't have any space for me. Well, I guess they called today to let me know (well, my sister, who answered the phone) that they still don't have room for me, but it looks like I don't really qualify anyways! H'mm… curious. I guess in some ways I don't since the doctor hasn't ordered anymore NSTs, but I thought that was interesting. They asked if I had another ultrasound and if I had any follow-up from the doctor, so Julie told them I see the OB next week, but that was it. According to Their records, my waters haven't even ruptured and I'm not at risk and so I don't need to be seen. Curious. So now I don't know what's going on.

I haven't had any leaking, no contractions. Things have pretty much stayed the same. All tests show baby is good. Does that mean that the OB will take me OFF bed rest next week? Am I "at risk"? I'm pretty sure I'm still HIGH Risk for pre-term labour, but so far doctors haven't been too helpful for me. I'm pretty confused at this whole thing! :{

#4

Julie took some cute photos of me when she picked me up from the hospital after my 3-day stay.

Me at 29w


#4! Eep!!!

Bed Rest

Well, last week Tuesday was my OB appointment. My husband came home from work early so he could take the boys and pick up Abi from school so I could go by myself. (just in case she wanted to do some tests or whatnot) I was a *bit* annoyed though b/c she thought I was there for Gestational Diabetes. (roll eyes) Why don't these doctors pay attention??? I told her about my positive Ph strip and so she sent me to the maternity ward for a full speculum exam. Silly, naive me for thinking it would be just a quick test!!! I ended up not going home! My own doctor did a battery of tests on me, including another Ph swab (which came out blue immediately–although I found out that could be caused by various things) and a Fern Test. (where they take a sample from my cervix and check it out under a microscope. Apparently, amniotic fluid will look like a fern under a slide. Fascinating!) That test came out positive too, but only a corner of the slide. But two positives make one Ruptured Membranes! I begged to differ… I was just "leaking"… stop using the term "Ruptured"!!!!

Needless to say, I was admitted to the hospital where they gave me lots of antiobiotics to ward off infection, and two shots of steriods into my bum to help speed up Baby's lungs. Then I lay in bed. What fun! Actually, I took it all very well…. but it's different when it's ME and I know what's going on. I knew the baby was fine and that I wasn't leaking anymore and had no contractions. It was a different story at home…. my husband was stressed out! We had to figure out childcare and work and it was just difficult for him. But things fell together and we had lots of help from family.

I took some pics of my lovely room (in the Emergency Delivery Room on the L&D floor at PAH!) It's a large room, quiet, and filled with a lot of equipment. If anyone needs to have a sudden emergency delivery that they aren't able to secure an OR, then I'll be kicked out and moved into the hallway! LOL (that's what the nurse said!)





After several monitorings that showed baby was good (and very active) and no contractions or leaking, I was discharged from the hospital on Friday. And from then on, I've been on Strict Bed Rest. I'm getting used to it, but it's also tough. I can go from couch to chair to bathroom to bed. That's about it. Of course, now that I'm on bed rest, there are tons of things I'd Like to do!! But I've found the more I sit and attempt things, the stronger my BH, so I need to REST more. I certainly don't want to gush or start contractions!!! :{

My wonderful, lovely sister (whom I love VERY much) has come over this week to help watch the boys so I don't get up. Abi has it arranged for after-school pickup. We've got some dinners coming that her teacher has organized. We're blessed. And yesterday, I had another NST at the hospital, which baby passed easily, so the OB said that I don't need to do more this week, but to go see her next week at her office. (how's that for a run-on sentance?) So that's good news. She said we'll assess how things are then. I don't anticipate going OFF bed rest, but I'm curious as to what the OB will say.

I still get Really Strong BH in the evening and end up feeling like I've ate 3 bowling balls b/c I'm so heavy and uncomfortable. I also find that I'm tired even though I haven't done anything! Things generally are well though. I just want to keep this baby in me for just a few more weeks! Bryn was born at 33w, so I don't anticipate going longer than that, but maybe bed rest will help. After all, as Jonathan pointed out, when my water broke at 33w, I was supposed to go on bed rest at the hospital, but they had to induce me hours later b/c I got really ill with an infection. If that darned infection didn't happen, who knows how long I would've been holding out. Good point.

For fun, here's a picture of my belly. Where have my feet gone to?

u/s update

Well, the ultrasound took all of 10 minutes! For some reason I was expecting it to be a long detailed thing, but the technician checked the fluid levels (I was barely full enough, oops!) and all must be fine because she didn't comment on anything and moved on! Next was an internal exam with a trans-vag scan, where she said that my cervix was nice, long and closed, so that answers that! Then I was done!!!

I had my friend visiting, and she offered to watch the boys so that my Hunny could come to the ultrasound with me, but he ended up not even being able to come in and see anything anyways! It was still nice having him there, though. Just in case.

I have been thinking about this whole leaking thing and preparing myself that I may be put on Bed Rest tomorrow…but then I was wondering if I would for sure. What if I'm not? What will the OB do instead? Just tell me to "rest" and "be careful"? In some ways it would be nice to know that there isn't a big concern and I can go about my life as it is (and more convenient!), but since there's a level of paranoia with me, I also think I'd feel better on bed rest! I'm always so two-sided on things, aren't I? Does it annoy anyone else, or just me? :) I have also been thinking about the possiblilty that maybe I'm not leaking as much as I think I am. I know I occasionally leak urine (*blush*) despite practicing my Kegels! But I'm thinking that maybe a lot of my leakage may just be CM. So I've been paying more attention. I've had a few tests on the Ph paper that haven't turned blue, which is good, but confusing. I was also told by a friend on MWP that there are a lot of different things that can make the Ph Litmus paper come out blue and NOT have it be amniotic fluid, but I can't figure out what. So it's got me thinking…

My appointment is tomorrow with the specialist. Pray it doesn't get cancelled and that I get some good answers! I'll update you asap! :)