Here I am... Hooked up to an IV in my hand, fetal and contraction monitors around my belly, and blood pressure cuff. Let's go back...
Yesterday was Christopher's 30th birthday! I wanted to make a super cute post for him yesterday. I had my prenatal appointment. I was 34w5d. At New Moon I think I may have caught a bug and have been feeling under the weather all weekend. It made me feel awful, and the baby was a little quieter. He was still getting in his correct kick counts, and was moving as much as text book says, just felt different. But for once in my life I WASN'T nervous. I was just tired of feeling sick. At the appointment I mentioned all this and she sent me to lunch and told me to come right back for a NST (Non Stress Test). Christopher and I came back where I was taken to literally a closet hehehe with the BIGGEST chair I have ever seen in my life. I was contracting the entire time, like I have been for MONTHS.
I guess seeing these contractions on paper finally opened some eyes. I went straight for an US. He's still really little, now 3lb8oz and less that 10th percentile. But fluid is good and he was moving great. I went to the exam room where my doctor checked my cervix. I wasn't dilated, he was at 0 (zero) station, (+3 is crowning), 50% effaced (that's the thickness. It's obv in half) and was very very soft, which is bad because if it's soft, it's very susceptible to change. So she sent me to Labor & Delivery for some more monitoring and possible steroid shots. The steroid shots mature the baby's lungs. She said I'd be there a couple hours at the most.
That was 5pm last night. My contractions were coming and coming and they checked me and I was dilated a fingertip, or .5-1 cm. I was given procardia. Procardia is originally a cardiac drug, but is used for stopping contractions. It relaxes the soft muscles in the body, so it should relax the uterus. It can also cause low blood pressure which can cause headaches. Before I got pregnant I had constant non stop killer migraines. I haven't had any since I got pregnant and seriously forgot what they felt like. So they gave me some phenergan + nubaine in my IV and a steroid shot in the butt (OWWWW To all of those btw, but I was so toasted by the time she got to my butt I didn't care hahahahaha). Then I passed out.
I was apparently checked again (still the same) and given more procardia. Through the night I still had contractions and this time they were causing little Baby Bumble B's heart to slow. In the 60s... So this morning I talked to the Doctor. She said she wants to get another steroid shot in (they have to be 24 hours apart) and then if he continues to decelerate during contractions, we're possibly talking C-Section. Tomorrow. At 34 weeks.
I've been on procardia all day and it was causing my blood pressure to drop and the baby and I started to feel really really bad. Just getting up to pee was causing me to have contractions and his heart rate to drop. So I was taken off of the procardia and not allowed to get up and use the bathroom (think bedpan!!! AGH Gross). The night nurse is going to let me try getting up so we'll see how that goes.
So there are more details I know I'm leaving out. This has just made me really really tired! Basically I'm here not going home as long as Bumble B is having these low heart rates. The doctors want to wait as long as possible obviously since he's so early to deliver, but if the baby keeps showing distress, they'll take him. I'll know sometime tomorrow what the new game plan is there. As far as the contraction meds... We'll see. If they start coming back frequently and intense like last night I guess they will try something different out. Which I'm kind of scared about because I think procardia was the less of all the evils... At midnight I get my shot. I'm also getting a test that checks for a specific protein that is released from the cervix when the cervix starts to "deteriorate" caled Fetal Fibro-something (too tired to look it up! It's an fFN.) and if it's positive it means I will go into labor within 2 weeks, if negative means I probably won't (well have cervical change labor, my water could still break or something). This way they can make a better game plan on how aggressive they want to be with anti-contraction meds. We haven't been able to do this because I can't have been checked for 24 hours, so I have to wait for midnight tonight. THEN I will be checked to see if there is any change in dilation, effacement, etc. The fFN results will be back in an hour or so and the doctor will talk to us in the morning about the next thing we're going to do...
Sorry if I'm rambling or not making sense. I'm going to try to get a nap in before the midnight festivities!
My eyelids, feet, and hands are so so so swollen from then gallons (it seems) of fluid they've been pumping in all night and day. I can't shower... I'm a mess! LOL. I really wanted to be the pretty labor girl and I'm definitely NOT!!!!
I'll try to update on @BabyBumbleB on Twitter. :)
