Spending The Holidays In The Hospital

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. :)

My Little Halloween Scare

At my 28 week appointment I was measuring only 26 weeks. Every visit now the doctor takes her measuring tape and starts at the bottom of my uterus and goes to the top. The belly is supposed to be in a certain range I suppose. She assured me that it was because I am long waisted and I just have a lot of room as to why we were measuring behind.

Thursday was my 30 week appointment and I measured 3 weeks behind. She decided to do an ultrasound to make sure my little Bumble B was growing like he is supposed to.

So Friday morning I went in bright and early. The tech said that Bumble B is lower than any baby she has seen in years and years. I thanked her because it's so frustrating to me that I feel him down there and no one believes me. People say "just wait til you drop". Well he already is dropped. He has no where else to go but OUT! We looked at his cuteness for a little bit and then she began her measurements. She said he is little at 2 pounds 11 ounces. I still don't know if this is little as in littler than a normal 30 weeker or little like 2 pounds is a little person. Then she made me wait for the Doctor.

I was planning on insisting on waiting to hear what she thought, but I don't thing I've been MADE to wait before. So what do I do? Oh yeah, you know it. Freak out. She checks on me once and says the doctor still wasn't there, but I had to wait because she HAD to show her the pictures.

Does that sound GOOD to anyone?

So I'm almost in tears in the waiting room all alone because now I am just wondering what is wrong with my baby, why is he little, what is going to happen.

Finally she comes out and says "okay everything looks good! She's happy, you can go!"


So yaaay Bumble B is fine. He's just curled up in a tiny ball as low as he can possibly get. Which equals no belly for me, because he's in my pelvis! I'm so sick and tired of people telling me I'm not eating enough and that I need to get bigger because I'm hurting the baby. I mean, they are straight out saying I'm a bad mom! I eat better than I ever have in my life. Unless you are with me 24/7, you wouldn't know that. It's really rude. Not only are these people criticising me for what I'm doing, they are calling my child inadequate. What makes people think it's okay to say mean things to others?

This is why I never commented at my 28 week appointment about measuring small because I hate arrogant and ignorant comments. But since everything is fine, I figured I'd come out with what has been going on in little baby Bumble B's world this past month!

Bumble B in 3D!

Yesterday Christopher, my mom and dad, and I went to a 3D/4D US place here in the Charleston area. It was so nice! It was behind this sweet beautiful house. The woman who owns it owns her own traveling diagnostic sonography business and travels a lot. She does Small Wonders Imaging on the side as her hobby! I can see why, babies are so fun to look at! The place was SO nice and there was a HUUUGE screen on the wall right in front of me so I could see my baby and not have to break my neck to look at a tiny computer screen. It was a really nice cozy personal experience! Holly was really nice and showed us so much. She made she we knew exactly what we were looking at and pointed everything out. She has great prices and we were given a CDROM with the pictures, a DVD of the exam, and a bunch of pictures printed out!

As I may have mentioned before, Bumble B is very very low. I finally was given visual evidence yesterday! He is SNUG AS A BUG down in my pelvis. It took almost the whole hour for my bladder to fill up so that we could just see above his nose! I almost peed in my pants *wink*! She said I probably have to pee even more than the normal pregster since he's pushing my bladder. She had me contorted in all kinds of pretzel positions to try to get the best possible look at the little face hidden behind my pubic bone!

Some really cool things we got to see:
-He was swallowing fluid!
-He woke up and was blinking his eyes
-He is definitely a boy and not ashamed to show it... *rolls eyes*
-He has some thick basketball thighs. Christopher couldn't be happier.
-He is curled up into the tightest of little balls
-He sleeps with his arms and hands folded up under his chin, just like ME! Isn't that so funny that he does something I do? Like bent wrists and everything, the same way I do it!
-He has BIG KISSABLE lips! Even when he opened his mouth to drink they were poutin' out! I'm in LOVE with each of those smackers.
-He has some fat cheeks. That's just more surface area for me to kiss!
-Stubborn. Like mom... and dad... and grandma... and grandpa... I think he got it honestly from every single one of us in that room!

I'm just more in love with him! I MUST get those cheeks and lips SOON! How can I wait 73ish more days?!

Basketball dunking thighs

Sleepin just like his mommy :) That's me! I'm this cutie's mommy!

Drinking! He likes that Nerds flavored water ;) Look at those LIPS!

Foot

The Life Of Bumble B!

Today Bumble B is 26 weeks old! Well, I guess really 24 according to SCIENCE. He's had a tough rocky little road. Or he's given ME a tough rocky road. He's just fine and dandy. At 7 weeks he had to say goodbye to his little sister (I say girl, k?).


He has lots and lots of pictures between Dr.'s visits and the fact that mommy is an xray tech and has lots of friends in Ultrasound!


It's a BOY!


"Look mommy. I'm fine. Stop worrying! Thumbs up!"


"Yummy! Thumbs!"



And the most recent!


Bumble B has been through lots of Braxton Hicks. Every time I think about my BHs in the throws of pain I think of my favorite little TV show called FRIENDS (we don't have cable and watch seasons 1-10 over and over like a movie. over and over...). Rachel goes to the ER because she is having lots of pain. The Dr. calls the BH "mild discomfort". and Ross says "Those are nothing!". She interjects with "NO UTERUS, NO OPINION." Dang skippy Rach. I'm dealing with "uncomfortable" Braxton Hicks, a bit of shortening of my cervix (which I got the excuse to rest and sit when I feel pressure! Whoop!) and the whole giant bucket load of nerves nerves nerves! I am always afraid something bad is about to happen, something is wrong... I still have 3 months left! I know Bumble B is just chillin, rollin his eyes at me (which are OPEN this week!) and just bored with my antics.

I wonder what I'll be like when he's BORN?!