doctor's appt #23...

I had another ultrasound with Wilmington Maternal on Thursday morning.  Just a standard appt to check the fluid levels around the baby which they said were really good.  Once again, they did a biophysical profile on the baby and he got great scores.  His breathing is still really great and because I drank orange juice before this appt (his fave :), he was moving all around for Melissa, the u/s tech.  We got to see a really great set of leg and foot movements.  And those were down in my pelvic area.

Yes, he's still breech.  So we're really going through with this c-section on Tuesday.  And I'm honestly okay with it.  As I've said before, I've had time to get used to the idea that this is how things are going to be for my first one and I trust that this is how God had it planned from the beginning.  Even though, this (surgery/c-section) is not how He originally planned women to give birth, I feel like maybe He's allowed it to be this way for me -- the planner -- so that I don't have any reason to be stressed about what didn't get done.  When we leave this house next Tuesday morning, whatever's not finished will be my own fault so I can't get stressed about it.  :)

But getting back to the appt...

My blood pressure was 142/94 -- the same as what it's been for the last 3 or so weeks but they still freaked out about it.  *siiiiiiigh*  I guess the closer you get, the less chances they take.  So they sent us to the hospital for more extensive monitoring, like we did a month ago.

This time I knew how to put the hospital gown on.  :)

So I got strapped up on the fetal monitors and the blood pressure cuff.  The NST turned out great results -- Deacon has been doing great this ENTIRE pregnancy.  The nurse had me actually turn and lay on my right side because she said that always brings your blood pressure down.

REALLY???  Why don't these other doctors know this?  Why can't I just do THAT at my doc appts??

Sure enough, one of my readings was 116/88, and the lowest one ended up being 112/66!  That's when Jeff said, "Is that too low?  Maybe you need to lay on your back for a little while so it will come up some..."  So I did turn, mostly because my right hip was starting to hurt, and the next reading was 123/75.  Still within in perfect range.

The nurse took some blood (out of my wrist!  that was a first...) and those labs all came back "wonderfully", according to the nurse.  They let me go after seeing the labs.  We were at the hospital for a lot less time this time around.

I promised them I would really "lay low" this weekend and I really am trying.  I actually didn't work yesterday and kept my feet up for a good part of the day while I worked on Jeff's laptop, editing photos, etc.

We have a couple of appts on Monday -- a regular NST at my OB office and then a pre-op appt afterward.  And then...we get this show on the road!

doctor's appt #22...

I had a doctor's appt with my OB this morning for another NST to monitor the baby's heartbeat.  My blood pressure was surprisingly low: 126/78.  Say what?!  Whatever.  I just never know.

The NST turned out fine -- Dr. Hill was pleased with his movement and heartbeat throughout the test.  I drank some orange juice this morning to get him really moving.  Which he was.  He likes orange juice.  :)

While I was on the monitors for the NST, Dr. Hill came in to discuss a "plan for delivery".  As of the ultrasound last Thursday, he is still breech so obviously the course of action is to schedule a c-section.

*cue villian music* Dun-dun-dun.

Now, this child has been breech for quite a while now so I've had time to get used to the idea that we may have to go the c-section route.  Not my first choice, of course, because I did want to try the labor-and-(vaginal)-delivery route, despite being scared to death of it all.  :)  However, it doesn't look like that is in the near future for us unless he turns between now and Tuesday.

That's right -- I said Tuesday.  We are scheduled for a c-section first thing Tuesday morning, October 26.  Um, yeah.  That's a week from tomorrow.

So I've been slowly processing this information all day today.  Hard to believe that in a week, we'll get to meet our little guy, this child I've been carrying for so long, the one who's been wreaking havoc on my body and my blood pressure.  :)

I will have another ultrasound on Thursday to check my fluid levels and if, by some chance, he's actually turned, I guess we'll regroup and figure out Plan B.  In the meantime, we're planning on the c-section next Tuesday.

And Jeff now has a firm deadline for that crib.

doctor's appt #21...

I had another doctor's appt at Wilmington Maternal yesterday for an ultrasound to check the fluid around the baby.  Everything was fine there -- as a matter of fact, the levels are on the higher end of average and normal so it appears that the kidneys -- something they're keeping an eye on, remember -- are still working just fine.

They also did another biophysical "test" on the baby and he scored another perfect score: 8 out of 8.  George was our ultrasound tech and he remarked, just as everyone else has, that he is breathing really, really well.  Perfect.

My blood pressure was 138/90 -- elevated higher than they prefer, but not any higher than it has been, and, with my history of hypertension, not at an alarming level.  Just something for them to mention to me in the consult room afterward, as they always do.  :)

The only downside, really, to this appt was the fact that the kid is still breech.  Yes, he is.  Grrr.  However, George, gave us hope -- he said he's seen babies turn even later than this.  Yay.  Our doula, Kelley, told us about a few positions, some exercises, that I can do to, um, encourage him to turn.  So we will set about doing those.  For sure.

So due to the blood pressure issue, they wanted to take some more blood and test for anything that looks preeclamptic.  Well, sure, it's been what, a week since they did that?  Go right ahead.  Let's see what the labs say.

Everything came back normal -- platelet counts were fine, urine creatinine was normal (also no protein in my urine which is always a warning sign), liver function is fine.  Just a caution from Cindy to keep watching my blood pressure and report any serious spikes, and to keep an eye on how I'm feeling.  Roger that.  That good lab report bought us 4 more days to wait it out.  

That's what we want.  My concern at this point is that my care providers are going to start pushing me to start making decisions about "this or that" before I'm ready.  As long as I'm fine and everything is healthy with the baby, then we're fine to wait.  Not so much on the medical front -- it's just more convenient to go ahead and schedule induction or a c-section so that my docs don't have to worry about my blood pressure or risk of preeclampsia or the baby turning on his own anymore.  I see their side -- I really do -- but I also have my preferences and those take precedence for me, as long as nothing turns into a dangerous situation for me or the baby.

All my docs are now hinting around about bed rest but also suggesting that it's maybe something I can avoid them ordering if I take my own precautions like, for example, limiting my hours at work, etc.  It's not as if my job is real strenuous or anything, but I think the thing that works against me is that in those last few hours of the day before bed, after working 8 hours, I'm trying to cram a lot of things in and not really taking time to put my feet up.  Maybe if I can figure out a way to limit my workday hours, I can spread those "after work things" out a little bit and find chunks of time to put my feet up and rest more.  You think?

It's worth a try to avoid the doc's official order of bed rest.  So we're gonna try it.

My next OB appt is Monday for an NST and they will probably want to discuss the whole "your-baby-is-breech-and-your-blood-pressures-have-been-elevated-and-we-just-think-we-need-to-get-this-baby-out-of-you" thing.  So we'll be going in with guns to stick to.  Just sayin'.  :)

doctor's appt #20...

I had a doctor's appt this morning at my OB office for an NST and bp check.  My blood pressure was 145/95 -- not what they would prefer, but it was in keeping with the "trend" (i.e., not any higher than it has been over the last week and a half) so they were okay to let it go.

They strapped me up to the monitors for the NST and had a listen to the little one for a while.  He wasn't as active as they would've liked, despite the frosted mini-wheats cereal I ate for breakfast (I'm really on a cereal kick recently!) and the grape juice they gave me about halfway through.  But there weren't any dips in his heartrate so they were fine with the results of the NST today, too.

They did take my bp after the NST (I had been sitting still in a reclined state for about 45 min or so) and it was down to 130/74.  Nice.  :)

The only other thing that Dr. Cunill did was check to see if she could tell if the baby had turned.  She just poked around and prodded my belly a little bit to see if she could tell if he was still breech or not.  She thought maybe she felt him head-down but was afraid to say for sure.

She scheduled an ultrasound for Thursday morning to check fluid levels and of course, they'll be able to check the baby's position then, too.  Hopefully they will be able to tell us that he's turned head-down.  As much as delivering vaginally scares me, I'd really like to try, so I'm hoping they'll have good news Thursday.

37 weeks today...

I'm 37 weeks today.  Less than a month to go -- this is nuts!

Here's what babycenter.com says has been going on with our baby boy:

Your baby is now considered "full term," even though your due date is three weeks away. If you go into labor now, his lungs will likely be mature enough to fully adjust to life outside the womb.

Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz.

Whattoexpect.com says this:

With just three more weeks to go and at about six and a half pounds (though weight and height vary from fetus to fetus), your baby is doing just fine. You can expect weight gain to be about half an ounce per day. (Boys, though, are likely to be heavier at birth than girls. And here's a bit of boy baby trivia to back that one up: Moms carrying boys tend to eat more than moms carrying girls — a foreshadowing of teenage refrigerator raids to come.)  Since your little one is considered full-term at 37 weeks pregnant, if your baby was to leave the wet nest this week, he would likely thrive. That's because Mother Nature God and you have done such a fine job.
 
So what's keeping your little one busy while waiting it out until D-day? Practice, practice, practice. Your baby is simulating breathing by inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid, sucking on his thumb, blinking, and pivoting from side to side (one day you feel the tushy on the left side, another day it has swung around to the right side). All these are skills needed for his next gig  — starring as newborn.

Here's an interesting fact: Your baby's head (which, by the way, is still growing) will, at birth, be the same size circumference as his hips, abdomen, and shoulders. And guess what's making an impression (literally) these days on those shoulders and hips: fat — causing little dimples in those cute elbows and knees, shoulders and hip, and creases and folds in the neck and wrists.

[okay, that's a pretty ugly depiction of our sweet little boy...just sayin'.]

We're on the home stretch now so at all our doctor's appts, the nurses & doctors are gearing up to see how both of us are doing and when we might have some exciting action.  Our plan is to let the baby "cook" as long as he will and to go into labor naturally, as long as everything is good with me and him.  We're hoping he's turned from breech to head-down by now so that a scheduled c-section will not even need to be in the discussion.  We'll find out Thursday at our next ultrasound whether he's turned or not.

doctor's appt #19...

I had an appt with Wilmington Maternal yesterday afternoon for an ultrasound to check growth and fluid levels.  Jeff ended up going with me which was a sweet surprise.  I don't ever assume that he'll be able to get away from work to come with me to an appt so when he called me yesterday and said, "I'm on my way so don't leave without me!", I was very pleasantly surprised.  :)

Everything went relatively well at the appt.  Deacon got lots of "points" for all the movements he was making as they did their thing -- both ultrasound techs that came in said he was "breathing like a champ".  I mean, they must've made that comment or one similar at least 3 or 4 times.  Yay.  :)  So glad he's not having any trouble with that task.

According to the measurements they took, he weighs 6 lbs 3 oz now.  His kidneys are still a bit enlarged but still nothing to worry about, only to monitor in the future.  Dr. Wright said she'd mention it to our pediatrician so they can scan the kidneys soon after birth and keep an eye on them.

So everything is great with the baby (other than he is still breech -- hmmm...).

My health, on the other hand, is not something that's going as great.  First, let me say that aside from the normal pregnancy issues at almost 37 weeks pregnant (like swelling, fatigue, ligament pain, having a hard time putting any shoes other than flip flops on :), I feel perfectly fine.  I do not have any dangerous symptoms (headaches, blurred vision, etc.) or anything that I can feel going on.

The biggest issue is that my blood pressure has been slightly elevated consistently for about the last week and all of a sudden, everyone is on alert for symptoms of preeclampsia.  I know that preeclampsia:

1) is nothing to mess around with

2) that it can come on very quickly with relatively no signs or symptoms, again, that I can feel, and

3) that it can make a pregnant woman and her baby very sick

And the doctors don't mess around with it, either -- this is why I had to go to the hospital last Friday for extended monitoring and blood work.

So yesterday, when they took my blood pressure and it was 140/90, they sent me down to a lab to have blood work done.  Even though I had just had blood work done a week ago at the hospital.  I guess that's how quickly things can change regarding preeclamptic symptoms.

So that's what we did after my appt.  We went down and I had blood drawn to be sure that, even though I wasn't feeling any symptoms, I didn't have preeclampsia.

And I don't. 

Dr. Wright called back last night with the results from the labs and said that everything is stable for now. She didn't officially order bed rest, but she did say that she thought it would be beneficial to slow down (ha!) and take it a little more easy than I have been.  And she did suggest that I start having twice weekly NSTs in my OB's office.  *siiiigh*  I guess when I head in Monday for my next NST, I'll mention that to them.  This is the part that really aggravates me -- missing work for more appts.  Not that I'm worried about work, but that I'm using more and more of the sick time I'm trying to SAVE for maternity leave.  At this rate, there will be nothing left; as a matter of fact I'll be in the red, probably.

Isn't it silly that THAT is what concerns me?  I'm in no way concerned about my health or that of the baby because I know that God is going to take care of us.  And whatever that means, I'll do, to be sure.  Please don't take my griping and complaining about the doctors' caution to mean that I don't think they know what they're doing.  I trust their judgment and I'll do what they say, no matter how much work I have to miss.

It's just an annoyance to me to be sent here and there to check this and that.  But it is what it is and we're coming down the homestretch now so I'm trying (without much success at this point) to just "roll with the punches".  Thank goodness for my wonderful, rock-steady husband who knows just what to say and do, when to be quiet and when to give me a pep-talk.  He has been absolutely fantastic for me.

But I'm starting to think that maybe he's bad luck and I shouldn't bring him to any more of my appts.

Just kiddin', babe!  You know it's MUCH better for me if you're there than if you're not.  I don't even want to THINK about what kind of state I would've been in at last Friday's appt (and the hospital) and this one yesterday if you hadn't been with me...I love you to pieces.  Truly. 

doctor's appt #18...

I had a follow-up appt with my OB yesterday morning after all that happened Friday.  It was just an appt to take my blood pressure and have another NST to monitor the baby for awhile.  Oh, and they did tell me that my Group B Strep results were negative.  Good.  *wiping brow*

My blood pressure reading was high to begin with (I'm not sure it was accurate -- I'm not a nurse, but I'm just saying, 160/97 is pretty high, even for me), but they took it again later on, after my NST and it was down to 140/83.  They were okay with that.

The NST didn't result in anything they were worried about so that was good.  The baby was pretty active after the orange juice I drank during breakfast, so they were happy to see all the activity.

They did a finger prick to check my iron and the nurse's exact reaction was, "Wow!  Your iron is GREAT!".  Well, good.  At least I passed something today.  :)  Dr. Woodfill asked what the reading was and when Joanne told him 38, he said (jokingly), "Wow.  Yeah, you actually might have too much blood -- we might need to bleed you out a little bit..."

I'm gettin' outta here.  :)

My next appt is with Wilmington Maternal on Thursday for an ultrasound to check my fluid levels, among other things, one of which, I'm sure, is the baby's position.  I'm hoping that Deacon keeps making his way around until he's head down.  Before his due date.

doctor's appts #14 & #15...

I had another 2 doctor's appts today, one at my OB and one at Wilmington Maternal.  Kinda getting frustrated and worn out with all these double appts, but it is what it is.  So whatev.

My first appt was this morning at Wilmington Maternal Fetal Medicine downtown for an ultrasound to check everything.  Jeff didn't get to go with me this time, but my momma did.  And she was so excited!  Momma & Daddy are in town for our baby shower tomorrow evening so Momma was able to go with me to this appt.  She loved every minute of it -- she thought it was so neat to see the ultrasound (they didn't have those back when she had her 2 babies) and tried very diligently to figure out what she was looking at.  The baby has really grown, though, so everything just looks like a mess in there now.  But my u/s tech, George, was good about pointing out what we were seeing.  

Once again, everything looks great with the growth.  George told us the baby weighs just over 5 lbs now which is in the 42nd percentile, just above average.  He said the development is right on target with my due date.  He did mention, though, that the baby is breech right now, with his butt down toward my cervix and his body curled up around on my right side (so his head is sitting under my left boob -- sorry, guys).

Dr. Radick (Dr. Wright's new partner) came in and told us everything looked great but that the kidneys were still larger than normal so they would continue to keep an eye on that and start checking my fluid levels a little more closely to be sure everything progressed the way it should.

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My next appt was this afternoon at my OB's office and they did an NST, or nonstress test.  That was really pretty cool.  They strapped 2 external fetal monitors to my belly and had me sit in this really comfy recliner.  It coulda been a La-Z-Boy.  I'm just sayin'.

The one monitor was sitting right where the heart primarily was so they could monitor the heartbeat, and every time I felt any movement I was supposed to push the button on this handheld thing she gave me (like buzzing in on Jeopardy :).  I was amazed at how much I could hear him moving around and not actually feel the movement itself (to be able to push the button).  He really moves around a lot and I can't even feel it all, only the major moves, kicks or rolls that he does.  

So this whole time I'm strapped up -- about 35-40 min, I would guess -- we've got the Kentucky Derby going on in there.  That's what his heartbeat sounded like, and what Dr. Hall even said, too.  And you could hear the heartbeat increase and decrease with movement, etc.  After they unhooked me, the nurse told me that the other monitor they strapped on my belly was to monitor any contractions I might have and to see how the baby's heartbeat did through that.  I did have at least one contraction while I was sitting there (just a Braxton Hicks which I've been feeling for quite a few weeks now), possibly 2, so I'm glad that happened so they can read how Deacon did through it.  I assume Dr. Hall read the strip before she came in to see me so he must've done okay.  :)

She said that everything still looked great with the development and his heartbeat, etc.  She mentioned that she saw the baby was breech from my u/s this morning and told me that they do not deliver babies breech -- which I knew already -- but that that didn't necessarily mean a c-section.  She said they had methods to try to turn him, if he didn't automatically turn on his own between now and then.  I mean, we do still have 6 weeks left.  Let's not rush things, for cryin' out loud!

After today's appts, I'm starting weekly appts with my OB and every 2 weeks (if necessary) with Wilmington Maternal.  My OB will do an NST each time to just be sure the baby is still handling everything well.  I hope Jeff will be able to get to one of those with me -- it was pretty neat to hear the baby and his heartbeat for that long and I think Jeff would enjoy that.  :)