At 27 weeks I had a follow up ultrasound to check up on the position of my placenta and the marginal cord insertion. I was actually originally scheduled to have this done at 28 weeks, but I had been having mega bad anxiety for a couple of weeks, convinced that something was terribly wrong with my baby. A crying phone call to my doctor's office and a very compassionate nurse moved my ultrasound up by a week and a half. I find the crazy comes and goes with usually no concrete reason.
Anyhow, my placenta had moved up enough to not be of concern (Yay!) and baby was in the 95th percentile. I guess one of the main concerns with a marginal cord insertion is having a low birth weight baby, and obviously this wasn't looking to be an issue. However, with baby being so large they were concerned I may have Gestational Diabetes. I had gone for my screen the week previous and my result was a good negative, but they wanted me to have a repeat done anyhow.
The next week I had my usual OB appointment in the morning. Then in the afternoon had an acupuncture appointment. (I've been going for acupuncture since the beginning of my infertility saga, I do believe it has helped me over the years get pregnant. Except this time. This time I believe was just a totally random event in the universe!). During my treatment I began to have some Braxton Hicks contractions. This isn't abnormal for me. I had them with Rowan from the late 2nd trimester. With Harris I had them quite early. And in this pregnancy I began to feel them around 21 weeks. I'd most often get them sporadically, but on occasion I would get a bunch in a row but then they would let up, so I was never that overly worried about them. Later that evening however I was having them A LOT. Everywhere you read says if you have more than 4 in an hour you should get checked out. Well, when I finally decided to time them I had 10 "Braxton Hicks" in a half an hour. So I knew it was time to go into Labour and Delivery and face what was going on.
Of course this happened late in the evening and I had to wake Rowan up and drive her to a friend's house to stay while we set out for the hospital. We arrived in Triage at about 10:30pm and I got hooked up to the monitors. It brought back a lot of horrible memories, as the last time we were there, I had Harris. Eventually a resident came to check on my cervix and she felt it was fine, but wanted to recheck it in a couple of hours. On the second check she thought it was maybe softening, but wasn't certain. I was given a couple of doses of a drug to help stop the contractions, but it made my blood pressure fall really low and I wasn't given any more doses after that. On the third check of my cervix, it was confirmed that it had softened and so it was decided I would be given the steroid injections to help baby's lungs develop and that I would be admitted to the antepartum unit in case delivery was imminent. I was so frightened that our baby might possibly be born 12 weeks early.
The contractions had subsided somewhat and I was having non-stress tests a few times a day. 24 hours after my first dose of steroids I received the second and last dose. An ultrasound done on my first day in hospital showed baby was still doing well and that my cervix was long and closed. This was a relief, but I was kept in hospital to be monitored a total of 3 days. I was given instructions to go home and keep my feet up as much as possible, and to wait until I saw my OB next to see if I should return to work or not. I was looking forward to heading home to my family, yet convinced I would be back again...since this really wasn't the first time I'd had a bout of contractions. It was just the worst bout.
After a couple of days of laying around the house and doing mostly nothing, my Braxton Hicks had almost disappeared. I thought I had been taking it pretty easy beforehand, but I was beginning to realize that there might be something to this whole resting thing. I'm now 31 weeks and have been off work and laying low this whole time. I feel much more confident now that since I am having way less contractions that I can keep this baby in longer! I am just thankful that at this point 3.5 more weeks have passed since I thought I may possibly be delivering my son, and he will be that much stronger in case I do. It was also determined from a repeat screen that I do not in fact have Gestational Diabetes, so that was a relief. This baby of mine is just going to be big!
At my doctor appointment that following week, my doctor wrote me off work only temporarily, at my next appointment we will revisit if I should return for the remaining weeks or not. My gut tells me no. I've gone out for the occasional errand since then because I've been going stir crazy, and I've discovered even a 20 minute trip to Walmart (not even pushing the shopping cart) sends my uterus into an angry tizzy. So even though my doctor felt my goal should be to get to at least 34 weeks, I have no interest in having this baby that early. My goal is to not have a NICU stay, regardless of how long it may be. My personal goal is to carry him to at least 38 weeks. When I have this baby, I want to take him home, and not to have to leave him behind in the NICU, for however long it may be. So just 6.5 more weeks. I can do this!
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