Ultrasound Update April

Today we had our ultrasound checkup to see if the marginal placenta previa had cleared up.  Unfortunately, it is still present, although the doctor thinks there is still time for it to resolve.  However, she has placed me on "disability" and told me I have to stop working.  I guess this means any ambition I had to run out and get a job in my third trimester is gone.  HA!  I have so little energy right now, I can barely function.  

The intestinal distress hung around for about a week and a half, which was not much fun.  I was worried about the baby, but all indications are good and they didn't find anything in my labs to indicate an infection.  I never thought I'd get sick of eating bread, but after a week of bread and rice, I was craving protein like nobody's business!  We had a few more scares with the contractions - at one point they were happening every 5 minutes.  However, we found that if I drank a bunch of water and laid down on the couch, they went away.

We interviewed another pediatrician last week.  We liked her better than the first one, but she didn't have much of a sense of humor.  We're going to interview one more doctor.  

This past weekend all of our worldly possessions were packed up and moved into the garage.  We start demolition for our remodel this Thursday.   We have two rooms and a bathroom in the house that we will be living in for the next 4 months.  It will definitely be an adventure!!!

The video we took today has a good image of the baby's face and profile.  Enjoy!

Dehydration

We had quite a scare yesterday.  I've had "intestinal distress" since Friday night and was planning on calling the OB today if it didn't clear up.  Yesterday morning I woke up around 7 and started having contractions.  I was in bed and started counting them.  I got to 5 in 45 minutes and somehow drifted back to sleep.  When I woke up a few hours later I shook it off as me being paranoid and got out of bed.  On my way down the stairs I was struck with a particularly painful contraction and yelled out to Tom that we needed to go to the hospital.  (In the back of my mind was the info diarrhea + contractions = preterm labor.)  A quick call to the doctor confirmed this and off we went.

The whole way there I was telling Tom I thought I was over-reacting, that they were just going to tell us to go home, that everything was fine.  Meanwhile, I was still having contractions.  We got to the labor and delivery floor, spoke to a nurse, and were put in a delivery room.  They hooked me up to a fetal heart monitor and contraction monitor.  I was having contractions every 10 minutes.  These weren't gut-wrenching painful, but they were still painful.  They took a urine and blood sample and started me on an IV.  Apparently, I was dehydrated from the diarrhea and that triggered the contractions.  I didn't feel dehydrated.  However, after a few hours on the IV the contractions slowed down to every 20 minutes, then every half hour, then every hour, then gone!!  After a few hours without contractions they sent me home.  The nurse told me they get a lot of women during the summer who go into preterm labor because of dehydration.  I feel we were really lucky to get to the hospital early enough to stop the contractions.  And yes, I'm now drinking water by the gallon.

Gestational Diabetes

Every woman is checked for gestational diabetes between 24 and 28 weeks.  Gestational diabetes only occurs during pregnancy (hence the name) and can result in anything from a large baby to a stillborn.  Most often, gestational diabetes goes away once the baby is born, and both mom and baby are fine.  However, having gestational diabetes puts the mom at a 50% risk of developing diabetes later in life.  GD is managed during pregnancy with diet, exercise and possibly daily insulin injections.

Two weeks ago I had the gestational diabetes test - the glucose tolerance test.  This involves drinking 10 ounces of glucose watery stuff.  It was pretty gross and made me nauseous.  An hour later your blood is drawn.  Sadly, I failed that test.  The next step is the expanded glucose tolerance test which I had this past Tuesday.  This time I had to fast for 12 hours, show up at 8 am, have my blood drawn and drink a glucose drink that had twice the sugar concentration of the previous one.  I almost vomited while drinking it.  I guess that isn't too uncommon.  Try downing 10 ounces of corn syrup sometimes.  Or rather, don't.  At this point you are held hostage for the next 3 hours so they can draw your blood hourly.  So, I sat in the waiting room.  And got bored.  So I bothered the font desk people with a question -- "I haven't felt the baby move as often in the past two days - is that normal?"  Next thing I knew I was whisked back to an exam room, my weight and blood pressure measured, told to pee in a cup, and then had a PA come in with a doppler to check the baby.  She told me movement isn't reliable until 32 weeks - after that point if I notice a change in baby activity they do get worried.  However, since I was there (and being held hostage) they were happy to check on the baby for me.  She put the doppler goo on my tummy and went to work finding the heartbeat.  Baby Stanis was probably on the most intense sugar high of his short life and every time she put the doppler on my tummy he kicked it.  She told me I have a feisty baby.  However, we did listen to the heartbeat, kicks aside, and it sounded great.  She said he had good blood flow.  That's my boy!  :)  This diversion passed a half hour of my captivity.  Four blood draws later I was free to go.

I got the test results today.  NO GESTATIONAL DIABETES!!!!

Pediatrician

There have been several, several things about being pregnant that have surprised me.  I think I had some vague notion that two lines showed up on the pregnancy test and then 9 months later a baby popped out.  And yes, that is what is supposed to happen, but there is just so much else that has to be done in between.  Ultrasounds, peeing in cups, getting blood drawn, baby kicking, circumcise or not, breastfeed or not, choosing baby gear, interviewing pediatricians, etc, etc, etc.  That last item - interviewing pediatricians - would NEVER have occurred to me.  However, within 24 hours of the baby being born, he is checked out by the pediatrician.  Hence, a series of "prenatal" pediatrician interviews are now in our future.  We had the first one today.

I don't know exactly what I expected, but the person we interviewed did not meet my ideals of a pediatrician.  Tom called him a "baby mechanic".  To me it seemed like he was tired, burned out and not terribly interested in being a pediatrician.  I don't expect the pediatrician to think my child is the greatest gift to mankind, but this guy made it seem like caring for a child was like working an assembly line.  Not quite the warm, fuzzy feeling I was hoping for.  We have the next interview in a few weeks.  Let's hope that one is better!