Bedrest Chronicles Day 28
Every Monday morning the technician for the day wheels the lovely scale into my room for my pleasure. This week's gain: 2 pounds! How is that possible? Hospital food might not be that tasty but apparently my prego body is packing it on! :) Total weight gain: 13 pounds
xoxo
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Bedrest: Day 26
The Bedrest Chronicles: Day 26 - Baby E is 31 weeks!!
The past week has been a combination of happiness and peace alternated with sadness and worry. It's fair to say that some of these happen all in the same day too! However I think it's pretty typical of being on bedrest in the hospital far far away from family.
After the horrible glucose test in which I felt sick all day on Monday, I proceeded to get woozy and nauseous at every biophysical profile (BPP) ultrasound. It use to be the highlight of my day to see him squirming on the screen, but the wooziness followed with a good hour of shaking in my bed while drinking sierra.mist afterwards just did not hit my happy buttons. Baby E continued to not breathe for the test on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday which kind of freaked me out. He was actually so quiet on the screen on Wednesday that they had to buzz him with this contraption just to get him to do his gross motor movements. It made me kind of wonder if everything was still okay in there....so the doc ordered an extra NST everyday and an increase of BPP from three to seven times a week.
The great news is that he is definitely chugging away in there, but his pattern of sleeping in the morning and being more active at night does not match up with the activity needed during monitoring. Today my hubby finally got to see the BPP which I think is cool because I feel like he is left out of the whole experience here. :) I don't know if it was daddy's presence or not, but baby E was active and even sustained his breathing for us to see. Yay! The doc also came in a little later to do an ultrasound to measure my cervix and the kiddo. My cervix is still hanging in there nicely and my kiddo is weighing in a week ahead at 4 pounds! Go munchkin!
The other part of the week which wasn't so exciting is that I didn't get to go home this weekend. My angel of a dad needed to stay home for a few more days, so we will be rescheduling his flight sometime this week. When he called to tell me, he was upset about it and I wasn't! The reality is while of course I want to go home, it's not necessary as I get great care from the nurses and Baby E gets lots of monitoring. At the same time, despite my generally positive attitude, I've had some bad moments here just being lonely for my home, family, dog, and husband. I usually get over it pretty quick but sometimes I cry for no good reason.
So it's a mixed bag of emotions over here in my little corner of the hospital. One day at a time....
xoxo
*Lis - baby bump pic is coming soon!!!
The past week has been a combination of happiness and peace alternated with sadness and worry. It's fair to say that some of these happen all in the same day too! However I think it's pretty typical of being on bedrest in the hospital far far away from family.
After the horrible glucose test in which I felt sick all day on Monday, I proceeded to get woozy and nauseous at every biophysical profile (BPP) ultrasound. It use to be the highlight of my day to see him squirming on the screen, but the wooziness followed with a good hour of shaking in my bed while drinking sierra.mist afterwards just did not hit my happy buttons. Baby E continued to not breathe for the test on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday which kind of freaked me out. He was actually so quiet on the screen on Wednesday that they had to buzz him with this contraption just to get him to do his gross motor movements. It made me kind of wonder if everything was still okay in there....so the doc ordered an extra NST everyday and an increase of BPP from three to seven times a week.
The great news is that he is definitely chugging away in there, but his pattern of sleeping in the morning and being more active at night does not match up with the activity needed during monitoring. Today my hubby finally got to see the BPP which I think is cool because I feel like he is left out of the whole experience here. :) I don't know if it was daddy's presence or not, but baby E was active and even sustained his breathing for us to see. Yay! The doc also came in a little later to do an ultrasound to measure my cervix and the kiddo. My cervix is still hanging in there nicely and my kiddo is weighing in a week ahead at 4 pounds! Go munchkin!
The other part of the week which wasn't so exciting is that I didn't get to go home this weekend. My angel of a dad needed to stay home for a few more days, so we will be rescheduling his flight sometime this week. When he called to tell me, he was upset about it and I wasn't! The reality is while of course I want to go home, it's not necessary as I get great care from the nurses and Baby E gets lots of monitoring. At the same time, despite my generally positive attitude, I've had some bad moments here just being lonely for my home, family, dog, and husband. I usually get over it pretty quick but sometimes I cry for no good reason.
So it's a mixed bag of emotions over here in my little corner of the hospital. One day at a time....
xoxo
*Lis - baby bump pic is coming soon!!!
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Bedrest: Day 21
The bedrest chronicles: day 21
With my doctor away for the weekend, my interim doc came in on Sunday with the news that I had failed the first gestational diabetes test with a score of 140. WHAT! For the first time, I seriously thought "Common' -- give me a freaking break here!" How many things can be thrown in my path of becoming a mom? But, I got over it and prepped to take the test the next morning which of course led to the grand debate between the nurses of whether or not I could drink water or not during the fasting period (yes, you can). I can deal without food, but not having water makes me exceedingly grumpy.
All food intake stopped at 8 pm, followed with some late night reading until 2 am and a lab tech coming in at 6:05 am to draw my baseline blood level. By 6:35, the nurses still hadn't brought the yummy delicious orange drink to me, so I buzzed them. It turned out that they couldn't find any 100 glucose bottles and instead had to give me two 50 glucose bottles. Essentially they are the same except that instead of downing 10 oz of the icky sweet semi flat Sunkist tasting drink, I got to down 20 oz. My mother told me to "just think of your college beer days" and my hubby wrote, "chug it like a sorority sister!" Ha ha. Oh how life changes. :)
The fun continued between the third and fourth blood draws as I was squeezed in for E's biophysical profile. Normally this would be fine except I started getting really woozy and felt like I was going to hurl about ten minutes into it! I had to grab the nurse's hand and ask her to grab me some water. Of course, this was the day with the training tech who then spent another fifteen minutes practicing her skills. Normally I wouldn't care, but I felt so gross by this point that I just wanted back in bed!
Finally we finished up both tests, and I was able to eat something. :) The best news of all--I passed! Whoohoo! For the rest of the day however, I laid in bed feeling off. As long as I can still eat my milky way fun size bars, I can deal with one day of being sick. :) Crisis averted!
xoxo
With my doctor away for the weekend, my interim doc came in on Sunday with the news that I had failed the first gestational diabetes test with a score of 140. WHAT! For the first time, I seriously thought "Common' -- give me a freaking break here!" How many things can be thrown in my path of becoming a mom? But, I got over it and prepped to take the test the next morning which of course led to the grand debate between the nurses of whether or not I could drink water or not during the fasting period (yes, you can). I can deal without food, but not having water makes me exceedingly grumpy.
All food intake stopped at 8 pm, followed with some late night reading until 2 am and a lab tech coming in at 6:05 am to draw my baseline blood level. By 6:35, the nurses still hadn't brought the yummy delicious orange drink to me, so I buzzed them. It turned out that they couldn't find any 100 glucose bottles and instead had to give me two 50 glucose bottles. Essentially they are the same except that instead of downing 10 oz of the icky sweet semi flat Sunkist tasting drink, I got to down 20 oz. My mother told me to "just think of your college beer days" and my hubby wrote, "chug it like a sorority sister!" Ha ha. Oh how life changes. :)
The fun continued between the third and fourth blood draws as I was squeezed in for E's biophysical profile. Normally this would be fine except I started getting really woozy and felt like I was going to hurl about ten minutes into it! I had to grab the nurse's hand and ask her to grab me some water. Of course, this was the day with the training tech who then spent another fifteen minutes practicing her skills. Normally I wouldn't care, but I felt so gross by this point that I just wanted back in bed!
Finally we finished up both tests, and I was able to eat something. :) The best news of all--I passed! Whoohoo! For the rest of the day however, I laid in bed feeling off. As long as I can still eat my milky way fun size bars, I can deal with one day of being sick. :) Crisis averted!
xoxo
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Bedrest: Day 18
The bedrest chronicles: Day 18
Hubby texts: What u doing
I text: Laying here :) You ?
Hubby texts: No really. Standing here.
I text: lol Where's here?
Hubby texts: Here is where the heart is.
I text: groan
Then he walks into my hospital room. Big dork - I love him so.
***
All is quiet here in my corner of the hospital. Baby E keeps passing his biophysical profiles with flying colors and his monitoring each night is strong. He keeps all of the nurses on their toes by continually dodging the heartbeat monitor or evading the ultrasound by curling up in odd positions or doing cheetah flips when they're trying to watch him breathing. Monitoring is really play time for him as he uses the the monitoring point as target practices for his hand chops and karate kicks. There is something about the waves it makes in his amniotic fluid that gets him all revved up! Playtime mommy!
An interesting tidbit of news that my doctor passed onto me was that most women who have preterm labor have one of three infections: strep B, mycoplasma or ureaplasma (spellings?). They start treating patients immediately for all three as the cultures take awhile, however mine came back positive for mycoplasma. The presence of this does not always cause preterm labor, but in my case, I fit the statistics. It's nice to know that it's nothing I could have prevented. More antibiotics it is for me!
Thank for the well wishes on my bathroom privileges! Yes, I'm a big girl now!! lol In all seriousness, it has made an incredible difference in my comfort. However the even bigger news is that we've been doing so well that the doc is going to send us home!!! In my wildest dreams, I did not expect to be able to go home before 32 weeks if at all. However, my lack of contractions, bleeding, and leaking has convinced my doctor that I should get to go home at 31 weeks. That means next weekend people! Yippee, hurrah, cartwheels!
My angel of a dad is flying up on Saturday to tend to me while I'm at home. While I'm a little nervous imagining that my stitch will tear open while we're taking the hour long drive from our house to the hospital, I'm glad that I'll be in such capable hands. My dad is an excellent caregiver who I'm sure will be a good tyrant about me doing absolutely nothing. He's also quite handy in the kitchen which makes me start drooling with longing over some non-mush like food. I swear I have eaten baked chicken and mashed potatoes like seven times this week to avoid whatever the special of the day they are whipping up down there in the hospital kitchen. I digress...
My other source of happiness came yesterday when my hubby brought down my darling dog, Sweetpea, to visit. With the advent of wheelchair privileges, I escaped from my little room into the delightful but rare sunshine that the skies have been hoarding. Apparently, this was the summer to move to Anchorage as it has rained for a record 31 days! So, in the sunshine, my hubby wheeled me out to a little grassy area and brought my wiggle-waggle dog to me. Just sitting there petting her soft fur and getting doggy kisses worked like a charm on my spirits. I must admit that this past week has not been my best as I started getting sad and a bit lonely. It was nothing a nice crying jag couldn't take care of but the happy dog visit really reversed my downward trend.
So here I lay on day 18 of hospital bed rest, overjoyed that tomorrow we will hit the 30 week mark. The next real milestone from the doc's perspective is 32 weeks, but I'm celebrating every day. Who would have thought I would make it here!
xoxo
Hubby texts: What u doing
I text: Laying here :) You ?
Hubby texts: No really. Standing here.
I text: lol Where's here?
Hubby texts: Here is where the heart is.
I text: groan
Then he walks into my hospital room. Big dork - I love him so.
***
All is quiet here in my corner of the hospital. Baby E keeps passing his biophysical profiles with flying colors and his monitoring each night is strong. He keeps all of the nurses on their toes by continually dodging the heartbeat monitor or evading the ultrasound by curling up in odd positions or doing cheetah flips when they're trying to watch him breathing. Monitoring is really play time for him as he uses the the monitoring point as target practices for his hand chops and karate kicks. There is something about the waves it makes in his amniotic fluid that gets him all revved up! Playtime mommy!
An interesting tidbit of news that my doctor passed onto me was that most women who have preterm labor have one of three infections: strep B, mycoplasma or ureaplasma (spellings?). They start treating patients immediately for all three as the cultures take awhile, however mine came back positive for mycoplasma. The presence of this does not always cause preterm labor, but in my case, I fit the statistics. It's nice to know that it's nothing I could have prevented. More antibiotics it is for me!
Thank for the well wishes on my bathroom privileges! Yes, I'm a big girl now!! lol In all seriousness, it has made an incredible difference in my comfort. However the even bigger news is that we've been doing so well that the doc is going to send us home!!! In my wildest dreams, I did not expect to be able to go home before 32 weeks if at all. However, my lack of contractions, bleeding, and leaking has convinced my doctor that I should get to go home at 31 weeks. That means next weekend people! Yippee, hurrah, cartwheels!
My angel of a dad is flying up on Saturday to tend to me while I'm at home. While I'm a little nervous imagining that my stitch will tear open while we're taking the hour long drive from our house to the hospital, I'm glad that I'll be in such capable hands. My dad is an excellent caregiver who I'm sure will be a good tyrant about me doing absolutely nothing. He's also quite handy in the kitchen which makes me start drooling with longing over some non-mush like food. I swear I have eaten baked chicken and mashed potatoes like seven times this week to avoid whatever the special of the day they are whipping up down there in the hospital kitchen. I digress...
My other source of happiness came yesterday when my hubby brought down my darling dog, Sweetpea, to visit. With the advent of wheelchair privileges, I escaped from my little room into the delightful but rare sunshine that the skies have been hoarding. Apparently, this was the summer to move to Anchorage as it has rained for a record 31 days! So, in the sunshine, my hubby wheeled me out to a little grassy area and brought my wiggle-waggle dog to me. Just sitting there petting her soft fur and getting doggy kisses worked like a charm on my spirits. I must admit that this past week has not been my best as I started getting sad and a bit lonely. It was nothing a nice crying jag couldn't take care of but the happy dog visit really reversed my downward trend.
So here I lay on day 18 of hospital bed rest, overjoyed that tomorrow we will hit the 30 week mark. The next real milestone from the doc's perspective is 32 weeks, but I'm celebrating every day. Who would have thought I would make it here!
xoxo
Friday, August 13, 2010
Bedrest: The beauty of...TMI alert!
Really, this is a TMI alert for you. Seriously. You have been warned.
Most of my self consciousness about exposing my girly parts was eradicated by the repeated wandings and probings that occurred during my infertility treatments. For example, the twice daily "peri" care for the catheter insert didn't really phase me. I do wonder though, how many people have now seen my girly parts in the last year. I bet the number would now rival any working girl! :) lol However, I realized there was a new level of consciousness when it came to my backside.
So this being said, I must tell you that the title of this blog refers to: The beauty of bathroom privileges!!!!! As of Wednesday night, I have been granted bathroom privileges which I promise feels as wonderous as driving a car for the first time or turning twenty-one! It seems like life has just gotten so much better with the return of a little autonomy. One of the really nice benefits of being able to stand up once in awhile is that I don't ache as bad from lying down so much. Sigh. Relief.
When my hubby first heard of my release from the catheter, I swear he turned a little green with worry. This is unlike my husband as he is usually rock solid with any news. Yet, I think with all of the craziness that has been had until this point, he would like to tuck me away, preferably into a coma, until baby E can emerge safely. I think I love him a little more for showing his worry for me. :)
Despite the new freedoms, my lack of contractions has stayed consistent which makes everybody happy. My doctor even mentioned today that she is contemplating when I might get to go home! I didn't expect that until at least 32 weeks, so we'll see.
Hope all is well with you.
xoxo
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Bedrest: care package!!
Today my day was made when my favorite nurse, M, walked in with a box for me. Care package, people! I literally took like an hour in opening it because, well let's face it, my days are pretty wide open! My sister with help from my dear friend E picked all sorts of items to keep my spirits up. Let me share with you:
Skittles, Starburst, wipes, hair clips, Olay facial cleansers, one use toothbrushes, Tootsie pop drops, some Paul F socks, Southern Living mag....
Bare.Minerals sun-kissed pack, a complete set of everything needed for a pedicure including mini nail polishes of my fave brand...
A whole travel case to hang from my bed stocked with all the essentials to make my lips, face, hair, and nails look fabulous dah-ling...
Do I not have the best sister and friend? They completely made my day.
xoxo
Bare.Minerals sun-kissed pack, a complete set of everything needed for a pedicure including mini nail polishes of my fave brand...
A whole travel case to hang from my bed stocked with all the essentials to make my lips, face, hair, and nails look fabulous dah-ling...
Do I not have the best sister and friend? They completely made my day.
xoxo
Monday, August 9, 2010
Bedrest: tidbits
The Bedrest Chronicles:
Bedrest Type: Complete. May raise bed up to 30 degrees to aid digestion during meals. No bathroom privileges (yes, this means a catheter and bedpans).
Food: Whatever I want. Including afternoon and midnight snacks such as cheesecake, fresh fruit or shakes. Best food items so far: fresh grapes and pineapple, turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, cereal, and the pizza we ordered in.
Necessary Items: iphone, computer, books, lip junk, facial wipes (so you don't have to wait to clean your face in the morning), breath mints (so you can kiss your hubby without knocking him over), your own pillow, a pen (for luxuriously choosing your hospital oh-so-delicious meals and snacks in the morning), a huge cup for water, TV series on DVD (my choice today - Alias Season I), family and friends ready to text, call, and facebook, a complete lack of dignity and modesty, and a sense of humor.
Items Still Lusting After From Afar: Kindle (dammit they just came out with a new one but it won't be ready for delivery until September), an air mattress bed (mine is far too uncomfortable--might I mention there are only two in the prenatal ward--hello going too be here for a loooong time!)
Activity of the Week: shooting trash across the room at the bin and completely missing many times until there is a little pile of garbage on the floor.
Favorite Moment: having pizza and movie with hubby yesterday
Least Favorite Moment: breaking out into contractions during pizza date and requiring anti-nausea and anti-contraction meds. Thankfully it only took one shot to get them under control.
Move Status: We closed on our house Monday before I came to the hospital. Now my fantastic hubby has unpacked 75% of the house along with a huge list of things required when you move into new construction such as ordering blinds, arranging for landscaping, etc.
Work Status: I called my scheduler and quit all of my online classes as soon as this happened. I don't want any stress!
What I miss: my dog.
Attitude Status: I no longer cry when my hubby leaves after visiting. Pretty mellow for the rest of the day. Not angry. Not sad this happened. Just taking one moment and day at a time. Happy that we reached 28 weeks.
That's it!
xoxo
Bedrest Type: Complete. May raise bed up to 30 degrees to aid digestion during meals. No bathroom privileges (yes, this means a catheter and bedpans).
Food: Whatever I want. Including afternoon and midnight snacks such as cheesecake, fresh fruit or shakes. Best food items so far: fresh grapes and pineapple, turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, cereal, and the pizza we ordered in.
Necessary Items: iphone, computer, books, lip junk, facial wipes (so you don't have to wait to clean your face in the morning), breath mints (so you can kiss your hubby without knocking him over), your own pillow, a pen (for luxuriously choosing your hospital oh-so-delicious meals and snacks in the morning), a huge cup for water, TV series on DVD (my choice today - Alias Season I), family and friends ready to text, call, and facebook, a complete lack of dignity and modesty, and a sense of humor.
Items Still Lusting After From Afar: Kindle (dammit they just came out with a new one but it won't be ready for delivery until September), an air mattress bed (mine is far too uncomfortable--might I mention there are only two in the prenatal ward--hello going too be here for a loooong time!)
Activity of the Week: shooting trash across the room at the bin and completely missing many times until there is a little pile of garbage on the floor.
Favorite Moment: having pizza and movie with hubby yesterday
Least Favorite Moment: breaking out into contractions during pizza date and requiring anti-nausea and anti-contraction meds. Thankfully it only took one shot to get them under control.
Move Status: We closed on our house Monday before I came to the hospital. Now my fantastic hubby has unpacked 75% of the house along with a huge list of things required when you move into new construction such as ordering blinds, arranging for landscaping, etc.
Work Status: I called my scheduler and quit all of my online classes as soon as this happened. I don't want any stress!
What I miss: my dog.
Attitude Status: I no longer cry when my hubby leaves after visiting. Pretty mellow for the rest of the day. Not angry. Not sad this happened. Just taking one moment and day at a time. Happy that we reached 28 weeks.
That's it!
xoxo
Friday, August 6, 2010
TY
First let me tell you--your comments and support have been a HUGE help as I lay here. It felt so good to reconnect with my bloggy friends as many of you have been here from early on and have seen me go through my ups and downs. This is simply another one of those downs. So thank you thank you.
Baby E and I are still resting here in the hospital. He's been passing his non-stress tests and biophysical profiles all week which makes me super happy. :)
More to follow when I feel like I can write worth a damn!
xoxo
Baby E and I are still resting here in the hospital. He's been passing his non-stress tests and biophysical profiles all week which makes me super happy. :)
More to follow when I feel like I can write worth a damn!
xoxo
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Dereliction of a Blogger and a Cervix
For many days now I have been wanting to blog but either too busy or too tired to write anything! First I didn't want to write to complain about the 60 days we've spent traveling or living in an on post hotel (because it can get old after awhile). Then I was way too busy partying like a pregnant woman (ie eating and providing old friends with copious amounts of alcohol) in California! Hitting the ground running when I landed back in Alaska, I've been busy closing on our new house. More on all of these fun fantastic events later as they definitely deserve their own posts.
Last night I surpassed my dereliction of duty as blogger and added an MIA cervix to boot. Yes, just when I thought everything was okay and I was ready to start preparing for this baby....my incompetent cervix hit.
On Friday, my husband and I shared a little loving which has been far and few between with our mutual fear of somehow hurting baby E. Later that night I noticed the mucus I had been discharging for about a week was tinged with blood which made me a little nervous. When I called L & D to check with the nurse, she indicated that it was probably something coming loose from earlier in the day. So I continued on with life, checking but not worried about this. However, on Monday, it got worse which prompted phone call #2. The nurse didn't think that it was too much of a problem, but said to go ahead and come in anyway just to check.
When I arrived, they hooked me up to hear the baby's heartbeat and for contractions which they said I was not having. After finishing the vaginal exam, the doctor asked me, "How much do you know about pregnancy complications?" Dum dum dum. You really don't want your doc asking you that! I braced myself said, "enough to know a lot of crappy things can happen." To make a long story short, I was four inches dilated with the amniotic sac and feet hanging through my cervix. Antibiotics to ward off infection and steroids for baby E's lungs were administered. They transferred me by ambulance to the larger hospital in Anchorage with the NICU (which I came to find out is ranked #2 in the country). There, I had definite contractions which slowed down a little with some lovely drugs. My new doc shot very straight telling us we had three options: 1) Have surgery to put in a cervical stitch after they pushed the amniotic sac and feet back in and then remain on bed rest in the hospital until delivery; 2) do nothing and bed rest in hospital until delivery, or 3) deliver him right then. We went with option one even though it's not typical to do this stitch after about 22 weeks. We didn't really have anything to lose with option one and our doc has had success with this even past the 22 week mark.
I may be kind of morbid in this sense, but I have the knowledge that with any surgery there are risks. So I told my husband that if I died, to know that I loved him and to make sure baby E knew I loved him dearly. After many phone calls to my family, I finally managed to wake my dad up and let him know what was going on. They whisked me off to surgery immediately after this. Thankfully everything went smoothly and they had me tucked away in the prenatal ward in the early morning. Where now I sit typing this and will remain for either the duration of my pregnancy or possibly until 32 weeks if I have someone to take care of me at home.
Speaking of home, my terrific husband is going to get to receive our household goods and unpack all by his lonesome AGAIN! Last time we arrived somewhere new, I was in my 2WW for IVF #2. He had the whole house unpacked in four days! Now he gets to do this again which will actually be a great distraction for him instead of sitting here with me.
The whole ordeal is in perspective for me. While I don't love or even like that this happened, I am grateful that everything is okay for now. I'm ecstatic that we're at 27 weeks and have a chance at a viable healthy baby. I know that I love my husband, my family, my friends, and my baby B. It could be better, but it could be a lot worse. So for that I'm grateful.
xoxo
Last night I surpassed my dereliction of duty as blogger and added an MIA cervix to boot. Yes, just when I thought everything was okay and I was ready to start preparing for this baby....my incompetent cervix hit.
On Friday, my husband and I shared a little loving which has been far and few between with our mutual fear of somehow hurting baby E. Later that night I noticed the mucus I had been discharging for about a week was tinged with blood which made me a little nervous. When I called L & D to check with the nurse, she indicated that it was probably something coming loose from earlier in the day. So I continued on with life, checking but not worried about this. However, on Monday, it got worse which prompted phone call #2. The nurse didn't think that it was too much of a problem, but said to go ahead and come in anyway just to check.
When I arrived, they hooked me up to hear the baby's heartbeat and for contractions which they said I was not having. After finishing the vaginal exam, the doctor asked me, "How much do you know about pregnancy complications?" Dum dum dum. You really don't want your doc asking you that! I braced myself said, "enough to know a lot of crappy things can happen." To make a long story short, I was four inches dilated with the amniotic sac and feet hanging through my cervix. Antibiotics to ward off infection and steroids for baby E's lungs were administered. They transferred me by ambulance to the larger hospital in Anchorage with the NICU (which I came to find out is ranked #2 in the country). There, I had definite contractions which slowed down a little with some lovely drugs. My new doc shot very straight telling us we had three options: 1) Have surgery to put in a cervical stitch after they pushed the amniotic sac and feet back in and then remain on bed rest in the hospital until delivery; 2) do nothing and bed rest in hospital until delivery, or 3) deliver him right then. We went with option one even though it's not typical to do this stitch after about 22 weeks. We didn't really have anything to lose with option one and our doc has had success with this even past the 22 week mark.
I may be kind of morbid in this sense, but I have the knowledge that with any surgery there are risks. So I told my husband that if I died, to know that I loved him and to make sure baby E knew I loved him dearly. After many phone calls to my family, I finally managed to wake my dad up and let him know what was going on. They whisked me off to surgery immediately after this. Thankfully everything went smoothly and they had me tucked away in the prenatal ward in the early morning. Where now I sit typing this and will remain for either the duration of my pregnancy or possibly until 32 weeks if I have someone to take care of me at home.
Speaking of home, my terrific husband is going to get to receive our household goods and unpack all by his lonesome AGAIN! Last time we arrived somewhere new, I was in my 2WW for IVF #2. He had the whole house unpacked in four days! Now he gets to do this again which will actually be a great distraction for him instead of sitting here with me.
The whole ordeal is in perspective for me. While I don't love or even like that this happened, I am grateful that everything is okay for now. I'm ecstatic that we're at 27 weeks and have a chance at a viable healthy baby. I know that I love my husband, my family, my friends, and my baby B. It could be better, but it could be a lot worse. So for that I'm grateful.
xoxo
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