Kick's A Lot...
I'm officially changing her name or at least making this her Indian name.
So here we go with more medical updates. Dr's appointment was really good today. I learned more about what is going on with Caroline's placenta. We actually had good numbers. The magic number is back down to a .... wait for it... 3!!!!!!!!!!! Although it can go up and down the fact that it had changed that drastically buys so much time for her to keep on cooking! The doctor said it's a direct result of me laying on my butt! Although I hate it I can now see that it's doing something!
My high risk doctor is kinda awesome. She is direct, kind and funny all into one plus one of the smartest women I have ever met. I trust her with mine and my babies life which says a lot. So a little more time and no appointments for a week! Caroline is lounging head up across my belly. Backwards baby, but who am I to talk I was breech up until a day before my delivery. Like mother like daughter. Her head is above the left of my belly button and her feet are pointing down towards my right hip. Her hands were tucked behind her head... give her a float and she literally might stay forever! She is 2.4 lbs which puts her in the 25th precentile. She's a little small but that's ok. Overall a great appointment which makes for a very happy day!
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Please do the whistle it makes the title more effective!! Ok so by popular demand here is a quick run down as of now to the complications I've had... (Grab a snack, You'll need it)
Some of this might fall under the TMI category but I am pregnant and well pregnancy can be kinda icky... so there's your warning!
December 24th: 8 weeks and the night I told my 85 (now 86) year old Granny that she was going to be a Great Granny... Light spotting but scary enough I went to the ER. They called it an attempted miscarriage and told me it was normal in early pregnancy. This happened 3 more times but I didn't go to the ER because it was "normal".
February 6th: 15 weeks and past the "danger" zone. I woke up thinking I had pee'd myself went to the bathroom like normal and realized that it was in fact blood. A lot of blood. I was alone and terrified but Tom came home and took me immediately to the ER where they couldn't see what the exact cause was but somewhere behind our baby was a placental tear or a subchorionic hemorrhage. More than likely with the previous spotting it was in fact a subchorionic hemorrhage.
April starts the blood pressure issues. I had been borderline high blood pressure throughout but in April there was a major increase. I was placed on procardia 30mg and lasted 3 weeks on that before things got very rocky.
April 26th: Blood pressure 171/109, chest pain, and yucky feeling. I called my Dr. and basically asked to be seen. I didn't know my BP was that high but when I got there it was straight to the ER (across the street at North Austin Medical) for me. I spent all day in the ER and had every test you can imagine done and excitedly two IV's. I was admitted and changed to Labetalol 100 mg twice a day. It worked a little too well so my BP was then dropping too much. I ended up leaving on 50 mg twice a day three days later. Home but on moderate bed rest.
May 11th: Had an awesome dinner at Cracker Barrel with Tom's family but felt like I had been hit by a truck after. Dizzy, fast heart beat I was sure my BP was high yet again. I spent until Sunday in Round Rock St. Davids. Basically at this point they have found protein in my urine but it's still not quite enough to diagnose me with pre-eclampsia but I did get the great news that I barely failed my gestational diabetes test so I now had to add Gestational Diabetes to my long list of issues.
May 14th: I met with the nutritionist for my GD. She changed my diet a lot but I do it for the baby.
May 15th: Follow up with my OB. First time my little brat decided to let them use the Doppler to make sure she was ok in there...
May 16th: Follow up with my High Risk DR... No she's not quite ok.
I will do my best to describe the issue but I'm not Dr. and to be honest I don't understand exactly how all of this works yet (I have another apt today so I hope to get more answers)
Caroline's placenta is not working correctly. The flow going in is too high. I understand that it should be under a 3 (whatever unit it's measured in) and on the 16th it was a 4. My high risk Dr. was concerned and told me with everything going in the direction it was going that I would end up having this baby much sooner than the goal of July 19th (37 weeks). She now wanted to see me weekly and that I should expect hospital bed rest soon but that I could go home and as long as I didn't do anything streneous I could stay there for a while still. No laundry, no dishes basically sit on my butt... That's very hard when you have a type A personality. I want to be in charge of my household and clean etc. but it's for the baby so I do as I'm told.
May 18th: After a stressful day, around 4:30 PM I started having contractions... Not the braxton hicks kind the real ones that hurt from the back forward. I got home per Dr's orders and got in bed and drank a ton of water. Around 8:30 PM they had stopped but I hadn't felt Caroline much. Same for Saturday. I felt her some but just not the same.
May 20th: No baby movement... at all no response to orange juice, poking, changing positions, this baby was lethargic. I did a kick count and after an hour only had 3 kicks. I called my high risk Dr. who was on call and she said come in. After being monitored my brat decided to wake up some and show off for the nurse. The Dr. ordered an ultrasound which came back showing the placental flow to be even higher... it was now a 6.1 (whatever it's measured in). So in just 4 days it had increased.
There you have it. My long story of medical drama up until this point. I have no idea what's in store for us but the OB in the hospital told me along with my high risk Dr. It's only a matter of time before they will pull this baby. The placenta will eventually have so much pressure that it will not provide for Caroline and we are walking a fine line until then. I will have steroid shots as soon as they feel like she is getting close. Ideally we will get all the way to 37 weeks but 32 would be good at this point too.
I am 29 weeks on Thursday, May 24th.
Please do the whistle it makes the title more effective!! Ok so by popular demand here is a quick run down as of now to the complications I've had... (Grab a snack, You'll need it)
Some of this might fall under the TMI category but I am pregnant and well pregnancy can be kinda icky... so there's your warning!
December 24th: 8 weeks and the night I told my 85 (now 86) year old Granny that she was going to be a Great Granny... Light spotting but scary enough I went to the ER. They called it an attempted miscarriage and told me it was normal in early pregnancy. This happened 3 more times but I didn't go to the ER because it was "normal".
February 6th: 15 weeks and past the "danger" zone. I woke up thinking I had pee'd myself went to the bathroom like normal and realized that it was in fact blood. A lot of blood. I was alone and terrified but Tom came home and took me immediately to the ER where they couldn't see what the exact cause was but somewhere behind our baby was a placental tear or a subchorionic hemorrhage. More than likely with the previous spotting it was in fact a subchorionic hemorrhage.
April starts the blood pressure issues. I had been borderline high blood pressure throughout but in April there was a major increase. I was placed on procardia 30mg and lasted 3 weeks on that before things got very rocky.
April 26th: Blood pressure 171/109, chest pain, and yucky feeling. I called my Dr. and basically asked to be seen. I didn't know my BP was that high but when I got there it was straight to the ER (across the street at North Austin Medical) for me. I spent all day in the ER and had every test you can imagine done and excitedly two IV's. I was admitted and changed to Labetalol 100 mg twice a day. It worked a little too well so my BP was then dropping too much. I ended up leaving on 50 mg twice a day three days later. Home but on moderate bed rest.
May 11th: Had an awesome dinner at Cracker Barrel with Tom's family but felt like I had been hit by a truck after. Dizzy, fast heart beat I was sure my BP was high yet again. I spent until Sunday in Round Rock St. Davids. Basically at this point they have found protein in my urine but it's still not quite enough to diagnose me with pre-eclampsia but I did get the great news that I barely failed my gestational diabetes test so I now had to add Gestational Diabetes to my long list of issues.
May 14th: I met with the nutritionist for my GD. She changed my diet a lot but I do it for the baby.
May 15th: Follow up with my OB. First time my little brat decided to let them use the Doppler to make sure she was ok in there...
May 16th: Follow up with my High Risk DR... No she's not quite ok.
I will do my best to describe the issue but I'm not Dr. and to be honest I don't understand exactly how all of this works yet (I have another apt today so I hope to get more answers)
Caroline's placenta is not working correctly. The flow going in is too high. I understand that it should be under a 3 (whatever unit it's measured in) and on the 16th it was a 4. My high risk Dr. was concerned and told me with everything going in the direction it was going that I would end up having this baby much sooner than the goal of July 19th (37 weeks). She now wanted to see me weekly and that I should expect hospital bed rest soon but that I could go home and as long as I didn't do anything streneous I could stay there for a while still. No laundry, no dishes basically sit on my butt... That's very hard when you have a type A personality. I want to be in charge of my household and clean etc. but it's for the baby so I do as I'm told.
May 18th: After a stressful day, around 4:30 PM I started having contractions... Not the braxton hicks kind the real ones that hurt from the back forward. I got home per Dr's orders and got in bed and drank a ton of water. Around 8:30 PM they had stopped but I hadn't felt Caroline much. Same for Saturday. I felt her some but just not the same.
May 20th: No baby movement... at all no response to orange juice, poking, changing positions, this baby was lethargic. I did a kick count and after an hour only had 3 kicks. I called my high risk Dr. who was on call and she said come in. After being monitored my brat decided to wake up some and show off for the nurse. The Dr. ordered an ultrasound which came back showing the placental flow to be even higher... it was now a 6.1 (whatever it's measured in). So in just 4 days it had increased.
There you have it. My long story of medical drama up until this point. I have no idea what's in store for us but the OB in the hospital told me along with my high risk Dr. It's only a matter of time before they will pull this baby. The placenta will eventually have so much pressure that it will not provide for Caroline and we are walking a fine line until then. I will have steroid shots as soon as they feel like she is getting close. Ideally we will get all the way to 37 weeks but 32 would be good at this point too.
I am 29 weeks on Thursday, May 24th.
My two cents....
Well, just to throw in my 2 cents worth on all this. From the beginning of this relationship, it has been a whirlwind of emotion. This particular event not being excluded! I had just moved down here from Oklahoma, flat broke, financially, and emotionally. I had met Casey just in July, in what I could only describe as a wonderful, storybook style romance that was blossoming into something that I really couldn't put my head around, but I was loving every second of it. You can ask her, we were NEVER apart! She went from someone I really liked, to someone I could not live without, practically over night. I looked forward to every afternoon, for my next fix of Casey. She was, and is, this light show of fun and emotion that kept me alive and positive. Her fun and positive demeanor was a refreshing shock to my system that was greatly needed.
Only a few months later, it was November. Now, I wont go into great detail about what happened, she's already covered all that. But it was definitely a defining event for us. It was a crossroads for the both of us. We had to make a decision, for both of us, and now for this unborn miracle that had just happened, seemingly, out of nowhere. My first emotion was shock, then happiness, then worry, then pure joy. I was very happy to give this gift to Casey. Something that the doctors said could never happen. Now, I'm not bragging, I only played a small part in all this. Someone, somewhere, chose to give this gift to the both of us. To test us, to test our relationship, to test our love, and our faith. So far... its working.
I have to agree, it has been a very rough road. But what I believe to be our strength together, is we both keep pushing forward. Despite any difficulties, we constantly move forward. Loving, laughing, crying, and supporting each other; and in the end, we both will have this little miracle that we decided to call; Caroline Leigh Anderson.
So little girl, when you get here, you can cry, laugh, smile, whatever you want to do, because you have two parents who will ALWAYS support you and raise you to be a beautiful little girl. Keep doing what you're doing, and we both can't wait for you to be here. Someone once said, all good things take time to come around. All we have is time....
That's my two cents worth.
Tom
Only a few months later, it was November. Now, I wont go into great detail about what happened, she's already covered all that. But it was definitely a defining event for us. It was a crossroads for the both of us. We had to make a decision, for both of us, and now for this unborn miracle that had just happened, seemingly, out of nowhere. My first emotion was shock, then happiness, then worry, then pure joy. I was very happy to give this gift to Casey. Something that the doctors said could never happen. Now, I'm not bragging, I only played a small part in all this. Someone, somewhere, chose to give this gift to the both of us. To test us, to test our relationship, to test our love, and our faith. So far... its working.
I have to agree, it has been a very rough road. But what I believe to be our strength together, is we both keep pushing forward. Despite any difficulties, we constantly move forward. Loving, laughing, crying, and supporting each other; and in the end, we both will have this little miracle that we decided to call; Caroline Leigh Anderson.
So little girl, when you get here, you can cry, laugh, smile, whatever you want to do, because you have two parents who will ALWAYS support you and raise you to be a beautiful little girl. Keep doing what you're doing, and we both can't wait for you to be here. Someone once said, all good things take time to come around. All we have is time....
That's my two cents worth.
Tom
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