Bed Rest from bad to worse

January 30, 2013

Hospital Bed Rest Day 1

We got to the hospital to be admitted about 12:45 after "having" to stop at Burger King and get what might be my last whopper this pregnancy. :-( Got registered through triage and a nurses aide comes to get us take us to our room. Please keep in mind I am 25weeks pregnant and already dilated 2-3cm. So this lady introduces herself and says she will take us to the room. All the other times we have come through triage it has been a very short walk to a room. I am having to do the pregnant girl waddle to keep up with her so i turn to was and make a smart comment and the lady says "Am I walking to fast for you? I am used to having to run everywhere." Umm ya just alittle. So I say ya that it is hard to waddle that fast and this is the most I have walked all week. As we are passing the nurses station one of the nurses says to the aide "why is she walking she should be in a wheel chair" The nurse that said it was rather rude about it so i am thinking great I already don't want to be here if she is going to be my nurse. So i get hooked up to the monitors and it is showing I am contracting every 5-7 Min's and they are getting more intense. Around 6pm my Dr comes to see me and decides that I need to put on Mag Sulfate to stop the contractions. I am warned that the first 20 minutes I am on the Mag is going to be to worst as I am getting I believe it was 400gms in 20 Min's then I will be cut down to 200gm and hr. The nurses told me that will cause a major hot flash and could cause extreme nausea and vomiting. Anyone who knows me knows that even when I am not pregnant I am usually hot all the time and it is so much worse being pregnant and now they want to add mag to it. But my nurse saved the day and brought me a fan!! I had 2 nurses working on me to get the mag started as quick as they could and the one who was drawing blood and putting my IV in was a new nurse. Now I understand that all nurses are new at some point and that they all have to learn and this nurse was very nice and Wes and I both really liked her but when it comes to getting blood drawn and my IV I am the biggest baby ever. I have often said that the IV is the worst part of having a baby. So she puts the IV in the top of my hand and starts to draw the blood she needs before starting fluids. And before I know it she there is a HUGE bubble on the top of my hand and she has to take that IV out...so that means she is going to have to stick me again. ouch!! This time she puts it in my forearm and it didn't even hurt. Usually when I have an IV it even hurts me to move the arm or hand that it is in but this time I have full use of my arm still!!!!! Now I feel really bad about all the mean stuff i said in my head about that nurse and how she shouldn't be practicing on my IV. :-( So at 7pm they start the mag. I am laying in the bed looking at the clock waiting for the impending doom...5 minutes pass and I am still feeling fine...10 minutes pass and I am starting get really hot but still nothing I can't handle...15 minutes pass and I have sweat rolling from places I didn't know could sweat so much, i am feeling very light headed and my vision is starting to get a little fuzzier...20 minutes pass and I am still feeling the same as I did at 15 minuted but with a renewed hope since the nurse told me that the first 20 Min's were the worst and I am now at the 20min mark. I was thinking I could conquer the world at this point I just lived through the worst of it!!! Well with being on the mag they have to monitor Silas and I so much closer. I had the toco monitor on for contractions, i had the heart monitor on for Silas, I had the pulse ox on my right finger, the blood pressure cuff on my right arm, the IV in my left arm and those blasted blood clot thingys on my legs that pump up every now and again...and now I needed to get up to use the restroom...and then I am told I have to pee in a bucket so they can monitor it. This whole ordeal has been very degrading, having to have someone do everything for me and getting poked and prodded and now i have to pee in a bucket. ugh I guess it could be worse. We are finally able to get all the wires unplugged and i try to get up off the bed with Wes' help. You know the bar stool effect where you think you are fine till you stand up, that is also how I felt when I tried to get up after starting the Mag. I knew I was light headed and alittle dizzy but had no clue how bad it really was till I got up. Now keep in mind that the bathroom is only 10 feet at most from my bed but I stumbled the whole way. One of the Neonatologist come and talk to Wes and I about what to expect if Silas is born soon and the way that the NICU here handles stuff and even went into what needs to happen before Silas can be discharged from the NICU to go home. I was aware of the risks of having a micro preemie but it was still very hard to hear a Dr tell you the stuff that your child may end up having to go through. But all in all if he is born very early then I am confidant that Silas will have the best care from the doctors and nurses here at Lancaster Women's and Babies!!

Silas Orion

Playing catch up

So I guess this journey begins back in September the day after Labor day, at least that is as far back as I am willing to start this journey for you guys. It was a day just like any other Tuesday...Wes went to work, the older 3 kids all went to school and Kyra and I had errands to do. Once we came home I took a pregnancy test realizing after looking at the app on my phone that I was late.(yes there is an app for that lol)  I took the test and watched as both lines appeared and was shocked. Of course I had to take a picture and send it to a friend with the message "this could be a false + right?????" so I take another test just to make sure and that one is "+" as well. So... yep you guessed it I take another test....well i guess one false "+" is possible but 3 of them...so I am pregnant...first things first I have to explain to my hubby that we are in fact not done adding children to our already full 3 bedroom house. I decided he would take it better and have more time to process the information I was about to tell him if I were to tell him on his lunch break. I admit that wasn't the nicest thing I could have done. I sent Wes a text to call me at lunch. When he calls he knows something is going on. So i have to just get to the point and tell him. He takes it really well and says we will talk more when he comes home and that he has to get back to work. So skip ahead a few weeks we find out that we are due on May 12, 2013. We would not have planned on having a 5 child especially with the preterm births of all of our other kids, but we couldn't be happier to be adding another member to our family. We waited till we were further along to tell everyone were expecting again. Let me tell you a lot of people are very judgemental about people sharing the wonderful news of a new baby. It didn't seem to bother Wes much but I was hurt by some of the comments, but decided I needed to let it go and move on and have a happy healthy pregnancy.  So the pregnancy was going wonderful I wasn't sick and miserable like i was with all the other pregnancies. I was convinced  we were gonna get lucky and have a "normal" pregnancy. We had an appt at 13 weeks with Maternal Fatal Medicine due to the preterm pregnancies i had already had. We talked about a course of action in the coming months and had an ultrasound which the baby didn't corporate for so we had to come back the following week to do it again. So at the second try ultrasound everything looked good and the tech said she thought the baby was a BOY which goes along with what Wes said the baby is, and if you know of wes' uncanny ability to predict with 100% accuracy the gender of fetuses you wouldn't be surprised either. So we go about life like normal having one of the best pregnancies we had ever had. We had our anatomy ultrasound scheduled for Christmas Eve Day which I thought was a great day to find out for sure what the baby is and to get pictures of it to share with family later that evening. The kids decided they didn't want to go to the appt so they all stayed home with Kloe. We went to the appt and baby looked great, was measuring at 13oz at 20wks which is in the 76%, and indeed he is a BOY!! We also found out that the umbilical cord didn't attach to the middle of the placenta but it was attached off to one side which could cause growth problems for our little man. Then we got to the part where they measure my cervix...Well it should measure between 3 and 4 cm and mine was 2.2cm. Yet again my body is failing. So the Dr decides that the best thing for now is being sent to triage and being on the TOCO monitors for a while and see if I am contracting. Great just where I want to be on Christmas Eve day. I should have been getting my family ready to go visit with Wes family for Christmas. So after a few hours of no contractions they decide that I can go home but I am now on bed rest and have to return every week for ultrasounds and I wasn't able to travel to Md for Christmas Eve. My kids were less than thrilled that we would have to skip our traditional Christmas eve trip to Wes Grandmothers, they were all looking forward to seeing all of their cousins and everyone else. So we decided we needed to make the most of the situation and make memories. So the following week I went for my next cervix check and only measured 1.3cm this time. The Dr said that he wanted me to go to triage again for monitoring but all the kids were off school and Wes was at work this time so I got to go home and let the kids know what was going on and Wes met me at the house and we went back to the Hospital for monitoring. Again I was able to go home on strict bed rest and progesterone. So most people that i tell i am on bed rest are envious that i get to lay around all day and have other people cook, clean, and wait on me hand and foot...well i guess we all day dream about that from time to time but let me tell you when someone tells me I can't do something anymore that sounds more like a challenge to me. Well seeing as I need to keep cooking Silas as long as I can I have to abide by the bed rest. The first few weeks were the worst (or so it seemed at the time) Wes was working and the kids had school and homework to get done so I was being good and doing everything I needed to do while sitting on a stool thinking that was "good enough". I go back to have another cervix check the following Wednesday and find out my cervix is measuring 0.8cm so i guess sitting on the stool doing the work wasn't "good enough". I am now on STRICT bed rest with weekly NST along with my weekly ultrasound/cervix check. We got on of the best double edged swords we could ever get at a time like this...Wes was laid off yet again. Well at least now he can do all the house work, take care of the kids, cook, and wait on me hand and foot. All pregnancy I would lose a few pounds then gain  one or 2 back but was consistently under my pre-pregnancy weight well that all changed once Wes started cooking all our meals...in 2 weeks I gained all 7 pounds back that I lost since being pregnant. Being on bed rest is a challenge, it is hard to lay there and watch your family cleaning, or to have to lay there and listen to your husband get overwhelmed with the children and the house work, and the house repairs that never seem to end right now. But if anyone can do it Wes can!
    So bad as I thought everything was going up until this point it was all about to get worse. At 25weeks and 2 days I go to Maternal Fetal Medicine for my weekly NST and ultrasound. The NST goes well as per usual I have one contraction in the half hour of monitoring. They look at the baby during the ultrasound and he is looking great still. Still measuring on the larger side. At 24 wks they estimated his weight at 1LB 13OZ. Okay so on to the cervix...wait where is it at??? Oh I don't have any measurable cervix left and I am 2-3 cm dilated. Well now we are in panic mode. 25 weeks is too early. I was able to get the steroid shots at 24 weeks to mature Silas' lungs but that wont be enough. Dr Larkin tells us that we can go home pack up some stuff and make arrangements for the kids and come back and I will be admitted for at least 23hr monitoring. Thankfully my sister comes to our rescue and is able to take Kyra from us right away and makes plans to pick up our other kids after school and keep them for us. What a saint she just agreed to keep our 4 kids and she already has 3 of her own. We packed as much as we thought we would need for the time being and left for the hospital.