What a week!

WOW! What a week!

Before I begin to recount that ups and downs of the past week, I want to make sure I say just how blessed we truly are! God is good, all the time.

Not that we didn't appreciate the people and things (medical care, caring medical staff etc) that we have, but we are just that much more cognizant now....

Monday-
We arrived at the Naval Hospital at 0700 for the amniocentesis to check on the maturity of Baby Dean's lungs.... by around 1015 the amnio had been completed and we began our wait to get a bed upstairs on the medical surgical ward floor to wait for the results...
The amnio went as smoothly as humanly possible, in my mind. The doc was able to find a nice big pocket of fluid (between baby's legs) to draw fluid from. The amnio itself took maybe 5 minutes. The needle went in, I subconsciously told Baby Dean "don't move, don't move" the entire time and thankfully he didn't move at all - which is truly amazing to me since he is a busy body!
By noon we had a room upstairs to wait for the results... I wasn't their usual patient as I was up and about the entire time..
Throughout the night - about every 2 hours - the nurses would come ask me if I was having contractions or any bleeding... I kept thinking to myself; however I do appreciate your concern, I will definitely let you know if either of those two things are happening... no need to wake me up! Oh well.

Tuesday was a day of waiting... something that we continued to do throughout the week...
Around 3pm, my Naval Hospital OB doc came by to say that the amnio results came back positive and that they were ready to proceed with the induction... We were so excited! We packed up and began to wait some more... By around 6pm, the nurse came in and said that L&D had been and still was slammed delivering babies; including a set of 34 week old twins and moving me down there tonight really wasn't going to be happening... What a bummer! So, the new plan was to move me down there first thing in the morning... (I was thinking 730am)

Wednesday early morning came and went and by mid-morning, 11am, a nurse came in and stated that L&D was asking for me and that she was sorry she hadn't seen me all morning as she didn't realize I was her patient until L&D started requesting me! haha Truly no big deal as I was completely stable and certainly didn't need my vitals checked every 4 hours, nor did they need to check baby's fetal heart tones every 12 hrs, like they had been...

By 1pm, we had a birthing suite down on the L&D deck and the IV fluids started flowing!

We were informed that my Group B Strep test (that was done at 32 weeks and 5 days) came back positive, thus I would be getting a dose of antibiotics (penicillin) every 4 hours intravenously, until the baby was born. (I soon found out that this BURNS! going in; thankfully they would slow it down to 75 - 100, so that made it a little less uncomfortable - it felt like my wrist was breaking in half!)

To begin the induction process there were many forms to sign and questions to answer regarding how we wanted things during the labor and delivery to go: ie - baby on my chest after birth, okay to give the Hep B shot upon birth, did I want an epidural at some point, etc.

The next step was to start meds... the OB doc decided since I had been having these long Braxton Hicks contractions for over 2 weeks now that he would use Cytotec (a 4 hour med that softens/dilates/causes contractions) to begin to soften/dilate the cervix. The result was much more intense contractions that were completely erratic, a 50% effaced cervix and absolutely no real dilation (although one doc said a fingertip, the next shift's doc said they must have been being very generous). Because the cytotec had begun these intense and erratic contractions, around 930pm, they decided to use a cervical ripening dose of pitocin to try to create consistent contractions. They started the pitocin at 2 ml/min and increased it every half-hour by 2 ml/min up to 6 ml/min. By 1015pm, the pitocin was increased to 12 ml/min. I was given a small dose of Ambien to try to help me sleep.

Wednesday night, around 8pm, the night OB doc shared with us that the amnio results came back as - one positive = mature, and one negative = maybe not mature and that he wouldn't have started the induction based on those results.... WOW! good to know, now that we are 12 hrs + into this induction... oh well...
More specifically the usual test - L/S - came back positive, however another test had come back negative, which was a question mark in the doctor's opinion, since it is strange to get one positive and one negative.

Very early Thursday morning - around 230am - I guess they decided the pitocin had somewhat created regular contractions, however those contractions were doing nothing to my cervix... so they decided to use the next cervical ripening option - a 12 hour one - cervadil.

By Thursday afternoon - around 230pm - we found out that the cervadil, just like the cytotec and pitocin, had done nothing for opening my cervix. The doc and my old midwife (prior to being labeled high risk) shared with us that we had a few options: 1) we could go home in 12 hours (I would need to be observed for 12 hrs since I had been pumped full of all of these drugs) 2) we could try another dose of 12 hr cervadil and possibly see about a c- section in the morning if nothing had changed.
We decided that since I would have to stay 12 hrs anyway, we might as well try another 12 dose of cervadil. Around 630pm, the second dose of cervadil was administered and around 11pm a little bit bigger dose of Ambien was given to try to help me sleep.

Friday morning around 7am, my old midwife was back on call and shared with us that the second dose had, once again, done nothing to open my cervix. The OB doc on the floor offered to do a C-section, however she mentioned that since baby looked great on the monitors and I was looking good, that she would rather re-try the induction in a week, to allow the baby to continue to grow and develop.

The 36 hours of inducing had mentally and physically drained me and had I not had the voice of reason and support of Nolan (who reminded me to think of all of the pros and cons, as well as taking into consideration what the OB doc, my old midwife, as well as my maternal fetal specialist were saying) I would have taken the C-section in a heartbeat! I knew it was best for Baby Dean to continue to grow in utero, but getting him out and being done with this L&D thing seemed like the perfect solution at the time. Through my tears and conversation with one another, we came to the conclusion that regardless of what I thought I wanted at the time, Baby Dean continuing to grow was ultimately the best decision. Looking back, even just 12 hrs after making that decision, I am so grateful that we came to that conclusion! More specifically I am so blessed to have had and continue to have Nolan, who in a time of exhaustion, helped me to see and understand that things would be okay and that is was the best decision for us and for baby.

Between 7 and 9am, we were set up for a nonstress test for Baby Dean on Tuesday and Thursday, as well as a visit to my OB doc at the Naval Hospital on Wednesday. Lastly, we were scheduled for another attempt at induction for 730am on December 18th. We were told to call at 630am on the 18th to see if there was a bed in L&D for me before we came...

By 9am Friday morning, I was being discharged and sent home without a baby in arms; definitely something that neither of us thought would be the result of going to the hospital on Monday morning! It was a heartbreaking, yet joyful ride home as we continually reminded ourselves that Baby Dean was going to get to grow and develop just that much more - it wasn't his time YET! :-) Nolan was SURE that we would be parents late Monday and I was even more SURE that we would be parents by Friday... boy were we both wrong! haha We had been given our first opportunity to learn that with kids, we can make plans and those plans are very likely to change! ;-)

Upon arriving home we both crashed for the next few hours... my right foot was extremely swollen, as well as the rest of my body from the 36 hrs of IV fluids! What a miserable feeling to go into the hospital feeling great - for being so pregnant and 5 weeks too big - and come out 5 days later feeling so beat down; mentally, physically and emotionally.

Can't wait to meet this little guy - EVEN MORE NOW!!!! :-)