38 week OB visit with Anderson- trouble in bubble-land

I went in to my OB appointment with Anderson on Friday morning at 8:45, expecting everything to be just like it always was and quick and easy. Well everything was great (bp was 106/72, pulse was 84, I'm at 164.8lbs, and Killian's heartrate was 125) until she did the fundal height measurement. She tried repositioning me a few times, but the measurement was still coming up short (34-35). She checked my chart again, and found that I have been coming up short for awhile now. She asked me if I had an ultrasound to check on fluid levels, and I told her no. (I have been asking for one for awhile now, because I KNEW my fundal heights were always low, and I just wanted the piece of mind of knowing for sure that everything was okay. The other OB's refused to do one, telling me that they only do them when they have doubts about the baby's position, and since Killian is clearly head down, they weren't going to do one at all til 41 weeks.) Well Dr Andreson was a bit concerned and wanted me to come in for an ultrasound as soon as possible. They had an opening at noon, and I took it. She stripped my membranes, and off we went.

On my ultrasound, Killian was swallowing and practice breathing like normal, and his fluid levels were perfect. BUT his size was alarming. The ultrasound tech is not allowed to tell you anything during the scan, so you have to talk to your doc, but when they do measurements, the numbers do show up on the screen. All of his measurements were around 34 weeks. I am 38 weeks along. She also took A LOT of time measuring and remeasuring the bloodflow in his cord. Every u/s I've had, I left right after and the OB or the nurse would call me later in the day once they had a chance to look it over. But this time as soon as the ultrasound was over, the tech asked me to stay, because my doctor was gonna want to talk to me right away. I waited for a little while before they took me back into an NST room and hooked me up, telling me that Dr A wanted an NST strip on Killian, and then she would be in to talk to me.

He passed the NST with flying colors. Dr A came in and was praising his fluid levels and his test results (she said he was a rockstar on his NST), but I could tell she was setting me up for some not so great news. It turns out that Killian is suffering from IUGR (Intrauterine Growth Restriction). He is in the 8th percentile for size. The bloodflow from the placenta wasn't exactly what they were hoping to see I guess (she said something about the placenta and the cord, and I'm so fuzzy that I don't remember exactly what she said.) My head is spinning. She scheduled my induction for first thing monday morning. (8am central time). So it looks like I will have my baby by Tuesday night. I have everything crossed that he is healthy and safe, and when he is born, we will just find out that he was just little... because I am a small person.

The plan is to have me go in to L&D at 8am Labor day and have another NST done. Then Dr Anderson will come check my cervix and see how it's going. If I am favorable, they will start the pitocin immediately, if not, they will start cervodil, and I'll have that in for 12 hours, THEN they will start the pit. Either way, I'm terrified. Even if it had to be in the hospital, that's fine, but I still wanted my birth to be natural. Which there is NO WAY it's possible with the pitocin. I will HAVE to be on an iv. I will be walking in, to start the cascade of interventions right away. And I'm so scared of how it's going to turn out. Will he be healthy? Will he have weight issues because of this? Will he have nursing issues because of the drugs? Will the pitocin actually cause ADD later? Or autism like they are now doing research for? Why Killian? Everything was going perfect up until now. I did everything healthy for him... I can't wait for this all to be over so I know what we are dealing with and whether he is going to be born healthy or not. For now all I can do is wait.

Killian's nursery &&hearts

The whole nursery (still a mess, but it's still a work in progress.)


I can't even tell you how much I LOVE this swing...


Crib and wall decor


His changing pad that I made to match his crib bedding


The crib bedding that my Mom and I lovingly made for him. (ROCKETS!!! *squee*)


His crib and another angle of the awesome rocket bedding


The wall decor... through the meshy thingy


The wall letters that I made for him

38 week belly pics

Early labor.... that sputtered out v.v

On Friday August 26th, I was woken up a few times, the first at 8:30am, the second at 11:40am, the third at 2:30pm by a sort of burning pain in my belly on the right side, from my belly button up to my ribcage. It felt a lot like the pain you get in your side from running or exercising too much. No repositioning or moving or anything made it better, in fact moving or leaning into it made it worse. The first two times it woke me up, I was able to fall back asleep, but the third time, I really thought about it and I was worried, so I got up and figured I would try a few other things to relieve the pain. As far as I could tell, the pain wasn't coming and going... it was constant. I didn't have any bleeding or anything, so I was confused. I called my midwife (Anneke) who hadn't heard of this kind of pain before, and was going to call her senior midwife to consult with her and see what she thought I should do. Shortly after getting off the phone with Anneke, my burning pain was accompanied by another pain, appearing in my left ovary region as pinchy, period like cramps that wrapped around to my back. The pains weren't constant this time though. They were coming and going in waves, and my belly was getting hard at the top through them. (ribcage to belly button again). Anneke called back and I told her about the new pain, and how now all of the pain was coming and going in waves. She said they sounded A LOT like contractions. We started timing them, and they were lasting 20-35 seconds long, and were 2-4 minutes apart. Only the upper part of my belly was getting hard. Anneke was confident that this was early labor!! But because they were VERY short, she said it was VERY early. She suggested that I drink lots of water, and take a shower or bath and see if they kept coming. I drank a ton, and took a long hot shower (while sitting on the floor lol) and they did not stop or slow down. So she suggested that I walk around a bit, and see if we could get them to last a little longer. Mom and I did A LOT of walking, and they began to space out some. Throughout the day I alternated walking with resting with my feet up/napping, and the contractions continued about every 20 minutes. Still short (roughly 40-50 seconds long) so still not active labor. Bed time rolled around and I could NOT get comfortable enough to sleep. I finally passed out around 7am, and the contractions had still been coming every 20 minutes up to this point. I slept like a rock once I fell asleep though, and when I woke up around noon, the contractions had stopped. I had maybe one or two more throughout the day, but nothing regular. Sooo I guess my birth story is TO BE CONTINUED....... *grumble grumble cuss cuss*

37 week belly pics part 2 :)

Because my pictures that I took last night were in a dress, you really couldn't see my belly very well, so I took some better ones today.





On a side note, still having insane pressure and some random sporadic contractions and diarrhea all day long...

37 week belly pics

And I just wanted to add that I lost 2 more pieces of my plug today... and I've had reasonless diarrhea starting Saturday night, all day yesterday, and so far today. I'm hoping this is the beginning of real labor....

36 week midwife appointment- home visit!!

Today was my home visit from Anneke and Ginnie!! They inspected the layout of the house and told me the best place to put the pool (Right in front of the sliding doors to the deck! It's gonna be beautiful!!) and how to set up. They also measured the distance and showed us where to run the hose from. 25ft is juuust long enough :) They looked over my birth kit and were satisfied with it, so we've got that all done. I need to put a mattress down near the pool too, to deliver the placenta on, but we can just use the futon mattress from the spare room :) Paid half of the cost for everything, so that's a load off my mind too. I signed the consent form for the vitamin K shot after he's born like the pedi requested, so that's out of the way. It looks like everything is ready, we're just waiting on the little guy! They did my exam on our couch (which was so comfy and awesome :))... My weight was better than it was at the OB, and my blood pressure was MUCH better. Weight is at 161lbs, and my blood pressure was 102/64. My pulse was 84. Fundal height is still lower than it should be, 33 instead of the 36 (almost 37) weeks I am.... He is settling into my pelvis further though. His heart is still beating away at 134bpm. I had my first internal exam done too. My cervix is 70% effaced, and a fingertip dilated, and Killian's head is at -1 station. I was so confident that losing part of my plug meant I was further than that, but I guess I'm not nearly as far as I was hoping...

36 week belly pics and OB appointment

I had my 36 week appointment with my OB today (Dr Heins). They did the usual, and then they did the GBS test. (NOT fun. They shove a qtip where it should never go.) My weight and bp aren't coming up in a happy place :( though the doc wasn't concerned. My weight was reading at 164lbs (YIKES!) and my blood pressure was at 116/82. My pulse was at 84. They asked me if I was "still" taking my blood sugars, and I just said no, and they let it go thank god. My fundal height was measuring behind again... at 34. But baby's heartbeat was at a nice 133bpm, and he's a serious wiggle worm, so he is apparantly still doing well in there :p It took a few days for the results to come back, but my GBS test was NEGATIVE!!!! YAY!!!

Progress!!!!

Early this morning (4am!) I lost two chunks of my plug when I went in to pee!!! They were brownish tinged snot wads no bigger than a dime each :) YAY!!

35 week belly pics

I got creative again this week :P

















OH THERE you are, feet!!!!! It's nice to see you again! :P