29 Weeks and 3 Appointments in 2 Days

Another busy week has come and gone, leaving me with the daunting task of how to summarize it all for you!  We'll start with our 29 week update and go from there.

According to the internet, Ellie is the size of an acorn squash right now!  Now, of course, it would be a tiny little acorn squash that no one would ever buy except for me because I would think it's cute.  I've always been that way with tiny things.  Even travel sized bath items are cute to me because they are just so small.  Maybe that's why God is giving me a tiny baby, who knows?!  Anyway, she's definitely starting to get a little more cramped for space.  Every time we go for monitoring, it is easier and easier for the tech to get reads on her because she can't swim away as easily!  That's not to say she doesn't try, she just finds other ways to fight back.  She's giving me some pretty fierce heartburn no matter what I eat, so I'm just learning to deal with it and know that it will go away some day.

So, we had lots of appointments this week just because that's how the timing fell, but it snowballed into a mess that none of us anticipated.  On Wednesday morning, I was scheduled to go in for my glucola test and then have a follow up the next day to go over the results and get my Rhogam shot (darn RH- blood type!).  Thursday I was also to have another growth scan at the specialist just to make sure she's still progressing.

Well, Wednesday got off to kind of a rocky start.  My family has a history of difficultly with getting blood drawn.  It has nothing to do with being queasy or anything like that, we just have small, hard to find veins that don't like to be punctured.  I have some horror stories I could tell you about medical professionals who have had to stab me repeatedly just to get a single vial of blood, but I won't go into that right now!  Knowing this about myself, I try to be as prepared as possible - making sure I am very well hydrated (to plump my veins) and warm (so they don't retract any further into my arm) - and I make sure to go to a lab where the person drawing my blood is doing that procedure all day, every day.  For the glucola test, however, they needed to just have a nurse do it at the office.  I was a little nervous about that, but was determined to do my part to make it easier on her, so I drank PLENTY of water before downing my glucola drink and heading out to the office.  That was almost a tragic mistake on my part.  My stomach was so full of water that adding the glucola made me so terribly nauseous.  I almost had to pull over a few times on the drive into town, but I made it!  I was also relieved to see that it would be the nursing supervisor that would be drawing my blood.  Unfortunately, she needed 3 vials and only got 2 before the only viable vein in my arm just stopped bleeding.  She had to stick me in the back of the hand and do some wiggling, but finally got everything she needed.  Not the most pleasant experience, but not the worst.

Then the Dr. came in for my actual checkup.  She said I look great!  My belly was measuring right on the money at 28.5 weeks and I have gained a grand total of 14 pounds so far!  Oh, but she noticed I hadn't had my flu shot yet.  Andy had been bugging me to get one (since he already got his) and I had been meaning to, but it's hard to make yourself do something you don't want to do, even when you know it's in your best interest.  I had never had a flu shot before, so I wasn't sure how my body would react to it, and after having been stuck twice already that morning, I did not want one then, but she was not about to let me leave without it.  So, I got three needles in my left arm on Wednesday morning.  Luckily, my only adverse reactions to the shot were being very tired (which I've heard is almost universal) and my arm being very stiff and sore.  I went to bed that night, not worrying about the next day because it seemed as though all the tough stuff was over.  Ha.

Thursday morning I was up bright and early to drive to the specialist.  Luckily, they are not too far away from our home, but they are in the opposite direction as my OB's office, so I knew having the two appointments in the same day could present some challenges.  I got there and had my ultrasound, which was just fine.  They don't make my back hurt like they used to, which I am very grateful for!  After some wiggling and some jiggling, we also finally got a couple of good pictures of Ellie!  Unfortunately, the ones of her face did not scan well at all.  Her little foot measured at almost 2 inches long (which seems pretty long to me!) and overall they estimate that she weighs about 2 lbs. 4 oz.  We got to see her practice her breathing, which is a very good sign of development, and all of her blood flow and fluid levels look great.   After that, they hooked me up with a Non-Stress Test, which I did not know that I would be having.  Nothing too terrible about that.  I'm just glad I brought a book!  Then I thought I was supposed to talk to the doctor about the results of the infection screening bloodwork I had done the week before, but that wasn't on my chart, so I had to wait around for him to have a few minutes to meet with me.  It was a different doctor than I had seen before, which turned out to be a good thing!  The previous one was very knowledgeable, but not terribly great with bedside manner.  This one explained things in a way that I could really understand and made me feel a LOT better about the whole process that we are going through.

Basically, he said she is still too small and they still don't know why.  This is more serious than just being small, though, because this is the area of the percentages where they find the drug addicted or fetal alcohol syndrome babies.  I hadn't realized that before.  The good news is, he said, that I'm giving her the best shot that she can have at this point.  I'm doing everything I can.  It felt really good to have a doctor actually look at me and tell me that.  I think at some point, every mom wonders if there's something more she can be doing for her child, but that's even more prevalent when you're still growing the baby.  I'm her only source for everything right now, so it's so easy to think that it's something that I am doing that is causing these problems, but according to Dr. Smith, that doesn't appear to be true.  She shows no signs of nutrient deficiency or inadequacy and I don't have any bad habits that would be affecting her.  There are also no signs of infection and still no obvious signs of a chromosomal disorder that they would be worried about.  Basically, there are no answers as to why, but that's not really important anymore.  What's important is just making sure she's still growing and not showing any signs of distress.  We've decided not to have an amniocentesis done because it wouldn't change anything about our treatment plans.  So what are our treatment plans?  Well . . .

I will be going in to the specialist for twice weekly monitoring.  On Mondays, I will have an Ultrasound and a Non-Stress Test and then on Thursdays I will have just the Non-Stress Test.  This will hopefully ensure that if she stops growing or starts to show signs of distress, they can catch it in time and decide to deliver her early before things get out of control and we have a stillbirth.  The notion of delivering her early is terrifying to me.  If I go in for a NST and they say she's not thriving, they'll rush me across the street to the hospital and c-section her right out of there before I even have a chance to call Andy!  However, it is comforting to know that they will be watching her so closely because the thing I want more than anything else is to bring my baby girl home.  I still think that this will all turn out to be nothing and that she will be born healthy at full-term, but it is still good to be prepared.  So since there is a risk of having to deliver early, Dr. Smith wanted me to go ahead and get some steroid injections to help her lungs and blood vessels develop.  This is the same stuff they normally give to moms who go into pre-term labor, but I got it early.  They couldn't give it to me there, but called my OB to set it up for my afternoon appointment that very day.  No biggie, just a few more shots!

So after that meeting, I had 15 minutes at home to eat some lunch and rush back out to the OB!  I got there and got my Rhogam shot, which hurt like the dickens.  If you've never had one, be thankful.  They're the type of shot that has to go in your tush.  It's not pleasant.  The good news is, I passed my glucola and iron tests, so no extra stuff has to go on in that department!  Then the doctor came in and told me that there was a problem with the steroid shots.  I needed one that day and one on Friday.  Normally, they would send me to the pharmacy and I would pick them up and then bring them back to the office to be administered, but ALL of the pharmacies in the area were out of them.  So I was going to have to go to the hospital.  Ok, I think I can handle that.  Leave the OB at 1:30 and call Andy in the car to verify directions to the hospital.  Now, I teach piano lessons on Thursday evenings starting at 4 and I still had cat toys and all kinds of clutter strewn around my house that needed picked up before anyone arrived, so I was beginning to feel a bit of a time crunch.  But how long could it take to drive 3 blocks to the hospital and get a shot??

An hour and a half, that's how long.  It took a while to register because I had never been there before and then I had to be escorted up to the maternity ward since I didn't have an official appointment.  Once there, they got more paperwork filled out and then sent the order for the shot down to the pharmacy.  That's when the real waiting began.  It took forever just for that stupid little syringe to get upstairs!  I was completely worn out and overwhelmed and had already been punctured 4 times in 2 days, so I may have been a little crankier with the nurse than I meant to be, but I think she understood.  Shot in the right arm this time, since the left just got the flu the day before, and I was on my way.  This was the most painful shot I can remember receiving.  It was like an instant burning muscle cramp.  I actually cried when I got to my car it hurt that bad. But by then it was after 3:00 and I needed to make the 25 minute drive home to get the house tidied up for my students!  I got there and got everything done in time, so it all worked out, but there's nothing like a surprise trip to the hospital to really cramp your plans for the day!

Friday morning I went back to the hospital and got the follow-up dose of the steroid shot in the same arm as before since it still hurt less than the flu shot did.  Luckily, since I had an appointment, it took less than half the amount of time it did the day before.  It was kind of nice to get a sneak peek at the maternity floor though!  We will soon be headed there once a week for birthing classes, so it's good to know where we're going!

Friday night was my last night of work at the retail store (yay!) and it was crazy and busy, but the steroids gave me lots of energy, so I didn't mind it too much.  Saturday, we got to go to a friend's wedding and catch up with some really wonderful friends there.  Yesterday included church, a potluck lunch afterward, errands, and packing.  And this morning I am headed back to the specialist for another Ultrasound and Non-Stress Test!  The past several days have just been a whirlwind of activity, but we seem to be surviving (for the most part)!  Life's not about to slow down any time soon - this week includes settling on the house and cleaning/painting/beginning to move in!  Super exciting, but a little surreal as well.  I'll let you know how it goes :-)

Ellie's little foot