Postpartumness pt. 3

Growing cutie!

Just had my 6 week check up with the OBGYN and saw my primary doc 2 weeks ago.  The fun never ends when it comes to my health issues.

Primary doc was sooo happy that I finally had a baby! I’ve seen him since I was 12.  He knows my parents very well.  When I first starting having fertility problems, he was there ordering labs and tests and helping to get to the bottom of it. When I suffered from postpartum depression after the loss of my twins, he ordered the “get happy pills.”  When my RE said I had a thyroid issue and wouldn’t do the IUI until it was fixed, this doc gave me my prescription to fix it.  I gave him a birth announcement and a hug for being so helpful. Turns out he has a new grandson as well! I told him about my postpartum preeclampsia/pulmonary edema episode and he ordered follow up labs as well as keeping me on my meds to stay normal.  Labs came back fine, except for maybe a UTI, culture pending.

My GYN appointment was with Dr. P, who delivered MeMe.  My new problem of the month: Dysfunctional Uterine Bleeding.  I have had my period for over 2 weeks and it’s not stopping.  The lochia stuff stopped after 3 weeks and then my period started at 4 weeks after delivery.  Here I am at almost 7 weeks and I’m just continuously bleeding and bleeding and bleeding.  IT REALLY SUCKS!  Apparently, the mini pill that I’m taking for contraception is doing it’s job too well.  It’s made my uterine lining too unstable, but not only that, I can’t really get my groove on with all this bleeding going on so there is a 100% chance of not getting pregnant, any time soon ha ha. I have some options and I was just soo pissed that I always seem to have some kind of problem or end up in that small percentage of people that gets screwed. I have some options:

• Stop the mini pill, get an IUD
• Stop the mini pill, use condoms
• Stop the mini pill and switch to the combination pills, but no more breastfeeding
• Or maybe the bleeding will stop on its own and I can stay on the mini pill

Crap!  I loved pumping and giving MeMe the boob juice because I know it’s best for her.    I hate to have to give that up now. I just feel so guilty to stop the boob juice.  But the main thing is that she is here and is healthy.  She’ll be fine on formula alone.  What I don’t want is to become anemic from all this damn bleeding or have a uterus too jacked up to have any more babies. I’ve given myself until Monday to see if the bleeding stops. Then switch to the combo pill.   

Another thing, boy did my vagina muscles contract back up.  Doesn’t even seem like I popped out a baby a few weeks ago.  The speculum was awful!  She had to use the little one to do my pelvic exam.   I’m a born-again virgin.  Eek! I didn’t like being one the first time around.

Just started getting on the treadmill.  These pounds need to come off.

Other things on my mind other than my uterus and cooch is going back to work.  I have this packet of skills to review. I also realized how cool it would be to review cardiac rhythm strips so I found an awesome website that runs a strip and explains what it is or you can quiz yourself.  Just needed to refresh my memory.  I haven’t had to do that since April. I really need to get back to work, staying around the house all the time has lost its coolness.  I need to use my brain like it’s been trained to do.  I need to have random conversations with coworkers and laugh and bitch about our husbands.  I need to show off pictures of MeMe and talk about babies growing up fast. 

I will miss being with MeMe, but mom and I have currently been sharing baby care duties.    Mom will watch for a few hours and then hand her back to me. So when I go to work, it won’t be like I feel like I’m leaving her for the first time.

Still waiting out our time in escrow. I really hate how all information is funnelled through my husb and then he forwards me the emails whenever he feels like it.  He swears that I stress or fixate on certain things or freak out when its not necessary, which isn’t true.  I’m a practical realist, he’s a dreamer.  He’s thinks “everything is fine”  and that stuff should happen on his terms, but when shit needs to be done and there’s no time to playing power games.  The loan officer wanted some info back on Thursday and he still hasn’t given it to her.  He’ll just wait till Monday.  Why wait, he could’ve done it on Friday at the latest.  If escrow doesn’t close on time, it’s his fault.

Postpartumness Pt. 2

MeMe is almost 2 weeks old. Amazing!  She has longer periods of wakefulness and she gets all smiley when you pick her up.  She still only cries when really hungry or uncomfortable, but once that’s solved, she’s right as rain.  She is having fun exploring her hands and can now turn herself onto her side from being on her back when awake.

Cutie @ 10 days old!

Overall feeling fine. Still kinda sore all over like I got beat up, but am able to walk up and down the stairs with no problem. I really hate the question “how are you doing” even more than I did when I was pregnant.  If I was having a problem, I would say so.  My husb is obsessed with my blood pressures and asks daily what it is.  It’s been in the 130’s/70-80’s so it’s okay.  Better than what it was.  My feet are still a little puffy.  Everyday is less and less.  The scale shows I’ve lost 8 lbs over the course of 5 days.  Sweet!

My ob-gyn visit was fine, but since my mom was working that night, we had to take MeMe with us.  Of course we had to wait awhile so I made sure to pack lots of stuff and two bottles of formula/boob juice to keep her tummy full.  I saw Dr G who is still baffled by my severe preeclampsia/toxemia.  Nothing about my case was textbook and it came on all of a sudden.  Nothing in my prenatal visits showed that it was gonna get THAT bad.  Too much fluid + high bp + low heart rate+ 1 glass of wine = trip to the hospital.  Go figure. And as quick as it came, it resolved quickly.  I am to see my primary doc in a month, but any problems go through the ob-gyns for right now.

So after the visit, we took MeMe to Babies-r-us, courtesy of my play-auntie who is awesome.  She is the mom of my closest friend who came to visit me while pregnant a couple of times.  Her husband died last November and her eldest son took me to Prom.  She was one of the many visitors that dropped by that first week home.  She and my friend wanted to throw me a baby shower, but I said no thanks.  So instead, she bought MeMe some cute little outfits and a gift card worth $500.  Yay! My mom’s sister really hooked us up with a check for $200, a digital picture frame that plays music, an electric breast pump, extra car-seat base, and another playard (we returned it because she didn’t know we already had it). Thanks auntie! We’ve received cards and well wishes and some more clothes/toys from some of my coworkers.  The only thing that is kinda bothering me is that my in-laws haven’t sent anything! No card, no nothing!  They call and say congrats, but a card is always cool too. The always send stuff for Dom, so I thought it was kinda weird that it’s been 2 weeks now.  Even my brother in Atlanta sent a card and he’s further away!

When we first came home from the hospital, there were a few things we needed to buy right away because we hadn’t thought of it before: a drying rack for the bottles, b0ppy pillow for my comfort, room monitor, and an ottoman to put my feet on when feeding. It would’ve been great to use the gift card!

So we went on a super shopping spree at Babies-r-us and it was wonderful!  Almost used the whole card because husb kept throwing things into the cart. I learned now being a mom that you can’t always be cheap about stuff you need.  I’ll admit, I penny pinch pretty badly, to the point that it pisses husb off sometimes.  But it’s enabled us to save $.  Now with MeMe, I buy whatever I think she/I/we need, I just read the box more carefully to make sure it’s a good buy.

The things I thought I didn’t need, but absolutely love!

• Electric bottle warmer
• B0ppy pillow – regular pillows warp to easily
• Electric breast pump early on – baby gets too fussy at the breast & won’t latch most of the time(lactation folks tried to help with a nipple shield) and the pump allows me a little more freedom with feeding times. 
• More cans of ready-made formula

Modern Convenience! I’m sure there is more, but I can’t think of it right now.

We finally ordered some baby announcements from Shutterfly dot com and they should arrive sometime this up coming week.  They are soooo cute, can’t wait to mail them out!

Overall, this last week was a good one. 

 

 

Reunited and it feels so good!

I was discharged early on 9/28 and couldn’t wait to run into the house and see my MeMe.  Husb was feeding her and needed to get Dom off to school in a hurry, so he handed MeMe to me and said “yay, it’s your mommy.”  Damn, that felt good. Just holding her was wonderful. 

My health problems are now under control, but I still need to be monitored.  I am now on nifedipine extended-release 30 mg daily to keep my bp from getting crazy again.  I see the Dr G again on Wednesday to check my progress.  I have no more shortness of breath, but slight swelling in my feet that Dr G said could take another week to go away.I bought a digital scale to watch my weight. And I made it a point to be active, but get some rest today.

We learned something weird about my husb’s insurance. They will pay for fertility meds, but had a problem with paying for the generic version of Procardia XL.  So husb had to make some phone calls between the doctor’s office and the insurance company to get the medication covered.  I honestly didn’t care what the cost was, I knew I needed the medicine and wasn’t gonna wait for red tape. By the time husb made his calls, it was like 4:30p so it wouldn’t have been resolved until the next day.  Screw it, just buy the medicine.  It cost $42 for a month.  If it keeps my blood vessels dilated and decreases the workload on my heart, it’s worth it.

Time to go back to being with MeMe.

Postpartumness…

MeMe is awesome! Such a joy and mellow baby unless she’s really hungry. Then she has a big mouth. Her visit with the pediatrician went well. We are all learning her cute little behaviors. Every smile, every yawn, every sneeze, every hiccup, every stinky poo, every time she sucks her hand, all too cute!

Things were good until 3 am on 9/26. That’s when the bullet I thought I dodged got me in the chest. LITERALLY! Preeclampsia with HELLP syndrome.

I couldn’t breathe. I had swelling in both legs that never got better for like 4 days. Then I went down and up my stairs and felt short of breath. Even when I sat in bed about to breastfeed, I couldn’t breathe! I developed a cough and out came pink frothy sputum. Oh SHIT, classic symptom of pulmonary edema! I could die, to the hospital now! My mom was awake and listened to my lungs with her stethoscope and heard diminished sounds. Woke up husb and told him what was the deal. He had his son this weekend so he stayed home and my dad took me to the E.R.

My blood pressure was crazy high! 198/110! SHIT!

Chest xray showed fluid in my lungs.

CT scan of chest was negative for blood clots in my lungs. Leg doppler was neg for clots.

EKG normal.

Labs horrible. My liver function tests were messed up with protein in my urine.

They put me on an IV magnesium sulfate drip, hydralazine and procardia for my bp. I got lasix to pull out all the extra fluid. I must have peed off 10 lbs.

Doc checked my heart with a echocardiogram (preliminary report says normal) and lab tests. I feel like one of the cardiac patients I take care of. Luckily they put me in antepartum unit and not Telemetry/intermediate care where I work or even worse, placed in ICU. Eeek!

I’m still hospitalized, pumping my breastmilk and sending it home with my family to give to MeMe. I hate being sick and not being able to take care of MeMe like normal.

But I thank God that I am still alive.

I am doing better. Bp is down and under control, follow up xray shows no more fluid and I can breathe easy. My liver is back to normal. Hopefully I will go home tomorrow.

The Dirty Details…my labor story

Saturday 9/19 started out normal.  Me watching t.v. and not really doing much, husb was doing the laundry.

At 2:30, I went to get some frozen yogurt at a local shop because it was so hot and quickly went back home to eat it.  After I was done, husb and I took a nap together.

At 4:20, I woke up needing to use the bathroom, but was having the worst time trying to go #2.  When I got up, I saw a gooey pink blob in the toilet.  My “bloody show.”  Hmmm, I thought, I guess my water is gonna break sometime in the next few days.  Then I started feeling lower pelvic cramps and decided to eat a chicken bake since I hadn’t eaten real food in a while.  Then I noticed the cramps didn’t feel like my normal Braxton-Hicks and that something just wasn’t right. Plus they were every 10 minutes. 

After waiting an hour, I woke up husb and told him I felt funny.  Maybe we should go to the hospital so I can get checked.  He was too concerned about his headache and thought we should wait a while.  The pains were getting more intense and insisted that we go.  He went to get my mom, who was in another room, and I told her my assessment.  She also thought I lost my mucus plug and told me to take  shower to see if the contractions stop.  After, I showered, it only got worse. Both my mom and husb finally agreed with me and both needed to get dressed to leave.  My dad was on his way to a party, so we told him to go and we’ll see what was going on with me. 

I was ready to go, but everyone else took forever!  The pains were so intense, I started feeling nauseaous. Husb was really taking too long, so mom and I went together and he came later with the luggage.

At 6:15p, I was checked into L&D triage.  I was contracting every 5 min, but only 1+cm dilated and 50% effaced.  They wanted to wait an hour to see what happens.  I threw up repeatedly! And that was a sign that baby was coming. Deep breathing helped me through the intense contractions.  There came a point where when one stopped, another one started right away.  They checked my cervix and I was 4cm already. Husb came finally.

I was then admitted to deliver and my nurse Sharon was the same nurse who took care of me after my water broke with the twins.  She was so happy to be there for the happy occasion.  My mom is friends with a lot of the L&D nurses, so the charge nurse kept asking her who she wanted to take care of me. 

At 8 something, I was checked again and now 5 cm, time for my epidural please!  After my labs and IV were done, I needed a shot of Stadol to help  take the edge off.  I couldn’t talk or sit still at this time because the pain was 10 out of 10!  With the Stadol, the pain was a little less, I was just a little “high” and able to sit still.  The anesthesiologist came in and placed my epidural with no problems. 

At 9 something, I was up to 7 cm and feeling sleepy. But mom and husb kept talking to me, so I didn’t get to sleep much.

At 10 something, I was up to 9 cm. 

At 11 something, I was fully dilated, but MeMe was floating high and they didn’t want me to have to push for hours to bring her down, so we let nature do her thing.

At 12 something am, MeMe was much lower and I was starting to feel my contractions again.  It was less painful, but the wonderful numbing powers of my epidural had diminished. MeMe was wiggling her way into my pelvis and her head was molding so they did a quick US to make sure it was her head and not her butt cheeks.

At 1:15am, it was time to start pushing.  Big breath in and out, then big breath in and PUSH! 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10.  My mom and husb were holding my legs up for me.  When MeMe was crowning, the doc came in barely had her sterile gear on.  Crowning stung and was very uncomfortable.  I can’t imagine what it feels like au naturale! 

MeMe’s head popped out and then the rest and I only had a minor 1st degree tear.  Doc put 3 stitches in to stop the bleeding.  Other than that, no crazy complications.

MeMe placed on my belly with a towel, then taken by the nursery nurse to be checked out.  When they said she was 5lbs and 15oz, I was sooo shocked. I thought she was at least 6.5lbs because of the US done at 33 weeks.  We all cried and held her.

The doc wanted her blood sugars checked because she was so small.  She had one low sugar (44) so from then on, every feeding was breast first, then top it off with some formula.  After that, her sugars were steady. We stayed in L&D until about 5 am.

My mom’s friend was my postpartum nurse so they all hooked me up with extra supplies. And made the whole experience wonderful.  Mom’s coworkers kept coming in the room so that they can see the baby! I stayed in the hospital until Monday afternoon since I have tons of help and expertise at home (thanks mom).

We gave thank you mugs to all of my nurses.

We also gave thanks and praise to God for giving us this blessing.  She is our angel on earth!

A Cerclage Removal Story

9/15/09 – Today was one of the most important days of this pregnancy.  At 36w2d, Dr. G took my stitches out  in the L&D operating room, to be as sterile as possible.  The procedure was scheduled for 10 am (originally 0930) but an emergency walked into the ER and I was bumped to around 12:15p.

Prep: I was not allowed to eat after midnight.  So they starved me for like 12 hours.  However, I did sneak some peanuts and sips of water while at home because the hunger was unbearable.  I checked in at around 0930 after calling the floor to see when to come in.  Because of my dehydration  and stronger contractions, they gave me an IV fluid and a shot of Terbutaline sub-q (ouch, that stings!) to quiet my uterus for the procedure.  I was also given IV Ancef as a precautionary antibiotic. We saw MeMe on a bedside ultrasound just to make sure she was doing well and got hooked up to the baby/uterus monitor. We sat and watched the “Newborn Channel” and answered some health history questions before it my time to go to the OR.  My mom and husb were with me.  Some of my mom’s coworkers were working  and almost all of them had no idea her daughter was pregnant or that she was expecting a grandchild.  The last time I was L&D at my hospital was when my water broke with the twins so mom only wanted to give good news this time. I love having mom with me because she makes sure everything is taken care of.  Husb is equally supportive so its like having two people wait on you hand and foot all day!

Procedure: Signed the consent, of course. Doc said no anesthesia this time and I stupidly refused IV Ativan thinking I could tough it out.  I wished I took it to calm me down because the pain was EXCRUTIATING! I almost jumped off the table and Nurse Annie, who was holding my hand, almost had her fingers broken.  People who say it is “uncomfortable” are barely touching the surface.  All that cervical manipulating, the hard speculum, and the manual check for leftover stitch material is NOT COOL. Gotta remember, nothing large or wide has been in my cooch for months so the muscles in there were not happy to be messed with.  I was tense and needed to be coached to breathe from Annie.  All in all, it took about 10-15 minutes to make sure both stitches were out.

Aftermath: My cervix did the unexpected.  Dilated a fingertip and 50% effaced.  MeMe is high, not even engaged.  I also have some bacteria growing up in there so I have to put Metrogel in my cooch for the next 5 days.  Ladies with cerclages are more prone to BV because of the increase in secretions caused by the cerclage. Go figure.  I should expect some bleeding, but having seen any yet. I finally got to eat after the procedure. We stayed in the hospital and was monitored for about 2.5 hours.  For a while, my contractions seemed stronger and had gotten to be about 5 minutes apart, but then subsided, spread apart, and felt like normal.  Annie sent me home with my prescription and said to call or come back if my water breaks, stronger contractions…etc. Typical labor stuff.

These are what the stitches looked like, but I didn’t get to take a picture of my actual stitches. Looked just like little pieces of blue wire with huge knots. I can see why Dr. S said husb would cut himself if he got close to those things. Ouch.

Placing bets: Husb’s hor0scope said he’ll get great news on Friday, today is Tuesday.  Mom still says by her birthday (9/24).  A says by next week.  Dr G would like MeMe to stay until at least 37 weeks (9/20) but won’t stop her from coming now. We’ll see if these contractions start to make my cervix act right. Next OB visit is on 9/22 at 1150.

I bet my medical chart is exciting reading.  All the things we’ve been through from 1/08 until now.  Everyone is excited and proud we made it this far.  MeMe has a crowd eagerly awaiting her arrival.

34 weeks and counting…

mmm, ice cream...

Today, MeMe is 34w5d. We had an appointment with the OB on Wednesday and baby girl is growing fine.  BP good, no weight gain, and nothing in my urine.  Great! We learned that from the US we had, she is about 5.5 to 6 lbs already and if I make it to 40 wks, she’ll be about 8 lbs or so.  Come out early please. The doc commented on my “uneventful, eventful pregnancy”.  Yep, ever since the cerclage surgery, everything has been peachy.  Nothing else has come up.  She also commented that if my cervix is truly incompetent, I’ll deliver pretty soon after the stitches are cut and she reminded me to pre-register at the hospital.  I have the paperwork, I just keep forgetting to turn it in. It requires me to actually walk in to my old work place.  Ha ha. 

The weather is so ridiculously hot, I can’t sleep at night or during the day, and the AC is starting to act up.  Sometimes I’m too scared to leave it on or put it so it’s extra frosty.  Fans are nice, but it’s blowing all this hot humid air around.  Southern Cali is supposed to be desert, so dry heat isn’t too bad.  But adding humidity to it is terrible.  This damn humidity is coming from the Hurricane down in Mexico.  Give us rain, not heat!

Preggie symptoms: feet and ankle swelling, palpitations when standing in a hot room (doc said to keep cool and don’t stand still), stronger BH contractions, rib kicks, super belly, indigestion, feeling full faster, shortness of breath when walking or going upstairs.  Husb hates when I go up and down the stairs a few times.  He tries to get me what I need.  He’s on pins and needles because he says I’m at that stage where I might pop.  If I go to the store, I have to have my cell with me to call in case I’m in labor.  His phone broke so he had to go a week without it, he really hated not being in touch.

Everything has arrived for MeMe.  Her playard/bassinet/changing table, stroller and carseat have all been unpacked and fully assembled.  “A” brought some leftover formula that her baby couldn’t eat because she had some kind of allergy/reaction to it, always vomiting a lot.  She swtiched to a different mix and it works better for her.  She brought like 6 or 7 cans of that stuff.  I plan to do both breast and bottle so we’ll see if I even use most of it.  Thanks anyway. Last big item I need at this time is a breast pump because I know I only have 12 weeks in a row off after she’s born, then I’ll be pumping my boobs during my lunch breaks. Her room has plenty of storage and stuff already, but decor can wait until we get our own house.  We have less than 3 months to get something with the help of that wonderful tax credit.  Then move in completely by Christmas. Tick tock. Husb doesn’t want the party until after we get the house.  He totally stole my thunder and I’m still not too happy about it.  I was really really jazzed about the party. She’ll be about 3-5 months by the time he wants to do it. I know by then she’ll be much cuter and more social, but grrrrrr!  I want my party!

Soapbox time: True vs false incompetence.  That concept always pisses me off.  If it’s truly incompetent, the cervix will act A, B, C, but if it acts X, Y, Z, then it’s not.  Well that’s not really true at all.  Because a person can have A, B, and X and still have a crappy cervix that will cause a person to lose their baby.  The docs kept telling me that with my twins, they couldn’t tell if it was true incompetence based on my descriptions of what happened and my chart.  My water broke because of cervical dilation, but I did not fully dilate enough to deliver the babies without medicine.  So maybe I don’t need a cerclage.  Maybe my ass!  I needed one (or two) badly and it’s gotten me this far.  So if my cervix does not dilate after the stitch removal until Oct. 11th, so be it, but I’ll be damned if someone tells me my cervix wasn’t truly incompetent.

Another fabulous appointment (32w4d)

Yesterday, I had a pretty good doctor’s appointment with Dr. M’s office.  We had to wait 1.5 hours to be seen because the doc I was  assigned to was stuck doing an emergency C-section.  They were going to reschedule me for another day, but husb was pushy and insisted I be seen since I was “high-risk.”  So they managed to squeeze me in.  I told him not to act like that when I’m hospitalized! But I gotta hand it to him, he gets results.

My bp was good, mostly because I told the MA to give me a second to let my heart rate go down.  Belly is measuring on target and my urine was fine. Up 3 pounds in 2 weeks.  Been lazy and hungry! 

Doc wants me to get a US to check my cervical length and see how MeMe is growing.  Fantastic!  I haven’t seen her in 4 weeks! Then we asked about the Cerclage Removal and we found out it will be on L&D  at my hospital since it’s more sterile and I can be monitored for contractions. They will call me with the date that it will be scheduled but I should expect sometime after Sept 14th (36w1d).  Yay! Hopefully I’ll dilate right away and only have like a week or two until labor starts.  Mom thinks and dreamed that I’ll deliver on her birthday, Sept 24th.  Another Libra in the house!

We got some info on local pediatricians and the form to pre-register for the hospital. The new doc trained with Dr. S. way back in the day and she was pretty sharp on addressing any concerns. We’ll see another doc at my 34 wk appointment.

We also just bought MeMe’s stroller and carseat on +arget.com and it should be delivered to our house sometime next week.  After it arrives, then I’ll get the pack-n-play that she’ll be sleeping in.  It matches the travel system and has music/vibrations to help soothe her. It has a changing station built in, napper, and bassinet along with the playyard on the bottom.  We thought it was pretty cool when we first saw it, but now it’s no longer in the stores and we have to buy it online.  You would think that if it was being discontinued, it should be on sale! It’s a freakin’ clearance item.  Oh well. I just want it here by stitch cutting time.

I’ve been working on the Outdooring Party.  I find it more exciting to figure out.  Everyday I try to discuss it my mom or husb and I think they’re tired of me already! Can’t really plan for the baby anymore since a lot of it is learning on the spot.  So at least now that I have plenty of time, I can start the prep for the party.  I know when MeMe comes and I’ll be focusing on her that the thought of planning and organizing a party will be the last thing on my mind.  Mom and I planned the food and invite list just last night. We’ll have lots of ladies helping on the day of the party.

OB appt 30w1d

Yesterday I visited my regular OB and had forgotten how different the routine was. I went to the bathroom to give my sample and got winded bending over & going back to my exam room. So, my heart was pumping hard and b4 I could catch my breath, the MA took my BP. Crap! It was ridiculously high. I told her to check it again. She looked at me like I didn’t know what I was talking about. Bitch, I’m not lying when I say its not that high. Doc came in, not my normal doc since they rotate, and wasn’t too concerned since she saw my records from the peri. I told her I was checking my BP @ home. She checked for swelling, I had no protein in my urine, baby/belly measured on track and MeMe’s heartbeat was checked via doppler. Only gained 1 lb in 2 weeks.

Everything checked out so she asked the MA to check my BP again and of course, my systolic was 20 mmHg less. The doc wants a list of all my BP checks at home. She thinks I have “white coat hypertension.” Either way it made me realize that I am not out of the woods when it comes to having pre-e. My homegirl got really swollen at 34 weeks and she was thinner & more active than me. She was considered pre-e and was on bedrest until her water broke at around 35 weeks. She was also on Magnesium and hated it. I hope I can avoid that but my BP is very sensitive and labile to stress.

I had a feeling a few weeks ago that I wouldn’t make it to term becuz of something other than my cervix. I need to stop stressing over my BP b4 it stays up. Eeek!

29 weeks and switching

My insurance ends today, but I didn’t get my notice until yesterday.  How lame is that?  So I had to call my husb’s insurace company to make them aware so that they don’t act like they don’t have to pay for anything because they think I still have the other insurance.  I found out the specialist is covered and I don’t need authorization to see him since it is a PPO.  But I want to see my regular OB.  Even the lady on the phone asked if I had a doc that will deliver me because the peri won’t do it.  Then I realized, I really need to get back in touch with Dr M.  This is nuts that I’m like almost 10 weeks away from my due date, 7 weeks from stitch cutting and my OB has no idea what’s going on with me.  Just didn’t seem right. So I made an appointment with her for Monday, when I’ll be 30w1d.  I also have to make sure my chart gets to her office.  I’ll put Dr. S on the backburner for now. I figure, my cervix has been pretty stable for months now.  The stitches haven’t fallen out into the toilet,  no bleeding (a sign of cervical changes), no regular contractions, and baby is moving around alot.  If trouble comes, I’ll probably be on total bedrest.

I know I have been very blessed to have not had any more issues since the cerclage surgery and to have had the opportunity to see a peri, but he’s like rain on my parade. He comes in the room all serious with a kinda “so what are we doing today” attitude. I’m just a patient, but I think you should check the baby and my cervix.  Then he’s like, “everything’s okay….for now.  Come in 2 or 3 weeks, whatever you’re comfortable with.” It’s up to me because it’s like he doesn’t care either way.   He’s nothing like my other peri who called me “darling” every time he saw me and was just an dynamic character.  His bedside manner was unbelievable.  He made the worst days of my life more bearable. 

Oh Dr S, parting is such sweet sorrow.