We have officially hit the golden mark of 34 weeks, everyday from here on out is a bonus day for the girls! Dr. Soper told us that she does not intend on inducing my labor once (and if) I reach 38 weeks. She said if I’m healthy and the babies are healthy and doing fine then there is no reason to take them at 38 weeks. This is going to sound selfish but my luck I’m going to carry them all the way to 40 weeks and I just can not imagine how big my belly will be in another 6 weeks. Really though, all “selfishness” aside I’d be so proud and happy to carry these little ones until 40 weeks. I may have to commit myself to bed rest (because I won’t be able to get out of bed) but it would all be worth it!
"note to remember this is now my personal journal and I may get long winded and boring…so feel free to skip over or don’t read”
Updates from the doctor and non-stress test yesterday:
We had our first non-stress test yesterday down at Methodist hospital. First off, being admitted to the hospital is a LOT different than I imagined – we were in the maternity triage area and it was I don’t know just different. I have no frame of reference but it was not what I was expecting. There were a couple of rows of open rooms with bed with only a curtain to drawl for privacy and it was so quite! But on to the important things, the nurses were absolutely wonderful and made the experience very comfortable. Pam (the nurse) put the monitors on my belly 3 total (1 for baby A, 1 for baby B and 1 for contractions) and then I had a heart rate monitor on my finger and a blood pressure cuff on…all I could say to the nurse and Jason was “wow I have so many things hooked up to me that I feel like a science project”. Then, at my request, we had a nice very young doctor (I mean I thought the female version of Doogie Houser, MD just walked into the room) do a quick ultrasound to see the position of the babies. Much to my surprise little miss baby B is still lying transverse across the top of my belly, baby A is still head down and in a great position. Both babies did great with the non-stress test but then they almost didn’t let us leave because of the pattern of contractions I was having…I thought…contractions if those are contractions then I should have been put on bed rest months ago. After paging Dr. Soper to see if I could leave the hospital and not getting a response we told the nurses we were headed to her office for our appointment anyway, so they reluctantly let us go. I should mention that during the entire hospital visit the only thing Jason kept repeating was “I’m so hungry…I want a Whopper with cheese” so needless to say he was really ready to leave. He told the nurses that we were stopping to get something to eat and they made him promise that he’d tell Dr. Soper so she would know why we didn’t immediately go to her office.
Ok…on to the visit at Dr. Soper’s office:
This is why I love Dr. Soper…she was not phased by my contraction pattern and was very calm in saying “it doesn’t matter what your contractions are doing unless they effect your cervix”….after checking my cervix which is still long and closed she simple said “it just shows that Braxton Hicks contractions are true contractions and they will show up on the test”. I love Dr. Soper…she is so hands off and laid back! So the next topic of conversation was the positioning of the babies. Dr. Soper made it clear that by no means do we have to make a decision at this point but we have some things to think about. As most of you know, my goal is to have a natural vaginal childbirth; with the position of baby B here are some of the potential problems we could face. Baby A (God willing) will be born fine…once baby A is out baby B may not turn and or could become distressed or I could have a placental abruption which would put us in an emergency c-section situation. The reason this is such a big deal is if all goes according to plan I will not have an epidural, which means if there is no time for a spinal block I would have to be put under general anesthesia for the birth of baby B.
AHHHHH…there are so many reasons I do not want that to happen, I want to hear my baby’s first cry, I want to be awake for everything, I want to breastfeed the girls with in the first hour of their life and I just do not fair well with anesthesia. Now back to the million dollar decision we/I have to make “to get an epidural or to not get an epidural”…do I go ahead with the epidural just in case I have to have a c-section that way I don’t have to be put under or do I wait it out, I want nothing more than to have a natural childbirth. Jason and I both know that this entire process is in God’s hands and we are just along for the ride but I do have a personal decision to make. So many emotions come with the whole “do I…or don’t I get an epidural” that I can not write them all down…I won’t feel like a failure if I get one, especially with the circumstances we now face but it’s still not in my vision. We pray that the day I go into labor and we get to the hospital that baby B will have turned her little head down…this doesn’t automatically mean there will be no risks but some of the stress will be relieved.
So if you’ve made it through this far into my post, our request is that you (as always) pray for us and the health of the babies…because no matter what our ultimate goal is to leave the hospital with two healthy babies!
And to sign off on a great note...Hannah’s wedding was last night and it was amazing. Hannah looked stunning - I’ll post some pictures later…
No comments:
Post a Comment