Monitoring and Dr. Appointment

I was lucky and had TWO appointments yesterday... (that was kind of sarcastic, could you tell?). I started off with my monitoring appointment at 3:00. When I got there, they called me back quickly and hooked me up to the monitors. I talked to the nurse and told her that I'd been having contractions. The night before I had even considered coming in, but then they slowed down so I didn't have to. She took some notes and then left to let the monitors do their work.

I flipped on the TV and started watching HGTV...just a little side note. I was watching Bang for Your Buck. It's a show that compares 3 remodels with the same budget and they decide who did the best job for their money, or who got the best 'bang for their buck'. The episode I was watching, they were evaluating three master suite renovations, all with a budget of $120,000....ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! Over a hundred thousand dollars on your bedroom? That's the one room in the house Nick and I don't even care about. We're only in there to sleep! That's a lot of money...

Anyway, Annabelle wasn't moving too much so I tried moving on to my side and drinking some cold water (I'm learning all the tricks so they don't have to tell me anymore and I can get in and out of there quicker!). Eventually she woke up a bit and started moving around. I got my two accelerations in by about 3:40 and then we were off to the ultrasound room.

While walking down the hall, the nurse looked at my monitoring report and showed me the contractions line. There were no BIG contractions but the line was up and down, up and down the whole 40 minutes. I didn't feel any contractions so made me feel good. It's not like the contractions I feel at home aren't even registering on a monitor. But she called this uterine irritability. She said my body doesn't know that I had a c-section before and it's gearing up to have a baby.

We settled in to the ultrasound room and she started looking at the baby. The first thing we noticed was Annabelle dropped! You couldn't even see her head on the ultrasound with the wand on my belly. She had to go to the underside of my belly to see her head. So that's probably part of the reason I've been having so many more contractions. Then she measured my fluid. Since I'm over 36 weeks now, they want the fluid to measure between 10-20 cm. Yesterday my fluid measured in at 22 cm. So I'm still high. But not scary high. And you'd rather be high than low.

So all in all, good news. They gave me my "report card" and I headed up to the doctor's office. I got in and waited in the waiting room. It wasn't too long before they called me back. First I was weighed. I gained SIX pounds!! Yikes!! I guess my body was making up for the 2 lbs I lost a week ago! So that puts me at 26 lbs gained overall with three weeks to go exactly. I'm going to assume that all this extra fluid is affecting my weight too... ;-) So I should be able to finish under 30 lbs gained. At least that's my goal!

Then I went back into the room. No doppler reading or anything since I just came from the Perinatal Center. So it was just waiting.

Well, of course, my doc got called away for a delivery so I saw the nurse practitioner. She's very nice so I was ok with this. She came in and talked for a minute about everything and she noticed that my feet were swollen. I could tell they are swollen because first off, they hurt! and second off, I have ridiculously bony feet. The only "skinny" part on me! I have very distinct ankle bones jutting out and Nick calls my toes "finger toes" because they are long and skinny and you can see each knuckle. My feet are very long and thin too. So I don't have cankles or anything yet, but I can tell they are swollen. I didn't think anyone else could but the N.P. could. She told me to start putting my feet up more.

Then we started talking about this fluid nonsense. I asked her what it really meant since no one really tells me anything. She told me that they aren't going to do anything since I'm full term this weekend. However, with the baby having dropped, the fact that the baby is already big, and all this extra fluid stretching my uterus, my body thinks it's even further along than the baby is measuring. So I am 36 weeks and 4 days, the baby is measuring about 38-39 weeks, and with the extra fluid my body probably thinks I'm closer to 40 weeks. So she told me to really pay attention to these contractions. She thinks I'll go into labor on my own. She told me not to labor too long at home. If I think they are coming regularly, call the exchange. They will tell me what to do, but she doesn't want me suffering at home too long since I'll be coming in for a c-section anyway. So I guess that's something to look forward to!

After all this talk, she gave me my c-section card. It's the instructions I have for coming in for a planned c-section.

Here's what the card says:

MIDWEST MATERNAL FETAL MEDICINE
DIRECTIONS FOR SAME DAY ADMIT C-SECTION

Your cesarean section is scheduled for ______________________.

On the day prior to your cesarean section

• Register at the Admitting office at the hospital on the 2L Level as an "A.M. Admit C-Section".
  
• Report to the Outpatient Lab on the 2L Level to have your blood drawn.
  
• Report to Labor and Delivery on the 2nd Floor of the hospital to speak with an Anesthesiologist.
  

On the day of your cesarean section

• Arrive to Labor and Delivery 2 hours prior to your cesarean section.
  

YOU MAY HAVE SOLID FOOD UP TO 6 HOURS PRIOR TO YOUR SCHEDULED PROCEDURE. YOU MAY HAVE CLEAR FLUIDS UP UNTIL 2 HOURS PRIOR TO PROCEDURE.



So there you have it! Those are my instructions. If I end up with the scheduled c-section. I guess you never know! I could go early. But if I don't. I have LESS THAN THREE WEEKS TO GO! :)

Come on Baby A!