That's thirty five weeks and 6 days for those wondering about the title. That means tomorrow we are officially considered "term" by medical professionals. If we can hold things off a few days longer, it is highly likely that baby will not need to spend any/much time in the NICU which means we would be guarentee'd to deliver at St. B! (their NICU is pretty full, and over-flow of preemie deliveries go to HSC women's)
If my pressures stay stable this evening (my lunch reading was higher than normal for this week), then it will be a full week since I've had to go into triage for a BP spike! Wow! It's a miracle! If that's the case, I can also hopefully use that as leverage with my doctor, as grounds for not inducing me tomorrow.
My doctor had me complete a 24 hour urine test Thursday-Friday to test for protein in my urine (if there is protein in the urine it means your kidneys are working a lot harder than they have to, and they are accidentally allowing nutrients to filter out of the body that should otherwise stay.) In response they also test the protein levels in my blood as well as all kinds of other kidney and liver functioning levels. I did that blood work this morning. So far, my blood work has remained in a stable zone throughout the past three weeks (hard to believe it's only been 3 weeks sometimes), but my Protein has slowly been creeping up in the urine. Depending on these blood and urine results we may have to be induced tomorrow. So please pray that these results come back acceptably.
We would, of course, like to shoot for 37 weeks because that's even better, and closer to not being a "preemie", however I think it will take a lot of convincing and advocacy on our part to make it past tomorrow with our doctor, just because of how suddenly and severely my BP symptoms came on, back in December. If I have another spike in my BP it could be extremely serious (to my health, not the baby's. Baby is still peachy keen).I could potentially seizure, or experience kidney or liver failure. ...so... ya... that's pretty serious I guess.
On the bright side, either way at this point, our baby will be born after 36 weeks and that is 100% an answer to ours and your prayers. We thank you so much! We ask that you continue lifting us up in prayer over the next few days as our doctor decides what is best. Please pray for wisdom for our doctor, in knowing how to handle this coming week (weather to induce, let us wait, up my meds etc...). The "easy" solution for the doctor right now would be to induce, and that would be the grounds on which we would potentially challenge her call. So please pray for wisdom and discernment for us as well to know when to accept the doctor's decision and when to push back a bit harder.
The other thing that has been going on, is that this past Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, I got little-to-no sleep (2-4 hrs broken apart). I know, I know what you're thinking "pregnancy insomnia"... I can guarantee you this was different. zero sleep, my body absolutely exhausted and not functioning, but refusing to even nap during the day yesterday... I was at the point where I was ready to call the doctor and say "GET THIS KID OUTTA ME NOW!!" We've been praying about this every night and I know some of you have been praying for this as well. I started to get pretty cynical with God... I still don't understand what purpose he could have had for the hell that this brought to me (i highly doubt hell could be much worse than what I was experiencing with the lack of sleep, blood pressure, bed rest, nurses coming every day etc... then curtis said "well in hell, you'd probably have to go through all that at -40 degrees or something"... he's right I guess, it COULD be worse...). Either way, I was angry at God prettymuch every night from about 1 AM-5 AM... Then yesterday when I couldn't even nap, I was VERY frustrated. My nurses and Doula suspect that this has more to do with my medication's side effects than with regular insomnia... and TRUST ME I tried everything... (your suggestions will only frustrate me at this point, because I have tried them all...)
I did manage to get SOME sleep last night though! Very broken sleep, but I got a bit none the less. I am very thankful to God for this, but still have the un-resolved "why" as to the past three nights... Plus... of all the nights to give me sleep, he picks the one I'm doing a 24 hr urine on!! (your body detoxes more in your sleep.... so mine would be working for 4 nights instead of one i imagine).
So I am genuinely nervous for my urine test results because of the lack-of-sleep...
Otherwise, I think we are actually ready to have a baby now! (as in, we have what we need for the hospital and maybe 2 days at home). We've got some preemie and newborn clothes, diapers, bottles (just in case), borrowing a car seat, a crib, a pump (thanks Bonnie!)... So for the short-term, things are looking good! We continue to receive meals monday-saturday which has been SUCH a blessing for both of us! It has relieved so much stress, and we want to say thank you to everyone who has helped out with that!!
And I know there are plenty of family and friends who have offered to help with meals as well. We will very likely call on you yet, after baby is born, so hold on to that enthusiasm!!
Anyways, I think that is all for now. This has been a pretty long post as it is.. Thanks for all your prayers and supportive comments! They mean a lot to us! We treasure them and are daily encouraged by your support! Keep it coming for the last few days here! We're in the home stretch!
No comments:
Post a Comment