This post is a bit more rambling and disorganized than I intended, but after several distractions and interruptions while writing it, I'm going to take what I can get and post it as is. :)
Like I said yesterday, August 7 started early for us. I had an 8 a.m. appointment with Dr. M, and we had to be there by 7:30 to fill out paperwork. We woke the girls up and, while they were still half asleep, changed them out of their p.j.'s. With that we were out the door.
We arrived at Dr. M's office and filled out endless forms. I think it was around 8:30 when we were called back for the ultrasound. It was a rather lengthy scan and when the tech was done she went and got Dr. M who came in and looked around some more. Finally they were done with the ultrasound. The good news: the baby's bladder and kidneys appeared to be fine. Dr. M was still thinking my water had broken without me realizing or that I had a slow leak. He wanted to inject some dye to check for sure.
Any way we looked at it, I was going to be on some sort of bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy. If my water had broken, I'd be in the hospital because of the risk of infection. If not, I'd be on bed rest at home because of the low fluid. Either way this was problematic. We don't have anyone near by to help with the girls on a full time basis. Without extra help I wouldn't be getting much rest at home and hospital bed rest wasn't an option. Dr. M said he might consider allowing me to be on bed rest at home but I would have to get to his office pretty much every day to be checked. Which again, wouldn't be very restful.
Dr. M also told us of a procedure he could do, an amnio infusion, to add fluid back to JW's amniotic sack. He said if fluid continued to leak he could add fluid about twice a week which would allow JW's lungs to develop. We of course opted for the infusion. Dr. M was already injecting some dye, may as well add some fluid as well. Dr. M also decided to go ahead and do an amniocentesis while he had the needle in my belly adding fluid. He wanted to be sure there were no other issues.
We were hopeful and scared. We left his office with instructions to be at the hospital at noon for the infusion. We got home and had just enough time to make a few phone calls and leave again. Family members were trying to figure out when they could come to help with the girls. So we knew we'd have help with the girls. It was just a matter of who and when and how.
Jake dropped me off at the hospital, labor and delivery entrance, and he took the girls out to lunch and to the park. I got checked in and triage nurse tried to start an IV. Ouch! And it didn't work. Dr. M came in and said not to worry about the IV, he didn't think I'd need it. I got in the wheelchair to head to radiology for the amniocentesis/infusion/dye injection. Dr. M was pushing the wheelchair. We got about 15 feet from my room when I started getting light headed. I was about to tell Dr. M but the next thing I knew I was back in my bed, flat on my back looking up at Dr. M leaning over me. He said, "You're getting the IV." It was probably the combination of nerves, the pain from the first IV attempt (apparently I have tough skin), and not being allowed to eat before hand that made me pass out. At least we got a laugh out of it.
The nurse got the IV on the second try and this time Dr. M wouldn't even let me take the wheelchair to radiology. He took me on a stretcher.
Dr. M didn't like the angle of the needle on his first try for the amnio, so he pulled it out and tried again. He had a very small pocket of fluid to aim for, so it was a little tricky. He poked me again, OUCH! (4th needle of the day if you're keeping track) and this time was happy with his "approach". JW wasn't too happy with intrusion though. He kicked the needle. When Dr. M drew out the amniotic fluid for the amniocentesis is was suddenly very obvious why I had low fluid. What little fluid there was was full of old blood indicating a placental abruption that had not been seen on any of the ultrasounds. So there it was, the cause of the low fluid and the bleeding I'd been having.
Next was the infusion. 400 cc's of saline were injected for JW to swim in. Dr. M pulled out the needle and then realized he forgot to inject the dye. *sigh* Poke number 5. Dye injected and done. Back to my triage room to wait and see if I was leaking fluid, which was now blue.
I ate lunch while I waited. An hour later, no leakage. Yay! Jake and girls showed up and shortly after that I was discharged.
I have no idea what time it was when we got home. Jake took the girls to Walmart for I can't remember what and I tried to take a nap, but I don't think I was very successful. I think Jake brought something home for dinner and we started adjusting ourselves to the idea of life with me on bed rest. We discussed finding out if the baby was a boy or girl. We didn't want to know prior to all the problems, but we decided we wanted to find out now so we could pray for the baby by name.
We were hanging out on the couch watching the So You Think You Can Dance finale, which considering what happened next made it very odd for me to watch the finale last night. Anyway, I was hanging out on the couch and JW seemed to be enjoying his new fluid. He was squirming all over the place. I went to the bathroom and had a little bleeding, odd for evening, since it usually happened in the morning, but I tried not think about it. A few minutes later I was hanging out on the couch again and JW did a nice big flip. More bleeding. I told Jake I thought we should probably go back to the hospital. So we got the girls loaded up and headed out.
After hours the Labor and Delivery entrance is closed, so we had to go in the ER entrance which was miles from L & D. It was just after 9 p.m. when we walked in. We had no sooner been instructed to head straight over to L & D than my water broke. Crap.
We made it to L & D and were put in a triage room. My nurse was awesome. I got changed, she listened to JW's heartbeat and gently told me I wasn't going home. Which I already knew. The OB on call from Dr. R's practice and the OB on call from the other practice Dr. M was affiliated with were discussing what to do. Do they call Dr. M directly? Or should they call the on call peri up in Denver? Dr. M was still new in town, so they weren't sure what he would prefer. They called the on call peri in Denver and we waited and waited for a call back.
While we waited, we called family. Jake's sisters were getting on a plane the next day and coming for the weekend. My mom was coming on Monday.
Finally, around 11 they went ahead and called Dr. M. There wasn't really anything to do at that point though, but admit me (which we knew would happen) and in the morning they'd run some more tests.
Total bed rest. No bathroom privileges. No fun. I got to my room, they let me walk. Now it was time for my triage nurse to start an IV. *sigh* My nurse for the night took the girls out of the room for that. She loved the girls and was a lot of fun so they took to her right away. First IV attempt was no good. Second try was successful, making that the 7th needle of the day. Ouch, but I was actually finding it pretty funny at that point. It was while the nurse was placing the IV that I finally broke down. My awesome nurse was very sweet and encouraging. I said good night to Jake and girls and they headed home while I settled into my new home for the next who knew how many weeks.
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