Getting Down to the wire!

I have a lot to update on. The third trimester has been rather eventful. Lots of little changes including in my medication routine. We're now onto every week appointments (I'm 37 weeks 3 days today) and at our last appointment the doctor told me that we'd see how my body was doing when they do a cervical check. If I'm showing signs of being dilated and effaced then we'll discuss induction when I'm 39 weeks pregnant. So either the 7th of November or 8th, again provided my body is labor ready. If not then we'll wait it out.

This for some isn't necessary (The induction)  but others who are on blood thinners choose to have a bit more a controlled environment. I'm not sure if I touched on what those aspects are but I'm going to go through them now. There are two types of blood thinners you can be on many actually end up being on both. Lovenox and Heprin. I've been on Lovenox now for what seems like a life time, more like since September with a short break after we lost our daughter Angela. So I've been on them for basically a full year now.. A year of needles yuppee ;) Honestly, they aren't bad though you get used to them. Remember my first post when I had to start injections, that is a distant memory. Luckily I'm not afraid of needles. I feel awful for anyone who is as I know it's not a fear that goes away easily :/ So if you're one of those people very sorry :(. Lovenox I take once a day 30mg, the reason why I take it is because I have what is called Lupus Anticoagulant. The likely suspect in all of our losses besides Angela (as we were treating the LA then) as she had a genetic abnormality. Lovenox works for 24 hours before you have to take the next shot. Many doctors will use this in early pregnancy up to the mid 3rd trimester out of convenience to the person getting the shots. Now I state many this doesn't mean all. 

Around 36 ish weeks (give or take) doctors who have patients on Lovenox will often look to switch to Heprin. There are a few reasons for this 1. Heprin has a 12 hour working time (Keep this fact in mind as I'll come back to it's importance) 2. If I start bleeding out (heaven forbid) then they can push a drug to counteract the blood thinning agent. From what I've heard this is only possible with Heprin, this is not possible with lovenox. So a bit of an important factor. Down side is you go from one needle a day to two.

I know some may ask why I've stated the working times as being some key factors to the medication. When you're on these blood thinners there are certain things you can't have while the medication is still active in your system. When getting down to the wire where labor is imminent you'll want to work with a 12 hour medication than a 24 hour medication. When on blood thinners you cannot get an epidural (at least in that 12 hour time frame). Now while I'm sure many are ok with a natural birth and aspire for such, I on the other hand like having these options at the very least available to me. I've made a point in this pregnancy to really not have any kind of concrete birthing plans. This is just because our situation really requires us to be flexible (I mean everyone's situation there should be flexibility) so I didn't want to get my heart set on something and have it go another way. I've been prepping for birth by looking going over breathing exercises, practicing a little bit of hypnobirthing (ok so with hypnobirthing I've kind of dropped the ball on that one but I really wanted to try and read up on it.) If anything I'll use the soothing music CD they provide. I want to have a few things in my arsenal to labor with incase I go naturally and can't get an epidural while on my medication. Perhaps the biggest and only "I hope it doesn't happen" situations is with blood thinners if I'm still in that 12 hour window since my last injection and say I need an emergency c-section. I am not able to get a spinal or have the epidural turned up, I have to get put completely under when my daughter is born. :( I mean I know it happens and it's something I had to accept when we had our little Blood pressure scare a few weeks ago. Inside I'd really love to be cognitively there when my daughter is born. Seems like a sweet final goodbye to what was a very rough chapter in our lives. So I'll be keeping my fingers crossed, but in the end I know and will hold tight to the #1 thing is getting her here safe and sound. Everything else pales in comparison to her safety.  :)


So after that long spiel I will continue on with an update :P. At 35 ish weeks my rash which was confirmed to be PUPPS (not a fun thing to have by the way). I went to our work nurse practitioner to see if she could suggest some topicals or something I could take for the rash and the incessent itching that came with it. She noticed that my face and hands were a bit puffy so she wanted to take my blood pressure. (Okay no big deal). "Amanda your blood pressure is 140/82" me "Is that bad?" her "I'd really like you to call into your OB and let him know about your numbers and ask if they can check you for proteins." Cue blind sided stare and a mini inner panic attack. So I go call him they tell me they'd like me in there as soon as possible. I didn't think the number was that bad but the way now two medical professionals were reacting I was overcome with emotions and worry. I knew once she said proteins she was wanting to have me checked for Pre-Eclampsia. Paul and I rushed home got my hosptial bag and grabbed her car seat. Since the hosptial and my OB are an hour away we had to be prepared for the test to come out positive. I just remember most of the trip there me having to come to terms with my fear of getting put under if I had a c-section. It was tough to face that but I knew that if I didn't that it would have been a big thing that I would look back on with a little bit of sadness. Emotionally I was just all over the place, this, this or this could happen. Your mind just kicks into overdrive. I knew that at 35 weeks she was at least in better standing than other babies so after that realization things cooled down a little bit. I get to the office and I'm sure that all of my stressing in the vehicle would perhaps produce a false reading. Go in and my blood pressure was 128 / 80 cue huge sigh of relief and the proteins, none there YAY!!!!!!!!!!Needless to say that was one heck of a day. I took the rest of the day off to recoupe. I didn't think something like that would take so much out of me but it did. It also kind of kicked our butts into gear to get last minute things ready for her. More so my husband I think than me lol.

So with the whole bp issue I've been keeping a close eye on things. I've had many in the 140's now but since there's no proteins and I'm not really effected by it I'm ok with everything.

Starting Thursday I started getting contractions. I wasn't sure but after the fact I realized it really was contractions. I had a burning pain in my back and had at least 35 throughout the day nothing that got into a rythm though but a pattern was starting to show up. Can I just say how much I love contraction phone applications? I really do. The OB told me I should go home and lay on my left side and drink lots of fluids. After doing what I was told ;) I had two closer contractions then it stopped. Since then I've had about 5 a day. Admittedly I'm a weirdo and would like baby girl to wait until our induction date if we have one.1. I don't' feel like we're prepared (are we ever really?) and 2. I'd like the controlled nature of being off my meds before going into labor.

With that being said I have a gut feeling that's not going to be the case. Because of that, I need to get this out because I don't know what's personally going on. But today I have been fighting the urge to be at home. I don't know what it is, can't put my finger on it but I just want to be home, not as in Hooky day from work. But just be at home. Odd isn't it? I just have this feeling she's coming sooner than later. When obviously I don't know, but I just feel it's getting very very close. So I've been making sure to time exactly down to the minute when I had my last injection. This way I can have something concrete to give the anesthesiologist when they ask instead of a 3:00 'ish' time.

I'm excited, scared, wonder if I'm going to be a good mom and everything in between. You'd think after close to 4 years of trying for this I'd be a bit more prepared mentally but I don't think anything or any amount of time can truly prepare you for the realities of parenthood. It did help me learn a lot of what I needed to know though. So the time waiting did have it's advantages. Plus lots of friends to ask questions to, which while TTC wasn't such a great thing but after being pregnant it's nice.

Baby girl has definitely been doing well though. She was measuring in the 50th percentile with growth and weight. And she scored 8/8 on her biophysical profile. It was so neat to see her chest move up and down practicing her breathing. Plus 8/8 on her first test, a spark of her father in her!! We got to see her face again (looks like she may have some chubby cheeks! lol) and come to find that she's sucking her thumb (very adorable). She loves to lay on the left side of my belly, it's neat to see the lop sided belly when she does this. Since thursday she's dropped, I can tell in my belly height and also with her movements way down low now.

I've been so blessed to have such an easy pregnancy that at times I can't believe we're already this far along. It's funny because I have other people even giving me puzzled looks when I tell them she may be here in a week and a half. I take it as a compliment when they say I don't look it. I don't' feel small but I also don't feel 'huge' I feel just right (says Goldy locks ;) ) Now obviously there are mild annoyances but honestly knowing what things could be like I brush them off. The Pupps is a bit of a pain mind you but if this is the only real thing I have to 'complain' about. I'll count my blessings.

I'm not sure if this will be my last post before she arrives or not. But as always my readers are in my thoughts. I hope that when I check out your blogs I see good news on the horizon. I'm cheering you all on and sending so many positive vibes your way. Love and hugs!