Doctor Visit and GBS

I had my weekly doctor's appointment today.  The first thing I asked the doctor was if he could take her out today.  He said no.  Jerk.


It was a bit of an emotional visit after that, however, because he told me I was positive for Group B Strep, the bacteria they tested me for last week.  I started sobbing, so it turned into a little therapy session.  


Group B Strep, which is not related to Strep like Strep throat, is a bacteria that 10-35% of the pregnant female population hosts in their vaginal and/or rectal regions.  It is completely harmless to adults, but there is a chance of it being transmitted to the baby during delivery.  If the baby were to transmit the Strep, she could develop serious infections or pneumonia soon after birth.


What it means for me is that I will be on IV antibiotics during labor and delivery to reduce the chance of passing it along.  However, since I am allergic to penicillin, they will have to do some testing on me to see which antibiotic I will be able to tolerate.  I did not ask whether we will be able to do that ahead of time or it will be done when I get to the hospital since I was too busy freaking out and crying, but when I am calm tomorrow I will call and ask more questions.


The doctors say the chance of the baby having any complications is VERY slim since we will be prepared with antibiotics, but I can't help but freak out and feel so guilty.  This THING I have inside me could seriously hurt my baby, and that is my fault.  Okay, so I had no control over being one of the population to have this bacteria (it is not contracted or developed due to something I did), but it is still in ME and I am now exposing my baby to another complication on a day that could be full of complications.


Plus, I don't know as much about this as the doctors, so it is hard to just think, Oh, okay, they will hook me up to an IV.  No problem.  I keep thinking of the what-ifs:  What if I am at work and it takes me a long time to get to the hospital?  What if she is exposed to the bacteria before they have a chance to get the IV up and running? What if my sensitivity to most drugs causes problems and the antibiotics are not delivered on time or efficiently?  I never claimed to be someone who doesn't overreact or over-think things.


After that whole big bombshell he dropped on me, he checked the heartbeat, and it was loud and strong, and then told me it was good that I was having a few sporadic contractions.  After that, I was all prepared for him to check and see if I was dilated, but he says they don't do that until the 39th week unless there is a very good reason. He said many doctors don't do that preemptively anymore because it is very painful, and contractions or water breaking is a much more accurate sign of progress.  He said I could request one at any time, but at their practice they will not ever induce me unless there is an excellent reason, so if I was dilated and not contracting, they would just tell me to hang in there.


So, I asked him if I could request him breaking my water.  He said no. Again.  Even after I offered to bake him a cake.  Jerk.


After calling Jeremy and my mom sobbing, I went to Joann Fabric and finally bought some fabric for sheets for the cradle (I am going to keep her in our room for a while in the cradle my dad made for me when I was a baby).  I also finally bought a canvas, paints, and brushes to get started on a painting I want to make to hang in her nursery above the crib.  I hope it turns out!!!


Then I moped around the rest of the night, because crying exhausts me!  I know this Group B Strep is not the hugest thing in the world, but I am so frustrated and feel so out of control.  I have been trying so hard to do everything right, and now there is nothing I can do to minimize this risk for her.  I guess this is just practice for the rest of her life, right? :)  

Doctor Appointment

I had a doctor appointment yesterday morning, and I needed a little time to think about it before I wrote anything, but I have found this blog to be very cathartic, so I am going full-steam ahead with discussing some news that has me freaked out.


So, yesterday's appointment started with my weight, which has not changed in a month!!  WOOT! (no worries, though; "plus-sized" mothers do not usually need to gain as much weight.  The doctors are happy with my weight progression) and a urine sample which was "fantastic" according to my doctor (I like that he likes my urine so much).  My blood pressure was 118/68, even though I was very worked up (since I have still been spotting since my last visit two weeks ago when they ran the EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLAR test to make sure there were no signs of premature labor and my cervix was in good shape).  The baby's heartbeat was great, even though she moved away from the doppler THREE times while the doctor was trying to get her heart rate! :)  I told him she was a mover!


So, everything was fine until he did my fundal measurement (*The height of my uterus.  Picture below if interested) and saw that I was measuring 3 centimeters ahead of 33 weeks, even though I was only at 32-and-a-half weeks, which puts me just over the "not normal zone." My doctor told me there was slight concern because I have been absolutely on with my measurements the entire time, never wavering one bit, and then there was a rather large jump into the abnormal range so suddenly, so he scheduled an ultrasound ... in TWO WEEKS.  I have to wait TWO WHOLE WEEKS to see if something is wrong or everything is fine and she is just in a very strange position, causing the measurements to be skewed.


He tried to calm me down and tell me not to worry (nice try, doc), but explained very rationally that combined with my spotting, the fact that I had not gained any weight but my uterus got so big so fast, AND my sugar was fine (so it is obviously not gestational diabetes making the baby big), it was necessary to take a quick look to check the size of the baby and check to make sure everything is still okay with the placenta, amniotic fluid, and umbilical cord.


So, there are many options here:  

• It could just be a very large, but still very healthy baby -- however, the doctor said big babies tend to grow at a steady rate
• The baby could just be messing with us and be in a strange position (I am crossing my fingers for this one)
• There could be too much amniotic fluid, which could be a symptom of many, many things (Which I will not go into detail here.  I am trying to hope for the best)
• The placenta could have slipped from its posterior position to covering or partially covering the cervix (This would also not be great)
• I could be at risk of the umbilical cord prolapsing (Also not awesome)

Jeremy will probably think that I am sharing too much here, but I really feel better after writing everything down and taking a critical look at it. Plus, there is always the chance that some of you reading might have had a similar experience and could give me some comfort! :)

It was just so disheartening to hear that everything looks amazing ... ooops, except this one thing that could be nothing or could be a huge deal.  And then my doctor tells me not to worry about it while I wait two weeks for the ultrasound.  GUH!!!

I also feel tremendously guilty, because I have been saying I am SO ready for her to be here.  I mean, I am having a tough pregnancy and I am DYING to have a baby instead of a belly, but I obviously never meant I wanted her to be premature and in danger.  I wanted a baby NOW who was healthy, fully grown, and a nice healthy weight.  Maybe I should have specified that.  

However, I had Jeremy give the baby a stern talking-to when he got home from work.  He told her to "grow normally!" and "stay in there until you're cooked!" and told me if I ever needed to, I could just tell her, "wait until your father hears about this!!"  He's a big help! <3

*Fundal measurements, if interested:

28 Weeks

I missed last week's update and belly shot because we were up on Mackinac Island for four days.  I even forgot to get a good profile shot of my belly.  I had just mentioned to Jeremy that we couldn't forget to take one when we got to a pretty spot, but then I walked up 304 stairs, so my only thoughts were death and I forgot all about it.  But I did get some shots that give you a pretty good idea of how big I was.  These were all taken on Friday, when I was one day away from 27 weeks:

The baby makes her first visit to Arch Rock

Beautiful weather for our 8-mile bike ride around the Island!

I felt the need to pose for Tommy's camera.  One of my friends said the caption for this picture is "I'm too sexy for my belly!"

I am wearing HEELS in this picture!  So stupid!

We all had loads of fun, but unfortunately, I was a big buzzkill.  The day before we left, I was working and packing and cleaning and preparing directions for the dog/cat/housesitter from 7 AM until 2 AM ... and then I looked at my feet.  They were bigger than I had ever seen them, and my body told me there was no way it would allow me to sleep with my feet elevated while I laid on my side (per doctor's orders), so I went to bed and hoped for the best.  I woke up four hours later to leave and, surprise, surprise -- they looked about the same.  Then we spent 3 hours in the car, half an hour on the ferry and then started a vacation that included a lot of walking, standing, and socializing.  So, basically, my feet never had a chance to return to normal, and I walked around getting shocked looks from people when they saw that my ankles were bigger than my knees and my swollen feet were jammed into dress shoes like ten pounds of sausage in five pounds of casing.

So, I was pretty lame, complained about it, and put my feet up on people's laps whenever I got five minutes to do so.  At one point, I went into my mom and dad's suite and she had some friends I had never met hanging out in the sitting room.  I plopped my feet on her lap and they both gasped.  The husband said "Is there anything we can do for you??" and the wife immediately ran back to her room and got a tube a cooling lotion to use on my feet.  She even insisted that I keep it because I needed it more than she did!  

Also, I don't know why, but the beds killed me this year.  I have stayed in this hotel for years and years, and usually I wake up feeling rested and ready to take on the day.  They are very nice mattresses.  This year, the same bed I slept in last year felt like a torture device and I woke up every morning exhausted and with every muscle in my body aching.  On the last night, my arms were actually going numb because of the knots in my back, and instead of letting Jeremy drink and party with everyone else, I insisted on an hour-long back rub because I was certain I was about to die.  So ... sorry fellow travelers!!  And especially Jeremy. :(

Well, that was a big re-cap, but now here we are at TWENTY EIGHT WEEKS!!!  I am offically seven months pregnant and in my (drumroll) ... THIRD TRIMESTER!!!  

Look how big she is!!

This week our amazing baby has probably reached two and a half pounds and could be as long as 16 inches!  Along with being able to cough, hiccup, suck, and take practice breaths, she can now blink and experiences Rapid Eye Movement when she sleeps!  Thankfully, her lungs are fully mature at this point, which is the milestone I was waiting for with bated breath.  Although she would still need a LOT of help if she were born at this point, she is out of the "danger zone."

It hit me in the shower this morning that it was my third trimester and I frantically started listing all the things we have yet to do (because we had SO MUCH time) like finding a pediatrician, pre-registering at the hospital, and taking a childbirth class.  Of course, when I freaked out, Jeremy just patted my hand and told me we couldn't do ALL of those things today, so we will sit down tomorrow and make a schedule of when to get those things accomplished in the next month.  What a guy.

Tonight I am off to a Girls Night with some old friends from high school.  We'll see how the baby likes the car trip from Rochester Hills and back.  She has been giving me some trouble to and from work lately.  I often have to lean really far to the right so the pain in my left side will go away. Oh well, I have a lot of working left to do and that means a lot more driving, so we will both just have to get used to it.

My ligament pain has also returned with a vengeance, at exactly the same time when I am having a hard time hauling myself in and out of certain positions.  At night, I usually wake up about ten times, whimpering because the hip I'm laying on hurts so bad.  When I have heaved myself halfway to the other side, my ligaments stretch and I feel like someone is stabbing me under my belly, so I flop back down.  It can take a few tries to roll over now, and all the while I am grunting.  Of course, Jeremy sleeps right through this.  I am going to need a system of pulleys and levers soon! :)

I guess I never appreciated being able to just get up off the couch or go from sitting on the floor to standing or roll over in bed without effort and embarrassment.  I will cherish when I am able to again! :)

A few big achievements also took place this week.  The baby has been SO ACTIVE and sometimes I feel like she is beating me up in there, but every time I put someone else's hand where she was moving, she would instantly freeze, then the second they gave up and moved their hand and I put mine back, she would go bonkers again.  Sigh.  She also moves so much now that I see my belly moving like an alien movie all the time.  I even freaked a student out in the Writing Center because she was doing it, but Jeremy couldn't see it.  But THIS week, Jeremy felt TONS of hard kicks AND saw my belly moving around!  AND I finally found the baby's heartbeat and put Jeremy's hand on it ... and he FELT IT!!!  It has been a good week! :)

Doctor Appointment

Today I had a doctor's appointment where I basically just checked in, got my blood pressure checked (108 over 68!), got my belly measured (looks good), and heard the heartbeat (sounds awesome!).  


The doctor assured me that the nose bleeds are still normal and aren't a sign of something bad (no worries, mom!) and was glad to hear that I have no swelling my feet or ankles now that I got rid of that pair of shoes.  So, all is well.


I also set up an appointment for my glucose tolerance test for a little less than two weeks from today.  I am certainly not looking forward to it after all the stories I have heard, but I will be glad when it is over and the results are good!

Beating Heart, Baby!

I apologize for the title being a music reference that maybe only my sister will get, but that song has been stuck in my head all day because ... you guessed it: we got to hear the baby's heartbeat today!!


I had my second check-up, and this time it was with the RN, who was wonderful (recap: my place has a team of four doctors, a midwife, and a RN, who you rotate between and get to know because any combination might be the team on-call when you give birth.  So far, I love the midwife and RN, and I meet one of the OB/GYNs at my next visit in four weeks).


This was only my second visit, but it was Jeremy's first time going, and he was impressed by how nice it was, which made me feel very good.  


This check-up was very quick.  We talked about my symptoms, she reassured me that it was okay that I had lost 20 pounds, since I have not lost too much in the past four weeks.  Most of my weight loss was really really early in the first trimester, and I just haven't gained much of it back, and she said it doesn't concern her because the baby is obviously growing (have you SEEN my belly??).


Finally, she felt my belly a bit and pulled out the doppler.  I was so nervous!  She put it to my belly, and I (logically) knew she probably wouldn't find the heartbeat immediately, but I still freaked out when all I heard was silence!  After the appointment, Jeremy said as soon as she put it to my belly he heard something, and then he realized it was someone walking in the hallway and he got mad and wanted to tell them to shut up! :)  She found the heartbeat quickly, and it was fast and strong!!  It was so amazing to have Jeremy there and see the look in his eyes!!


Then, it was over!  Jeremy and I were shocked at how quick it was, but then I remembered that one of the reasons I chose the place was because they weren't overly pokey and invasive.  I am not a high risk pregnancy, so I don't need unnecessary tests all the time just for the sake of running tests.  The baby is obviously fine and I am healthy, so I should just be thankful and chill out.  Easier said than done, but I would like to try to stick by that mantra.


I have one more regular check-up in four weeks before I get to have my ultrasound (another four weeks after that), which will put me really close to 21 weeks.  While it is really disappointing that I will have to wait so long to see the baby, it should be a good ultrasound since the baby will be bigger and more developed, so I am trying to think positive thoughts about it.


In other news, Jeremy found out about a mom-to-mom sale this Saturday in Lansing, and I am going to go check it out.  I know, it seems early, but everyone says pregnancy flies by, so I better get shopping! ;)