New Perinatologist Office & Trip to the Hospital

Wednesday, November 26 I got a phone call at 8 am from the new perinatal group Dr. Sweeney had referred me to. They had finally gotten our referral and wanted me to come in immediately and to plan on being there all morning. So I quickly got ready and drove myself down to the office and checked in around 9. They took me back almost immediately for another ultrasound since they hadn't seen me before. They did a very thorough scan looking at every part of the baby as well as checking my amniotic fluid levels and Caden's weight. Fluid level was really good and Caden measured as weighing 4 lb. This is right in range of where he should be at this gestational age.

After the tech finished the scan, the perinatologist, Dr. Chyu, came in and did more ultrasound with me. She spent a long time going over everything she saw. The main things of interest she said were in regards to the diaphram and the heart. She thought that the left side of the heart looked normal and the right side looked large. When I asked her what that meant, she said it usually means there is an aortic coarctation, a narrowing of the aorta. But she wanted us to have yet another opinion on it and wanted another cardiologist in Sacramento to do an echo. Then she talked about the diaphragmatic hernia. She thought there was a possibility that there wasn't actually a hernia in the diaphragm, but maybe there was an eventration of the diaphragm. This is a disorder in which all or part of the diaphragmatic muscle is replaced by fibroelastic tissue. We don't know a lot about it beyond that. Dr. Chyu spent a lot of time with me in consultation regarding a plan of action for me which I appreciated very much. She said they would take over my care until what time we go to Stanford, if that is what we end up doing. She set up NST's for me and also checked my cervix. Still not dilating which is great, but because I'm completely effaced and having lots of contractions, she decided to send me over to Sutter Memorial to be monitored in labor and delivery for awhile. She anticipated her partner would review the situation and would probably send me home, maybe with some medication to slow or stop contractions.

So, a nurse from Dr. Chyu's office walked me over to labor and delivery at Memorial and they got me hooked up to a monitor. They continued to monitor me for a couple hours. Dr. Gilbert, Dr. Chyu's partner, came in and told me they were quite concerned about the number of contractions I was having especially given the status of my cervix, so they were admitting me. He said he anticipated me being here until Friday at least. But he didn't want to promise anything because there was a possibility that they might keep me longer than that. I wanted to cry because I wasn't prepared for that news. I had driven myself to the doctor's office in my car which has Kyler's car seat in it. So Greg & my mom had to get one of our neighbors to watch Kyler while they came down to the hospital. They brought me a bag of things I requested and then were able to pick up my car and go home.

All afternoon I was on a monitor so they could see how my contractions were doing. I was having some pretty strong ones with some minor pain. That was new to me because up until that point, the contractions were more of an annoyance than anything. They caused tightening but not really any pain. But there were definitely some painful ones yesterday. They ended up using three different medications to stop/slow contractions but even with that, they kept me on the monitor until after 8 pm. At that point, I had finally reached a point where it had been over 20 minutes since the last contraction. Then the rest of the night I had very few contractions, at least that I noticed.

I wasn't able to sleep because I didn't have a private room and my roommate was not exactly considerate. She talked very loudly and had the TV on until well after midnight. Just past midnight I asked my nurse if there were any private rooms available and she said no, but they would try to find a room to move me into. The lady next to me finally fell asleep watching TV sometime around 1:45 am. My nurse had asked her to turn it off just after midnight because it was late and I wasn't able to sleep with it on. But she said she couldn't go to sleep without the TV and I would just have to wait until she fell asleep and then I could turn it off. I thought that was a little rude, but what could I do. Finally after she fell asleep, I turned the TV off and a few minutes later (around 2:15) my nurse came in to move me. It was still a shared room, but there was currently no one else in it. I think I finally got some sleep around 2:30. But then, because of various medications I needed, they had to wake me up at 4, 6 and 8 in order for me to take those. So, not a lot of sleep for me last night! I'm exhausted!

After eating breakfast, I was feeling pretty good about not having had a lot of contractions. Then, Dr. Gilbert came in to check on me and said that they would put me on the monitor and if things looked good (5 or less contractions in an hour), they would discharge me today. They just had to give me my 2nd steroid shot before they could let me go. And, they would send home medication with me to continue to take to keep the contractions at bay. So, after an hour on the monitor, I only had 5 contractions, Dr. Gilbert said I could go home this afternoon. Right now I am sitting and waiting for the nurse to come with my discharge papers, remove my IV line and we can hit the road. Of course this means I have to be extra diligent with laying down and staying off my feet. I am not allowed to do anything for myself, essentially. Kind of a bummer, but it's worth it.

My mom will be with us through the end of next week and that will be great help for us. We have a couple doctors appointments next week which we will go to and in the meantime, I think we will be checking out all our housing options in Palo Alto so we can relocate over there around December 8 or so. We figure we are better safe than sorry and if we deliver at Stanford, all our bases will be covered in terms of Caden's care. They have all the necessary resources we need if we need them.

This roller coaster of a ride for us, but we know God is in control and he will take care of us. We just need to make sure that we do our part in ensuring Caden stays put for a few more weeks! Thank you all for your support and continued prayers. We are still in need of more of them, but we have seen evidence of the answers to all the prayers, so keep 'em coming!