36 Week Belly, Ultrasound, and Update

Alright, this will be a big update that is probably boring to most of yall but I want to make sure I remember everything from the last few weeks. Maddie (or really my crazy body) is certainly keeping us on our toes.

Here's a little background. Since I am insulin dependent for my gestational diabetes my doctor keeps Madeleine closely monitored through frequent Fetal Non-Stress Tests (I'm hooked up to a contraction monitor and a heartbeat monitor and every time Maddie moves I press a button and the doctor looks to see that her heart rate goes up for about 15 seconds for each movement. This judges if the placenta is giving her what she needs.) and Bio Physical Profiles (an ultrasound where the baby is scored on certain things she should be doing while in the womb). I pretty much live at the doctor's office. I also have to keep a close watch on her movement through the day but this has not been a chore since she likes to hold dance parties, thankfully.

Okay so anyway, at 34 weeks I had half jokingly told my friend Sara the night before an appointment that she was on call as my baby daddy since Mark was out of town in Wisconsin. We both laughed about how she didn't really want that job but would do it anyway and brushed it off. The next day when I was hooked up to the NST machine it showed that I was having strong contractions every 2-3 minutes. I thought they were braxton hicks since they didn't hurt and my stomach is pretty tight all the time now anyway. The office started scrambling, threw out the term preterm labor, did more checks and tests, and ran in and out of the room a lot. And in my pregnant airhead state I had gone to the doctor without my phones too. So as I was sitting there watching the contractions continue and get stronger I was trying to figure out how I was going to get a hold of Mark who was probably in a plant or something, the lengths I would have to go to in order to get Sara's phone number (since I don't have it memorized), how she was going to FREAK, and wondering why I didn't do my hair before the appointment! Eventually, they let me go home since it didn't seem to be progressing where it counted (no dilation or effacement and Maddie was at a -3 station) and after I got home to rest and got super hydrated the contractions. Thankfully nothing came from it but it really got us on our toes and kicked into high gear to get ready for her all the while taking it slow so as to not go into preterm labor again (I had worked on her room all weekend and decorated the Christmas tree-guess that was too much)!

So onto week 35 and 5 days. The Sunday night before Christmas, I went to bed feeling lousy and eventually spent the whole night and early morning in the bathroom with a horrific stomach flu/bug/food poisoning thing. I just wanted to die. I've never felt so bad in my whole life. This pregnancy hasn't all been roses but that day takes the cake. Every time I would start to contract I would throw up. It was awful and I just kept thinking this can not be the way my baby is born because I will be completely unable to treasure any of it or even want to see her! Eventually I got so sick and dehydrated that I was contracting every two minutes (strong enough that I noticed this time) and called the on call doctor early that morning. He gave me some OTC medicine to try but I could not keep anything down so we had to go into Labor and Delivery for monitoring, fluids, and IV meds. I hate needles but I've never been so ready for them! After getting IV fluids and phenargan in me I could keep ice chips down and the contractions stopped. Super exciting! But as soon as I started to feel half way decent enough to just go home and sleep Maddie's heart rate went up too high from the sugars in the IVs. Gestational diabetes.... So we had to wait it out another couple of hours until the nurses were convinced it was going to stay down and she was safe. Ugggg. No fun, but Mark took good care of me and I pretty much slept for the next two days until my family got into town for Christmas and then let them take good care of us!

Now, week 36! At the ultrasound I had scheduled that week Maddie looked awesome and passed her tests with flying colors. My parents even got to come and take a peek at her. But my placenta did not look good. At 36 weeks it looked like a past due placenta with lots of calcification. It typically only happens this early in women who are smokers or have pre eclampsia. I don't fall in either of those categories so we don't know what the deal is. To complicate matters, babies born to mothers with gestational diabetes tend to have later lung development. So we are walking the fine line between making sure her lungs are ready and making sure the placenta still gives Maddie what she needs. That means more monitoring! But so far so good. She is still thriving and having her dance parties every day so unless that changes she stays put until her lungs are ready.

Okay here is what you want anyway