The Countdown Begins

After spending 2 1/2 weeks in the hospital, we were finally released. It seemed that every time we got close to being released, our little guy would make things exciting again. I have been a little nervous being at home, but luckily this child is very active, so I know he is doing just fine in there. The doctor told me upon being released to make sure I do kick counts twice a day. I should feel him 6 times in an hour twice a day. He said to monitor this at times he is most active. For most babies this is right after eating. For me, he seems to be the most active right before I eat. He tends to go into a food coma after I eat. He is doing lots of twisting and turning which makes for some comedy as we sit and stare at my stomach as this wave rumbles across. Not to mention that my stomach remains lopsided most of the time because he hags out on one side of my stomach.

While in the hospital, we celebrated Trey's "un-official" Father's Day. Trey wasn't expecting any kind of gift especially since I had already been in the hospital for a while. Little did he know, I had purchased his gift back in March or April and had been saving it. One of the nights, he stayed with me I had my sister go to my house and get his gift and bring it to me on one of the nights she stayed with me. The look on his face was priceless. I bought him a Clay Matthews jersey that he had been wanting for a while. What made it even better was that I was able to buy a onesie size version. Now father and son will have matching jerseys for football Sunday. It's way too cute. To be honest, I didn't want to be left out and had to buy myself one as well. Now we can be a family of Clay Matthews' fans.

 

Like Father; Like Son

I had my doctor appointments today and overall things went well. His heart rate was good, his movement was good and things looked normal with me. I am 37 weeks now and our goal has been 39 weeks. We are scheduled to be induced on Monday July 8th if nothing changes before that point. The more I sit down and think about things the more my heart starts to race. I am realizing exactly how soon that will be here. This will be my last complete weekend at home (I am scheduled to check in Sunday the 7th), and all I really have is next week. I know time is going to just fly by. I have the normal first time mother anxiety over delivery and not knowing what to expect. At this point, my doctor is shooting for a natural delivery, but has made it very clear that if there is any sign of distress we go straight to the operating room for a c-section. I am ok doing whatever will get him here safely.

My real anxiety rests with everything after the delivery. The fear of the unkown. What I do know is that there will be a team of NICU doctors in the delivery room to assess him immediately after he is born. Depending on how he is doing determines if I will get to hold him before he is shuffled away. I know that after delivery he will be taken to the CVICU (Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit) and Trey will get to go with him. There he will be assessed and within hours they will start examining his heart for a course of action. I keep mentally trying to prepare myself for the idea that he will be taken away and I don't know how long it will be before I am able to be by his side and touch and hold him. If I end up in a c-section I know this time frame will be extended. Trey will have the ability to Skype me the entire time he is with him, so I will have some sort of connection to what is going on with him. As I have said all along, I don't care what happens I just want him to be okay.

I am so excited to meet our little guy, but that excitement tends to get overshadowed with fear. It is at this point that our journey truly begins. Throughout this entire pregnancy we have put so much faith and trust in God and it's this connection that provides me with comfort. God has brought us this far and I know He will see us through our journey.

Center of Attention!

Things with Baby Bish have gotten exciting again! Tuesday I was scheduled for an ultrasound, non-stress test and OB appointment. I went for my ultrasound and baby looked great. He was wiggling, heart rate was good, there wasn't any fluid in his chest like before and he had grown. He was still measuring about 3 weeks off, but as long as he's growing we are good. I left the ultrasound and went down the hall for my non-stress test. Here they hook me up to monitors and listen to the heart rate, monitor contractions and document his movement. I had been there about 20 minutes and the nurse came in and had me roll to the side because he seemed to be sleeping. About 5 or 10 minutes later 2 nurses rushed in and started messing with his monitor. His heart rate had dipped for about a minute without correcting itself. Once he stabilized they called in a dr and after talking to my OB thy decided to send me for additional monitoring. I was on the monitor for another couple of hours and though his heart rate seemed stable they decided they were going to keep me overnight for monitoring. It was a rather uneventful night, but about lunch time on Wednesday Trey and I were sitting around and about 6 nurses rushed into the room.  They were turning me on my side, re-positioning me and putting me on oxygen to get his heart rate back up. They finally got things where they needed to be. Pretty scary. When my OB came by for rounds that evening he said they were going to keep me on continuous monitoring and wanted him to go 48 hours without a dip. Long story short we seem to be having dips every 12-18 hours. I had another echo of the heart today and overall things looked good there. No new issues and the heart was functioning normal. It's not a change in the heart that is causing the dip in hs heart rate. So at this point we are still supposed to go 48 hours so I will be on constant monitoring through the weekend. At this point I would rather just stay on the monitor the rest of the pregnency. There is no telling when his heart rate could dip and not come back up and if that happens at home when I'm not on a monitor it could be really bad. So being confined to the bed hooked up to monitors is where I will stay at this point. We are hoping and praying we can keep him in here as long as possible. The cardiologist is hoping we make it to 37 weeks (I'm 35 weeks tomorrow)to try a decrease respitory complications. Other than these sparatic dips, he is doing great. The doctors and nurses says he looks to be doing beautifully and is fine overall. So as always we are still asking for prayers for our little guy. We have a few more weeks on this part of the journey and once he's here it will be a whole new ball game.