Psych!!!

So yesterday I had my weekly "You get to spend all DAY at the doctors' office doing tests" day.

This Friday I got to go in for a Biophysical Profile, a growth scan, and then meet with my OBGYN to find out all the results and to see if anything needed to be done for the baby.  Yesterday, I drove 30 min to the ultrasound and had the baby kicking and moving the entire drive.  As soon as I got into the Ultrasound room, he decided he was tired and fell asleep.  Niiiiiice.  NOT what you want to happen when they are checking for fetal movement.   So we spent 1/2 hour trying to wake the little bugger up - they moved me onto my side, then back onto my back, then made me put my legs straight out, then gave me some apple juice to get him all 'sugared' up, then I emptied my bladder, they put a vibrating buzzer up to him to scare him awake...nothing.  This kid would NOT budge.  Is it too much of me to ask that he sleeps the same way when he's OUT of my tummy too?

Needless to say, he just barely passed the "breathing" part of the test, but he failed the movement part horribly. 

I went to my Doctor's appointment and he talked to me to see if the baby had been moving, which I told him he had.  He asked me if there were changes, and I basically told him my contractions were further apart but more painful.  He asked me if he needed to check me and I said, "Nope.  You and I both know that I'm not having this baby before induction date.  I've been induced with all of my 3 other kids".  Normally I'd at least get a smile from him.  Nothing.  Hmmmmm.

He told me that the baby had failed his BPP and that he needed to send me to the hospital for another test.  I said, "OK".  We discussed when induction would actually be (the 25th) and he realized we didn't choose a time, so he had Megan, his nurse take me to the scheduling nurse to schedule the induction  and even suggested to her that she take me to the hospital.  I informed her I'd been there several times already and I was sure I could find my way.  The whole time I was with them at the office it was if they were waiting for me to FREAK OUT or something....just kind of treading lightly.


C'mon.  Seriously? If I thought that something wasn't right, I'd be the FIRST person to be saying something.  Knowing that something can go wrong at any given time has made me ubber sensitive to what's going on inside me.  If Jacob hadn't moved all morning, I would have been concerned.  Besides, this is NOT my first pregnancy, and it certainly wasn't my first time hanging out at the hospital for some Stress Test to prove what the previous ultrasound had already confirmed...his heart was beating regularly and at the right speed and all was fine.  I just had a heavy sleeper inside me. 

So, anyway...I called Elisha to let her know I'd be staying a little longer than expected. And I called KC (who of course, was in St. Maries and 3 hours away from me with sporadic cell phone coverage)  to let him know I was going to the hospital, but not to worry...just DON'T ignore my phone calls if I try to call again later ;)  I stopped by the intake office (I hadn't turned in my intake paperwork yet for the actual induction date) and they looked at me funny for not going straight up to the Labor and Delivery office.  I just ignored them.

Finally, I made it to Labor & Delivery.  They had been waiting for me and already knew me by name.  They took me to a little room, hooked me up, gave me a TV remote ( I can't remember the last time I've watched TV during the day....nothing has changed.  It's all still CRAP) and left me to lay there for about 30-45 minutes as the machine monitored the baby's heartbeat. 

Funny thing happened....NOTHING. His heartbeat was just fine.  Nice and steady.  No arrhythmia, not stops, no gaps.  He was a normal little baby STILL sleeping.  Though I did get to notice that my contractions were pretty much 6 minutes apart while I was there.  Hmmmm something to keep an eye on.

Elisha Allred: Soon-to-be big sister of Jacob, a boy with Down syndrome

My poor little boy freaked all the doctors and nurses out for nothing.  He's nice and healthy.  So they sent me home.  I was glad to leave.  I was NOT ready to have this baby yet!  It looks like, however, that our family will get to spend the rest of this weekend GETTING the house ready. Just as soon as Elisha finishes up her Saturday Volleyball Tournament! :)

Oh The Beauty of Good Friends

It's been a few weeks since I've posted anything new.  That could be good...or it could be bad.  And, to be quite frank, it's been a little bit of both. 

The reality of this impending birth is hitting home a wee bit too soon and too hard.  The bills associated with this baby have begun to come in - and it's basically just the co-pays!!! Plus, I've been experiencing frequent and stronger-than-usual contractions (usually every 15-20 minutes) for the last week or so.  Understand,

I still have 5 WEEKS TO GO!!!! 

I'm sure that when I have to report to my Dr. on Friday on the frequency of my contractions he'll be none too excited about those contractions.  And I worry that I may be sent to bed for the rest of the pregnancy - something I CANNOT afford to do right now.  I'm just not ready!  I don't have the baby's room painted, I don't have meals prepared and frozen in the freezer, my taxes aren't done, I don't have candy bouquets pre-made, NOTHING!  Please, don't send me to my bed this week!

On the upside though, KC and I got to spend the evening with a couple from our ward who have a son with Down's Syndrome.  And what a great experience it was.  It was so comforting to know that the world will not end when Jacob is born.  They explained to us all of the great experiences they've had with the process of raising a child with Downs and taught me not to sweat the things I cannot anticipate or expect.  Just go with the flow and enjoy the process and all of the unexpected (good) surprises that come along with this experience.  It's a shame that it took Jacob having Downs Syndrome for us to discover what a great family they are.  But I have a feeling that this is a friendship that will grow and blossom as the months and years go by.  How lucky are we!

Then, to top off what has already been a great evening, my friend Tawni e-mailed me and asked if she could have a 'frozen dinner' baby shower for me.  In essence, instead of having people give me oodles of baby clothes that Jacob may only be able to wear a few times, our friends would instead donate a casserole, etc for us to put in our freezer.  This would enable us to pull out a meal from the freezer each night when we're at the hospital while Jacob is in NICU or during those crazy nights when everything else came first and dinner was last on my priority list.  Oh, how blessed I am to have such a thoughtful friend to figure out what I needed most and to do it for me!  Over the course of the last 2 years she has been my angel on Earth.  I could spend the rest of my life trying to pay her back for all of the many many many MANY things she's done for me and I'd never be done! 

It's days like this when I realize that now matter how hard it gets, I have friends and family who love me and that it'll all be OK.  What an extraordinarily beautiful life I live!

My Little Giant...

Yesterday I got to go into the Doctor's office and begin the first of MANY appointments to check on the welfare of Baby Jacob.  I'd been rather nervous because I had the impression that with so many visits he was looking for something. 

Luckily, I got an amazing ultrasound tech who was friendly, talkative, and took the time to explain everything she was doing in detail as she went, so there were no surprises.  What I discovered was that they were looking for 4 specific things from Jacob: 1) Amniotic Fluid.  Apparently one of the big things that can occur is that he won't have enough fluid, which keeps him from growing, and could obviously kill him.  2) Tone.  They are looking to make sure that he can open and close his hands, move his limbs etc.  3) Breathing.  Apparently, babies practice breathing in the womb!  This is especially important for Jacob because breathing problems is a big thing in Downs babies, so their requirement was that they needed to see him 'practice' breathing for 30 seconds straight within a 30 minute time frame.  4) Movement.  She said if the amniotic fluid is low, it is hard to tell if lack of movement is just baby sleeping or if it something else, but they need to check on it anyway. 

And.....of COURSE Jacob decided that right then was when he wanted to take his nap ;)  She began the ultrasound, double checked his, heart, measured his head, abdomen, checked out his kidneys, measured his amniotic fluid, etc.  Luckily he was more than happy to show her how his little rm could move, and we watched him open his tiny little hands.  He gave us a nice view of his face (I've got pictures to prove it!) and I was amazed at how he didn't 'look' like a downs child.  I don't know what I was expecting to see, but whatever it was, I didn't see it.  He looked just like Nathan, Elisha and Courtney did at that age - cute and pudgy! 

When it came down to breathing, he wouldn't breathe for more than a few seconds on his own because he was sleeping, so she gave me some juice, had me turn over a few times and ultimately broke out this little vibrating buzzer thing that he DID NOT like! lol  She'd put it up to my stomach, turn it on, and he'd kick it!  Finally, with only 4 minutes left in his allotted 30-minute time frame, he woke up long enough to practice his breathing for 30 seconds and viola!  Jacob got 8 points out of the 8 possible points available for the BPP test! :)

For the Growth scan, she basically measured his head, chest and thigh bone to see if he was on track growth wise for his age - we're at about 33 weeks now! And he wound up being in the 67 percentile range (at this age, most kids are around 73%, so he's pretty close).

After 45 minutes with ultrasounds I thanked my tech and headed to the Doctor to get the results. 

I weighed in - I GAINED 8 LBS IN 2 WEEKS!!!!! - Thank you water retention :(
I spent the first 8 months only gaining 10 lbs and in 2 weeks, I nearly DOUBLED my weight gain for the pregnancy. I am NOT happy.  My legs hurt, my hands keep falling asleep, I feel like a beached whale...oh the joys.

Luckily, they checked my blood pressure and it's still spot on, so no Pre-Eclampsia....yet.  But I'm sure they'll be keeping an eye on me.  Dr. Zweisler said, abnormal babies make abnormal pregnancies. So he's not ruling anything out yet.  Just waiting to see. 

We went over the results of both my ultrasound tests and everything looks good. We're still on track for a normal delivery around the 39-40 week date. And, with my track record of having to be induced with all three of the other kids, I'm at a high likelihood of being induced again.  So that begs the question of when do we want Jacob's B-day to be?  We could have it on Elisha's Birthday (the 24th), or on Halloween, or should we have mercy and have him on some other day of the week????

We looked at the Growth scan and Jacob is about 4.5 lbs in weight, so he's spot on.  I told him that stunting his growth may not necessarily be such a bad thing being as though Elisha is almost 5'10', Nathan is already 5'5 at age TEN, and Courtney is still growing an inch per month.  We all laughed and agreed that for this baby stunted growth may mean that he just ends up a NORMAL size!

So, I have another week until my next round of testing.  Until then, my little giant better keep practicing his breathing and kicking up a storm!  That way I'll know that he's been doing his homework for all of his test!