A very surprising Thursday/3.8.14 Update

I decided to start blogging the updates because between friends and family it is really hard to keep up with everyone!  I so appreciate the texts/emails, etc. keep them coming :)

This past Thursday (30 weeks, 2 days pregnant) I was laying in bed and my water broke.  Not a trickle, like a literal scene out of a movie type of gush.  Strangest/scariest thing when you are only 30 weeks pregnant.  We jumped in the car to head to the hospital, assuming I was going to be having a baby that night.   Once we met with the doctors we learned that this can actually happen in rare cases and they will try to keep the baby in you for as long as possible by slowing down your contractions with medication (the medication works about 80% of the time).  "Best case" is they can take me all the way to 34 weeks pregnant, assuming my labor stops.  About 50% of the people that this happens to can make it a few extra weeks if baby lets them.   I got a steroid shot to help with the baby's lung development, a quick ultrasound, IV, and hooked up to different monitors (one for baby's heart and one for my contractions) and then the waiting game started.  

All night/the next morning my contractions were 2-4 mins apart and some of them were beginning to get painful.  But once they started to get painful, they actually slowed down and then slowly started tapering off- thank the Lord!   I was told I was going to meet with a high risk doctor that day.  Once your water breaks there is no barrier between your baby and outside bacteria (since your amniotic sack protects the baby) so they needed to test me for infections.  Basically if I had any infection they needed to induce me immediately.  This test was going to be through amniocentesis. If you have not been pregnant before, this is a genetic test that is optional preformed earlier in your second trimester where they actually pull amniotic fluid out of your uterus using a needle. It ended up being as sucky as you would imagine.

When we finally met with the high risk doctor they did a few ultrasounds and found some things that were slightly alarming.  First, my water had already broken but I still have more than the average amount of fluid left in me (no wonder it won't stop coming out!!!). This is a bad thing. There are several reasons someone may have too much fluid: 

• A birth defect that affects the baby's gastrointestinal tract or central nervous system
• Maternal diabetes
• Twin-twin transfusion — a possible complication of identical-twin pregnancies in which one twin receives too much blood and the other too little
• A lack of red blood cells in the baby (fetal anemia)
• Blood incompatibilities between mother and baby

Often, however, the cause of polyhydramnios (technical term for "too much fluid") isn't clear.

 Scary list, but obviously some of these have already been ruled out. The bolded are the options that are still pending for me and Baby G- notably, the birth defect option.   Long story short, Adam and I are pretty terrified.  We are going to have a preemie, but then to have the uncertainty of a potential birth defect or chromosome issue adds a whole different layer of stress.  My doc went back through all of my ultrasounds and everything has tested and looked great up until this point (including the 12 week NT scan we did!) so I am just hoping and praying that I am one of the "unknown causes".  We won't know the answers until he gets here or if the amniocentesis results come back before he is here ( takes about 2 weeks).    On the bright side, they have been monitoring baby's heart since I have been here and through all of the contractions, my stress, etc. he seems to be unfazed.  As I am typing this it is 6 am on the 8th of March and I am still pregnant- so that is awesome and all of my tests for infection came back clear so no need to get induced (at least today!). 

I am going to be in the hospital until he comes.  So potentially a month to get me to 34 weeks- I am just starting the morning of day 2 and feel like it has already been a month.  Please please please keep us in your prayers.  We are trying to stay positive but it feels like something in the universe just doesn't want us to have kids (easily).  Not sure what we are supposed to be learning from this just yet. 

 I'll update this as I know more.  

Main prayer requests: 

1) a healthy baby

2) to have Baby G continue to hang out for as long as possible safe in my uterus (they said each day he stays in is equal to about 3 days he won't need to be in the NICU)

3) Sanity for Mom and Dad!!