Sunday, March 27, 2011

Countdown is on...

16 more days and counting... our little man will be arriving via planned c-section in 16 more days... I can hardly wait... and neither can he.

He certainly isn't making these last few weeks easy, with lots of tightens, killer headaches and a range of other issues. I seem to have made Mater Mother's Pregnancy Assessment unit my other home, with a trip there every other day, and man do I hate it... I would prefer not to go in just to be sent home but knowing that if I go into labour the more time they have to prep the better things sometimes gets confusing... especially with this "irritable uterus"

Friday afternoon I woke (after sleeping THROUGH Ethan's drop off... such a bad mummy) with a killer header and nausea that just wouldn't go away, I took panadol, but that didn't help, I rang the assessment unit and they said I could come in or I could give it another hour or so and see what happens, her advice was to get some panadol with codeine and to drink lots of water and fingers crossed things would settle down. Nope nothing worked... went to bed around 8 (such a nana) and started noticing tightens that were coming every 5 minutes, and as time wore on they got stronger, they were longer than anything else I'd had previously and the pain started to radiate into my back, they were lasting 30 - 40 seconds and after an hour I decided to ring the assessment unit again and ask them what to do... So we packed up the car, dropped Ethan off at my mums and headed in to my favourite place in the world. Only to be put on the monitor for 15 minutes, they couldn't see the tightens and decided to remove it in case he started to get excited again (see previous post). Saw the registry and she dismissed everything and sent me home. She basically said that if we can no see the contractions on the machine then I was not in labour and that it was just the irritable uterus playing up. She said to go home and take another two panadol with codeine and come back if things got stronger.

So as you can see I have lots of fun... with my last labour (Ethan) after my waters broke my contractions were 5 minutes apart and lasting for 45 seconds and didn't get closer as I was wheeled into the operating room... so HOW am I to know when to be concerned... I don't... perhaps someone should tell this little man to either wait... or give me a decent sign that he's ready :-)

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Oh What A Night!

Well we had an interesting night... tightens were pretty random yesterday, 5 mins, 13 mins, 3 mins, 7 mins, 5 mins etc etc... they didn't concern me cause hey... I'm getting use to them... anyway went to bed around 8.30 and doing my normal belly rubs I notice that my scar from prior c-sections is rather tender to touch, get up use the bathroom then go and lay down again... there is a dull burning sensation on one side of my scar... get up and walk to get details to call in to pregnancy assessment just to check if I should keep an eye on it or what not and the pressure that I had been feeling all day seemed to radiate from my scar. So I give them a call and they said best to come in as with scars you never know and with my history from prior c-section they wouldn't want to risk it.

So I head in, and start with the whole what brings you in... and I go over my last few days to give them a bit of background... lots of tightens, pressure, strange headaches (when laying down & put down to the slight cough I've had last few days and perhaps fluid causing headache) and the reason for tonights visit the pain in my scar.

Go to the bathroom, test urine, go on the CTG and he looks great, midwife really happy with outcome, wait around for doctor, checks scar, comments on the excess scar tissue and she likes the fact that she can pin point where the pain is coming from along the scar line, she thinks that with the details of my tightens that I have an irritable uterus, checks cervix and nothing has changed there still long and closed, says she'll be back after checking on urine results (just to confirm no PE due to headaches). She comes back and advises results are in but she wasn't happy about a small dip on my CTG with bubs heart rate and while we wait for the results she'd like me to do another CTG just to ensure it doesn't happen again... she takes bloods and then I wait for midwife to come in, bubs goes CRAZY in tummy, midwife comes in and attaches CTG and well you can see he's pretty active (note all the little arrows on the bottom)




after 30 minutes doctor comes back in and advise that urine is clear, the pain in scar she believes is just cause of the amount and it stretching, that it won't ease but only get worse, to make sure that I come in as soon as I think I’m starting labour as they need to prevent me going into labour, and if the pain in my scar changes to also come straight in… finally she said that once we get 10 minutes of a CTG that they can actually get a base line from I'll be free to go... ... ... over an hour later they FINALLY get 10 minutes of something that they can read.

I did ask her if they will take the pain from the scar tissue into consideration when deciding on when the c-section will be booked for and she suggested that I tell them about the issues it's causing me and ask them for an early c-section... so fingers crossed I'll find out more tomorrow... I also asked her about the irritable uterus and WHEN do I actually pay attention to the tightens, and she has said that if they increase in intensity over time and are regular then I need to contact them.

So I'm operating on very little sleep, and I have Ethan at home today... a day of ABC for Kids I'm thinking!

Friday, March 11, 2011

34 Weeks... count down is on...

I can't believe I'll be 34 weeks tomorrow, which means that we only have 4 - 5 weeks left of this journey before the new one beginnings. So many friends have had babies recently and it's been hard not being able to visit them (they are all in NZ) and offer them all the support that they offered me when Hayden & Ethan were born.

I took a new picture today and have compared it against me at 12 weeks wearing the same dress... just a bit of a tummy... one to many donuts I'm thinking


This little man has been causing a few issues this last week, lots of unexplained pains and a HORRID headache so that results in 4 hours at the pregnancy assessment unit, then midwife appointment and he decided to have a party in my belly (that I didn't feel) and his heart rate was racing so back down to pregnancy assessment unit, he was pretty settled when down there so only a half hour visit. Yesterday we looked after ourselves at home but had to do kick counts due to a strange pain in my middle belly... He should learn to behave!

On the "me" front I've decided to set up my hobby as a Facebook page called Delightful Designz fingers crossed that this will take off so I don't have to take myself away from my little man when he arrives to head back into the work force.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Digital Scrapbooking...

I'm on a roll... still extremely behind in the months / years of my two boys lives I have accomplished quiet a few pages in Ethan's album, heading to my goal of his first year before number three is born... here are the pages that I completed this weekend... to see Hayden's & Ethan's Albums click on the tabs above :-)