couch potato

I am now on doctors orders to be a couch potato for (minimum) the next 9 weeks.

That would be the layman's term for modified bed rest.

What happened, you ask? Well let me tell you.

On June 15 Keith and I left for a 9-day trip to Seattle. We had a great time, got to do a bunch of touristy stuff, saw friends we haven't seen in a while, and finished off the trip by attending the National Homebrew Conference. All-in-all it was a really nice vacation/babymoon, if you will. We did a ton of walking and standing while there, but I made sure to rest whenever I could.

We flew home early Monday morning and since I took the day off work to recoup, I also scheduled my monthly ob appointment for that day. I've been having my doctors check me for BV each month since that's what I had with Aidan, but didn't have any symptoms, so I don't want to run into that situation again. While my doc was "down there" she also checked my cervix and noted that it felt short to her. Not to worry, she said, the length could be on the inside where she couldn't feel, but to be on the safe side she scheduled me for a transvaginal ultrasound to determine the actual length. Since it was late in the day and the tech was out, I had to come back on Tuesday for the ultrasound. Not to worry? ha. Everything is going to make me worried this pregnancy.

Got there on Tuesday and had the ultrasound. I wasn't sure what to expect since I haven't had a transvag before, but it really wasn't bad at all. The tech took some measurements, told me it seemed short to her too, but she wanted to speak with the doctor so he could decide what to do. She told me to head upstairs and wait for his decision.

I head upstairs and sat down for a few minutes, and the next thing I know a nurse is walking towards me with a prescription for steroids. She told me that my cervix is measuring 1.5 cm (which is quite low - average is between 3 and 5cm) and that the steroids are to help baby's lungs mature in case I deliver early. I immediately went to the pharmacy to pick up the steroid shots and drove back so she could administer it. One shot today, one shot the next. That shot burns, man!  It wasn't too bad going in but once all of the medicine got in there it burned like crazy. It went away after maybe 10 minutes but was kinda sore the rest of the day. The steroids are called betamethasone. Google it if you want.. it does other things but the main thing for me is baby girl's lung development. Again, since it was later in the day and because I had the BV test done on Monday, they couldn't do any more tests today so I had to come back on Wednesday.

Of course at this point I am freaking out and I started googling everything I could when I got home about a short cervix and the steroids. Apparently it's super common for women to get these shots (if they have a risk of pre-term labor) and a lot of them make it rather far in their pregnancy, some even needing to be induced at the end. None of this settled my nerves, however.  I had asked the nurse if I needed to take it easy the rest of the day and she said no, continue as usual.  So Keith and I attempted to go to our beer club meeting, but one of the ladies started asking me about the pregnancy (she had just found out about it) and how I was doing and I could barely stop myself from crying. I ran to the bathroom and cried there for about 10 minutes, came out and told Keith we needed to go. Luckily we had a bit of an excuse as we were planning on visiting Jenn and her new baby girl in the hospital that night, and our waitress at the bar sucked, so we split. The hospital visit wasn't too bad.. baby Quorra is super cute (and quiet!) but I did not say anything about what was going on (and Jenn.. since you read this.. now you know).

I could barely sleep that night. I fell asleep a little after 10, but woke up at midnight and couldn't go back to bed until 4am. My heart kept palpitating or my thoughts would wander off to crazy places whenever I attempted to sleep.

Wednesday arrived, and by this time I had told the important people at work about what was going on. I pretty much had to since I was supposed to go in the office, but worked from home instead (nice perk, yes). Everything I had read about my situation seemed mostly positive, but it also meant I'd be on bed rest until the end of this pregnancy. I got to the doctors and they did a pelvic exam, cervix check and a fFN (fetal Fibronectin) test. The fFN test measures a protein in my vagina and basically determines my risk of pre-term labor. The doctor told me that yes, my cervix is 1.5cm long, and when the ultrasound tech had me bear down during the ultrasound, the length dropped down to 1.2cm. Good news is my cervix is not dilated (yay!) and it is medium-soft (hard would be best, but medium-soft is better than soft), and baby is not pushing down on my cervix.  He is a very positive-minded doctor (which I appreciate.. tired of all the negative people) and did not seem overly concerned. He said I basically need to be a couch potato from here on out, meaning no heavy lifting, no grocery shopping (or any long bouts of standing/walking), and no sex.  He said it was ok for me to go to work since all I do is sit all day, and that's all I'd be doing at home anyway. Keith came with me to the appointment (thank you!) and he asked if all the walking/standing we did in Seattle could have caused this.  He said no, that it would have happened anyway.  I didn't ask any further questions about that, but it makes me wonder if I have an incompetent cervix problem, and perhaps that along with the BV is what lead to Aidan's death last year. He said our ultimate goal is to get me to 34 weeks (which is just about 9 weeks away!), but really the longer she stays in there, the better. Every week makes a huge difference in her development and increases her chances of surviving outside the womb.  He scheduled me for another ultrasound and appointment in two weeks, I got my second steroid shot (that nurse was rough! It hurt even more that time!), and I went home.

I was actually feeling much better that night, but I did feel bad because now Keith has to do pretty much everything around the house and I think it's going to be really stressful on him. But I want nothing more than this baby to come out healthy (and preferably in October!) so I must do whatever I can to keep her safe.   I'm going to limit standing and walking, no stairs if possible, and, as the doc said, just be a couch potato.

The results of the fFN test wouldn't come back till Thursday, which leads us to today. They called me early this morning which was great (didn't have to worry all day) and it came back negative!! That is good!  If it came back positive that basically meant that within the next few weeks my body would most likely go into labor. Since it's negative (for now) there's only a very very small chance of labor happening any time soon.

So now begins my couch-potato-ness. Doesn't this just get better and better? Told ya I'd still update here. Was just hoping for something more positive to write about.