My first 2 pregnancies were "textbook"; flawless, no complications, just a few isolated contractions towards the end of Kaelen's (ie. post-36wks), nothing unexpected or out of the ordinary. This one was shaping up the same until about 5 weeks ago...
Really it started 7 weeks ago. I remember having a few "just-a-moment-i'll-be-with-you-in-a-second" contractions near the end of Kaelen's pregnancy, usually while pushing a trolley in the shops loaded with goods & a 2-yr-old, but by that time i was 36+weeks anyway, so i figured it was par for the course. What i didn't expect was to have one of those, out of the blue, sitting in the car, at 26.5weeks! Or a whole bunch more 5mins apart at 28.5weeks while at a dinner function, or another 1.5hrs-worth 2mins apart at 29.5weeks while at another dinner function...
Fortunately I'd had a Dr's appt right at 29weeks, so i described what had been going on. "Irritable uterus", he says - you really wanted to know about my uterus, didn't you? - "just take it easy, lots of fluids, if they're not regular don't worry just lie down & take some panadol. If they're regular for a long period of time, you must go to hospital & get checked." OK. So what happens when i lie down to be monitored in hospital at 29.5wks & they've been going every 2mins for the last 1.5hrs? They stop, of course...*sigh*, back home we go, although of course they start up again before we even get in the car...
So, i adjust my definition of "taking it easy", and we keep going. Things are manageable for a week or two, i have a few bad days & a few bad nights but nothing for more than an hour or so. Then approaches my "do-or-die" week, the week i knew would be the biggest, busiest, most testing week between the onset of all this & my due date. Monday, ok. Tuesday, having a few regularly-ish during the day but not for more than an hour. Wednesday, probably the biggest day of the week so far, having a few while teaching but too busy to time them, shattered by 8pm. Thursday, just made it through the day, not such a good night, nearly 2.5hrs worth but then they went away. Friday they start around 8am, still having some through the day, thankfully Nana & Grandad come & take K swimming, another hour or two at night...starting to get a little ouchy too.
Saturday, election day, we decide to go to Garden City as a family, got a few small errands to do in preparation for tomorrow's Student Concert, kids can play on the playground...we decide to be out for 3hrs max because of my "condition". We manage this, but still need to go vote later in the day. 4:45 they begin, 10mins apart but much more ouchy than before. I get dinner going, kids have a bath, a bit after 5 we go vote, back home for dinner, i go lie down to ward off contractions (every 3-5mins, they seem to settle right away), put kids to bed, me back in bed cos they're back on again. 8:45pm still happening, and getting harder to manage...we decide it's time to go get seen to. I really hope they don't stop as soon as we get there again...i mean, it would be good if they did stop, but i'd rather the medico's be able to see what's going on for real than just hear about what has happened and not be able to check it out properly.
About 9:15pm we arrive at the hospital, they strap me up to the monitors and the contractions keep going - every 2 minutes for a bit, then every 5, every 3 then every 7...regular but irregular at the same time. Midwife calls the Dr who's on for that weekend (not my usual Dr), we decide a course of drugs to attempt to halt the contractions & 2 steroid injections (!) to mature the baby's lungs a bit faster, just in case we need to deliver. Thankfully, election-counting is on TV, which helps pass the hours. By 10:30pm it's decided that i'll be staying in overnight (and we're cancelling the next day's Student Concert!), contractions are less intense and seem to be easing so Keith makes a dash home to grab me some clothes etc., and a bit after 12am he makes his delivery and returns home to relieve Nana of boy-minding. By about 1am they think to take me up to a ward, by the time we get there and settle me in and i have a few more contractions, it's nearly 2am before sleep overtakes...
6am I'm awakened by the midwife on duty for more drugs and observations; drugs every 6hrs, ob's every 4hrs, and thus begins the cycle of the next few days. On-duty Dr comes to see me, wants to keep me in overnight again to make sure things really settle & have me see my usual Dr the next day. OK, 2 nights, i can do that. A few rounds of minor squeezes through the day, but nothing like the previous night. Should i keep teaching this week? I guess that depends on when i get to go home...
Monday morning, i've had a shocking night, rounds of contractions jsut close enough to keep me awake :-s My usual Dr comes by; orders a scan to check on the growth of the baby, if everything's totally fine today then maybe, just *maybe*, i'll be allowed home tonight...but not til at least 4 or 5pm. Scan at 11am, mostly good...but she seems to spend an awfully long time examining the baby's heart - what's going on? Examination finished, sonographer says, "I'd just like to get another sonographer & the Dr, one of the valves in the heart looks just a little small; i can try to convince myself that it's ok but it just doesn't measure quite right."
Heart problems...?
Dr & senior sonographer arrive, they umm and ahh and prod and poke, and eventually decide it's best for me to return that afternoon when the Paediatric Cardiologist is in, for another scan.
Heart problems...?
The heart is structurally fine, they say, just the left side is a tiny bit smaller than the right and there are a couple of things we'd like him to check.
Heart problems...just for a second i'm overwhelmed by the thought, "my baby has heart problems!", but they reassure me that it's nothing major, they just want the Paed. Cardio to check it. Any plans for the rest of the day? How about 3:30-4pm? I'm not going anywhere, i say - and it seems i won't be going home tonight either...
3:45pm another scan with senior sonographer & Paed. Cardio. They seem to have a bit of trouble tracing where things go in some cases, which bit joins on to which. Eventually they get it figured out, do all their measurements and then, once they've finished and i make a quick trip to the bathroom, they draw me a pretty picture of a normal heart vs. our baby's heart. I must say i'm impressed by the speed and accuracy of the drawings...they must have done that before!
3 points of interest, 2 should be irrelevant after birth as they are things which normally close over after birth but appear just a little unusual in our baby. The 3rd one is a narrowing of the aorta as it takes blood off to supply internal organs. This will need to be monitored after birth; in 50% of cases it is of no consequence, and in 50% of cases it requires corrective surgery. No way of knowing at this stage what it will do, only time will tell...
Heart problems...potential post-natal heart surgery. I know thousands of people have been through that and survived (one of my good friends included), you just don't imagine it visiting your house. Keith brings the kids in for a visit near dinner time & my parents arrive too - which is great, i get to explain everything to all of them and we are all happier having reviewed the reports. Nothing we can do right now, just wait... Monday night i send on the phone cancelling my students for the rest of the term.
Tuesday i spend waiting for my Dr to arrive to see if i can go home. Finally, 3:30pm, he comes...and yes i can go home, and although i'm not officially on bed-rest and not needing ongoing drugs, he says i "need to do there what you did here"...in other words, next to nothing! I arrive home feeling amazingly fragile...was i really this bad last week & just didn't notice? We get through dinner, get the kids into bed & by then i'm ready to lie down again - i've just been out of bed for the longest stretch of time in the last 3 days, about 3hrs!
So here i am, walking like the Queen, trying very hard to be a good girl and do as little as possible while taking care of 2 small kids. People have been so generous, offering lots of help with kids & housework & meals - special thanks must go to my heart-surgery-surviving friend for coming by early in the morning & hanging washing for us (and then bringing it in for us in the afternoon too!), and to my MOPS Mums & another new friend for the offer of meals - these things are all greatly appreciated while we just try to keep this baby inside for just a few more weeks.
And thanks be to God for my irritable uterus, without which we may never have known about our little one's heart situation, potentially until it was too late.
"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness...Though He brings grief, He will show compassion, so great is His unfailing love. For He does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men." Lamentations 3:22-23, 32-33
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