Sep 20, 2008

Up to Speed on Our Rollercoaster aka The Past Six Days

The past six days have been an emotional roller coaster of twists and turns. Here's a brief update to catch everyone up to speed on the status of our adventurous little Tristan and mommy.

Monday, September 15
Monday is when all the craziness began. After an unexpected trip to the doctor, he tells me "You're an enigma," trying to figure out what was going on with baby and I. This was because I had a mix of contradictory things going on with my body at the time:
*Positives- My cervix was healthy and thick, lots of fluid in uterus, big active healthy baby.
*Concerns- I was dilated 1 cm, thought I was slowly leaking fluid, and I had a positive testing for fetal fibronectin test which can predict sort of unreliably whether or not a woman will go into pre-term labor.
*Solution- One week at home on bed rest, Check back in a week.
So, Justin and went back home, but loaded our hospital bags in the car, just in case.

Tuesday, September 16
In short, I had a good amount of pinkish fluid leaking at home, so we called the doctor with concern. Unfortunately, my doctor was not in the office, but Dr. Perugini confirmed that my water broke. The good news was that it was slowly leaking. I was admitted to the hospital, and immediately poked, prodded, given a steroid shot for baby's lung development, antibiotics to prevent infection, and told that 90% of women who's water break deliver within 24 hours. i could have been in the 10% who don't because it was a slow leak, as long as it didn't progress and baby had enough fluid and did not get an infection. We could wait it out and continue to let him grow. We were told we could have baby in 2 days or 4 weeks. No one knew.

I was moved into a wonderful big room with lots of seats for visitors, flat screen TV, and put on full hospital bed rest. I could only get up to go to the bathroom, and had to drink lots of fluid to replenish the fluid leaking from the uterus. Rest, Monitor, Wait.

Wednesday, September 17
I had a couple of contractions that they were able to pick up on the monitor. Thankfully they did not progress or strengthen. I had some continued bleeding, but my leaking got slower and slower. Dr.'s were wondering if my water actually broke or not. Lots of Rest, Monitor, Wait.

Thursday, September 18
We thought I took a great turn for the better. My leaking had almost completely subsided, as well as my bleeding. The doctor did a couple of tests to make sure I wasn't leaking amniotic fluid, and all tests showed that I was not. Although the doctors couldn't explain how my leaking had stopped, we praised God for this miracle and for answering all of our prayers. With just one last sonogram to go, they were telling us we could go home on full bed rest that day.

At 5:00 that evening, they wheeled me down for my sonogram. I was joking with the sonogram technicians about busting out of here today. At first everything looked great, amniotic fluid was high, baby looked great. But when he measured my cervix, he found it to be very short. He told me we had found my problem. He considered 24 mm to be a short cervix, and mine was only 11mm. He said I would not be going home today, and would be here on bed rest for at least a week. He asked me if I worked, and said I would not be working at all until baby came. After thinking I was going home, this news hit me pretty hard. We came back to the room, back to bed rest, with lots of new questions and fears going through my mind.

Friday, September 19

My doctor came to visit me and helped explain our new plan of action based on the findings from our last sonogram. She said that with bed rest, my cervix has a very good chance of stabilizing the way it is. They will watch for contractions and give me medicine to stop them if needed. I'll be here in the hospital on bed rest til next Thursday when i have my next sonogram. Although she couldn't give me any guarantees, she was pretty confident that we could manage the situation and keep Tristan in for at least another couple of weeks. As long as I stayed stable, and did not have a lot of contractions, she told us I may be able to go home to full bed rest next Friday, September 26. then i would stay on bed rest at home for 4 weeks.

So, that's where we are today. We'll be here in room 456 at Dallas Presby until next Thursday at least. Thanks so much for all of your prayers, phone calls, and texts.

5 comments:

andydawn said...

We will for sure be praying for you, your family, and especially baby Tristan to grow strong and healthy before he arrives.

The Moshells said...

Sweet friend! Can I just tell you I could feel your positive spirit in your words. I can only imagine this is not what you and Justin imagined, but I'll be praying for the Lord to keep your little one safe where he is a little longer and for peace and patience while you are "relaxing." :) Just take your mind that your on a spa vacation and try to block out all the needles. Praying for you all!

Anonymous said...

Hey Sharee,

I have been praying for you. I want to come see you this week. Are you up for visitors?
Lindsay Weissman
http://lindsayheart.blogspot.com/

Shelby said...

LOVE YOU!

Stacey said...

Wow, what a week!

I've been anxious to hear an update from you. I'm sad to hear your are in the hospital but glad that you and Tristan are doing okay and he still has a little more time to "bake".

You are all in my prayers!