Hospital Rest

You’d think I’d have thrown a blog up a while ago, given that I have had nothing to do but sit in a hospital bed for over a week now, but its funny how when you have nothing to do and no end to that nothingness you lose all motivation to anything but sit and stare aimlessly.  This has been a really hard week and a half for me.  I hate being away from home and from Kenna and Nate.  I hate being stuck in bed and not being able to do things for myself.  I have been homesick and the thought of and open-ended stay has been depressing.  Last night I had a total breakdown after I saw my dinner.  I know that that is a ridiculous thing to cry over but food is literally the only thing I have any control over here and they kept sending me the wrong food all day long.  Normally I’m not picky but when you do feeding/swallowing therapy and you’ve seen hospital food hacked, puked, snorted and then had to clean any excess of out of someone’s mouth it really limits what you’re able to eat.  Even though the food here is actually quite good I can’t stand anything on a tray that reminds me of what I work with.  Bacon, eggs and pancakes don’t sound like a bad breakfast, but it is just the way they all look on the plate together.  It is a very “hospital” meal.  So anyway yesterday was the breaking point.  All my favorite and familiar nurses were off, all of my food was wrong and I just really wanted to go home.  What can you do? I took Ambien early and went to sleep for 12 hours.  I’d still rather be home but now that I had my one breakdown I feel better today and I think  I can survive the rest of my stay.

Nate put a blog up about what happens but for anyone who wants to know, here is my version (in probably more detail than anyone wants) -

Anna came to visit for two week and I took advantage of her babysitting while she was here.  Kenna had a great time with her and Anna definitely makes a great playmate, but she is not used to entertaining a three year old for days at a time and I think she was as tired as I was by the end of most days.  Some nights we just both fell asleep on the couch and Nate laughed at us.  I tried to squeeze some fun things in along with work during that first week, but my plan was to spend the second week not working and taking her to do fun Texas stuff.  Well, baby #2 had different plans.  

I went in to my doctor appointment early Monday morning and had no idea anything was wrong.  I felt fine and the baby was moving fine.  Luckily, my doctor is amazing and he does quick check ultrasounds at every visit for his and his patient’s peace of mind (blessing #1).  At the end of the visit he checked they baby really quick and goes, “uh…have you noticed any leaking fluids? Your fluid levels are really low.”  He did some test which was inconclusive and then looked at some fluids under a microscope and told me I had ruptured and that that meant I had to get right to the hospital.  He also told me the baby was breech and that she wouldn’t be flipping because my fluid levels were too low.  Bring on the C-section.  When I asked if I could go home before the hospital  he told me just to quickly grab what I needed and be back within an hour.  

My immediate concern was actually for Kenna.  For anyone who doesn’t know she’s kind of a mommy’s girl and I didn’t know how I was going to explain to her that I had to be in the hospital for an undetermined period of time while not having her be scared.  Luckily Anna was there and she took her shopping and Kenna breezed through the first day and has been a champ ever since.

I got to the hospital and they immediately started poking and prodding and monitoring.  My doctor told me that the biggest risk was infection and that over 70% of premature ruptures result in delivery or infection within the first 48 hours, but his goal was to get me to somewhere between 34 and 35 weeks.

Nate showed up at the hospital a little freaked out and we met with someone from the NICU who walked us through what would happen if the baby was born anytime in the next three weeks.  Kenna and Anna came to hang out and Kenna was happy to bounce around the couches and play with the toys she brought. 

That night they decided I was safe enough to move from the L&D unit over to antepartum where the beds are much more comfortable.  I had a horrible time sleeping that night and started to have contractions early the next morning.  By the time they hooked me up to the machine, the contractions were less than two minutes apart, so they took me back to L&D and started me on magnesium which is apparently relaxes your whole central nervous system.  That was fun.  I had to stay in the bed, get a catheter, I couldn’t keep my eyes open, and my brain was functioning about 4 steps behind the rest of my body.  They had to keep drawing my blood to make sure my levels weren’t getting too high and I had to have two steroid shots – one for each cheek.  By Wednesday morning the top part of my lungs didn’t feel like they were working and my whole IV arm was burning.  I’d decided in the night that if the doctor was going to try to keep me on the mag for another day I was going to say some very rude things and ask him to just deliver the baby.  Luckily, they unhooked me Wednesday morning and my brain started working again.  That was the end of my contractions.  I haven’t had any signs of labor since that first night (blessing #2).

So they moved me back to antepartum, unhooked me from all my tubes and even pulled my IV.  The neonatologist came in and did an ultrasound and it turns out the baby flipped (blessing #3).  Looking back I realize when she was flipping because she was moving A LOT and it was actually quite painful.  Anyway, now that she’s flipped the leaking has slowed down and having her head down also blocks against infection (blessing #4).

That is all the eventful stuff that has happened in the last week and a half.  Other than that it has been a lot of sitting around and being bored.  Everyone has been super nice though.  My mom flew into town to help with Kenna so that Nate can be here at nights.  It’s nice to have the company and it helps take my mind off of things.  People from church have been bringing dinners, I’ve had a steady stream of visitors, and Nate’s work has been flexible.  We are very blessed and I can definitely tell that there are lots of people praying for us.  Things seem to be going our way.  Even the doctors are surprised by how well I’m doing, which I can only attribute to the huge number of prayers headed our direction.  So, thank you to everyone who has helped and prayed for us.  We really appreciate it.

I am scheduled to be induced on Monday, right at my 34 week mark.  My doctor is still very concerned about infection and he says that is the point at which the benefits of staying pregnant will start to be overshadowed by the risk of an infection.  I’m really not worried about delivery or about the baby because I know we are being watched over and the blessings will continue to pour in.

After delivering, the doctor called me with the results from the placenta.  It turns out it contained the beginnings of an infection.  We got Callie out just in time (miracle #5).

Alright.  Enough with the heavy stuff.  Kenna has been a trooper.  She is such a sweet girl and is always worried about leaving me here alone when she leaves.  I’ve reassured her that there are lots of nurses and doctors for company.  Her visits have been a lot of fun and always make me smile.  She is starting ballet in the fall and my mom took her to buy her clothes and shoes the other day.  She brought them in to show me, put them and danced and twirled for about an hour. 

 

Today her fancy European scooter (thanks Hollands!), which I order months ago finally came in the mail. She brought in to show me too.  She was so excited.  She said she had “waited ears and ears” for her scooter and that she “don’t know how it got in the mail.  It was this big (indicating about 3 inches) and now it’s a scooter!”  She rode it back and forth across my room, making sure I was watching the whole time.  I sure love that bug and I hope this next one is as fun.

Nate also got to run his half marathon on Sunday, thanks to baby #2's cooperation.  I'm proud of him and while he says he wishes he would have done better, I say, how many people even run a half marathon? How many people can run more than five miles?  He should be proud of himself, and he did it while having to act as a single parent.