Water, water, everywhere!

Hello again gentle readers,

I hope your Thanksgiving was delightful and that the tryptophan haze treated you and yours nicely.

It has been another week of glass case emotions here at Incubation Station.  I am pretty sure that I have been through the ringer here!

I have made it to a stunning 29 weeks pregnant.  The "Dirty 30" is on the horizon!  I have the purple stripes of honor on my sides to prove it, too!  My friend Sara came to visit me last night and literally laughed at me when I stood up to use the facilities.  She told me I looked like I had been hiding a pillow under my shirt.  Okay guys...The gig is up...There's a pillow underneath my shirt!
Kidding.  Oh and cocoa butter?  Yeah, not so sure that works but it sure does make me want a brownie!

I had really been missing the traditions that my husband and I have.  Each year, the weekend after Thanksgiving, Mikey and I go and get our Christmas tree and decorate it and our house.  Naturally I was upset about not having the chance to live that tradition.  But on Sunday, 11/25 the water works began.  My dear friend Page and her husband Brian came by to "deck the halls" of Incubation Station room 626.  I wasn't expecting it and I was so surprised when I saw the table top Christmas tree.  Cue in the water works.  I was crying because I was so happy.  My husband knew about the whole thing and I was completely surprised.  We decorated ornaments, listened to Christmas music, and gabbed.  It was so nice.  Even though it wasn't quite the tradition I had been accustomed to, it sufficed.  It was something truly special and those ornaments will forever be part of our Christmas decor.  Page and Brian are treasures and I am so glad they are my friends.  :)
Water works.

Monday, 11/26 was a ho-hum boring day at Incubation Station.  I was given something called a Non-Stress Test (NST).  That is where the fetal heart monitors stay on your stomach in conjunction with the contraction monitor for 30-40 minutes.  The goal is to see consistency in the heart beats of the babies and then to see accelerations and decelerations.  My nurse was wondering why I was starting the NSTs and I told her that based upon my reading, it was routine for 28+ weekers.  The day continued to be ho-hum.  When Mikey came to visit, I knitted and Mikey watched "Jeopardy!"  We were enjoying the episode when my night nurse came in.  She wanted to check my vitals and listen to the babies.  Side note:  vital signs and listening to the babies are done three times per day, so nothing new for me.  Anyway, she gets me hooked up and ready to listen to the babies' heart beats and asks Mikey to turn down Jeopardy because she needed to really pay attention to Baby A's heart beat. I do a double take and ask her what she means by that.  She says "Oh, I need to listen to Baby A because it has been noted that her heart beat is irregular".  WHAT?!?!?  I ask her what she means by this because it was the first time that I heard anything resembling that.  She told me that she didn't know where it came from but that someone had reported irregularity.  She carefully listened to Baby A and heard nothing irregular. Now, I have been here for 5 weeks and that was the first time that I had ever heard anything about that.  So I was pissed.
The next morning I had a list of things to ask the doctors and nurses and I was ready.  I asked my doctor about it and she said it was the first time she had heard about anything irregular.  An investigation would commence.  My nurses didn't hear anything weird in Baby A and I felt pretty confident that it was a fluke.
Last night the irregular culprit came forward.  When I had a sonogram of the little ones, the sonogram technician was having a hard time looking at Baby A's heart and all four chambers because she was moving so much.  She as wiggling and kicking her sister (obviously she takes after her father) and the tech couldn't get a good picture.  So because of that, it was documented that girlfriend had an irregular heartbeat.  Good news is that each NST I do, and each time the fetal heart tones are monitored, nothing irregular comes through.  And I'm a musician.  I KNOW when something is offbeat, and Baby A isn't! So water works of both happiness and relief came streaming down.

Wednesday 11/28, the start of week 29, I received pretty stellar news.  I was enjoying my breakfast and the resident doctor that I have been seeing came in to check that I was not in labor.  I told her things were normal and stagnant.  She began telling me what I have to look forward to.  She told me that I would be scheduled for another sonogram to measure my cervix in the next week.  She then told me if my cervix didn't change and I continue to be consistent here and quite frankly, still pregnant, I would have a chance of going home in the near future.  When she saw the tears of joy streaming down my face she immediately interrupted my bliss and told me that it would first need to be cleared with the higher-uppers.  She's a resident and not one of the Maternal Fetal Medicine docs that make all the decisions.  But she said she would propose that I be discharged if everything stays the same.  I was just thrilled that I would be able to possibly spend the holidays at home with my family.  Even though home is kind of a scary thought, I really miss it.  And I even miss the terrible felines that live in my house.  And maybe I miss Mikey too.  ;)
Water works.


Yes indeed.  Water DOES work.  I am constantly told to drink water here.  It should be a no-brainer and typically I know how important it is to be hydrated.  It's funny, I am part of a Facebook group for pregnant women due in February 2013 and whenever one feels something uncomfortable, I am the first to tell them to drink water.  And tons of it.  But sometimes it's easier to preach it than to actually follow it.
I had been having headaches and luckily I am allowed to take Tylenol here.  Those that know me well, know that I am the queen of headaches and migraines.  I thought nothing of it, other than headaches really suck.
 One of the lovely things I get to do here is pee in a cup and the nurses test it for protein and other additives.  Last week there was a trace of protein in my pee and this week there was another trace (Lemonade, anyone? Sorry, that was uncalled for)  Put that together with the increasingly frequent headaches and that adds up to two-thirds of the the Pre-eclampsia trifecta.   The doctors were a little concerned.  The only thing missing was elevated blood pressure.  Now, pre-eclampsia is very common in first pregnancies AND multiple gestations, so I am a potential target.  Today I had to have blood drawn.

After two grueling hours and uncertainty, the results were in.  My nurse unofficially told me that my blood levels were within normal range and that she didn't think it looked pre-eclamptic. I still need to talk to my doctor about the results, but I swear, the ceiling opened up and I heard the "Hallelujah Chorus" and rays of sunshine beamed onto my bed.  She also lectured me on how I need to drink more water.  BUSTED!  Headaches and protein in urine can all result from dehydration.  Who has had her 32 oz. jug of water refilled numerous times today?  THIS GIRL!
Now you know.. Water works.

And that's all I have for you, ye gentle readers.

Thank you for reading my journey and please, above all, drink water.  :)