30 Weeks -- The Final Countdown

So I'm sorry that it's been such a long time since I've last posted.  Goodness knows there's been enough to post ... it's just that things have been so crazy on the life front with the other kids.  My eldest was knee-deep in college applications so that took up a good deal of my mental capacity.  Helping him out with his college essays by editing them and helping him do research on the schools and scholarships turned out to be a full-time job!  I'm glad to say that after a fortune and 13 school applications later, we're finally done!

Then my youngest was coming home practically daily with a new virus or bacterial infection from the petri dish they call Pre-K.  Of course, with my lowered pregnant immune system, I promptly caught everything he had.  I think this is the first week where I've been able to breathe out of both nostrils in a very long time.  I could go on about the workings of the 4th and 8th grades with my other two kids, but I think you get the gist that things have been nutso.  Oh yes ... let's not forget the holidays.

So let's do a quick rewind here:

27 weeks -- I met with the gynecological oncologist, Dr. B at NYU's Cancer Center.  Let me first say how surreal it was to be sitting in a waiting room with patients suffering from cancer-related illnesses when you're pregnant.  It's just not a thing that you'd ever expect in your wildest dreams to be doing when you're nurturing life.  I had a bout of light spotting the night before and was on the telephone with my regular OB, Dr. G in the hallway.  I knew how out of place it sounded to be talking of babies and such in front of everyone else so I tried to lower my voice as much as I could.  Wouldn't you know it, Dr. G couldn't understand a thing I was saying so I had to repeat myself in my normal tone.  Now half a dozen other strangers near me know my cervical length.  I wish I could have felt more embarrassed but by that point, I'd given up all hope of privacy and decency.

While ridiculously thorough, that visit with Dr. B was the longest doctor's visit I'd ever had!  I empathized with cancer sufferers who need to do this on a regular basis.  By the time you leave your hour and a half appointment, you're drained.  My hat off to you, you brave people, you.

Dr. B was born to be a surgeon.  Sitting with her at her desk, I couldn't help but stare at her long, graceful fingers.  I imagine if she wasn't a surgeon, she should have been a pianist.  To not put those digits to good use would have been such a waste.  Dr. B basically went through the same things that I'd already known.  Not much of a surprise thanks to all the reading I'd been doing the past few weeks.  It was rather anti-climatic really ... that's a good thing, right?  Isn't that what you want?  To be so prepared you're not caught off-guard by anything?  The same thing with my visits with Dr. G.  That is, until today.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

28 weeks -- I was having contractions like a mofo.  First they were coming on every 10-15 minutes before getting to 5-7.  I did everything I was supposed to ... I stopped whatever it was I was doing, lied down on my left side, and drank enough water to sink the Titanic.  They wouldn't go away.  I called Dr. G and had his partner who was on-call that night tell me to high tail it to L&D at NYU Medical.  I started having contractions around 6:30PM and we got there around 9PM after waiting for the sitter.  I was hooked up to fluids, did a cervical sonogram, and ran a few tests which came back with a positive bladder infection.  Aha! That was the culprit behind the contractions.  After finishing a bag of saline and a nice prescription for nitrofurantoin, I was sent home around 3AM.  All in all, the visit wasn't in vain.  It was a pretty good dress rehearsal ... the residents were all ridiculously thorough.  There's nothing like hearing "percreta" and "previa" to get people to pay attention to you.

29 weeks -- It was a quiet week.  No spotting.  I felt terrific after the antibiotics for the bladder infection, at least initially.  The contractions had quieted down and I was thinking that I really could make it to 34 weeks, no problemo.  But once I finished with my dosage, the same feelings I had before (that I didn't even know were due to the bladder infection since pregnancy is known to mask the usual symptom) came roaring back.  Hello contractions.  I've missed you so.  Not.

30 weeks -- I've been doing the final countdown until 34 weeks.  I had in my head that Little Boy Blue would be here around January 28 or so.  Au contraire mon frere!  After seeing him today, it would appear that Dr. G wants to deliver the baby exactly THREE weeks from TODAY.  WTF??  I'll only be a little over 33 weeks by then.  It would appear that he wants to make sure he bypasses any large bleeds from the placenta previa.  He said I've been very lucky not to have had a major bleed thus far.  Since he's already put The Plan in place, if I were to bleed spontaneously, it would throw everything out the window and we'd have to switch to (literally) survival mode.

He's also not thrilled about the light spotting I had again this past weekend.  He said it was probably a good idea that I didn't call the office to report it because "no one wanted [me] anyway."  Huh?  He explained that he and his partner, Dr. M were away for the long weekend and the other doctors they had covering for them didn't want to see me because of the Christmas holiday.  However, Dr. G said he was off for everyone except for little ole me.  He'd already told his wife that if I called, that he'd drive back in from South Jersey to  take care of me.  Have I said before how much I love this man?  He also said that everyone in L&D knows about me ... they're all on high alert in case I come in.  Dr. G informed me that if I do call again for anything, he's just going to admit me for the duration of the pregnancy.  From a medical and legal standpoint, if I felt something was severe enough to alert him, then it's severe enough for me to be on strict hospital bed rest.  Note to self:  be really, really careful of phone calls here on in.

So our bundle of blue joy will be here in 21, now 20 days.  Yikes!  I have nothing prepared for the little bugger.  I have one Rubbermaid bin of infant clothing down in the basement that I need to wash for him, a mobile from one of his brothers, a crib bumper, and that's about it.  After our fourth child, I gave all of our baby gear away thinking there's no way I'd need it again.  No swaddling blankets, no car seat, no baby stroller, nada.  Not even a breast pump.  I've quickly thrown things into my Amazon shopping cart and all that's awaiting me now is a click of a mouse button.  I love technology.  Unfortunately there's nothing technology can do to help me get the rest of the house ready.  Egad.  Life is going to be a bit of a bear for the next few weeks.

Dr. G also sprung on me a couple of other surprises.  The first one is the inclusion now of a gyne-urologist to help reconstruct the bladder.  He thinks that maybe the reason why I can't get rid of the infection is because the bladder wall has finally been breached.  They won't know for sure until they cut me open.  I also get to have ureter stents beforehand.  Can't wait.

The other goody is actually cuckoo if you ask me.  The darling man wants to attempt to have everything done -- the baby's delivery, the hysterectomy, the bladder repair -- with me under an epidural alone.  Is he crazy??  His reasoning is that if I'm put under for the birth, they need to rush to get the baby out and I'll have to be intubated and then put in ICU afterward.  He wants it so I'll just come out from the surgery, go in to recovery, and will be able to get on with seeing the baby soon thereafter.  I'm dubious about this.  Maybe I don't want to be asleep?  Of course, my sick husband doesn't mind this.  This might mean that he won't have to leave the room during the rest of the surgery.  The sadist wants to be witness to the surgery because it reminds him of the days of his hospital residency.  Nice.  Sicko.

Okay ... I have 5 minutes left on my laptop's battery.  That's it here.  Will try to post more often.  Thanks for everyone's support who's reached out to me when I was in that terrible funk.  I really appreciate your concern.  xoxo