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Large and in charge

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (7)· January 20th, 2011

First, a big thank you to all who commented on Delurker Day! 89 comments, that’s definitely a new record for this little blog! Those of you who read regularly, please click through and say hi more often, it totally makes my day. And, that means I just donated $90 to Crickett’s Answer, so give yourselves a big pat on the back.

And, once again, we’re back on pregnancy talk. I swear, I’ll say something about my challenging-yet-delightful 3-year-olds again, soon.

Went in for my 32-week checkup yesterday, and I am suddenly measuring a few weeks “ahead.” Of course, during my last pregnancy, I always measured absurdly far ahead. But, that time, there were two kids in there. This time, not as much. Three weeks ago, apparently, I was measuring right on target. Additionally, I learned that I passed the 1-hour glucose screening by the skin of my teeth – a single point under the threshold. (Last time I failed it by a single point, though…) Between measuring large and my barely-passing score, my OB is wondering if I may, indeed, have gestational diabetes.

First order of business: ultrasound. Stat. Never have I gotten an appointment so quickly, literally 24 hours later. And, joy of joys, I got to drag my 3-year-old entourage with me. Thankfully, they were well-behaved and the ultrasound tech was good-natured.

One thing I miss about my high-risk days? The instant feedback. All of my ultrasounds were in the high-risk OB’s office, and not only were the techs pretty talkative and forthcoming about what they were seeing and measuring, but the doctor then came in immediately after the ultrasound and told me what was up. Now, in low-risk land, the tech doesn’t want to say much, and I have to wait for results and the return phone call.

Anyways, turns out the baby is measuring pretty average, but there appears to be more fluid around her than normal (the likely cause for my larger-than-dates measurement, not to mention the old irritable uterus). And additional fluid is another potential indicator of gestational diabetes. You know what that means… the Three-Hour Glucose Test!

If you’ve been around this blog for a while, you might remember how well the three-hour test went last time. To sum up: very very not well. There were lots of needle sticks and lots of crying. It was bad. And seriously, what good can come of a hungry and dehydrated pregnant woman? NO GOOD AT ALL.

I have a marginally better attitude about it right now. For one, obviously, if I do have gestational diabetes, I want to get right on that and make sure it’s managed properly. Much as I hate going low-carb/low-sugar, I’m not messing around with this baby’s health (or mine, for that matter). Plus, there is now a blood draw lab right across the hall from my OB’s office. Not only do I not have to sit in a crowded hospital waiting room, but the phlebotomist at this lab is nothing short of spectacular. Honestly, I’m a phlebotomist’s nightmare. My veins are awful, I’m a terrible stick. But this woman has gotten me on the first try every.single.time. I am going to her. Period.

It will all probably have to wait until Monday, when M can take a vacation day to be on kid-duty so I can sit in a lab for a few hours. But if you see a bunch of hysterical, starving, dehydrated tweets on Monday morning, you’ll know why.

Comments (7)

Categories : OB Appointments, Pregnancy, Ultrasounds

Tags : 3-hour Glucose Tolerance Test, blood draw, gestational diabetes, measuring large for dates

I wasn’t all wrong

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (4)· July 31st, 2007

Still pregnant!

But I wasn’t totally off the mark, as yesterday was a rather new and different day.

I called my OB’s office to report the new pressure I was having, mostly to ask if I should do anything or ask for anything special while I was already going to be at the hospital. My doctor wasn’t in, but my favorite doctor (ha!) from a few weeks ago called back and said I should come by the office after the NST for an exam, presumably to see if my cervix was dilating. Sounds like fun!

Off to the hospital. The BPP ultrasound went just fine, both babies dutifully practicing their breathing motions, still plenty of fluid, all of that good stuff. The non-stress test started rough, though. For some reason, little miss really likes to sleep during those, so it’s been taking a while to get her to be “reactive.” We keep ending up needing to zap her with the little buzzer or poke her to get the heartrate variation we want. Once we finally had the results we wanted, the nurse was almost ready to let me go when she realized she had never taken my blood pressure. And then it got interesting. I never heard the actual reading, but it was apparently high enough that they decided to keep me a bit longer for monitoring, especially since it was taken after an hour of me lying down. The on-call doctor ordered blood tests to see if I was developing preeclampsia. Basically, if the bloodwork didn’t come back with good results, it was going to be birthday time. Yikes! Thankfully, it all came back just fine, kidney and liver function were good. Four hours after the start of the NST, they sent me home. I had missed the opportunity to go in and get checked at the OB’s office, so I was instructed to call her in the morning.

Of course, as soon as I left, the back pain I had been experiencing in the uncomfortable hospital bed turned into pressure, and soon I was having regular cramping. By 7:30, it would start as a low back pain that wrapped around my lower belly like a really bad menstrual cramp. Hubby and I started timing them, and they were about 9-10 minutes apart, with sometimes a lesser aftershock at 4-5 minutes. I remembered my OB saying I should call anytime I had anything regular and painful, so call I did. The on-call doctor sent me back to L&D, so at nearly 11pm, off we went. The cramps indeed showed up as contractions on the monitor (it’s not all in my head), and babies were good and active, not distressed at all by these new developments. They were still relatively far apart and somewhat irregular, though. And when the nurse did my very first internal exam (short fingers! OW!!), we discovered I was not even a little bit dilated. The contractions, fun though they were, were not making changes in my cervix. So at about 1:00am, back home we went. I had been worried about a “false alarm,” but the nurse reassured me that I had done the right thing to call and come in, and not to worry about it.

Unfortunately, the contractions stuck around all night, ranging between 4 and 20 minutes apart. And these were not the painless braxton hicks I’ve had for the last many weeks. These hurt, enough that I had to really concentrate on breathing through them and not tensing up the rest of my body. Needless to say, it was an awful night’s sleep.

I talked to my OB this morning. I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a big part of me that sort of hoped she’d tell me to head in and just deliver today. But as the contractions were still irregular and not close together, she wanted me to stick it out and wait at least for tomorrow’s growth check at the peri’s office. Much as I’d love to be done, the babies are still officially premature at this point, so we need a better reason than discomfort to justify delivering them. She was kind enough to say that she half hoped that tomorrow’s ultrasound would show slowed growth so I could get it over with, but in the meantime, the plan is to just kind of suck it up. (No, she obviously doesn’t want my babies to not grow well! She just understands how “done” I am…)

After a few more contractions this morning, they more or less petered out by about 11am. I’m still having some low back pain, but it’s definitely not the contractions I was having earlier. I’m resting and drinking my water like a good girl, and hopefully will get in a good nap to try to make up for last night.

Tomorrow at 11 is the big (final!) growth ultrasound, so we’ll see how it looks. If either of them has slowed down or stopped growing, it may very well be delivery time. If not, well, I get to keep on hanging out until I either go into labor on my own (which is feeling more likely!) or make it to August 9.

Things are getting interesting around here!

Comments (4)

Categories : Hospital, Pregnancy, Ultrasounds

Tags : blood draw, blood pressure, contractions, nonreactive, NST/BPP, preterm labor

Ultrasound, 27w6d

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (0)· June 7th, 2007

Another day, another doctor’s appointment!

Today was a combo, 2-hour glucose test and a regular perinatologist ultrasound and checkup. Both of them take place at my hospital, so I was glad to be able to combine the trip.

The glucose test went fine, as far as my experience goes. They only had me do a fasting and a 2-hour draw, with some glucose drink in between. The phlebotomist had to take it from the back of my right hand both times, but she was able to get it on the first stick each time, so I can’t really complain. I should get the results tomorrow.

In the middle of all of that, I went up to the second floor for the ultrasound. Both babies have flipped! Now, baby girl A is breech, and baby boy B is vertex for the first time. They both grew well over the last two weeks. Little peanut A put on another 8 oz to measure 2lbs 1oz, about the same percentile as last time (~27%). Her brother is packing it on, adding 11 oz to be 2lbs 10oz! I’m not sure of his percentile. It seems that she’s just plain littler than her brother, but since they’re both growing well and everything else looks good, no one seems worried. They both have good amounts of fluid (hence their flipping), and both of their heart rates were about 148.

After describing some of the feelings I’ve been having in my belly, it does appear that I’m having the occasional Braxton Hicks contraction, which my doctor said was definitely to be expected at this point. The good part is that it seems to be having little to no effect on my cervix, which is still measuring 3.8-4cm. Excellent.

I’m really feeling very good after today’s ultrasound. Things are moving along nicely, the babies look great, and I’m showing no signs of early labor. This really is putting my mind at ease for the time being. Certainly, I’ll freak out again, but so far, so good.

I also learned that, starting at 32 weeks, I should expect have weekly non-stress tests at my OB’s office. If fluid or growth gives any concern before then, they could start them earlier, but I should expect it at 32 weeks. I also asked about vaginal vs. c-section birth (I really don’t care which one I have, though some people have strong feelings one way or the other). She said she would not recommend me being allowed to try for a vaginal birth unless both babies were head-down at the time. If baby A was the larger of the two, they might let me try even if B was breech, but since she’s little, they both have to be vertex to even try. The likelihood, therefore, is for the c-section. No problem by me.

Back later with photos!

Comments (0)

Categories : Hospital, Pregnancy, Ultrasounds

Tags : blood draw, gestational diabetes, perinatologist

The Glucose Compromise

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (0)· June 3rd, 2007

I did hear back from my doctor’s office regarding the whole glucose test situation. First of all, the two results that we did get from last week (fasting and 1-hour) were both good. They were 80-something and 130-something, respectively, which are within normal range. But to be on the safe side, she wants to make sure I don’t spike after the 1-hour, so we came up with a compromise.

On Thursday, I will go back to the hospital for a fasting blood sugar, then they’ll give me a slightly lower dose of glucose, and do a draw 2 hours later. She also said that, though I do have to fast, I should basically drink as much water as I can up to the point of the fasting draw. Hopefully that will make the needle sticks just a little easier.

What’s even a little better is that I have my usual appointment with the perinatologist at the hospital on Thursday morning at 9AM. So I can combine the visits: go in at about 8:00, do the fasting draw, drink the orange stuff, go upstairs for my ultrasound, and come back down in time for the two-hour draw. Whew!

So, there you have it. I’ll still get a pretty thorough evaluation of whether or not I have gestational diabetes (so far, looking good), but I don’t have to go through the same hell as last week. Sounds fair to me.

Comments (0)

Categories : Hospital, Pregnancy

Tags : blood draw, gestational diabetes

The Glucose Fiasco

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (5)· May 29th, 2007

Time spent in the hospital laboratory: 3 hours, 45 minutes
Phlebotomists who attempted to draw my blood: three
Individual needle sticks: six
Vials successfully drawn: two
Gestational diabetes tests completed: zero
Crying your way out of the hospital: priceless

Needless to say, it was not a great morning.

To set the stage, let’s remember that I haven’t eaten anything since 9:00 last night, nor have I had any water this morning.

I arrived just before 9:00AM and found a rather crowded waiting room at the lab, and it appeared there was only one phelbotomist working. Great. At 9:45, I was finally called for my first blood draw: a fasting blood sugar. Though phlebotomist #1 went for the (more painful) back of my right hand, she did get it on the first try. She said they’d do a quick test of my blood to make sure it was OK to give me the drink, and they’d call me back to drink it. I asked if I could drink water, knowing how much harder the blood draws are if you’re dehydrated, and she said only little sips. Awesome.

At 10:30, they finally had me drink the nasty orange soda. I was scheduled to get blood drawn at 11:30, 12:30, and 1:30. I have a stash of food with me, waiting for the test to be over so I can finally eat again. I sit back out in the waiting room and do a little crocheting and reading.

At 11:30, I walked in for the 1-hour draw. Phlebotomist #2 tries the back of my left hand with no success. She gets phlebotomist #3, who tries both arms. No dice. I’ve now been told I have the “worst veins ever.” #3 asks if I’ve had water and why I’m dehydrated. I’m livid. All of the sticks, combined with no food and pregnancy hormones, means that I’m now in tears. Phlebotomist #1 comes back and gets the blood from the exact same spot as her first draw: back of my right hand. Extra painful, but 25 minutes after it was supposed to be drawn, it’s finally done. I’m already getting concerned that this is a timed test and that the delay in draws will mess things up, but they brush off my concern.

I only have about 30 minutes until my next draw. I go outside to call my husband and vent/cry a little. He’s as sympathetic as can be, and says if the next draw goes as badly, I should just call it a day. He felt pretty badly for me, and would honestly come and do the test for me if he could.

At 12:30 (my face still splotchy from crying, and getting a little woozy from lack of eating), I went in for the 2-hour draw. Phlebotomist #2 is now the only guy on duty, everyone else is at lunch. He is clearly not excited to see me again, having been defeated the first time we met. He tried again, this time with two tourniquets (fun!), and still no dice. Even he seemed at a loss.

By this point, I’ve been at the hospital nearly four hours and have only accomplished a fasting and 1-hour blood sugar. I was done. I just couldn’t handle one more failed needle stick, one more comment about my terrible, small veins. I was, of course, crying again. And this was just to get the 2-hour reading, forget about the 3-hour. I told #3 I was done, and I got up and left for home.

I usually try to be somewhat stoic for medical procedures. I don’t want to be the baby, the complainer, or the chicken. But I was at the end of my rope. I’ll go on the GD diet if I have to, but I just cannot do this test again.

At this point, of course, there was no way I was going to work for the rest of the day. It was already near 1pm, and I was a wreck. There’s not a lot going on, so I knew I wouldn’t be too sorely missed. But it certainly felt like a complete waste of a day. No GD test completed, no work. Just a crappy morning. Alas…

Comments (5)

Categories : Hospital, Pregnancy

Tags : blood draw, gestational diabetes

OB Appointment, 25w4d

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (1)· May 23rd, 2007

Had my regular OB checkup yesterday. Before my 9AM appointment (I didn’t think they really existed!), I had to stop in on the ground floor phlebotomy lab and drink some super-sweet flat orange soda for my glucose challenge test. I then popped up to the third floor for the usual pee-in-a-cup, blood-pressure routine. My appointment was actually with the office’s nurse practitioner, who I like quite a bit. I’m measuring nearly 33 weeks, 7 1/2 ahead of my true gestation. Got to hear those beautiful heartbeats, including baby A kicking the microphone in between beats. By feel, there’s a chance she’s gone back head-down, but we’ll see tomorrow at the next ultrasound. Here’s hoping for a growth spurt.

After the (always brief) appointment, I scheduled my next for another two weeks, and went downstairs to await the great blood draw. At precisely one hour post-soda, I had three little vials of blood drawn. And it only took two pokes! She sure tried for a while to make the first one work, though. Not fun.

Completely unrelated to my doctor’s appointment, I stayed home from work for the day. Before I left, while doing the usual post-shower things like lotion and teeth brushing, I was musing on how lucky I’d been that my back hasn’t been bothering me too much. After all, I’ve long had back problems, but they’ve been mostly absent from this pregnancy. I spoke too soon. Barely finished with the thought, my back decided to spasm, in a fit of pregnancy karma. I had to hobble into the bedroom to wake my husband up to help me finish lotioning. It was quite a sight.

The pain wasn’t so awful, and it was certainly not worth missing a doctor’s appointment, but now that work is a much quieter place, it was a good day to avoid my uncomfortable desk chair. I spent the day on the couch, doing next to nothing, watching a wide variety of baby shows on Discovery Health or TLC. Not too shabby…

Fingers crossed that I’ll get good results from yesterday’s test, and not have to do the three-hour one!

Comments (1)

Categories : Illness and Injury, OB Appointments, Pregnancy

Tags : back pain, blood draw, gestational diabetes

First Doctor’s Appointment

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (0)· January 30th, 2007

Well, I finally made it to my first official OB appointment. I’m about nine weeks, four days today. I met with the nurse practitioner (who usually does initial OB appointments), filled out a ton of forms, and talked about a couple of tests I might have done. She said I can do the nuchal translucency ultrasound if I want, but I’m at such low risk, it’s really only if I request it. I declined the AFP/triple screen blood test, because it has a pretty high rate of false positives with twins. I will, however, get a level II ultrasound (a more detailed ultrasound) at 18 weeks, so that would likely pick up something like Down’s syndrome or a neural tube defect. I did get a ton of blood drawn, checking everything from progesterone to blood sugar to HIV to whether or not I’m a carrier of the cystic fibrosis gene. That was fun, let me tell you.

But the good part is that the exam went well. My uterus is measuring more like 12 weeks, which is to be expected with twins. She even managed to pick up one of the heartbeats on doppler! We weren’t sure we’d be able to find anything at all this early, but there (quiet but strong) was one of them. She thought she might have heard another, but couldn’t get it well enough to be sure.

Anyways, things look pretty good. She said she’d schedule me for another u/s just to ease my mind in about two weeks, but the appointment the front desk found for me was with the office I don’t like and in three weeks, so I may try to call my OB tomorrow (she isn’t in on Tuesdays) and see if I can’t swing something just a little sooner. Scheduling is tricky this time of year, because I’m coming up on my busiest couple of weeks at work, so there are a bunch of days in the next month that are just out of the question.

That’s the update for now! Each positive result does take a teeny bit of the edge off of my anxiety. I don’t feel 100% great, but I probably never will and should just get used to it. But hey, this is farther than I’ve ever made it before, so for that, I’m thankful.

Comments (0)

Categories : OB Appointments, Pregnancy

Tags : blood draw, first trimester screening

Big money, No whammies

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (1)· January 3rd, 2007

So, I just heard back from my OB (yet again, called at 9:30, didn’t hear back until 1:30… I hate that!). My hCG from last night was 24,000, and my progesterone is up to a comfortable 19.1.

Now, for those keeping track, my hCG last Wednesday afternoon was about 2,000. It’s theoretically supposed to double every 48 hours, though I think that slows down to every 72 hours after it hits about 10,000 or so. If that’s the case, here’s what we’d theoretically look for:
12/27/06 – 2,000
12/29/06 – 4,000
12/31/06 – 8,000
1/2/07 – at most 16,000

Umm… This is lending a little credibility to the whole “multiples” theory put forth by the crazy ultrasound lady. Is there any wonder I kind of feel like bursting out laughing?

Again, I’m trying not to get TOO excited, just because it’s so hard to be let down. But I’m kind of shaking right now and have serious butterflies. And I keep wanting to laugh.

And it’s killing me to not call my mom or IM my friends with this news! You have to understand that I’m generally the kind of person who talks about everything with people. If something of even a little interest happens in my world, I call three people to talk about it. Don’t get me wrong, my beloved hubby is a good listener and I love talking to him, and he’s quite tolerant of talking about the same thing over and over. But still, it’s hard not to call my girls.

Well, anyways. You just never know. A whole week to wait until the ultrasound, which will hopefully be a little more definitive than last time. Though perhaps crazy ultrasound lady was on to something…

Comments (1)

Categories : Hospital, Pregnancy

Tags : blood draw, hCG, suspecting multiples

OB Update

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (1)· January 2nd, 2007

Finally heard back from my doctor’s office just now. It’s the worst, waiting for that return phone call. Though I can imagine it was crazy for them today, coming off of a holiday weekend. When I called just after 9AM, I actually got a busy signal. I guess everyone else had been waiting for them to open, too!

Not a lot of new news, but at least new things on the upcoming to-do list. I’m getting my blood drawn again this evening to see if the numbers have continued to rise, and I’m scheduled for another ultrasound on Wednesday, January 10. That will be about a week and a half after the first one, and about the limit of how long I could wait. Though the doctor pointed out (legitimately, of course) that the longer I wait, the better chance I stand of seeing the heartbeat, I can only handle so much. So, a week from tomorrow it is.

Though I’m very anxious to get some kind of news (anything!), I seem to be keeping a decent hold of my semi-zen state of mind. It’s not to say I’m not checking to see if I’m bleeding every 35 minutes, and it’s not to say I wouldn’t be horribly disappointed if things turn our badly again. It just means that I’m in this relatively calm (for me) state of acceptance. I’m doing everything I can, taking my medicine and vitamins, avoiding things that are bad for me… and that’s all I can do at this point. If that little cluster of cells isn’t going to develop the way it’s supposed to, it won’t be for lack of trying on my part. It will just be because that’s the way things are.

I also don’t mean to sound defeatist, as though I’m already giving up on this pregnancy. I’m not. I desperately want this to work out, even if it means two or three at a time (ha!). But I also can’t allow myself to get super-excited right now, having been through the miscarriage. The delighted excitement only makes the crash to rock bottom even harder. I’m going to try to let the excitement build more gradually as I (hopefully) get good news.

So, that’s the (non)update for today. Back tomorrow, cross your fingers that the hCG results will be encouraging.

Comments (1)

Categories : Pregnancy

Tags : blood draw, hCG, pregnancy after miscarriage

Flashbacks, sort of

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (0)· December 27th, 2006

So, here I am again. Called the OB this morning, and she did send me for a blood test. Of course, not only were my awful veins in full effect, but I was also cold and insufficiently hydrated, so you can imagine that was a blast. My phlebotomist told me I suck. That’s never a good sign.

Doctor just called back, and hCG was around 2000+. She said that was good, but of course I’m focused on the fact that it’s lower than the last time. But, as she said, there’s a wide range of good hCG levels in normal pregnancies. She also said she wanted to get me in for an ultrasound to “see what’s going on in there.” I’m sort of glad, because of course I want reassurance. Surprisingly, they actually had appointments available tomorrow. Last time I had to wait a full 10 days. I actually opted to wait until Saturday morning, in part so that my hubby can be there, and in part to wait a few extra days in the hopes of really seeing something. Fingers crossed…

This all feels familiar, and not in an especially good way. At this point, I pretty much associate these things with the emotional ups and downs of last time, so while I’m glad things are happening, it also churns my stomach because I remember that the results of the tests are not always good.

In the meantime, I’ll spend my days off running errands and baking cookies as therapy. Hopefully I’ll manage to keep myself busy enough to not completely freak out.

Comments (0)

Categories : Hospital, Pregnancy

Tags : blood draw, hCG, paranoia, pregnancy after miscarriage