Hospital Update

So we have a lot more information that has been unraveling all week long. It has been a very rough week but luckily with great family and friends we are managing to get by. When we came for the NST on Monday we thought it was going to be a normal 30-60 minute monitor and then we would leave but it didn't turn out that way. The baby had dips in her heart rate and they couldn't tell if the monitor was picking up my heart rate at time or if her heart rate was dropping at times. In addition to that I was having more contractions and the high blood pressure. They decided they wanted to monitor me for the 23 hour observation to see would would unfold. During this time they also decided to do a 24 hour urine collection to see if they can find the protein in my urine to be able to diagnose preclampsia. The good news was the baby was fine and she was moving so much sometimes the monitor would pick up my heart rate instead of hers and make it look like dips. The bad news was tha tprotein was found in my urine so the preclampsia is effecting my kidneys. With the combination of the pre term labor and preclampsia they put and IV in me and started magnesium sulfate. Magnesium sulfate is used for high blood pressure so you don't have seizures and it is also used for pre term labor so it was like a two for one in my case. However, the side effects are brutal. For the first 30 minutes I was on a very high does to stop my labor and although it makes you feel like you have the flu, my body had a even crazier reaction. Not only did it drop my blood pressure a little....it dropped dramatically and I almost passed out- it was a very scary feeling and the nurse had to go get someone to help her. On top of that, I felt nauseous, hot flashes, tightness in my chest and all the other lovely side effects this has on people. I only had 3 minutes left of the level 3 so obviously she stopped it there and took me down to a level two dose.
I was on the magnesium for almost 48 hours adn then I was able to come off. My doctor said I may be able to go home on strict bed rest and come in twice a week for blood work to make sure the preclampsia wasn't getting worse but I would have to be on STRICT bed rest at home and only getting up to go to the bathroom. She said first I need to be examined by the perinatologist after the magnesium was totally out of my system to see how my body was without the medicine. Later that day a NICU doctor came to talk to me about 34 and 35 week old babies who are born. He said it is not even a question of survival at this time, she will be fine, but we need to unerstand she could be in the NICU for a couple of weeks. At 34 weeks, 85% of babies must go to the NICU because of either lung immaturity or feeding issues because their sucking and swallowing reflexes are mostly not fully developed- at 35 weeks this rate drops dramatically. It was reassurring to here all this information from him, because if she is born early, she WILL be okay. In the meantime, I went for another ultra sound to try to get measurments of the baby to see approximately how big she was as of now. It was an awesome ultra sound and she was measuring 5 lbs 15 oz! So she is a big girl :) He was also coming up with the due date of November 13th which isn't probably accurate it just means she is big for her gestational age, but it is closer to the date of the 18th than the 24th that some doctors are still using.
When the perinatologist came back later my reflexes were brisk and still I had high blood presssure so he said I would not be going home and it was safer for me to stay here and be monitored. There are 4 perinatologists here at the hospital and they are here for emergencies so it would be best to be surrounded by them at this time. Since the way she measured and looking back at my file he also thought I was more like 35 weeks than 34 weeks so he decided we could do an amnio to see if her lungs were mature enough to be delivered. So far my case of preclampsia has not gotten worse- if it does, we will need to deliver no matter what, but since it hasn't we have some time. The test came back as immature.
So now I got two injections of steroids n hopes that that will help her lungs develop and we will reassess the fluid in a week. If they are mature at that time, we will move towards delivery. See, the only way to cure preclampsia is for the baby to be delivered. At this time it is mildly effecting my kidneys and it seems to be effecting my central nervous system and we dont want it to get worse or start effecting my liver either. So every 48 hours I have blood drawn to see where my levels are at. So right now all we can do is pray that this next week, my levels are okay so we do not have to do an emergency delivery and we can make sure her lungs are developed and mature enough.
So I think this coming Thursday is when we reassess and if the lungs are mature we may have a baby- if not, hopefully the disease is undercontrol and we can wait another week. Each day is critical for keeping her in to grow. We have complete faith in God and we know he has a plan. We may not know what is plan is yet, but we do know we are taken care of and all we can have at this time is love, faith, and hope. Thank you for your prayers and as hard as it is we will continue to remain optimistic for Macie girl! She is strong and will make it- she looks great on all ultrasounds and NSTs so she is safe. Now if we can just work on this preclampsia.
Stay positive for us!

xoxo,
Allie, Jeremy, & Macie