A change in the right direction

My doctor's appointment yesterday was wonderful. In fact it was the best one I've had in months. The baby had zero decels and I didn't have one single contraction! Not one!
I hadn't changed any since wednesday either, great news.
Only 9 more days!

However, I did manage to put the huz into a panic attack last night when I woke up screaming in pain, not even fully awake, because of a charlie horse in my leg. I had forgotten how awful those are.

We had a Hail and Farewell last night and it was nice to see everyone and not have to chase Carter around. Cory is on baby, dishes, shopping, everything duty (as much as he can be with work) until the stork's nest.

I also am finally able to post some pictures of Cory's Promotion Ceremony that happened 2 weeks ago. Introducing the Air Force's newest Major:

I must have been a really bad teenager

....because that is the only reason I can come up with for why my children misbehave BEFORE THEY EVER ENTER THE WORLD!

I'm actually so tired of this baby not deciding on which way he would like to be difficult that I'm giving a quick synopsis of what's going on NOW

Good News: Because of the way my progesterone is administered, the fetal fibronectin test results cannot be relied on. They were thrown out and mean nothing. Somehow the Dr, two nurses, and I all forgot about this when they were taking the sample.

Bad News: Somehow between Monday morning and today (Wednesday afternoon) I started dilating and effacing. I have to go back to Yongsan on Friday. I'm also still contracting all the livelong day.

Semi-good news?: If I can make it the 12 DAYS to 36 weeks gestation they are going to send me to the storks nest on the 24th. However, by the phone call I had with the sergeant who's in charge of this it won't be without a fight. because "We only take you at 38 weeks".

"Well my Doctor wants me there at 36."

"But we only take women at 38 weeks."

"I'll have doctor's orders"

"But we only take women at 38 weeks."

After a lengthy discussion he is going to try and call the doctor himself and ask her. Because I MUST BE A BIG FAT LIAR AND WANT TO LIVE IN A SMALL ROOM WITHOUT MY FAMILY 1-3 HOURS AWAY AND POSSIBLY BE CUT IN HALF TO REMOVE A HUMAN BEING WITH THE CHANCE MY HUSBAND WONT BE THERE. IT'S ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS, REALLY.

Reservation for one please

Cory and I ventured to Yongsan with the car for the first time this weekend. Our friends the Caramellos came into town early Monday morning and we wanted to be a little closer into Seoul when we started the trek to the airport. I needed to get a NST (non-stress test, aka hooked up to a monitor) anyway so we tagged along. Cory hung out with Carter at the wonderful playground Dragon Hill Lodge has while I went to the hospital.
As usual I was contracting constantly (but no decels this time!) so they ran a test called fetal fibronectin. It's a test that finds protein markers to determine if you're likely to go into labor early.
None of us were really worried about it (I mean c'mon, I've been contracting all the livelong day for weeks now) but they said they'd call if anything came up and let me go home.
Cory, Carter and I went and ate at the 'Mexican' restaurant at DHL and decided to go to bed since we had to get up to early.
As we were falling asleep, our phone rang and guess what!? It was the doctor!? And my test came back positive!? Oh hooray!?
They told me to come back and and be admitted overnight so they could watch me.
Cory stayed in the hotel room with Carter and I took a cab back to the hospital.
While I ended up being released, thank goodness! I'm still not out of the woods yet. Here's how this fetal fibronectin thing works:
The 72 hours after the test comes positive is the most critical time. Baby is MOST likely to be born then.
However, this test result says there is a 71% that I will deliver this baby within 2 1/2 weeks (most likely in those next 72 hours). We're keeping our fingers - and legs - crossed that it's not that soon though.
Also, because of already having one pre-term baby due to ruptured membranes and a positive fetal fibronectin my chances of delivering this baby within 2 1/2 weeks is 94%.
No one told me I'd have to do MATH while I was pregnant, and I don't even remember how to use my graphing calculator.

On a much lighter note, Carter and Cory were able to navigate to the airport by themselves and pick up our good friends from the airport! I rode up the usual way (via the bus) and was able to catch a little nap before they got home.

There's not room in this town for the both of us...

I'm pretty sure if this dog does what she just did again, that she will NOT
1) be here when Cory returns from safety
2) have a way back to the US

If no one will take her with this add in the paper, it might be off to the dog farm

Free dog to okay home. Please feed her and take her out 8,000 times a day only for her to decide to pee full bladders of pee in the house 4 times in 5 minutes. No need for dog obedience school, she is well trained but feels the need to raise your blood pressure at least 3 times a day for no reason.
Must have lots of towels and a good mop.

Hold on a little longer baby

I had another doctor's appointment yesterday (mostly to follow up with all the shenanigans this past weekend) and we discussed our options and possibilities for this little one. While the doctor was listening with the doppler she caught more decels. She looked around for about 20 minutes with an internal and external ultrasound, trying to make sense of this. She said that he looks fine and perfectly normal, and other than these decels, she'd think he was a perfectly healthy little thing. However she warned me that if we're catching it EVERY time, it's probably happening a lot during the day. Obviously the scary thing about that is there's no way to predict or prevent these decels (especially since we can't find the cause) and that it's possible that one day, POSSIBLE that one day his heart rate may go down, and not come back up in time.
I think that's the first time in my life I've ever had a feeling like I did in my stomach.
However, right now risk vs. benefit says that because he's still only 33 weeks he is more benefited on the womb than out. As time gets closer though, they may decide he's 'cooked' long enough and they don't want to take anymore chances.
So right now the plan of action is for me to be monitored twice a week with a weekly doctor's appointment. At my appointments they have been and will continue doing what's called a biophysical profile (kind of like an apgar score for babies in utero)
and as long as he keeps at an 8 out of 10 (where he's been scoring) we're not going to deliver him. They are also sending me to a pediatric cardiologist to make sure that his heart is as healthy it looks. Just keep this baby in your thoughts and prayers that he can hold on a few more weeks until we can deliver him, proceed to shake him and ask, "What the heck do you think you were doing in there?!?!"

Farewell

This week I said goodbye to two dear friends: My ankles.



And yes, those are lines from my socks.

3 Days O' Fun

I had my OB appointment on Thursday which also marked me seeing every single doctor in the practice! At least I know what I'm dealing with when they walk in the door now. I actually saw the one midwife on Thursday and she happened to catch a decel when she was listening with the doppler. (For those of you who have never had or known anyone with a complicated pregnancy - that's a deceleration of the heart rate. For people like me, who's children like to scare us and the doctors in utero, terms like this seem to be in our everyday vocabulary). She wanted to put me on a monitor and watch me for about half an hour, so I got undressed and they hooked me up. Unfortunately I had Carter with me and had to cross my fingers that he would behave in his stroller while I was immobile. I gave him a sucker to keep him occupied (which he proceeded to put in his hair) and he did fairly well considering the circumstances.
While they were monitoring me, there were no more decels, but lots of contractions! I was having true contractions about once a minute. They drowned me in cups of water to no avail, but then they suddenly stopped and they let me go home (telling me to watch for more). They did want me to come back the next day though to see if I was doing it again.
I took the bus back up to Yongsan on Friday (Luckily the huz was able to take the afternoon off and watch Carter!) and they hooked me up. This time, no contractions, but a pretty long decel again. They raced in (after my alarms started going off) to toss and turn me and move the monitor and baby's rate finally came back up. After a few more hours of monitoring and a pelvic exam they released me again, only to tell me to come back again the next day for some more monitoring!
Soooo, I went back today they put me on the monitor. And guess what!? No decels, but more contractions! Because I haven't dilated any (thank goodness!) they sent me home. It was my shortest trip to the OB yet actually (Only 4 hours!).
So the plan is to call and make an appointment for this upcoming week and discuss with one of the Drs what our plan of action is, why baby's having a hard time regulating his heart rate, and why on earth I'm contracting so darn much.
What I do know: It's not a positional decel (That means he's not compressing the cord anywhere) They checked him several times with the ultrasound) and they're not related to the contractions since they seem to happen at completely different times.
They did give me two possible explanations:
1. The baby's neurological system could be a little behind and not able to regulate his heart rate. Usually babies can do this before or around 30 weeks.
2. There's something called placental insufficiency where the placenta is being a total slacker and not oxygenating baby very well.
We're going to discuss those things at my next appointment, so I'll know more then.
I just wanted to keep everyone updated, this IS what's occupying our life right now....so if you're tired of hearing about baby stuff....check back in like 7 years.