37 Weeks & 2 Days: Some Unwanted Excitement and a Decision

Today I have officially been pregnant longer than ever before.  With the heat wave and temperatures expected to be in the 90s all week, I'm so ready to be done!  In fact, we almost were already done.  Last Tuesday I was admitted to Triage and told to be prepared to have the baby.  What happened is, while hooked up for the first of my two weekly non stress tests, it was indicating I was having Braxton Hicks contractions, and the Baby's heart rate was decreasing with each one and not returning to normal fast enough. 

It happened a couple of times in the Perinatal Assessment Center and then again in Triage but eventually Baby got it together and then, in the words of my nurse, "Looked like a super star," so we were able to come home.  Being in Triage didn't get me that nervous, because by this time with ER I'd been there four or five times already and even with that many visits I still ended up having her at a scheduled appointment.  In fact, during that pregnancy it got so routine I almost didn't go one time.  By then I'd already been on bed rest for several weeks and my mom had already come to stay with us.  She was driving and made me go, of course, that was the one time I was admitted for the weekend.  I've never been allowed to forget that case of "Mother Know's Best".

Then on Friday we had another hiccup during my non stress test.  This time Baby wasn't in the mood to perform at all.  His heart rate stayed the same almost the whole time, when they are wanting to see some accelerations.  We had to do a short ultrasound and hope he got enough points - 8/10, for me to make it home.  They measure things like fluid levels and look for small movments, big body movements, and practice breathing to check on Baby's overall welfare. 

An 8/10 gets you home, a 6/10 means you have to return within 24 hours for more monitoring, 4/10 leads to extended monitoring at Triage, and 2/10 or less gets you a baby...and you don't want to score that low because that could mean something is really wrong.  All I could think about was that ER's Dance Party for her 5th Birthday was the next day and I didn't really have time for all this!  Baby you'd better wake up and move!  Luckily he did and we scored all the points we needed too, but he took his sweet time doing it.  We waited until the last three minutes to see him move.

VBAC versus Planned C Section: The Decision

I really appreciate everyone's input and shared personal experiences from last week's pregnancy update when I asked about having a VBAC versus a Repeat Planned C Section.  It was my intention to get back to each person after we had our meeting with the perinatologist last Tuesday, but since that's also the day we spent over six hours at the hospital our week kinda got thrown out of whack.

Brad came with me to my appointment and we talked at length with the supervising perinatologist who's overseen most of my pregnancy.  He's the doctor I've seen the most and who's been looking over my glucose levels each Friday so I feel confident he's familiar with my pregnancy.  He's also the doctor our pediatrician said she likes working with a lot and whose opinion she'd trust.

Compared to the residents, who have all been very proVBAC he was much more reserved in discussing whether or not we should try for one.  He backed up his opinion with a research article full of statistics and data that Brad, as my number's guy really, could relate too.  They inputed specifics about my high risk factors into a calculator for sucesss and got a 59% chance of success rate, which incidentally is lower than the success rate in general.

The doctor commented that it, "Wouldn't be unreasonable to try," italics mine, and pointed out that the difference in recovery between planned C section and an attempting the trials of labor followed by emergency C section are significant with the planned C being much better.  What he had to say combined with what the nurse in the Perinatology Assessment Center has really led us to feel a repeat planned C section is the best route for us.  We are pretty confident about it, and because no one can see into the future, feel that this is the best informed decision we can make at this time.  Please pray that regardless of how Baby #2 join us, it's the best and safest way with the end result being a happy, healthy Baby and Mom.