Sorry, I am posting a day late. Yesterday we reached 36 weeks! Henry is still the size of a honeydew. His skin is getting smooth and soft, his gums are rigid, his liver and kidneys are in working order, and his circulation and immune system are basically good to go. His lungs are the only organs that still need to fully mature, but every day he gets a little closer to breathing on his own. Next week we will officially be full term! And since today is December 1st, I will hopefully be getting to meet my son THIS MONTH!
The last 48 hours have been quite the whirlwind. On Monday night, I started getting some lower back pain. I didn't think much of it, just thought my back was sore from pregnancy. Around 2:00 AM on Tuesday morning, I woke up with really intense pain in my back and sides. I knew that back pain could be a sign of labor, so I went out into the living room to try to focus and see if I was having contractions. But instead of the pain coming and going in waves like contractions, it was just getting steadily more intense. It felt exactly like the pain I had about a year ago from a kidney infection. Around 5:00 AM, I couldn't stand the pain any longer and I decided to call labor and delivery. When I called, they asked me to come in. So I woke up Luke and we headed to the hospital.
When I arrived, they checked us into Triage and had me change into a hospital gown. They took a urine sample, which they sent for urinalysis. They also took a blood sample. Then they had me get into a bed and they hooked me up to two monitors, one to monitor the baby's heartbeat and one to monitor my contractions. The monitors revealed that Henry's heartbeat was totally normal but I was having steady contractions about 5-6 minutes apart, lasting about a minute. The contractions weren't painful but were pretty constant. The nurse checked my cervix and I was 1 centimeter dilated but 0% effaced.
After about an hour of monitoring, they sent me to another part of the hospital for an ultrasound of my bladder and kidneys to check for kidney stones. Thankfully, the ultrasound showed that I didn't have kidney stones. However, during the ultrasound, they discovered that little Henry is in the Frank Breech position, which means his head and feet are up by my ribs and his bottom is down by my cervix. A picture of his position is below:
After the ultrasound, we were taken back to labor and delivery for more monitoring. By this time, I was completely exhausted. The nurse called my doctor with the results of the urinalysis, blood test and ultrasound. It turns out that I had a very high white blood cell count and blood in my urine, indicating a urinary tract and kidney infection. They monitored me for another hour and since I was still having contractions, they gave me a shot of Terbutaline to stop by contractions. The shot worked instantly, stopping my contractions but made me feel very woozy. My heart started racing and I felt really dizzy. Luke went and got me some crackers, which seemed to help a little bit.
After the shot, I was finally able to go home with a prescription for antibiotics for the kidney infection. We got back home around noon. Since I am pregnant, I am only able to take normal dosages of Tylenol for the pain, which is nowhere near enough. On Tuesday afternoon/evening, I was in a lot of pain. Every moment I made brought tears to my eyes. Thankfully, I am slowly but surely starting to feel better.
Yesterday afternoon, I had one of my regular doctor appointments. We talked about Henry's breech position and what it meant for his delivery. Unfortunately, it's not safe to delivery Henry vaginally in a breech position. Since he would be coming out butt first, it's possible that his head could get stuck in the birth canal, causing serious complications. My doctor gave me some exercises to do at home this week to try to get Henry to flip around on his own. If he doesn’t flip on his own, the doctor has offered to try a “version” at my appointment next week, which is to try to flip Henry manually by pushing on my stomach and rotating him. From what I have heard, a version can be very painful and isn’t very successful. My doctor told me that with Henry’s position and the fact that I am a first time mom (which means I don’t have a very flexible uterus), there is only a 30% chance that a version would actually work. There are also many risks involved in a version, including the possibility of fetal distress, the procedure breaking my water, the cord getting wrapped around the baby’s neck and more. All of which could result in an emergency C-section at only 37 weeks gestation. The version is optional and at this point I am leaning towards not having the procedure done. It just seems too risky for only a 30% chance of success.
If Henry is still breech next week and we elect to not have the version done, we will most likely need to schedule a C-section, which my doctor said could be done as soon as December 21st. While a C-section certainly isn’t ideal, I am really not heartbroken about not being able to have a vaginal delivery. Everything happens for a reason.
At this point, I am just trying to recover from the kidney infection and focus on my exercises to try to get Henry to flip on his own. But it’s pretty exciting to think that I will most likely be meeting my son in less than 3 weeks! I can’t wait!
36 Week Bump Picture:
