Playing catch up....

So had my appointment with all the high risk docs on 7/18, and essentially we are in a watch and wait period until something changes. Little Miss looked fantastic on the special ultrasound, and they are saying she is about 3 and a half pounds! Praise God. On Monday 7/22 I had another doctors appointment and non-stress test. She didn't look fantastic on the monitor but looked ok, it ended up being quite a long appointment but she eventually was reactive. Blood pressure was good too. On Wednesday 7/24 I got a very scary call from my cardiologist. She initially got on the phone and grilled me about how I was feeling and if I was having any chest pain, palpitations etc. She said my results weren't good, and that she had to call another cardiologist and would get right back to me. So apparently she called another cardiologist and he made a recommendation for changing the medication that I am on, however the new medication can be very dangerous for the baby. So essentially the conversation was to let them know immediately if I had any worsening symptoms and we would go from there, but to take it easy. On Thursday 7/25 I woke up feeling absolutely horrible. To the point where I was convinced I was getting very sick again:-( Praise God I wasn't! I did have some elevated blood pressures, and I did have protein in my urine which I hadn't had previously. But I was able to come home and was told to go to bed and stay there until I came back the next day.... On Friday I went back and my blood pressures were low! So praise God for that! The results of my 24 hour urine test weren't fantastic but they weren't terrible either. My liver tests and platelets are holding steady! So they again let me come home, saying "Go home and go to bed, don't get up until Monday when you come back." I did have a wonderful friend have a baby shower for me this weekend, and thankfully I begged to go to the shower and had a wonderful time but felt pretty yucky when I came back home and all day yesterday. Yesterday my mom came over at church and stayed for the whole day until after supper. She washed EVERY piece of dirty laundry and folded them and put them away. She also washed all of the bed linens including the blankets! Matt had taken the kids to a church picnic so I was able to really lay low yesterday and focus on growing this baby and spending some one on one time with my mom :-) Such a blessing! Sam had IVIG on Friday and he did fabulously. He had his friend with him and so they played the Wii and had a great morning/afternoon together, while I layed in the other bed until I had to go to the hospital. Thanks to Auntie Sara who stayed with Sammy until he was done. Another wonderful friend is organizing an army of help for me in these next few weeks! I just can't even believe how blessed I am. God is so good to me. He has put some absolutely amazing people in our lives. People are helping with childcare, cleaning, meals etc etc. So very blessed!!! I am headed back to the hospital in a little while. Please keep the baby and I in your prayers. I did unfortunately have some heart stuff going on this weekend and need to speak with the cardiologist this morning to see what the plan is.... On Saturday night I had palpitations but had been napping so when I woke I was sweaty and nauseous. Not completely sure what that means yet.

Pregnancy Update

Well praise God I made it to 30 weeks, at the rate things are going I may deliver sooner than we had hoped. I am so far behind in updating I am just going to do bullet points by date, just to get caught up.... So I had gone to the ER on June 29th. Two days later... 7/2/13 Was told to go to see cardiologist. I went and met her, and she was very nice. But very concerned with my history, as well as the fact that my mother had cardiomyopathy while pregnant. As well as multiple cardiac issues on my side of the family. My blood pressure was good. So she ordered echocardiogram (special ultrasound of my heart) as well as holter monitor. And increased the medication that the ER started to try to slow down my racing heart rate. 7/5 Labs were redrawn at the OB's office, due to the liver studies being off in the ER 7/8 On this date I received a phone call stating that my liver studies were significantly worse, actually worse than they were when they decided to deliver Preston! But due to some other symptoms that I had they were questioning something called "Cholestatis". This is a condition in which the bile acids build up in your blood. There is all kinds of risks associated with this. I also had my first non-stress test today. It was wonderful to hear this little one's heart beat so strong. I did have some elevated blood pressures at this visit, as well as this was the first visit that I had a large amount of ketones in my urine. 7/9 Preston had IVIG at Children's, and all went well, but no pics :-( 7/11 Had another NST test today. Baby continued to look good but I was also contracting fairly consistently. After the NST I went to the OB unit and had an appointment. At this point they informed me that I did have cholestasis, and told the risk of the baby dying. 7/12 Sent to a endocrinologist to try to figure out why so much ketones in my urine. Now having to monitor my blood sugars, four times a day :-( 7/13 Sam's 7th birthday! (I will write a post about it) 7/15 Echocardiogram: praise God this was normal!!!! Another NST, this time the baby didn't look as good as she had been on the monitor. Call placed to high risk obs.... Scheduled in depth ultrasound, and appointment with team of docs on 7/18 Here is an ultrasound pic of my sweet little miracle! I am relieved knowing that God has a plan for each of our lives and that His plan is perfect. Regardless of what the doctors say or think, regardless of what lab tests, and a variety of other tests show, God is in control of all of this!!! Praise God for His miracles! I look forward to holding this little one in my arms, as a testimony that against all odds God's will always prevails!!!

Cardiology

So after Saturday in the ER, yesterday I felt really kind of cruddy all day. I was waiting to feel better, for the medicine to kick in or something. I was told to call the OB as well as the cardiologist first thing Monday morning, as I wasn't feeling any better the cardiologist had me come in on Monday. She was very nice and listened to all that had been going on. Due to the past history with Preston and the heart stuff as well as my mom's history of cardiomyopathy, and now this being my fourth baby, I have lots and lots of risk factors for heart problems :-( It is so discouraging, to be eating right, and exercising, and doing all I can to try to make a healthy full term baby and to keep having more and more specialists tell me how my risks are so big :-( We will be doing an echocardiogram as well as holter monitoring and a few other things in the next week or so... She also increased the beta blocker that I am on, so hopefully that will decrease my heart rate. And an added bonus, it will also decrease my BP, which isn't really high yet but lets get it low so it never gets there... This week is kind of busy, lots of things going on, and hoping that I can get it all accomplished without another trip to the doctor...

A trip to the ER...

So I had to make a trip into the ER today. I initially contacted my primary care doctor and told her how I was feeling. She told me that I needed to contact my OB. When I called my OB she told me that I needed to go to the ER. SO I got the kids packed up and dropped off at the babysitter and then drove to the ER. When I got there they immediately took me right in, even though there was a waiting room full of people. I was so thankful. When they initially put me on the monitor my blood pressure was elevated, and my heart rate was very high. They did all the labs to make sure I wasn't developing pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome again. Praise God, as of right now I am not. My heart however is not liking being pregnant. It is working very hard, and too fast. They gave me some meds to decrease the heart rate, and I will be seeing a cardiologist on Tuesday. Uggh I am trying to not be discouraged but it is so hard. It has always been around 27 or 28 weeks that things start going wrong. As I will be 28 weeks tomorrow I am feeling so overwhelmed. I know that God is in control and that the outcome will be okay regardless, but I just wish it didn't have to be high risk and scary. :-( Please be praying that my heart can sustain this pregnancy for at least another 8weeks, and that no other issues develop. And please continue to pray that this little sweetie grows healthy and strong :-)

Cardiology and OB update

I followed up with the cardiologist today at Brigham. They are so wonderful there. Unfortunately they have still not received all of my results from the testing they have done, but Dr Pande is pretty sure that I am flipping in and out of SVT (supraventricular tachycardia) and due to the fact that I am now symptomatic with it she has started me on medication for it. I will start in the morning, but honestly I am anxious about it as it could lower Baby Surprise's heartrate:-(
I had an ultrasound and biophysical profile for baby surprise today. A BPP is a test they use to see how well the baby is doing in several areas in utero. So the maximum score that the baby can get is 8 out of 8, and that is what our little munchkin scored:-) Praise God!!! It was quite a long ultrasound as they did all the little scoring parts, and I was able to watch him/her open and close hands, practice swallowing, and all kinds of wiggling:-) LOVE IT!!! We didn't get a fetal weight today but he/she certainly looks bigger. The OB said that I should stop working so much but didn't write me a note so I am not sure how that will go over with my boss. She also said that they would probably pull me out of work at my next visit....