We just met with Dr. Witske. She thinks we are fine to go home and let Camden bake a little longer. Kim continues to show no other warning signs that would put her or the baby at risk right now. As much time as Camden can get inside Mommy, the better. So we'll go home empty handed today, knowing that it's for the best.
There's a sense of disappointment because we're so anxious to meet and see Camden. But there's also a sense of relief because we know that if Camden arrived today that he'd have to stay in the hospital for several days before we could take him home anyway. We want him to be well and healthy to be able to come home with us as soon as he arrives.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Update
Dr. Westfall just stopped in again. Lab results looked "great!" Still waiting for the attending OB to stop in for her diagnosis. Dr. Westfall's guess was that they would not induce today. Part of me wonders if the decision to induce or not is based on how busy it is here today. Assuming Kim is not at risk, why not let the women that are ready to deliver, deliver first. Who knows if that's really true or not. Just speculating.
Early Arrival?
Well, today is the day. Or is it? It's 1015am on August 24th, 2007. We're sitting in the Perinatal Evaluation and Treatment Unit (PETU) room 3. This is our 3rd trip to PETU in 4 weeks for what mommy has been diagnosed as pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH). Mommy's blood pressure has been high throughout the pregnancy and has been more of a cause for concern of late. At our appointment last week, Dr. Junella said we would be 50/50 for induction today.
At our appointment this past Monday, Mommy's blood pressure went down. It still wasn't normal, but at least it went down from what it had been. That appointment really had her in good spirits. It validated that her bed rest was working and the medication was finally kicking in. We were starting to think the baby would have some more time to bake and develop in the comfort of mommy's belly. Dr. Junella started to backoff the inducement talk and we were thinking we were on the low end of the 50/50 ratio.
So our 2nd appointment of the week arrives. We expected more good news and hoped Mommy's BP would go down or remain stable. That wasn't the case. Her BP jumped again. Dr. Junella said, "Well, the best cure at this point is to get the baby out." So the plan was for us to come to the hospital today, do some monitoring, perhaps an amnio, and likely induce. Which to me was scary, exciting, and nerve wracking all at the same time. To Mommy, it was just plain scary. By all accounts, the baby has been doing just fine and at 35 weeks, two weeks short of what is considered full term, the baby would be fine to make an early appearance.
We know of three very recent examples of babies coming this soon or earlier and being just fine. Nonetheless, the thought of forcing him out unnaturally was a frightening thought. I told Mommy, "It probably won't be the only time in his life he'll be forced out of a place."
So here we are. We packed our bags last night, reviewed our childbirth notes, and made sure we had everything in place and ready to go in case today was the day. I also mowed the lawn since it hadn't been in so long. We'd gotten a lot of rain the past week and there wasn't an opportunity to get out and cut the grass. So I took care of that last night, otherwise, who knows when I would've had a chance to get it done.
After that, I ran into the office to pack up my belongings. I needed to have my desk packed up because I was being moved on 8/29/07. If I didn't do it last night, and the baby arrived this weekend, I'm not sure I would've been able to get into the office before the 29th. I spent two hours, packed 6 boxes to move, and got my old workspace cleaned for Tracy to move into it.
This morning was beautiful! The sun finally popped out and the temperature was in the upper 60s to low 70s. A perfect day for a baby. I dropped Oliver off at "Joann Camp", our dog sitter. On the way to the hospital, we hit EVERY green light! If you have driven with me, you know that that's unprecedented. I told Kim that I think that's a sign that we're having a baby today. It was God's way of clearing a path for our new arrival. If the baby were to come today, it would under much different circumstances than his Daddy. My parents had to drive unexpectedly to the hospital through a snow storm in freezing temperatures.
Now we're at the hospital and it's a lot of waiting around. Kim is hooked up to a device that is monitoring the baby's heart rate, which appears to be just fine, and they are taking her BP every 15 minutes or so. The resident on call, Dr. Westfall, stopped in to check on her. The plan for now is to continue monitoring. They drew some blood for lab tests and will evaluate the results as they become available. The good news is that everything else has been checking out normally. Urine sample is not showing any protein, platelets are good, etc. Based on what Dr. Westfall said, she sounds very apprehensive about inducing today. I suppose they'll know more when the labs come back.
So we're left to sit by anxiously and just wait. We talk about the reasons why baby would be okay to come out early, just to comfort Mommy. She has had a couple of steroid shots to help the baby's lungs mature a little more quickly. At first that procedure seemed scary. Having something foreign injected in, especially a drug perceived to be illegal and dangerous when not used properly, was somewhat unsettling. I joked, "Great, now our son will have a big asterisk by his life." That's a reference to Barry Bonds' all-time home run record being tainted by his alleged steroid use. But just like Bonds, our baby didn't "knowingly" take a steroid.
Anyway, we continue to wait, pray, and hope for the best. We're in good hands here at Methodist Hospital.
At our appointment this past Monday, Mommy's blood pressure went down. It still wasn't normal, but at least it went down from what it had been. That appointment really had her in good spirits. It validated that her bed rest was working and the medication was finally kicking in. We were starting to think the baby would have some more time to bake and develop in the comfort of mommy's belly. Dr. Junella started to backoff the inducement talk and we were thinking we were on the low end of the 50/50 ratio.
So our 2nd appointment of the week arrives. We expected more good news and hoped Mommy's BP would go down or remain stable. That wasn't the case. Her BP jumped again. Dr. Junella said, "Well, the best cure at this point is to get the baby out." So the plan was for us to come to the hospital today, do some monitoring, perhaps an amnio, and likely induce. Which to me was scary, exciting, and nerve wracking all at the same time. To Mommy, it was just plain scary. By all accounts, the baby has been doing just fine and at 35 weeks, two weeks short of what is considered full term, the baby would be fine to make an early appearance.
We know of three very recent examples of babies coming this soon or earlier and being just fine. Nonetheless, the thought of forcing him out unnaturally was a frightening thought. I told Mommy, "It probably won't be the only time in his life he'll be forced out of a place."
So here we are. We packed our bags last night, reviewed our childbirth notes, and made sure we had everything in place and ready to go in case today was the day. I also mowed the lawn since it hadn't been in so long. We'd gotten a lot of rain the past week and there wasn't an opportunity to get out and cut the grass. So I took care of that last night, otherwise, who knows when I would've had a chance to get it done.
After that, I ran into the office to pack up my belongings. I needed to have my desk packed up because I was being moved on 8/29/07. If I didn't do it last night, and the baby arrived this weekend, I'm not sure I would've been able to get into the office before the 29th. I spent two hours, packed 6 boxes to move, and got my old workspace cleaned for Tracy to move into it.
This morning was beautiful! The sun finally popped out and the temperature was in the upper 60s to low 70s. A perfect day for a baby. I dropped Oliver off at "Joann Camp", our dog sitter. On the way to the hospital, we hit EVERY green light! If you have driven with me, you know that that's unprecedented. I told Kim that I think that's a sign that we're having a baby today. It was God's way of clearing a path for our new arrival. If the baby were to come today, it would under much different circumstances than his Daddy. My parents had to drive unexpectedly to the hospital through a snow storm in freezing temperatures.
Now we're at the hospital and it's a lot of waiting around. Kim is hooked up to a device that is monitoring the baby's heart rate, which appears to be just fine, and they are taking her BP every 15 minutes or so. The resident on call, Dr. Westfall, stopped in to check on her. The plan for now is to continue monitoring. They drew some blood for lab tests and will evaluate the results as they become available. The good news is that everything else has been checking out normally. Urine sample is not showing any protein, platelets are good, etc. Based on what Dr. Westfall said, she sounds very apprehensive about inducing today. I suppose they'll know more when the labs come back.
So we're left to sit by anxiously and just wait. We talk about the reasons why baby would be okay to come out early, just to comfort Mommy. She has had a couple of steroid shots to help the baby's lungs mature a little more quickly. At first that procedure seemed scary. Having something foreign injected in, especially a drug perceived to be illegal and dangerous when not used properly, was somewhat unsettling. I joked, "Great, now our son will have a big asterisk by his life." That's a reference to Barry Bonds' all-time home run record being tainted by his alleged steroid use. But just like Bonds, our baby didn't "knowingly" take a steroid.
Anyway, we continue to wait, pray, and hope for the best. We're in good hands here at Methodist Hospital.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Best Daddy Ever!
Camden, your daddy is so wonderful! He's been such a rock while we wait for your arrival. He does all the everyday stuff for us and then he does extra special stuff too. We're so very lucky :-)
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Mommy and Baby are on Bedrest!
Today is Mommy and Daddy's four year anniversary. Four years ago we had the best wedding day ever!!! Now we are looking forward to adding you to our family! We went in for a standard appointment, just to make sure everything was okay and found out that my my blood pressure was really high. Doctor's told me to go straight home and lay down and come back the following day. Well, the next day turned out that my blood pressure was still high, so we ordered to continue bed rest!!! It's a little scary but you seem to be doing fine and we hope that bed rest will give more time before you arrive!!! So, we're just going to rest and relax together for the next few weeks!!!
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