Complications

Since my last post I've been pretty busy dealing with these complications and now I need to update the blog mostly now for my sake to help me remember later. At my 24 week appointment I could tell my stomach was getting huge and my loving co-workers made sure to point this out to me. My fundal height was measuring at 32 when it should have been 24. My doctor sent me down for an ultrasound and found that he was normal size, but I had a lot of excess fluid (called polyhydramnios). My AFI (amniotic fluid index) was measuring 33 (normal is 5-25). They checked everything on Zach to make sure he was still looking okay and then sent me back up to my doctor. She checked me for gestational diabetes, which I don't have, and set up an appointment with a perinatologist at St. Marks. This appointment was 4 days later and by then my AFI was measuring 44. This condition could have been caused by several different congenital anomalies with Zach and the doctor was able to rule everything out to the best of his ability. He told me he anticipated at some point needing to drain some of the fluid off and scheduled me for a follow up appointment.

Over the next week I continued to get bigger and bigger and my doctor asked me to come in for another appointment. My AFI was up to 50 and I was getting extremely uncomfortable. That following weekend I went in for steroid injections (to help Zach's lungs mature faster) and also found out I was contracting very frequently. That following Monday I went to the perinatologist again for them to perform an amniocentesis and drain off some of the fluid. He drained 2.2 liters, and was guessing I had somewhere around 6-7 (I looked it up and normal levels are from 800 to 1000 mL or less than 1 liter). He was anticipating draining me again and this should relieve much of my discomfort and hopefully delay preterm labor.

The procedure went very well and I wasn't in much pain. I was constantly dehydrated for the next week or so, but recovered fairly well. Now it's been barely a week and a half and I can tell my fluid is building back up again and I'm getting uncomfortable. I'm scheduled for another reduction on Tuesday 10/27 and I'm hoping I won't have to do it again. I haven't been ordered to be on bedrest yet, but I'm only planning on working for another 4 weeks, and then banning myself from work. My goal at this point is to make it to 34 weeks which means he can't come before December hits. We'll see if he listens to his mother. :) Also when they drew some fluid off they sent it for a chromosome count which came back normal and let us know definitively that he's a boy. So now we just have to wait and see when he decides to make his appearance. Now that the complicated stuff is over I should be able to update more often, and I'll be able to post some pictures of a beautiful baby boy much sooner than I expected.