3rd Trimester

Today starts my third trimester! I almost missed it, but over lunch I spent more time than usual reading about my current week – week 28! And boy, am I already starting to feel it!

Last week my lower back started aching. The kind of ache I associate with my herniated disc, and which usually requires heavy drugs before getting better. Unfortunately I can’t take anything other than Tylenol now, which does nothing for my back pain. The next best thing is to walk a lot. So my initial plan for this past weekend was to find time to walk both days.

Other than my back, I actually had a good ending to last week. I had another ultrasound on Thursday, and managed to get into the breastfeeding class the same day. Although Samantha is still breech and not showing her facial profile, the ultrasound tech asked the doctor to come into the room this time. They discussed the issue, and the doctor decided that the images showed enough of the nose bone. The doctor told me that sometimes there is an issue if the nose bone isn’t visible. So yay, Samantha has a nose, and I won’t have to have a 5^th ultrasound follow-up. I was also told that Samantha looks good and is the correct birth weight and such for my due date.

Saturday we cleaned the house a bit, and then I spent the day going through beads and bead shopping with a friend. I didn’t get a chance to walk, but my back was feeling better and I figured I’d walk extra on Sunday. As my friend and I discussed a baby shower over dinner, I fell back on my usual response that I may still have to go on bed rest soon. But feeling so good after my glucose test and ultrasound, I also said that maybe I’ll go full term and have to work until the very end. I should know better than to say things like that.

At 3:00AM I woke up very sick. I didn’t have a fever, so it wasn’t the flu. I suspected something like food poisoning or a stomach bug. I called the advice nurse, and she told me that my symptoms could be early labor. I would have to go to Labor & Delivery at the hospital if I puked any more. I went back to bed and had a few sips of water every hour when I woke up to go to the bathroom.  By 7AM I was exhausted and dehydrated. Samantha didn’t care. She knew it was breakfast time, and my stomach was extra empty, so she started her morning kicks. Being pregnant means I feel like puking if I get too hungry. So I had no idea whether I could eat anything or not. I ate 3 Saltines and drank a few swallows of water. An hour later it came back up.  “Aaron, wake up, we have to go to the hospital.” This is why I love my husband: he replies, “Well it beats going at 3 o’clock in the morning.”

We got to the hospital and Aaron discovered a third symptom. I had a rash all over my face. I still don’t know how that is connected to my digestive issues, but it can’t be a coincidence.

I spent Sunday morning and afternoon in Labor & Delivery. Just as I suspected, it wasn’t early labor. Samantha was fine, and it was really neat to actually HEAR her kicks on the fetal monitor along with her heartbeat. I wasn’t having any contractions. The doc came in around noon and told me that my labs showed that I was dehydrated. I thought that part was obvious. But I still didn’t feel like I could drink much. And I certainly didn’t want to chance it while being hooked up to a bunch of monitors, stuck in an uncomfortable bed with back pain, and told that if I had to puke, to do it into a tiny kidney shaped bowl. I imagined that I’d fill 3 of kidney bowls in one go, if I was lucky enough to have control and fast reflexes. The image of no control and slow reflexes was even less appealing. Finally they decided to hook me up to an IV for fluids. But they let the nurse who was new at it have a try on me. I’ll spare you the details, but it wasn’t pleasant. Since my arms haven’t even recovered from the glucose test the previous weekend, I am wearing long sleeves today.  I was also given some anti-nausea drugs. Before my IV bag was even finished, the doc was working on my release papers.

The rest of Sunday and Monday were pretty uneventful. Aaron made a run to the grocery store for me to get soup, juice, and ginger ale. I kept stuff down but still had to keep up with fluids to avoid dehydration from the back end.  I rested, beaded, and wrote thank you cards. Normally this would sound like a good time. But remember, what I really needed to be doing was walking! The more I sit or lay down, the more my back tightens up.

 That’s what I fear the most about bed rest. Between beading, reading, and TV, I have plenty to keep me occupied if I go on bed rest. But if I can’t take drugs, can’t lay flat on my back, and can’t go walking, there is nothing to help me if my back starts hurting. Before getting pregnant, my back problems were my main concern with pregnancy, and I even cried about it a few times (mostly when I was swallowing Percocet for the pain).

Today I am glad to be back at work. This morning was a bit rough, shuffling through the house to get ready and having to sit down to brush my teeth and wash my face. But just being able to walk through the halls at work has eased my back tension from the past two days quite a bit. And the only lingering signs from my illness are the bruises on my arms and the rash on my face.

So that’s what has been going on with me physically. But mentally, I’ve been keeping an eye my week number. In early November I was looking over the March 2012 Birth Club forums at Baby Center. The featured post is the “Official March 2012 Birth Announcement Thread.” Curious, I clicked it. At the time, there were already 3 posts about babies supposed to be born in March 2012, but they had sad endings. The third post was from a mother who actually delivered at 20 weeks, but the doctors couldn’t do anything for the baby unless it was 25 weeks. Until I read that post, I hadn’t considered what the cut-off was for how early a baby could be born with a chance of success. At the time, I was somewhere between 21-23 weeks. I didn’t celebrate when I made it to 25 weeks, but I’ve been keeping track of how many weeks I’ve made it past. It would still be terrifying to deliver this early, but at least there would be hope.  And I am happy to report that while the Birth Announcement Thread has grown longer over the past month, there are several happy hopefuls, even a few prior to 25 weeks!