Topics

1

Making the Best of Bed Rest / Finally had 3D scan - it's a boy!!

« on: March 05, 2017 at 04:43 PM »

So after all the preterm labor stress this past week we were able to make it to our elective 3D scan (YAY!) and we found out that this baby is a boy!!! We are so excited to find out that our family will be welcoming another boy in June! Now all we have to do is wait and hope that Benjamin Michael stays put until June!!

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Pregnancy Complications: PPROM, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and more / Any Crohn's Disease mommas??

« on: January 15, 2017 at 03:52 PM »

So I'm having a serious flare up right now (I don't have Crohn's Disease, I have Behcet's Disease, which for me affects my GI system and has symptoms very similar to Crohn's), my stomach is full of ulcers and I can't even get water down without horrible pain. I just spent the weekend in the hospital and I'm home again today; I got admitted after I couldn't get anything down past the pain, not even water, and I began vomiting a mix of blood and bile. The pain is coming back and if I can't meet the amounts set out for water and liquid nutrition intake I'll have to go back and get re-admitted. They're talking tube placement now to bypass my stomach as I'm down almost 15lbs in the week since this flare up started with no end in sight, the meds aren't working and the flare up is now spreading from my stomach to mouth/esophagus as well. This is incredibly stressful considering my history of preterm labor, this is the first time I've had a flare up during pregnancy. I'm 18 weeks on Wednesday and they're now using language like "if you make it to viability, we'll have to consider early delivery". The "if" has me just sick with worry, and if the goal for delivery is viability I'm extremely worried about how baby will do and this pain is making it impossible to function. Just stressed and needed to vent.

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What's Your Story? Tell us. / Back again

« on: October 21, 2016 at 03:41 PM »

Hello!

I was here a few years ago after going into PTL with my second child at 29 weeks, after 8 weeks of bedrest, I was finally allowed up, I spent weeks at 4cm dilated, 80-90% effaced, with bulging membranes. I just found out I'm pregnant with baby #3 and I'm looking for ways to prevent PTL from happening in the first place this time around

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Making the Best of Bed Rest / diet affects risk for preterm delivery

« on: March 07, 2014 at 02:23 PM »

I saw this while reading the news today and thought I would share:
http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/health-headlines/diet-high-in-fruits-veggies-could-lower-preterm-delivery-risk-study-1.1716981

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What's Your Story? Tell us. / Eleanor Rigby

« on: February 27, 2014 at 09:29 AM »

Hi! I read a few days ago that your water broke. I'm just wondering how you're doing? I hope that your baby is still cooking safe and sound!

Just wanted to say that I'm thinking of you and your baby and I am sending positive thoughts for a safe, healthy, and happy delivery and short, uncomplicated and BORING (well, as boring as any NICU stay can be) NICU stay!! Good luck!

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What's Your Story? Tell us. / Bed rest baby update! :)

« on: December 19, 2013 at 07:51 AM »

Harrison is doing very well! He is 4 months old tomorrow . We continue to combination feed and I have finally been told a reason for my chronic low breastmilk supply. I have IGT (insufficient glandular tissue, aka glandular hypoplasia, aka tuberous breast deformity). After being told for so long by so many people that I just wasn't trying hard enough, or it was because I offered a soother, or introduced supplements too soon (at 3 weeks when he was still 4oz below his birth weight and severely dehydrated, poor boy was starving. He NEEDED the formula!), or I didn't pump enough, or I pumped too much, or I didn't stand on my head and dance a jig, it sure was nice to hear that it wasn't all my fault, after all.

Good luck to all you ladies who are still on bed rest! I hope you all have happy, healthy and full term pregnancies! There is a light at the end of this bed rest tunnel! Hang in there!

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What's Your Story? Tell us. / Harrison William update

« on: October 08, 2013 at 07:24 AM »

Hello everyone! Just wanted to drop in and give you guys an update on my bed rest baby! Harrison will be 7 weeks old on Thursday and is doing very well. We had some issues in the beginning with jaundice and no weight gain and they were a little worried about his liver; but once he started on a high calorie supplement his biliruben levels started coming down and he started gaining weight like crazy. He is now 9lbs (two pounds more than his birth weight) and is doing absolutely fantastic! He is smiling (has been since he was 2 weeks old) and rolling over (from his back to his tummy, he can't quite get  from his tummy to his back yet).

I hope all you ladies are doing well and are still pregnant! Bed rest is tough but it is so worth it to give our babies the best chance of being born at, or close to, term! Good luck to all of you gals and all the best to you for happy, healthy, full term babies!

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Making the Best of Bed Rest / Harrison William

« on: August 30, 2013 at 05:55 PM »

...was born August 22nd at 8:55am, he weighed 7lbs even and was 22.5 inches long! He came in a hurry and was born after only 4 hours of labor, he tried his best to come in the car and so I had a surprise natural delivery with a med student (the doctor wasn't even in the building yet) and a midwife, haha, the poor med student looked more scared than I was!  My doctor made it just in time to deliver the placenta. It was a very intense experience and, looking back on it, a funny story to be able to tell him when he is older! Scared the wits out of my husband and I though, I was 100% convinced that Harrison was coming in the car!

We are home now and all is going well, we are having some latch issues but are working through them with some help. He is a very laid back little guy and would gladly go 4 hours in between feedings if we let him! We have to wake him up every 2 hours to feed (his doctor wants him fed every 2 hours because he is a tad jaundiced and has lost 7% of his body weight so we need to stay on top of his feeds) and he eats his fill and then goes right back to sleep, no fussing at all. Our daughter was a very fussy baby (she had acid reflux from day 1) so my DH and I are having a hard time figuring out what to do with him! LOL

Our daughter is absolutely in love with her little brother and my husband and I couldn't be happier!

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What's Your Story? Tell us. / new here

« on: June 14, 2013 at 09:18 AM »

Hello everyone ,

I'm new here, this is day 6 of bed rest for me.

Everything started on Saturday June 8th. I was 28+6 (29 weeks on the Sunday) and had woken up with menstrual type cramping that morning. I didn't really think too much of it. My husband and I had planned a family day-trip with our 4 year old and I didn't want to stay home because our daughter was very much looking forward to the trip.

We went to a science center for kids, which involved a lot of walking. Shortly after lunch time I started feeling contractions. At this point I was getting a little worried, so my husband and I decided to cut the day short and head home (about 3 hours away from the science center). Upon getting home my I started timing the contractions and realized that they were coming every 8-9 minutes. At this point my husband and I were getting very worried so we took our daughter to her grandparent's place and headed in to the hospital.

When we got to the hospital they gave me a shot to stop the contractions and admitted me for the night. Over night I had really no contractions to speak of and was feeling pretty good. On Sunday morning I woke up with painful contractions and immediately hit the call button for the nurse. They put me on the monitor and could see that I was having contractions every 7-8 minutes. At this point they paged my doctor to come in early. When my doctor got there she did a fFN test, we would later find out that the results were positive, and checked my cervix which was thinned out as compared with Saturday night but still tightly closed. So the my doctor gave me another med (a suppository) to try to stop the contractions and gave me the first steroid shot for our LO's lungs. They also started an IV for fluids and antibiotics. I stayed on the monitor but the contractions didn't slow or stop at all, so at this point my doctor decided that I needed a transfer to the IWK (a bigger hospital with a NICU, about 3 hours away from my home town, ironically in the same city as the science center we visited the day before). So it took another hour or two to get the ambulance situated; they were originally going to take me via helicopter but I got bumped because they needed to transport a higher priority patient who was having a heart attack (or so I was told). At this point my contractions were hurting a lot and I was having contractions every 4 minutes and they were lasting about a minute.

On the way to the IWK, about half way through the trip, we had to stop at another hospital because my contractions were getting worse and the paramedics wanted to have me checked to ensure that Harrison (our LO) wasn't trying to come out any time soon. When they checked me at that hospital I was dilated a finger tip and had thinned out some more. The doctor there felt like we could definitely make it the hour and 20 minutes or so to the IWK so off we went (this time lights and sirens).

When we got to the IWK I was still contracting every 4 minutes. They gave me some more antibiotics and fluids in my IV and started me on Adalat (Procardia in the US) to try to halt the contractions. At this point it is 8 or 9pm on the Sunday. I continued contracting and around midnight they checked me again and I was a little over 1 cm dilated. At this point they did an ultrasound to see what position our LO was in, he was breech. So they started talking about a c-section and they had the NICU team come to talk to us about what would happen with our little boy if he were born now and what we could expect and everything. It was honestly the most terrifying moment up to that point. Up until then I felt like the whole thing was just a dream, or like bad luck or something. That there was no way our baby boy would come out yet. Up until that point I was 100% confident that they would stop the labor, I wasn't even sure I WAS in real labor up until then, I just kind of thought it was much ado about nothing. So at this point my husband and I are getting very scared. They continued to monitor my contractions and dilation and I received some pain medication. Thankfully I did not dilate any more throughout the rest of the night and around 4 or 5 Monday morning the contractions just stopped, all at once. I had been contracting every 4 minutes and then they just left, as quickly as they had started.

So they kept me on the Adalat and let us get some sleep (it had been a very long day/night before). On Monday afternoon I had the second steroid shot and an ultrasound which showed that Harrison was 3lbs6ozs (estimated), was no longer breech (at least not when they did his scan, haha), and that our cervical length was "good". It wasn't optimal for this stage in the pregnancy but it wasn't horribly thin either at 2.7cm. I was still about 1cm dilated, but neither my cervical length or my dilation had changed since around midnight on Sunday (or early Monday morning?).

Fast forward to today and I'm home on bed rest and off of the Adalat. So far so good, the contractions are staying away for now. I still have the menstrual type cramping and the occasional "real" contraction but nothing regular or consistent. I am allowed up to use the bathroom and to shower (no more than 30 minutes) but other than that I'm stuck laying down or sitting in a recliner with my feet up. I have to stay on bed rest until I am 36 weeks (I will be 30 weeks this Sunday).

I was supposed to go to Ontario to visit family with my mother and my 4 year old this week, but obviously I didn't get to go on the trip. So my daughter is away this week, but she will be home on Tuesday of next week.

Do any of you moms have other children? If so, how do you cope with looking after them while on bed rest? My mother has been more than helpful and has offered to stay and help me as long as I need, but I feel terrible because she is also the full time caregiver to my great aunt (who has dementia, so it isn't an easy job to look after her) so she is spread thin as it is. Do you ladies think it is possible for me to manage on my own, or would you recommend letting my mom stay to help? My DH works 10 hour days, 5 days/week, 6 days every other week, so it is really just me and my 4 year old 90% of the time.

Anyway, sorry for the novel, my last pregnancy was perfect so this is all new to me. Any suggestions on things I can do to keep myself and my daughter busy would be greatly appreciated!