LET THE BEDREST BEGIN

Hi all, it's Hillary's husband Bobby. She's on bed rest for the next week so I'm blogging for her. She's cursing right now because we don't have a laptop and she is not allowed to sit at our computer desk. I, being the dutiful hubby that I am, have agreed to post for her this week. Hillary will be going "old school" this week and has taken pen and paper in hand to make sure that I post exactly what she wants to say. Without further ado.... here she is!

Hey Gals!

Thank you all sooo much for the sweet and loving comments and prayers! They have been soo needed and have worked. God is sooo GREAT!

I'm not sure anymore where I left off (this bed rest is not only keeping our little boy in but addling my brain as well!) So (maybe) to recap quickly, last Tuesday was the visit with Dr. M the specialist. By Tuesday night I had TONS of Braxton Hicks contractions that were completely alarming to me. On Wednesday I decided that I just had to see my regular OB for reassurance. She deemed me still "ok" and the surgery was scheduled for 8 AM the following morning.

Myself, Bobby, and my Momma showed up at the hospital bright and early to begin the dreaded 2 hour wait. I was finally taken to a pre-op room where I got to meet the OR nurse, an IV started, and meet the anesthesiologist. I could not believe how wonderful, sweet, and funny everyone was! I had some serious concerns about general anesthesia that they were going to do, but didn't think that a spinal or an epidural would work because of soo many problems with getting one started with Caroline. The anesthesiologist (whom I am now in love with) seemed very cocky and self-assured the HE could get a spinal started where others had not been able to. :) I decided to go with his plan (as its safer for the baby anyway). He took only 2 minutes and had one going! They had me lay down and then inverted the OR table with my head down and feet all crazy up in the air. I got sick only one time but that was it, thank God! It only took about 15 minutes and I was all done!

My OB came into the Stage 1 recovery room and said that my cervix had already thinned out even more since the previous day. My bed rest was going to be extended from 2 days to one week with my OB checking my cervix again next Thursday to see how its holding up. There were some veiled threats of "ladies that don't comply with at home bed rest end up with hospital bed rest".

The next hour passed fairly quickly and my spinal was wearing off nicely. The awesome anesthesiologist came back to check on me and said that he would come back to do my spinal when our little guy makes his arrival, hopefully in September! I'm so excited that I have that peace of mind because he was that good.

I was starting to feel some contractions as the spinal wore off more and more. I figured that this was pretty normal as my OB had already warned me that I'd be having more Braxton Hicks than normal. When I got to the Stage 2 recovery area I was soo glad to finally see my family again, but was definitely more uncomfortable. I told the nurse right away about the contraction I was feeling. It had me concerned because it had already been 10 minutes but hadn't gone away yet! I told her my pain level was between 4-5 and it was decided that I needed to be moved up to Labor and Delivery upstairs. By the time that we got there not only had the contraction STILL NOT STOPPED, but it had gotten worse! The pain was now at a 9-10. The kind of pain you feel when your are in labor pushing a baby out without an epidural. I have almost never felt that much pain and fear combined except when Caroline was being delivered. I honestly thought that I was going to deliver him in the next couple of minutes. I was doing the most horribly embarrassing crying and screaming at this point. I kept apologizing to Bobby and saying that it was too much pain and I couldn't control myself. He was soo sweet and calm through the whole thing! I'm pretty sure that I scared the crap out of both my Momma and Bobby's mom by this point. I had Bobby ask them both to leave for just a little bit so spare them.

It wasn't too much later and my spinal had worn off past my uterus and I was beginning to feel my bladder again. I had the slight sensation that it was full and asked the nurse to please place a catheter. She quickly checked with the doctor who said that it was fine and the nurse did an in and out catheter since they had never started one before/during/after my surgery. Here is where I am confused. I've always had them do a catheter when I've had surgery. Why not this time? The nurse said she pulled off equivalent of almost 2 bags of IV fluid! I'm not sure how my bladder never ruptured. By the time that she had emptied my bladder the contraction was finally stopping. I had had soo much pressure from my distended bladder on my uterus that it was the culprit of the never ending 25 minute contraction! Thanks be to God and all of yours prayers that this is all it was! My OB had already told me a couple of times that if I started contracting that she would pull the cerclage out. If she has to do that in the next 5 weeks it will be certain death for our little one.

We were finally able to come home later that day with strict instructions for me to lay w/ a pillow under my butt to relieve ALL pressure form my cervix. I find this makes my back hurt so bad and then the Braxton Hicks start up again so I only do it at short intervals.

And that's the jist of my life for the next week! I plan on full compliance because I have a strong maternal intuition that I'll be having him much sooner than later. My hope and goal is to make it to at least 30 weeks!

Thanks again to everyone for all the kind words & prayers! I'm going to see about begging/borrowing/stealing a laptop so I don't go completely stir crazy. Please also forgive me if in the meantime I have a hard time reading and commenting on everyone's blogs! I will constantly be wondering whats going on with everyone! I leave you with the one picture that Bobby and I took at the hospital! The brown socks cracked us up!