I’m not even ready to share this with everyone, but writing helps me, so I figured I would start a post draft that I will share when and if I’m ready (or maybe after all of this is over? I don’t know). I’ve known my pregnancy is “high risk” for some time now, but today was the first day I heard someone at my OB’s office utter those words out loud in relationship to my pregnancy.
I just took a break from drafting this to read through several of my posts from my last pregnancy with Levee, Mini Update on Print Nugget: Week 33, Week 35: It’s small! And hairy!, Week 36: Stressed Out Over the Non-Stress Test, and Week 38: 11 Days or Less. I’m currently at 33 weeks with this pregnancy. Baby’s growth has dropped off well below where Levee’s was at this time, and they were worried about him. As of a couple of appointments ago, I was asked to start coming in weekly for appointments–every other week I have a NST (nonstress test) alternating with an ultrasound + followup appointment. After today’s appointment, I’m now required to come in weekly and have a full anatomy ultrasound, NST, and followup appointment–so about 2 hours at the doctor depending on wait times, etc.
My one comfort during what has become weekly bad news is that I feel the baby moving a lot. I feel strong kicks and rolls and little hands. The baby is in a good, head-down position. As of last week I started getting a few Braxton-Hicks contractions again. I’m feeling kinda crampy periodically. In the ultrasound, the baby is seen as doing lots of practice breathing. My NST today went well. I had them turn the music louder to wake up the baby, and that worked. Baby’s heartbeat and movements seem stronger this pregnancy than with Levee, but the growth is even worse. 2 Weeks ago, baby was estimated at 3lbs. 3oz. This week–3lbs. 4oz.
This week has been rough on my body due to lots of video conference calls combined with a trifecta of pregnancy nausea, extreme heartburn/acid reflux, and sinus drainage. Once Covid-19 began making everyone nervous about people coughing, I started taking a daily antihistamine pill instead of just dosing some Benadryl at night as needed. This coincided with the really beginning of Spring in Bloom allergens taking flight, so it was also necessary for that reason. A couple of days this week I threw up not too long after taking the allergy pill. I was worried about taking too much if I took another pill, but my symptoms got way worse. I have been coughing/throwing up a lot of mucus. I also throw up mucus/spit due to pregnancy nausea. And my heartburn/acid reflux gets really bad, too, so I’ll cough up/throw up bile, phlegm, and my mouth makes extra saliva.
I never ended up finishing this post… but I’ll share it for posterity, anyway. I ended up being admitted to the hospital twice during my 34th week of pregnancy for extremely high blood pressure and baby’s heartbeat/activity level dropping off. The second time I was admitted to the hospital, I ended up having a c-section and as of today, April 21st, have not yet left–we are still here with our preemie baby, Wry “Batty” or “Batch” Batture Sanders, born April 10th 3lbs 6oz and 17″ long.