Back and Forth

I'm sure all you regular readers (aka family members) already know the scoop but for those that don't, here's a brief recap of the baby related events of this past week.

After Monday's trip to labor and delivery I felt okay on Tuesday.  By Tuesday night, a dull headache had resumed.  Wednesday morning, the headache was worse and I just wasn't feeling right.  It's hard to explain...kind of weak, dizzy...just "off".  I happened to have my pre-op appointment with Dr. Hanna.  Mom came with me and we talked to her about what's been going on in more detail.  Dr. Hanna suggested we have the amnio for fetal lung maturity on Thursday morning and, if the amnio indicated the lungs were mature, we would deliver on Friday.

So, Mom and I headed out to perinatal early Thursday morning for the amnio.  Not the highlight of my day, but the pain wasn't too bad.  By mid-afternoon I received a call stating that the baby's lung results came back as immature.  I was understandably upset.  I called Dr. Hanna's office to find out where this left us for delivery but also mentioned how much worse I was feeling that day...pounding headache, dizzy, nauseous, etc.  This, of course, prompted them to have me come into their office...so Mom and I were off to Walnut Creek for the second time that day.  My blood pressure was elevated in their office, so we were sent back to labor and delivery for some more monitoring.  All the blood work, urine tests, and blood pressure checks came back okay.  Some of the results show borderline numbers for preeclampsia but nothing high enough to cause major concern.  There was some talk of keeping me overnight for observation, but there were a lot of babies being born that evening and I was sent home...only after being given an injection of demerol that knocked me out for a good 16 hours afterwards.

So here we are today, Friday.  Jeff took the day off and we both went to Dr. Hanna's office this afternoon to talk about what's going to happen with delivery.  Dr. Hanna said that she felt comfortable going forward with delivery next week, even with the amnio results.  The baby will have one more week to develop her lungs.  Dr. Hanna said that there is only so much that I should have to endure and that there are plenty of babies who just come naturally at 38 weeks and are fine.  Given my history of preeclampsia and the type 1 diabetes, it will be time for Claire to make her way into the world and give me back my body.  Jeff and I discussed it and we feel comfortable having her born next week, even without another amnio to test for lung maturity.  We have had 2 children born before 38 weeks and neither Nicholas nor Lexi had any major breathing problems.  It's a tough call, but we both feel that our new baby will be in good hands should there be any complications...that's why we switched to a trauma hospital after Nicholas' birth. 

So, the big day is August 15th.  Jeff and I will arrive at the hospital at 5:30 AM and the surgery is set for 7:30.  The surgery should take about an hour.  It's a little longer this time because this is my third c-section, so they have to be a bit more careful about working around all the scar tissue.  I will also be having my tubes tied while in surgery, so baby Claire will be the last Daems baby for Jeff and I. 

We will keep you updated via Facebook and the blog as things progress!