Getting Started

FRIDAY MORNING 7:40AM

Got up around 6:00, never could go back to sleep. Got a quick shower, which felt great. They've just started my IV, with pitocin and saline. I have to get another bag of saline in me before we can do the epidural - so that should be another 30 minutes or so.

The midwife is coming up in about an hour to break my water. Should go fast after that.

Jamin is halway here already, LOL!

THURSDAY NIGHT UPDATE, PART THREE:

10:30pm: Really quick ... Mia just came in and checked my cervix. I am already 4cm dilated and 90% effaced! Jamin's head is at +1 station, holy cow! She said they will start pitocin and epidural around 7am, then break my water. She said Jamin will most likely be here before lunch, in her opinion way before lunch in fact.

I am not hooked up to any machines or IV's for the night. So we can actually SLEEP! My nurse just came in and did a blood draw so they can run a PTT test. This will check my Factor X (clotting factors) to make sure it's safe to have the epidural tomorrow. Should have those results within the hour.

WE ARE GOING TO BED .......... GOODNIGHT!!!

T minus 9 hours

THURSDAY NIGHT UPDATE, PART TWO:

A quick update .... we're here at Northside. The admissions process was farily quick and painless, praise the Lord! I am in room C2 on the ground floor. My nurse is Rachael, she is super sweet.

We just finished the 60minute process of paperwork. I am hooked up to the monitors waiting on the midwife, Mia, to come by to confirm Dr. Garcia's orders for the night. I think we've got the Cervadil confusion ironed out, so I'm relieved about that.

I'm soooooooooooo extrememly tired, I'm really wanting to unpack my bag and get ready for bed so I can go ahead and get some sleep. Problem is I'm not allowed off the monitor until Mia gets here, so I'm stuck waiting for a bit. I'm so desperate for some shut-eye!

I'm anticipating that Mia will order IV fluids through the night like Dr. Garcia had planned, and then we'll begin pitocin first thing in the morning when he arrives. Should be early, like 7:30ish.

James is THRILLED with our room, because it has an actual "bed" for him rather than the fold-out chair thingy that requires the bottom 3 feet of his body to hang off the end! He says he feels like a frat boy in a dorm room. :) Then he noted that the only thing cooler than this arrangement would be if we had bunk beds.

Please continue to pray for us: good sleep tonight, no labor until the morning, labor/delivery free of complications and a healthy strong baby.

We will update in the morning...........

GREEN LIGHT!

THURSDAY NIGHT UPDATE

So ............. not much time, it will be short:

Got the call from Northside Hospital about 6pm. Amnio results are in and showed mature lungs! Praise the Lord, all our prayers are being answered one by one!

Laura just came and picked up Gracie. James and I sat down and ate Monterrey's take-out for dinner ... I pigged out majorly since I know that once I arrive at the hospital they will not allow me to eat until after delivery.

James is loading up our bags right now and we will be on the road to Northside in about 10 minutes.

Please pray for smooth admissions process. There was some confusion on the phone with the nurse who called me, she said I was scheduled for a "Cervadil induction". Cervadil is a medication that is commonly given the day before induction, it is inserted vaginally and softens the cervix in preparation for the next day. However, Dr. Garcia specifically told me last week that he does NOT want me to have Cervadil tonight, because I am so "ripe" that it will likely put me in to labor and I would end up delivering before he arrives at the hospital tomorrow morning. I explained this to the nurse over the phone .... she said we would worry about it once I got there.

So please pray that this issue is corrected easily with minimal stress. Also pray for no delivery overnight! Jamin can't arrive until AFTER 7am tomorrow morning!!! Please pray for James and I to get restful sleep tonight, and for Gracie to continue to feel better tomorrow. And of course, the biggie: pray for a supernatural labor and delivery with no complications, and Jamin strong and healthy!!

Will update again once we are settled into the hospital and have a room number, etc.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR PRAYING!!!!!!!!!

Countdown: T minus 18 hours

THURSDAY MORNING UPDATE:

I can't start without first thanking each of you from the bottom of my heart, for your continued prayers and encuraging words. God is doing miracles already today and there is no doubt in my mind that He is hearing each of those prayers. Please keep 'em coming!!!!

I got about 6 hours of sleep last night. That was miracle #1!! Gracie slept like a total log all night long ........... miracle #2. Mom drove me to Northside this morning while Laura stayed at the house with Gracie. We ran into some traffic but made it there in about an hour: miracle #3!

I had my 18th (and hopefully final) ultrasound, and Jamin looks fantastic: miracle #4. They estimate he weighs about 5 lbs 14oz. Then Dr. Mann came in to do the amnio, at which point I was so terrified I was trying not to shake. It went well and we survived: MIRACLE #5!!!! It hurt pretty badly, but only lasted for like 30 seconds. I kept my eyes closed, focused on holding very still, and just prayed through the whole thing. So I didn't see anything scary, but my mom reported it was not a pleasant site to observe. I was then hooked up to the NST monitor for about 20 minutes after the amnio, just to make sure the baby was doing okay after the procedure, and all looked well.

On the way home I called Laura to check on Gracie. She reported that Gracie woke up in a fantastic mood and seemed to be feeling really good, she ate a banana and some water for breakfast: MIRACLE #6!!! What a giagantic relief!

I then got a call from James telling me that WWIII was avoided and our family drama appears to have reached some peaceful resolution: MIRACLE #7!!!!

So much has turned around in the last 12 hours .... oh the Lord is at work!!

I've been resting and trying to stay off my feet as much as possible since I returned home. Laura went back to work and mom has gone home, so it's just me and Gracie for now. She is perky and energetic like her "normal" self, and has had a piece of bread and more water and a lollypop in the last hour.

Please continue to pray for us. We are expecting to get a call with amnio results sometime between maybe 4:30ish and 6:30ish tonight. At that point we will get Gracie handed over to her Grammie, and James and I will head back to the hospital for admission.

Please pray for: mature lungs, minimal confusion receiving amnio results and coordinating admission, and decent sleep for James and I tonight. Also please pray for traveling mercies for my sister, who will likely end up on a red-eye flight tonight from Colorado back to GA.

God is in control of all of these details and so much more! We are so incredibly grateful for your prayers!

I will update more tonight as things change ...........

Limping to the Finish Line

Or really, it would be more accurate to say:

DESPERATELY CLAWING OUR WAY TO THE FINISH LINE.

We now have just two days left until Jamin's arrival, and let me tell you, we are being pummeled from every angle. Please forgive me if this post comes across as super whiny. I'm trying not to whine, truly I am. But I am so overwhelmed, seriously I just need to vent for a moment.

My contractions are growing ever more frequent and painful with each passing hour, every time I think they can't possibly get any worse .... they do. I am contracting about every 6-10 minutes, even though I'm now on the maximum dosage of terbutaline. I also have significant pain way low in my cervix, which does not go away despite hours of laying in bed. I'm guessing that I have to be continuing to dilate. If Jamin is not halfway outta me by the time I arrive at the hospital Thursday night I will be shocked.

Being on the max dosage of terbutaline has me geeked outta my mind. Man, that stuff is nasty. I was on it for nearly 5 weeks with Gracie, and now 12 weeks on/off with Jamin ...... but seriously I am still shocked sometimes at how awful it can make you feel. I am constantly trembling, heart racing, and sometimes have difficulty catching my breath. It's also doing a number on my already problematic blood pressure. Needless to say, sleep is pretty much out the window at this point.

I am still checking Gracie's little head twice a day for nasty bugs. So far we seem to be in the clear, THANK YOU LORD. But Doctor Kaufman says we're not quite out of the woods until Friday. So I'm optimistic, but afraid to declare victory too soon on that one.

My babysitter, Brandi, has landed herself in the hospital now .... complications with her blood pressure and potassium levels. Please pray for her and baby Savannah! Her absence is sorely missed, as I haven't had any help here at the house all week and I am pretty much totally unable to do anything by myself right now.

"THE" family issue that I've been praying about is not resolved, in fact it's only grown a million times worse. I was up at 4:00am this morning having a panic attack over this whole mess. I am trying not to break under the stress, but I'm close.

And last but not least .......... the coup de grâce ............ Gracie woke up at 7am this morning vomiting. James took her to the doctor, where it was determined that she has an unidentified stomach virus. We have no idea at this point how long she will be sick or when she will be passed the contagious point. She has not developed a fever yet, which is the yardstick by which the doctors generally determine the contagious period. We were instructed that if she has no fever and no vomiting by tomorrow, she is fine to come to the hospital to meet her brother on Friday.
But if she has any fever or any vomiting tomorrow, then she has to stay away. I haven't even had the heart to tell her yet .......... she will be DEVASTATED. As I am. All we can do at this point is wait and see.

In the meantime, James and I are washing our hands so feverishly that the skin is ready to fall off. We are praying that she recovers quickly, and that neither of us contract it. We are feeding her small sips of pedialyte, which seems to be our only option as she was throwing up water earlier today. If/when she keeps down the pedialyte for 8 solid hours, then we can try some bread or applesauce.

I am desperately begging for your prayers!!! We are so overwhelmed and my brain can hardly function at this point. I truly want to just break down and cry for a bit, but I don't even have the energy to do that.

Please pray for:
1. Gracie: no fever, hold down foods, recovery by tomorrow, no head lice.
2. James and I: no stomach virus, a few hours of sleep, maintain sanity.
3. Jamin: mature lungs by tomorrow!
4. Pregnancy complications: amnio tomorrow morning with no problems, normal blood pressure, contractions and cervical pain under control, NO SPONTANEOUS LABOR.
5. Gigantic family thing: resolution before WWIII breaks out.

Okay, that's all my brain can handle for now.

Makin' plans

Today was a super busy day. It began at 9am when I got a phone call from Gracie's beloved preschool teacher, Mrs. Meyer, who apologetically informed me that Gracie has been exposed to head lice by one of her classmates. Isn't that fabulous timing? I seriously had to hold back the tears on the phone, I simply can not add anything else to my plate right now. I am completely overwhelmed as it is, both emotionally and physically, ughhhhhhhhhhhhh.

So I've been nervously checking her sweet little head every chance I get, and so far I don't see anything. I am PRAYING that nothing materializes, I will just lose my mind if I am having to fumagate my entire house and scramble to rid my baby of nasty bugs next week on top of preparing for Jamin's arrival. I am seriously way over my stress limit as it is.

My blood pressure problems have been worsening this week. This is something that we've been fighting for the last 6 weeks or so - my pressure basically drops super low periodically throughout the day. I will have these episodes where I feel totally fine one moment, then tingly and faint the next minute. They have been giving me IV fluids at the hematologist to try and help boost my pressure, but that only helps for a day or two at best. Wednesday I had Brandi take me to the fire station since it's right around the corner from my house .... my pressure was 86/40. The paramedic explained (and my doctor's have confirmed), that basically this is a result of me being a thin person, and my body is just overwhelmed with the pregnancy and all the medications I'm on.

My contractions have been increasing to insane frequency this week as well. I'm regularly having 6-7 contractions per hour ... earlier this week I topped out at a record 9 in one hour. I am feeling very heavy and painful pressure down "THERE"; I swear when I get up to pee I'm thinking, "Jamin please don't fall out!". It's crazy. I can definately attest to the fact that my body is about to give up on this whole pregnancy thing.

My mom arrived at noon today to drive me to my TWO back-to-back doctor's appointments. I saw Dr. Mann first, and had ultrasound #17. Jamin looks great, he weighs approximately 5lb 11oz! (This should put him in the neighborhood of about 6lb 3oz at birth.) I then saw Dr. Garcia, who felt my cervix and reported I'm about 2cm dilated and still 80% effaced. He looked me square in the face today and said, "I absolutely can not believe you are still pregnant!". I told him ... me neither, but my God is in the miracle business!

We are all set up for next week's induction. Here's the plan at this point:
Thursday 4/9 I will have the amnio at 9:30am, performed by Dr. Mann at Northside Hospital. She must have the sample off to the lab by 10am in order to receive the results back same-day. We are expecting results around dinnertime Thursday evening. This will be after office hours, so it will be the on-call physician who will call my house with the results. If we get the green light, then we will grab our bags and head to Northside Hospital to be admitted (late) Thursday night. They want to have me in a room and prepped the night before the induction.

Because I've been having issues with my blood pressure, Dr. Garcia wants to "drown me with fluids" he said .... his goal is to get about 3bags of IV fluids in me between Thursday night and Friday morning. He will arrive Friday morning 4/10 around 7:30am to begin the induction. He will start a pitocin drip and break my water and hopefully it will be quick!

I will have to come off my aspirin this weekend, and off my heparin by Wednesday, so that it's all out of my system 24hrs before the amnio. By induction time it will have been 48hrs since my last heparin dose. This is pushing it a little to have no anti-coagulants for this length of time, but my docs are confident we'll be okay. At least with plenty of time for these meds to wash out of my system, it means it should be safe to get an epidural, which is a gigantic relief for me!

We WILL have to take special precautions with the epidural, since I'm allergic to fentanyl (one of the narcotics commonly included inside the epi). Dr. Garcia says the anesthesiologist should be able to exclude just the fentanyl and leave the rest, and I should still get adequate pain control. The epidural also lowers your blood pressure, so they will be watching me closely for that. The 3 bags of fluids should help combat this problem.

SOOOOOOOO .... hopefully we will have a healthy baby here by Friday afternoon! I will plan to take the laptop with us to the hospital, and I'll have James try to post an 'announcement' on the blog for everyone.

We will re-start the heparin approx. 12 hours after delivery. That will continue twice a day for 6 weeks post-partum. It is safe to take while breastfeeding.

Please be much in prayer for us as we limp through these last few days! Here are the specifics that are worrying me:
1. No head lice for Gracie .... PLEASE JESUS!!!
2. No spontaneous labor, Jamin needs to hold on until Friday 4/10!!
3. Safe amnio on Thursday, minimal pain with NO COMPLICATIONS
4. Fast amnio results showing MATURE LUNGS
5. Minimal confusion receiving amnio results and coordinating hospital admission
6. Decent sleep Thursday night for both myself and James.
7. Maintain safe blood pressure levels
8. Labor free from complications and Jamin HEALTHY AND STRONG at delivery
9. Resolution of a family thing, which I can't discuss, but the Lord knows what it is .... please just pray for "THE issue" to be resolved with minimal stress and hurt feelings.

I am so so grateful for your love and prayers, for your phone calls, for your sweet offers of help, for the food you've sent, or your words of encouragement .......... THANK YOU!!! The Lord has truly just carried us through this whole journey, and one way He has done that is through the generosity of our friends and family. To Him be all the honor and glory forever and ever, amen!!!

There's a light at the end of this tunnel ...

Lots of big news to report:

I endured my VERY LAST injection of 17-hydroxy-progesterone Friday morning. I will really miss seeing my sweet home nurse, Sharon, each week .... she always gives me a comforting word of advice and straight answers to my questions and concerns. However I will most definitely NOT miss the 40-foot needle, the bruises, and certainly not the limping that takes place for days afterwards.

ALSO ..... I'm excited to say that Jamin will almost definitely be arriving within the next two weeks ... we have an induction date!!! Dr. Garcia wants to induce tentatively on Friday April 10 (which is Good Friday -- how cool is that?) I will be 36w2d at that point. Due to the medications I'm taking, particularly the heparin, he feels the safest route is to get Jamin OUT as soon as his lungs are mature and ready.

The plan at this point is to do an amniocentesis in the morning of Thursday April 9th. This test carries risks, along with the largest needle known to man .... both of which scare the crap outta me. But it also will tell us the level of Jamin's lung maturity. We should have the results back by Thursday afternoon. If all looks well with his lungs, we will go forth with the induction on Friday morning April 10. Dr. Garcia says I'm "ripe and ready to go" (his words), so he anticipates that the induction will only require a small dose of pitocin to get the ball rolling, at which point I should labor and deliver quickly.

I am so eager to meet Jamin, and to end what feels like the world's longest pregnancy rollercoaster ride!

In the meantime, I'm slowly scratching things off my "must do before the baby arrives" list, and praying that Jamin actually WAITS until April 10th. My contractions have really been borderline out-of-control for the last 3+ days ... upwards of 6-8 per hour ... so I am practically holding my breath.

I'm in great need of your continued prayers! Please pray specifically for (1) a safe amnio procedure (2) mature lungs by April 9th; (3) no spontaneous labor prior to April 10th; and (4) comfort for our fears.

More updates soon!!!