A Nervous 8th Week

I was a little nervous that I might be reporting different news today. I have had some abdominal discomfort in the evenings (probably from over-doing things with Precious Miracle's birthday tomorrow) all week. It's been a pulling/burning sensation straight down from a few inches below my naval. As I would relax in bed at like 8:30-9:00 relief would not come as quickly as I thought it should have and nights have been a terrible bout of tossing and turning.

Speaking of nights, last night, my stomach turned into one big tight mass and I was so scared I was in the process of a miscarriage. The Prometrium can postpone or prolong a miscarriage and even though there was no bleeding, I was still worried.

I called my local group and Dr. Gerson (the doc who told me my membranes were bulging with my peanut) refused to see me. He insisted I see Dr. Davis because, "If you miscarry, he's the one who needs to deal with it." Great, huh? Perfect choice of words for someone dealing with an anxiety-ridden, high-risk pregnancy. I do see the group on Wednesday and I pleaded asking what difference less than one week makes. I mean, what changes between Thursday and Wednesday that I miraculously can become their patient?

So, I called Dr. Davis who knew it was me by caller-ID. He is wonderful! He said to come on over, that he will always see me, anytime. So, luckily my MIL was able to take PM and I made the long drive to South Jersey alone.

The wonderful nurse, Patty, the woman we had last time, called me right back for a transvaginal ultrasound. Thankfully, the baby was going strong with a heartbeat of 163. The sack was the proper shape and the baby was measuring 8w 1d - exactly one week ahead of where we were last week. Thank God!

Dr. Davis then came in and told me my pain (severe pain) was caused by a retroflexed uterus. Basically, my uterus was tipped backward and due to the growth of the uterus during the past week, has now started to cause some significant pain. I presented my ideas - dehydration, constipation but it turns out the retroflection was the culprit and he offered to manually manipulate my uterus back into position. It hurt so bad and I think I broke the fingers in the hand of the intern shadowing him this week.

There is a 50/50 chance it will hold. If not, I need to go back for another manipulation and have a pessary placed (a vaginal support to hold things in the proper spot until the uterus is big enough to become an abdominal organ). I am totally against the pessary as it is a foreign body that could introduce infection and inflamation and I want to avoid ascending infection at all costs. If a pessary was placed prophalactic antibiotics would be a must. Oh, and the reason for my terrible constipation (sorry if TMI) is because my uterus is blocking things. Great.

So, I am ordered to bedrest for the next 24 hours. So much for decorating the house. Then I have to take it easy, no lifting or abdominal exertion (lifting my nut, laundry baskets and closing the hatch on my station wagon, for example).

The good news is, the baby is doing just fine. The bad news is, I might have to deal with this again, perhaps tomorrow or Saturday. Tomorrow is our NICU dedication and Saturday is the birthday party.

So, here I am, in bed, trying to fiqure out how I am going to turn my house into Elmo's World so when my two year old daughter wakes up for her birthday tomorrow, she is in awe.