Making Himself Known

It's been quite an interesting week for me and Baby D2. I haven't written much about this pregnancy because I've been too busy with Tali but this week is worth reporting on. (Sorry this is so long.)

Last Friday, I had my monthly check-up and my glucose screening. The test is now about 2 1/2 hours and they draw blood three times. Luckily, there is a lab two floors above my doctor's office that can do the screening so I decided to get it done there in between my appointment. After my first round of blood drawing and drinking the sugar drink (cola flavor - yuck), I went down for my appointment. As my doctor is looking at Baby D2 on the ultrasound, her face suddenly gets very serious. She tells me that his heart rate is dropping very low. She watches it for a minute or two and then tells me I need to get down to the hospital right away so that the baby can be monitored for a bit. As far as the glucose test, she tells me, I can try to get them to draw my blood there, but I might just have to start it over another day.

I drive down to the hospital, check in, and managed to find someone to do my blood. I then wait for an ultrasound technician to take a look. She watches for a while and the heart beat seems okay. Then a doctor comes in and looks for a while. He says it's okay as well and it was probably a combination of fasting for the glucose test and laying too flat at the doctor's office. But, I still need to have the heart rate monitored for 15 minutes. So I go back to the waiting room and I realize that my babysitter won't be able to stay with Tali until I get home. I make some phone calls and find a friend in our complex who can take Tali. I get my blood drawn again and then go for the heart rate monitoring. But since I was only 25 weeks, the baby is still moving a lot and it's near impossible to monitor for 15 consecutive minutes so they do 30 - moving the lobes around from time to time. Before I can leave the hospital, I have to pick up my blood and drive it back up to the lab where my first blood was drawn as all three samples have to be sent for processing at the same time. I finally made it home just in time to put Tali down for her nap.

The weekend was uneventful but then Monday rolled around. I get an e-mail from my doctor that I don't have diabetes but my platelet count is very high. She asks me to call my GI doctor and see if one of my medications could cause this. He explains that my count could rise if I am having a minor flare-up (even though I have no symptoms) and that if it's between 450-500, there is no reason to worry. He asks me to get the exact number and call him back. I learn my number is 531 and call him back. He then says it should be fine and if it gets over 600 then we'll worry.

Later that evening, I had some cramping. I never had any cramping when I was pregnant with Tali so I looked it up but it seemed to be normal so I went to bed. I woke up with cramping again and then began to have some discharge (another thing that never happened with Tali) that continued for a few hours. I called the doctor (right as she was walking into surgery - I felt so bad!) and she told me I should come in and get checked out, just to be safe. After the heart beat dropping and the platelets increasing, she wanted to make sure everything was okay. Once I secured care for Tali - some time with the babysitter and then off to another friend's house in the complex - I went to the doctor. One of the other doctors in the practice checked me out and everything was okay. My doctor called me later that evening to see what her colleague had said and then told me that she's had patients give birth at this stage so they don't mess around. Yikes!

Yesterday, while at the grocery store, I had my first ever Braxton Hicks contraction. I actually had to stop for a minute until it passed. I didn't have any more contractions that day so I'm not too worried. They can start this early but hopefully that one was just a fluke.

Out of all this, the one good thing is that I've learned Tali can go play at a friend's house without me. Both friends said she was perfectly fine at their house. She played with their daughters (same age as Tali) and ate (of course). No crying, no misbehaving - just an extra toddler running around.