Tuesday was any other day, Katelyn's summer break was winding down and my Bradley Method coach, photography buddy and bff (all the same awesome chick) decided to have a breakfast date followed by a mini photo shoot. She really needed some belly pics for my shower invites, exciting! :) After breakfast and the photo shoot I had a doctors appointment scheduled at Desert Perinatal Associates with Dr. Adeshek (amazing). I had plans to tell him I was switching to Dr. Harter to attempt my VBAC. It was all planned, right down to my conversation with him. Well little did I know so much had changed since my last routine visit, and all my plans were about to change. I guess it's true what they say, life happens when your busy making plans.
So about the doctors visit, we arrive and walk into the room with the large flat screen T.V. mounted on the wall in front of the table so we can see our little bundles of joy in 52 inch HD. I lay down and wait for Mary Jo our ultrasound tech to get started. She begins by saying this is going to take awhile because she has to be very careful to measure each baby's growth, all is well and we watch the T.V, in awe. Katelyn is in the room taking in the images on the screen as well, she's interested but over it in about 5 minutes. Typical 6 year old attention span but cute nonetheless asking questions about her siblings. Mary Jo then tells us there is a pediatric cardiologist who will be observing the ultrasound as well, it seems at our last visit Baby A showed some extra fluid around his heart so Dr. A wanted to make sure all was well. He called a specialist in to observe and with that in walked the Dr. who assured us even though baby A has more fluid it's within the normal range and we shouldn't worry. He will be monitoring Baby A (our baby boys) heart closely over the next couple of weeks. Then the question comes from Mary Jo........"Do you feel any pressure, pelvic pressure" I answer "yes" thinking nothing of it, afterall I am carrying two babies.
The mood stays the same, on the up and up, Mary Jo is a professional she isn't giving anything away. She concludes and says "I'll be back with Dr. Adeshek" nothing out of the normal, he always comes in to talk and measure my cervical length.........We sit waiting with an impatient six year old and then the knock and open of the door.....it's Dr. A and he doesn't look happy.
He says, "Well I hear your having some pressure ?" "Mary Jo thinks she saw something and I'm going to take a look" "Two seconds later we are all looking at this opening of what looks like Pac Man's mouth on the 52 inch TV. Problem is that isn't Pac Man, it's my cervix and it's open, baby A is trying to push his way out. Now insert panic into everyones mood. The exact words are a blur I don't remember much after this other than Dr. A saying I need an emergency cerclage and a shot to stop contractions. He says the babies will be born in a day or so if I don't have the procedure and so an OR was booked for the following day. I was told to go home and lay in bed, no movement or walking except to the bathroom and to the car for the surgery the following day. I just remember thinking "this can't be real, I feel great, the babies are healthy, everything is fine" The reality was nothing was fine, everything was going wrong and at 20 weeks. These babies don't have a shot at 20 weeks, so with that I went home and waited, still in shock.
Wednesday was of course Katelyn's first day of First Grade so I made Brent drive me to school so I could at least hug her before she went to class (her dad took her that morning) Then we headed to the hospital. I checked into Labor and Delivery and they took me to "my room" thats when I knew this wasn't an in and out sort of thing. I waited for my op time of 12:30 and about 20 min before Dr. Adeshek came in to chat with us, he's so sweet and compassionate someone I can't even begin to describe. He helped answer questions and ease our fears and then he helped wheel me back to the OR. Asking if I was scared and talking to me about what he was going to do, how it would help and what I needed to concentrate on, then in the OR he and the nurse held my hand as my spinal was placed and my legs became numb (a feeling I despise). I talked the entire time to try and settle my nerves, I even gave him a hard time about his choice of music (he had his iphone plugged in playing music) Then while he was trying to stitch my incompetent and crappy cervix closed he preceded to tell me how much worse it was than yesterday and how worried he was about the entire situation. Thanks doc, not much I can do at this point except panic more, he tries to reassure me but his genuine surprise about the situation says it all. The nurses even gasp as baby A's amniotic sac can be seen, then I feel some sharp tugs and pulls and he explains he's almost finished. Then the next bad news comes, "Your cervix is very very soft, it should feel like the end of your nose, and yours feels like the webbing between your thumb and pointer finger. The next words out of his mouth are "bed rest" and thats about where my mind wonders, how on earth can I be on bed rest, I was just at the YMCA two days ago. Ugh .......
It took 7 hours for the spinal to wear off, they said it would only take 2-3. Trust me, nothing is ever "normal" with me. I clawed myself to death as the drugs wore off, my stomach and legs red from me scratching. Brent was ready to tie my hands to the bed, it's the worst I hate when those meds start to wear off, I itch uncontrollably. Again, another reason I don't want a C-section.
I guess I should be concentrating on getting these babies to 36 weeks and less on my delivery method, at this point Dr. A says all we can do is pray and take it week by week, or even day by day.
So here's to making 4 days past my surgery.
Pictures before the chaos
