How this all began

Many of my friends and family have been aware of how tricky I thought this pregnancy was so far.... little did I know! Up to a few weeks ago, I had the usual nausea for the first 5 months that converted itself into heartburn for another month. Was in the ER before Thanksgiving with contractions but after being monitored & hydrated for some hours, sent home with no drugs even. What that visit did do was start a series of tests which would lead us to understand possible issues with the big boy growing inside of me.

Standard procedure was to do a "20 week ultrasound" because one hadn't been done as of then. Unbeknowest to me, the tech thought she saw a spot on the heart. This led my OB to refer my to Dr. Tabsh for a look. Dr. T wasn't worried about the spot, but thought we should have cardiologist, Dr. Satou, take a listen to the irregular heartbeat. Oddly enough, Dr. Satou wasn't concerned about the spot, nor the beat, but found something else. The baby's aortic & pulmonary arteries connected to the heart were dilated. Leading to a connective tissue disorder like a Marfan's or Loeys Dietz Syndrome. Both of which we can not be certain of or how they will present themselves in him until he's born.

I continued to see Dr. Tabsh to monitor the size of the baby. At one appointment, he noticed a couple more issues. I had too much amniotic fluid and a ventricle in his brain was dilated a bit as well... we still don't know what all this means. Too many variables led me to want to switch to Dr. T as my main OB. On a Friday when one of my sister's came into town to sew things for the baby's room, we did some errands together and finally picked up my records to deliver to Dr. T's office. I'd been having contractions but wasn't really sure if I should take them too seriously. I made an appt for the following Thurs to do the paperwork and Friday for a check-up.

We went about our weekend, sewing and designing. All the while I was sick and coughing up a storm, which I'm sure my pregnant body didn't really dig. (coughing is contracting, no matter how you look at it) By Sunday night, I started having regular contractions again. We all went out to dinner before taking Tami to the airport and all the while, I was timing them. She was ready to drive me to the hospital. Then they mellowed out. But throughout that evening while I was trying to sleep, I was contracting. I called Dr. T's office first thing and they said to head into the hospital for monitoring. I showered just before coming down... just in case ;-)

I ended up staying for the day. Got a bunch of shots of Terbutaline to mellow the contractions and they got them under control. By 9:30 that night, Mike & Lorrie (my Sister-in-law who was in town because my Father-in-law was in the hospital not doing so well) had come back from a screening biz thing they had attended & Dr. Tabsh came in to release me.

Bed rest, bed rest, bed rest is what he told me. The orders were partial bed rest. Ok to go to the bathroom, do light housekeeping and not lift anything over 10 lbs. Mike took this very seriously. He took the next day to work from home, called his Mom to come up to go over how this was going to work. We figured out a schedule where Lona (my MIL) would come up in the morning to help out with Lila. I'd order groceries online to be delivered to the house. I worked it out with Kim (the most fabulous babysitter in the world who's an LMU student) to take Lila to preschool on Tues & Thurs morning so my MIL wouldn't have to come up until she got out (12 on Tues, 2 on Thurs).

This was going to be tricky but it would work. On Wed, which was our full day at home together, Lila was having trouble comprehending Mommy couldn't get up to play with her. She did come cuddle on the couch with me to draw and read. I just thought, it'll be an adjustment.

The next day Lila woke up early, around 6:30, when she normally has been waking between 7:30-8:30. I was bummed cause I had trouble sleeping but little did I know, this was a gift she was giving me. We hung out on the couch cuddling and reading for about an hour. Then got breakfast and soon after Kim showed up to take her to school.

I had an appointment with Dr. Tabsh's office to do my paperwork @ 1pm. Lona was planning on coming up to pick up Lila from school. Off I went to my appt. As we finally got towards the end of the numerous forms I started having a few contractions. Suzanne & Carla, the nurses who were finishing up my paperwork, didn't feel comfortable sending me home so they sent me upstairs to be monitored. I reluctantly agreed.... and here I am still.