Dress rehearsal, decisions and waiting

Previously I wrote about the process of believing it’s real that we’re pregnant – all of this came to a head while we were in Italy and that’s where we left off 🙂

If you’ve been following along you know that I mainly have been using this blog to write out thoughts and document this journey… eventually we might meander back to random topics!!

But this is kind of “Chapter 3” in this pregnancy writings – and we left off in Italy.

Alas – we did return from that trip and haven’t been waiting there since the last post (although we were hard-pressed to leave Tuscany!) 

We had a long travel time home – well – longer than it should have been.  In short, our 3am morning in Venice started with them taking us out of line at check-in with zero explanation while other passengers on our same flight got to check bags and head to security.  After the explanation came that we would be missing our connection (which actually wasn’t the issue), and then maybe not (?) they let us through…

We arrived in the Paris airport on time and after a lot of confusion discovered that one of the pilots for our Paris-MSP was sick and couldn’t fly. So we were stuck in Paris until they found a pilot that could get us stateside…

6 hours later we were on our plane – to Boston. Although everyone got to stay on the plane, we had to stop in Boston to get a new pilot because our Paris-Boston pilot only had enough flight hours left to make it to Boston, not Minneapolis.

Those faces are about how we felt with the whole ordeal.  BUT! We were safe and headed to MSP!

Once we landed we got off the plane and headed to customs – along with 4 other full planes that deboarded ahead of us…

At this point we had been awake (I “slept” for maybe an hour on the way home) for 20 hours.  The 1,000+ person line had me rather… well – faint. But a sweet TSA employee noticed my state, got me in a wheelchair and to the front of customs we went!  We even got a complete escort all the way to our Uber. 

As we were headed home (during evening rush our) we realized how necessary that all was given that I was not doing well… We called the midwives as I was having what we believed to be contractions. I was given instructions to hydrate, rest, take Epsom salt and essential oil baths until they calmed down.

Neither of us slept much that night (on/off for about 4 hours) we called in again as they were only getting stronger and closer.  Upon timing them they were 8 minutes between (painful) contractions.  It was now morning rush hour, but at least we got a good practice run driving into the hospital in traffic 😉 lol – we kept calling it our “dress-rehearsal”

Our midwife called ahead to Abbott’s Mother Baby unit and they got us right into an intake room and hooked up on monitors and fluids.  Turns out – contractions where 2-3 mins apart with the big ones every 5-8… so it was a good thing we went in!  I was dehydrated and quite exhausted. 

So home we went!  Dan was just amazing through allllll of this ordeal – he unpacked ev.er.y.thing. from our trip and made all the meals – I couldn’t do much beyond lying in wait (and pain) for these to pass… Walking was rough, but we did a bit of that and the baths sure helped, but that afternoon the pain had gotten stronger. The on call midwife had us come in that evening to double check everything and gave me something to help me relax and hopefully sleep that night. 

As bedtime rolled around and after yet another Espom salt/EO bath I was able to get to bed and sleep – which was MUCH needed after only getting 5 hours sleep in the previous 48 hours and being in pain throughout it – wooosh I was ready!

Later the next day the contractions subsided and I was feeling 50% back to normal.  A few chiropractic visits and massage had me going again in a few days!

The next week brought a bunch of appointments, including our Level 2 (aka – “20 week” ) ultrasound.

We had one scheduled with the Perinatologists in Maple Grove due to the fibroids they had previously found.

It was so fun to have all four of our parents come up for this appointment and we sure had a full house in the ultrasound room! How neat it was to see all the little details of this sweet babe!  Including it’s gallbladder – which looks healthy in case you were wondering! lol What an amazing Creator we have!

However, we did find out that the once “large” fibroid is now considered “huge” and grew by over 20% since our last appointment… this is not ideal especially since the fibroid is now pressing against my cervix.  At this point (21 weeks along) we were advised by the Perinatologist that we should not deliver at the birth center, but deliver at the hospital. She said that we “don’t need to schedule a C-section yet” but need to be prepared…

After our midwives got to view the results of the ultrasound they too agree that we should deliver at Abbott, not the center and they informed us that we had “risked out” of midwife care.

Well!  Not the news we were hoping for, to say the least…

We’ve talked a lot and had a follow up ultrasound since (no change this time) so we’re in a holding pattern.  This fibroid is no joke and right at “the exit” making a vaginal delivery complicated, challenging and potentially risky or impossible.  

So for now we wait. Thankful to be aware of all of this beforehand so we can be prepared… and meeting with/finding an OB/GYN for the remainder of the pregnancy and delivery. It certainly isn’t the homey, warm, relaxed environment I had hoped for, but after seeing a better picture of this beast that’s taking up way too much space – well – we know it’s the necessary choice.

Waiting… you’d think I’d be used to this by now! Next step is another US at 35 weeks to see how the fibroid is and if they think baby can even turn/flip or is already head down.  (there’s a realistic chance it won’t even be able to flip into position or get head down due to the size – nearly 10cm in diameter – and location, making a vaginal birth a no-go)

Any prayers you can send up for this fibroid to move or disappear (painlessly!) would be appreciated!

xox,
Karin