Good morning! It's Good Friday, a day to focus on our blessings and the amazing gift Jesus gave us by dying on the cross for our sins. When I think of that it begins a much needed attitude adjustment. Huge changes hace happened this week that I'm only just beginning to process. A week ago I reached a huge milestone in my life, after ten years of teaching I spent my last day in the classroom. Wow! I'm not sure that has even sunk in yet. This week is spring break and I had a long list of things I wanted to get accomplished before I started really resting. Monday I prepared for our H&R Block appointment and paid bills - I did manage to do all that in bed. Tuesday and Wednesday my incredible Mom helped me go through my classroom, sorting books and pulling my personal supplies out of the classroom closet. We for most of it home and piled high in my dining room. I say "we", all mom would let me do was sit and sort books. I lifted nothing. The plan was for Donny and I to go back Saturday and get the rest. Plans, ha, how things change.
Thursday was booked too. 1:00 anatomy scan appointment (four hour long appointment) and 6:00 breast feeding class. Mom was so excited to see her grand babies for the first time! They began with Georgie. She is WAY down at the bottom of the pile. That made it hard to get clear images because her sisters and brother were casting shadows on her. How interesting is that? I had no idea that you could get shadows on an ultrasound, but just like light waves are blocked by objects sound waves can also be blocked by a dense enough object. Georgie was a bit difficult to scan because of that, but eventually the tech was able to get in all the parts. There was quite a list of anatomy parts to scan: tibia and fibula on both legs, femur on both legs, both feet, spine (both as a long shot and in slice sections), skull circumference, belly circumference, fall bladder, kidneys, bladder, stomach, brain (all sections), heart (multiple parts like the aortic arch, all four chambers, all four valves), palette.
We listened to her heart beat and each of the valves in her heart. I learned that every valve sounds different and creates a different wave pattern. The computer composites the femur length, belly circumference, and head circumference to then make a prediction of the baby's weight. Georgie was one pound two ounces! That put her in the 75th percentile! What a tough little girl! The pregnancy app on my phone says at 23 weeks they are almost a pound. The scan was at 22 weeks and 3 days. We are ahead of the curve!
The scan continued with Dorothy, who was very cooperative and much easier because she is up on my right with no one to block her. The tech said scanning her was textbook. Once the computer did its magic we had a prediction on one pound for Dorothy. Yay! I took a quick bathroom break at that point just to walk a little since I'd been flat on my back for just over an hour. We quickly learned that we'd done the two easier babies. Merril and Molly are on my left side, Molly above and Merril below. They are the little jumping beans. It is really hard to focus the ultrasound on a tiny heart valve to listen in when your subject keeps wiggling away. The tiniest move turns the steady whoosh, whoosh sound into a garble then nothing. Merril weighed in at a pound and little mover Molly was the smallest at 15 ounces. She's burning it off squirming and kicking!
So, that was the fun part. The babies were scanned by 3:40. All that remained was the cervix measurement. I took another bathroom break and assumed the position in the stirrups. I knew as soon as the image appeared that there was some change. Georgie's head was smack up against my cervix, but that wasn't my concern. What had one just looked like a tight line now had a "v" shaped space facing toward the uterus. The tech got quiet as she wrapped up making the measurement and went to get the nurse practitioner. We waited a while, then when Ginger, the nurse practitioner arrived, she told us that my cervix should be measuring 2-3 centimeters, but had narrowed to 1.3 centimeters. That meant bed rest. Not just "house arrest" but stay-in-in-bed-except-to-go-to-the-bathroom bed rest. That was a bomb shell. I had not expected bed rest so soon.it was one of the nebulous, one day I may....ideas. I asked about the breast feeding class and Ginger said there would be plenty of people to help me when it was time for that, to go home.
The appointment ended with Donny being instructed to go get the car and me being loaded into a wheelchair to ride down to be picked up. I'll go back next Wednesday to check my cervix and see if I can continue resting at home or will need to be admitted to the hospital. I will start taking progesterone tonight to try and keep my cervix tight and at 24 weeks will get steroids shots to help the babies lungs mature more quickly.
So today I am in bed. Donny set me up with everything I need in arms length reach and now I wait. That's where the need for the attitude adjustment comes in. It is so weird to HAVE to stay reclined in bed. No wiggle room for clearing out the dishwasher or folding clothes. No going to the grocery store. Just laying, waiting, resting. But I am blessed beyond measure! The babies are growing, I have family and friends rallying around to help out. My doctors are amazing. Please just join me in praying that the babies will keep growing and stay put for a long time yet!
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