Week 33

Another eventful week here at the Miglini house!  Let's see if I can even begin to keep it brief...  I had a scheduled appointment with the midwife on Monday this week after school and I brought up some concerns I'd had about the number of and length of the contractions I'd been having whenever I'd been on my feet at school or out running errands.  A new thing that started though was some awful cramps down low and a feeling of pressure along with the contractions.  She did an exam and ran some tests to see if there was any bacterial infection (there wasn't) but thought it might feel like the cervix was thinning.  Since this could be a sign of preterm labor and she wanted to ensure that I at least got to the 34 week mark, she ordered me to stay home the following day and she scheduled an ultrasound (again) to check on the cervix (see if it was starting to thin out) and any other signs of preterm labor.  So I went in the next morning for the ultrasound and luckily, the cervix was measuring normally, but she noticed that I didn't seem to have much amniotic fluid (sound familiar from 2 weeks ago?!)  If you remember form an earlier post, I had a fluid measurement of 7.3 which was a little low, and another one 2 days later measured at 13 (normal range).  Well, now it was 6.  So she sent me back down to the midwife and she was now concerned about a high slow leak of amniotic fluid and told me I would need to stay home from work for the rest of this week with everything that had been happening.  She sent me to a high risk OB upstairs to determine whether or not there was, in fact, a slow leak.  So I went to that appt. and had another ultrasound.  They measured everything and looked at the placenta and cord.  This time (only a few hours after the previous ultrasound), the fluid levels were 11. Apparently, it can change depending on who does the ultrasound.  I am not sure why THIS particular doctor's measurements are the only RIGHT ones, but that's basically what he said.  (What, so he was saying that the ultrasound techs. downstairs in the same building with lots of experience are dumb and don't do their job right?)  Anyway, he said everything looked good and asked me what problems I'd been having.  As I started to explain about the contractions, cramping, and pressure, he interrupted me to tell me, "Oh well that's normal because the baby is low."  Well... my midwives have known for a couple weeks that the baby is very low already and were still concerned about how much discomfort I'd had.  After an exam to make sure there wasn't a leak of fluid (that came back negative), he went on to say that he's very concerned about the baby's weight.  She's 4lbs. 3oz.  He then informed me that I am not eating well enough and need to load up on protein to help her gain some weight.  I asked him about how he felt about me working even with the problems I have every afternoon at school and he said it was no big deal - that I could just sit more.  (Duh! I sit as much as I possibly can already, but hello, I am an elementary school teacher!)  Needless to say, I left this appointment extremely frustrated because I didn't get any answers about the pain I've had (except that it's not preterm labor which is good news) and now had something totally different to be concerned with.  I checked back with my midwife and asked if she could write a note to allow me back to work since this other doctor seemed unconcerned.  She asked how I felt about it and since I'd rather save as many sick days as possible for after the baby is here, I told her I'd prefer to work and just take it as easy as I can.  So she wrote me a note and I went back yesterday.  Then today, I was feeling awful from the moment I got to work and ended up taking the afternoon off.  I'll go back tomorrow though.  I just can't seem to be on my feet at all without starting to have at least 4 - 6 contractions every hour that last quite awhile.  While I'm having them, it's impossible to concentrate on anything else because they can get so uncomfortable and make it harder to breathe.  That doesn't mix well with trying to teach 25 fourth graders!  Maybe next week will be uneventful... we'll see!!!