Here Comes Brooklyn!

WARNING: THIS IS A LONG POST

Ok, so it's official. Brooklyn is ready to be here and she is ready to be here now. I don't know if it is because her daddy didn't talk to her before he left for his trip and she is trying to go after him, or if she is just tired of us trying to see her face and is thinking "Fine, I'll show you my face!!" Either way, she decided to throw me into pre-term labor on Thursday, October 23rd, and my doctor has now moved me to high risk and bed rest!

The Brooklyn going after her daddy thing first. When we dropped her daddy off at the airport Wednesday morning he didn't talk to her and say goodbye. He has been talking to her a lot lately. I know she probably really didn't know what was going on, but when her daddy and I walked away from each other she started kicking the crap out of me. So I am saying she was mad and this is her daddy's fault! :)

Second theory. She is tired of us trying to see her beautiful face. Every time we have an ultrasound, she hides her face with the exception of the very last one, or what we thought to be the last one. I watched the DVD that we got with the package from the ultrasound place Wednesday night, pre bed rest period, and they had only recorded the first try on the dvd. Yes, the try where you can't see a darn thing besides he foot. The second try, where we could actually see her face and we got to see her yawn and all that other precious beautiful stuff. Gone. I called back yesterday and told them it wasn't on there. They informed me they didn't have it saved. So what they are going to do is have me come back in and try to get another video of her. I have asked my doctor, since I am on bed rest, if this would be ok for me to do since next week is the last week that they can even do the ultrasound. She said it was fine as long as I wasn't up walking around a lot and putting any strain or pressure on her. So Thursday at 5:30 I have an appointment to go to the ultrasound place to try one last time to actually get some pictures of her pre-birth. I'm sure she won't like it, but she'll just have to deal and hopefully cooperate one last time for me. I will be drinking orange juice again!

Now back to the bed rest. So I went in Thursday morning for my regular routine check up with Dr. Fletcher. Everything was going fine, minus the time I had to wait because she was in delivery. Brooklyn's heart beat was 150, my blood pressure was 120 over 80, and everything seemed to be checking out ok. I assumed I would be out of there in no time and on my way back up to work. I almost just canceled the appointment since I had been the week before, but decided to go ahead and go anyway since Dr. Fletcher will be out of town all next week.

So the doctor comes in. Asks me how I am doing... any bleeding, no. Any contractions, no. Ok, so she asks me about some upper back pain I complained about a week or two ago. I told her that it wasn't as bad, but now the only back pains I was having were lower down. I told her that the past week off and on I had cramps like I did way back when I had my menstrual cycle and all. She paused... then said, "ok... well this is your baby, so we don't know if you would be at risk for pre-term labor. Tell ya what. I am going to be out of town next week. You are only 31 weeks along, so there shouldn't be anything going on, but let's just do an exam and make sure there is no monkey business going on."

So here I am thinking, ok, she will find nothing, it's probably just typical back pain brought on by all the rapid weight gain. BOY was I wrong. She did the cervix exam and low and behold I was dilated to a one almost a two already. I was in pre-term labor she said. The cramps I had been feeling off and on all week. Yeah, not cramps, CONTRACTIONS! I told her that I hadn't had any Braxton-Hicks contractions or anything else yet. She informed me that some women don't. That there is a precept ion that every single contraction is going to be very painful, and that it just isn't the case with some women. Mine were light, but I was dilated to almost a two and Brooklyn was 60- 70% effacement already so she was sending me to the hops ital and putting me on bed rest until 36 weeks at least.

Dr. Fletcher gets on the phone with the hospital to tell them I am on my way. I am in such shock I'm on the verge of tears. Dale is in Orlando. She's not due for another two months. I'm on BED REST! I was suppose to go to work! I was freaking out and couldn't retain anything the doctor was telling me because I was so scared something was going to happen to Brooklyn.

So now, I have to go to the doctor every week until Brooklyn is here. I have been moved into a high risk category as well and will have to be closely monitored. I go in next Wednesday for an appointment with one of her partner doctors in the office, then will hopefully see Dr. Fletcher the rest of the time. She told me it was really important that we try to get Brooklyn to 35 weeks though so she would be healthy and her lungs would be fully developed. So I made my appointment and headed to the hospital. So that is the story of how and why I am on bed rest. The hospital stay is a whole other long post to come later. I am sure I am leaving something out, but hey, I am on bed rest pretty much the rest of the year, so I will be posting on here a lot now! Watch out world, Brooklyn's ready to be here!

Love,
Jennifer