I am five weeks down with my ultrasounds. Baby girl still looks perfect! Woop woop! However, another issue came up a few weeks ago. L was born a little early. 4 weeks early, so it's not like he was a micro preemie or anything, but still, a preemie. I also had a miscarriage a few years ago (5, to be exact). With my history, the mfm has been checking my cervix length. A short cervix is a good indicator of a woman having preterm labor. I should be no shorter than 40mm. Three weeks ago, I measured at 35mm. That's short, but not enough for them to be too concerned yet. The following week, the ultrasound tech had a really hard time getting accurate measurements because this baby sits right on my cervix. She took 3 measurements, the longest was 31mm. Not only is that too short, but it also means it shortened by 4mm in a week. Again, they didn't say anything to me about it, but I could tell something was up. The ultrasound tech always tries to print out a picture for me, but she didn't. She quickly took my results to the doctor. They also stressed that I be back in a week (which I do anyway, but they made sure of it this time). When I came in the following week (last week), I had a different tech. I was already a little stressed out since I have a lot of braxton hicks contractions and knew it was already too short. Then she started asking me all kinds of questions that just seemed like something was wrong. I try really hard not to panic, but honestly, I was really worried about it. But God is bigger and stronger and more capable than anything, and once again, He proved it to me. I expected to go home on bed rest, instead, my cervix measured a whopping 55mm!!! Holy Moly! God is so good.
I wrote that several weeks ago now. Since then, my doctors have been able to see more accurate measurements. I guess I was having a contraction when they measured that week, which made my cervix look longer than it really was. I'm still ok, though. My cervix measured around 40 for the following weeks.
My current update, as of November 25 is that I'm still hanging in there, with no shortage of drama in this pregnancy. I finally got to a point where I wasn't as worried about the fifth disease, and then I had the cervix issue. Then I got to the point where that seemed to be a non-issue. This roller coaster ride I'm on took another big turn right after that and I ended up in L&D at 24 weeks with contractions. Braxton Hicks contractions are normal in pregnancy, and often get worse with each additional pregnancy. This is the case for me, which isn't fun since I had a lot with the boys, too. Last Sunday, I had to go home from church because I was having so many. It got to the point that I felt like I had better start timing them to make sure there was no pattern. Most doctors want you to call if you have more than 4-6 in an hour. However, because of my history, I knew my doctor would say "Lay down and drink lots of water. If it doesn't improve in an hour, call back." So I skipped calling them and just rested and drank water. Lots of water. After two hours and a total of 18 BH, I called. Sure enough, the doctor said to continue what I'm doing and call back in an hour. Two hours later, I was still having them. Lots of them! So we decided it was time to go in and be monitored. When I was pregnant with L, I thought my labor contractions were just BH ones, and I was having far less than I had last Sunday (well, I guess the correct way to say that is I FELT a lot less, most of them were unnoticed by me). Apparently, I don't know the difference between real labor and BH contractions. Thankfully, they slowed down a little and I was sent home on bed rest. The high risk doctor checked my cervix again this week and was happy with the results, so she took me off bed rest. My cervix is now 37 mm, which is 2 mm longer than it has to be :) I will continue to have these nasty contractions throughout my pregnancy, but as long as they don't affect my cervix, I'm not in any danger. I'm just praying I make it to 37 weeks and a day this time around!
So, with one week left at the MFM, that's where I stand :) I'm looking forward to being a "normal" pregnant lady again instead of high risk. Although, at this point, I'm not sure which catagory I stand in since I am at risk for preterm labor?
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