#1 My platelet count has fallen lower than it ever has before. With Caedmon's pregnancy my levels reached 60k and that was on the day he was born. The Dr. (yes, the Dr. not the nurse) called me this week to get me on prescription steroids right away. I have a condition known as idopathic thrombocytopenia purpura (lovely, huh?). Basically it's pregnancy induced and my body for some weird reason attacks my platelets (hence the "idiopathic). The baby's fine (we checked him/her out a few weeks ago on ultrasound to make sure), so the real problem is me hemorraging during delivery. Other than that, I have no symptoms (not even the bruising that is so common with this disorder--my count hasn't fallen low enough for that yet), but it is serious enough that they want at or above 100k for labor and delivery. Because of the risk of bleeding on the spine I am unable to have an epidural for pain relief in labor (not a huge deal, it just made me suck it up and take labor like a man...er, umm, woman). In the same manner if a C-section is needed I'm unable to have a local anesthetic. I would have to be put under general anethsesia for the procedure and therefore not get to witness/touch/hold/feed/know the sex of my precious baby until a few hours after he/she is born (SOOOO sad!). So that's problem #1.
#2 Our precious baby 409 decided very early Saturday morning to do a roll ,complete with a twist, in my tummy. That means that he/she is now breech/transverse. The Dr confirmed this by ultrasound at our appointment Monday morning. We have 3 options, and Mark and I, under the guidance of our great Dr have decided to take the following steps as necessary.
- PRAY! This is always our first step and THE most important one. We serve the Almighty, Eternal Creator. There is nothing that is out of His hands. We simply need to have faith and trust that He is still in control. It is our will that He turn this baby right side (head) down again.
- If by our next appointment Monday morning the baby is still breech we will schedule an external cephalic version. I will be admitted to the hospital and Dr. Wright will manually turn the baby while I'm on an IV for fluids and tocolytic medication (to relax the uterus and prevent contractions).
-If the procedure is successful labor will immediately be induced.
-If the procedure is not successful, we will simply wait for me to go into labor, whenever that
occurs. I will then attempt a breech birth.
-If for any reason the breech birth presents any kind of problem to the baby we will do an emergency C-section.
Ok, so that's your medical journal for the day. Mark and I have really had a hard week dealing with all the decisions to make and all the "what ifs." So in addition to this being an update it's also a request that you please keep us in prayer.
While struggling with this we've come to the conclusion that no matter the means, we will have a baby in a few weeks and all the in-between stuff is in the Lord's hands. Please pray for the baby to turn, but most of all that Mark and I will continue to place our unswerving faith and trust in Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.
37 Weeks Pregnant with little 409
