Where did we left out of…?
Oh yes, I usually update the weekly progress of my pregnancy on Saturday and I was planning to do so for the week of 38 as usual.
Spoiler alert!!
It didn’t happen because I was in labor on that day LOL We’ll get into that in the next blog. Just a head’s up. This page will be pretty long.
So, the week 38 was pretty busy. I had my last ultrasound appointment on Monday, my last & 12th OBGYN visit on Tuesday, and then my last NST on Friday.
Last Ultrasound Appointment
On Monday, 10/12/2020, I walked into the secondary doctor’s office for the last ultrasound. The technician told us that as it gets closer to the due date, it’ll be harder to estimate the baby’s weight. She gave us +/- of 450g tolerances, and the estimated weight was 6 lbs and 7 oz. To make the calculation easier, it’s 2920g +/- 450g or 6 lbs 7 oz +/- 1 lb.
The doctor pointed out that our baby has smaller stomach size and fluid level is lower than the average. The fluid level is usually came from me being dehydrated. Everything else is within its standard size. He also recommended to have an induced labor on the following Monday or so. I guess it’s typical for the women with gestational diabetes to induce labor, just in case.
In addition to that, he told us to check with our primary OBGYN doctor to have another NST on Friday, the 16th, few days before having a balloon insertion, to make sure everything is stable. So, we decided to bring it up to my primary doctor when we see him on Tuesday.
Last OBGYN Appointment
We went to see my primary OBGYN doctor on Tuesday, 10/13/2020. The usual procedure. My NST went pretty good. It seems like within 15min of NST, they needed to see at least 3 baby’s movements (or peeks on the graph). There may be more to it, but it appears that that’s what they are looking for at the end of the test.
We saw my primary doctor after the test. He checked my cervix and found out the dilation was 1.5 cm. Last time when he measured was about 1 cm. He didn’t get a chance to look at my ultrasound result at that time but determined my balloon insertion is still on schedule. I mean based on the baby’s size, there may be no problem to do it though. I’m just a bit scared of not knowing what’s going to be happening :p
Oh and sure enough, I scheduled another NST appointment on Friday, 10/16/2020.
Last NST
So on Friday 10/16/2020, we went into the OBGYN office with one surprising experience.
I started bleeding again in the morning!!
At the end of week 38, if I tell them I’m bleeding, I though they might tell us to come in the labor and delivery room already. So I woke my husband up and told him to get ready for the hospital stay. We have prepared for the stay, so all we needed to do is just pack the last minute items and put the bags in the car and make sure the gas tank is full.
Here we go. I told one of their assistant that I started bleeding. Luckily, there was one of my primary doctors in the office on that day. She said she will make sure to mention that to the doctor. Then she hooked me up to the NST device and left the room.
The baby’s movement was pretty quiet, although his heart was still beating. Glad that! Maybe he was sleeping? I could feel contractions pretty frequently and sure enough, the sensor was catching it too. As an engineer, it was really fascinating to see the graph when it’s showing the pretty nice curves.
After 15min of NST, the assistant came back with my doctor. They saw my contraction curves and looked really surprised by my contractions getting a nice constant frequency. I didn’t have an appointment with him, but he was willing to see me after the test.
The bleeding was called “bloody show”, and it’s the sign of the labor getting close. My doctor checked my cervix and told me that the dilation was at 2 cm for sure.
Another surprising news was that he guessed our baby will come out within 24 to 48 hours and I don’t probably need a balloon insertion.
OMG !!
Yeah knowing that it was 1.5 cm on Tuesday and already 2+ cm on Friday, it progressed pretty quick, didn’t it? Plus the contraction result. He let us go home for now and told me to come back to the labor and delivery room when the contraction is strong enough and I cannot breathe. Sure. We’ll just take it easy for the next 2 days then 🙂
COVID-19 TEST
Here’s another test I had to do during the week 38.
Since I had a balloon insertion appointment scheduled, the hospital called me to make an appointment for the Covid test 3 days before coming into the hospital, which was on Friday 10/16/2020 as the balloon insertion was on Monday the 19th.
I made an appointment at 1:30pm so that I’ll have plenty time after NST.
The test was pretty simple and quick – just drive into a tent with my I.D. and they swab my nose. It was like 5 min thing. The result will be out within 48 hours. If I don’t get a phone call, then that means I’m negative. Pretty straight forward, right?
Later on 10/16/2020 – Morning 10/17/2020
After I’m done with all my appointment on Friday, we told our relatives that we would be expecting our baby within 48 hours.
On our side, we took easy on our daily walk and limited to 30min. I took a bath to relax. And also we reviewed the 5-1-1 rules of contraction. 5 min between contractions that will last for a minute and continues for an hour. Sure, it sounds “easy”, right? LOL
After the bath and stuff, I went to my bed and my husband recommended me to practice counting on the contractions, so I did. The frequency was 4.5, 5.2, 6, 5, 3.8, and so on and the duration was 1.3, 0.8, 1.5, 1, 0.6, 1.2, and so on. Sure sure sure. It won’t be a perfect frequency 5 and duration 1. What we were saying was it’s not accurate at all, so should we wait or what should we expect? Would it be closer to 5-1-1 exact or what’s the tolerances?? We kept measuring hours and hours. As it goes on and on of measurements, I noticed that my contraction was getting stronger.
But I could still breathe.
Remember what my doctor told me? “Come in when you cannot breathe”.
We started this measurement around 10pm. By around 1:30am, my husband gave a call to my doctor for an advice or instruction. A nurse picked up the phone said my doctor will return us a call. It was pretty strong contraction, but I could still handle it although it hurt quite a bit. All hours long, my husband was next to me counting the contraction together. Both of us had no idea how painful it would get more. Around 2:30am, my doctor still hasn’t returned us a call. At that moment, I was kinda getting irritated from the pain, so we decided to count the contraction for another hour and decide if we should go to the hospital or not. It’s still not accurate!!
Finally my husband started falling asleep and I was on my own. I wanted him to get some rest just in case. My dog sensed something and he seemed he was worried about me and wandering around me here and there, yet of course he was sleepy too.
At 4am, just forget about the doctor! I really wanted to just go to the hospital at that point. However, I wanted to wait for few more hours so that my dog can be ready for the morning routines. I just didn’t want to wake him up now nor make him wait for uncertain hours of labor without getting breakfast/potty time.
Oh it was tough! The contraction was still not accurate, and how painful it was. By 5am, I started crying from the pain. Screw the 5-1-1 rule. I thought we understood well, but obviously we were thinking too much. Can I still breathe? Of course I could! I shouldn’t have taken it literally. So, I decided to wake my husband up and told him to take our dog out for potty and feed him. In a meantime, I kept counting the contraction just in case. I barely could walk and the contraction kept coming back every “5 minutes”.
We finally got to the hospital around 6am. My fight against the contraction lasted about 8 hours at home before even getting an attention from the professionals.
Oh yeah, there was no return call from my doctor yet LOL But we are not blaming him. It was due to the technical difficulty and he didn’t receive our call.
The story continues to the next blog.