Monday, March 16, 2009

My mother's intuition needs some fine tuning.

I was just in the car on the way home from Target with David, and I was telling him how the whole pregnancy has gone differently than I expected. I expected it to take longer to happen, but it happened almost right away. Then I expected to have an easy first trimester, since I didn't remember my mom struggling with morning sickness. 5 months later, I expected to glow with pregnancy bliss, but I started complaining from back pain and lumpy preggo awkwardness. Being that I'm young and in pretty good health, I expected a full-term, complication-free pregnancy. Eesh.

I went to the doctor last weekend to have some blood drawn because of some crazed nighttime itching that wouldn't let me sleep. I couldn't find much in the trillions of pregnancy books about itchy palms and feet, with the exception of a tiny blurb in "What to expect when you are expecting" saying to tell your doctor immediately if you have itching all over. A google search later of "itchy hands during pregnancy" and I learned the primary pregnancy rule: Don't google your symptom du jour. We called the midwife on call and she had me come in just in case.

We've had two "non-stress tests" since that Saturday, and Dr. Peanut still looks healthy and beautiful. I'm fine too, with the exception of itching and sleep deprivation, but the blood tests confirmed my initial internet diagnosis: I have Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy. Or, my liver/gallbladder is temporarily broken and dumping bile salts into my blood stream, causing the crazy itching. I have to be monitored a couple of times a week now, and it looks like we will be having a baby in two weeks, instead of the 6 or 7 that it might normally take. He'll be a month or so early, but the doctors and midwives at U of M seem pretty relaxed about the whole thing and I guess would rather Err on the side of caution, since if left unchecked the Cholestasis can have some pretty scary outcomes for baby. I'll go back on Thursday to be monitored again, and then twice more the next week, and holy cow- they've scheduled an induction for March 29th (not this Sunday, but the next one!). That said, I still need to: Pick a pediatrician, call and alert our doula, buy one of those things that go in the carseat so the baby's head doesn't bob all over the carseat, pack for the hospital, take the stinking childbirth education class, and probably do forty five other things I haven't even thought about. Yikes!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I LOVE YOU! AND I CANT WAIT TO SEE MY LITTLE NEPHEW! And dont worry, you will have everything taken care of!

Tiffany said...

If you have him on the 29th we will have the same birthday! No pressure but that would be cool! Those things that hold their head in place for the carseat dont really work anyway. You have to roll receiving blankets up and use them to hold their head in place. You may not need to buy that thing afterall. Just a thought though. Good luck, you will do great!

Nicki said...

I never thought about just rolling up some blankets, and we have tons that we've collected from showers and hand-me-downs! Great idea Tiffany!