The Plan is:

I'm on bedrest until the baby is born. They couldn't find the abruption again on the US but I'm definately having one. I'm still spotting (bummed out by that last night since it meant I couldn't have my fetal fibronectin test today) and I'm definately having "uterine activity" aka contractions but I'm not dilating. After being at the dr's office for 4 hours, this is what we've come up with.....

Its official bedrest, meaning I can go from the bed to the couch, I walk to the bathroom then come back, I can take a short shower every day and sometimes make a sandwich. Let me tell you how excited I am about that. However, she did say if I'm not bleeding, not contracting, and doing ok, I can go to church. She said there was a chance I could go back to work if the FFP (fetal fibronectin protein) was negative and I made it to 31 weeks. Then she remembered I was a nurse and said no way. She knows how well we nurses take care of ourselves during our 12 hour shifts. I used to wish to get called off of work and now I'm totally bummed I can't go. But at least I'm at home right now and not in the hospital.

The baby looks great on ultrasound (or biophysical profile, aka BPP). She's moving like crazy (possibly because of the contractions) but moving nonetheless. They caught 30 seconds of breathing which was nice to see. I do have a little extra amniotic fluid so I'm going to do some research to see if polyhydramnios could have any connection to abruption. Although on the NST (non stress test: the monitoring they do), she's not really reacting too great. They like to see a drop in heart rate then an immediate increase after movement and she's kinda hanging steady. But since she's so little still, its not a concern.

So here's what's in store for me. This abruption is a serious deal. Right now its a small partial separtation or chronic abruption. But there is a chance that it can continue to separate and cause serious problems....aka severe hemorrhage. So it has me freaked out a little but I'm trying not to focus on it. She also mentioned possibly doing an oral tocolytic (med to stop contractions) even though the OB community is trying to move away from using them (supposedly they don't work too well) and they are even throwing around the idea of starting steroids to start prepping the baby for the world. I'm not excited about that because it makes it seem like they think I'm probably going into labor soon. So its pretty nerve wracking. I'm on Vistaril to try to stop some of the cramping (and I'm a big wuss...I couldn't tolerate 50mg and had to ask for 25mg. I don't know how our kiddos take a full dose without falling asleep for 12 hours). I have to go back on Friday for NST and a visit and hopefully I'll have no bleeding in the meantime so I can have the FFP. Then its weekly NST, BPP, and visits. Its going to be a very long 11 weeks (if I can keep her in that long). I'm just an interesting case and they really don't know what to do with me. So its weekly visits, bed rest, and fingers/toes crossed.

~JRC and EPC~