A Kenton Update

So, I have a tendency to overdo it.  I love to be lazy and not do anything, as long as it is my idea.  However, if it's not my idea, I hate it.  It's also especially difficult to take it easy when I have two kids running around, working full time the week before break, just got back from a weekend at the Polar Express, planning Talan's birthday party, and preparing for Christmas all at the same time.

I had been feeling really good in the weeks before December 19th.  I had more energy and was able to get a lot accomplished at home and at work.  I should have known better, though.  After a fun weekend up north and then cleaning when we got home, I was very tired Sunday night.  The only problem was that I was about to start a really crazy, chaotic week.  As anyone with kids knows, the week before Christmas is filled with lots of energy and excitement.  Being a teacher, I knew this was going to be a a long week.  Not only that, but we had Talan's birthday on Tuesday and our sitter's Christmas party on Thursday afternoon. In addition, Aaron was super stressed out with finals at his school and needing to get his grading done.

I made it through Monday with no problems.  I got home, had my 17 P injection, and relaxed.

Tuesday was Talan's birthday.  I felt great during the day.  I picked the boys up after school and took them to the doctor for Talan's 4 year well-check.  (He checked out great.  He's in the 9% for height and 6% for weight..  This is no surprise, though.). Afterwards, Talan wanted to go to IHOP for his birthday dinner.  We met "Aunt" Amanda, Cooper, Nana, Papa, Grandma Faye, Uncle Adrian, and Aunt Michelle for dinner.  By the end of dinner, I was contracting and needing to go home.  When we got home, I laid on my left side, drank some water, and tried to relax.  Luckily, everything calmed down and I headed to  bed.

Wednesday was a great day at work.  I was feeling pretty decent, but tired by the end, which was to be expected.  When I was getting the kids out of the car after picking them up, I started feeling some tightening in my stomach.  Something didn't seem quite right, so I put a call into my doctor and tried to take it easy.  As the night went on, I was starting to contract pretty regularly and they were getting stronger and lower.  I drank four cups of water, laid down for an hour or two, but this didn't seem to stop the contractions like it normally does.  I decided that we probably needed to head to OB triage to get things checked out.

After dropping the kids off at my mom's for an impromptu sleep over, we headed to triage around 8 o'clock.  To make a long story short, they ran some tests and checked me out.  I was dilated to a 1, but since I've delivered two other children, they don't know if everything didn't completely close back up or if I, in fact, dilated some.  The good news is that I was 0% effaced.  They also ran another test that would tell whether or not I would be in labor within the next two weeks - it came back negative.  While this was all going on, the contractions slowed a bit and weren't nearly as strong as what they were.  They gave me a pill called  Nephetapine to slow the contractions and sent me home.  The pill did the trick and all was calm by the time we went to bed around 11:30.

I went to work the next day since it was a 1 o'clock dismissal.  I did my best to take it easy and my kids were extremely well-behaved.  We had a great celebration and book exchange.  After the kids left, I spent some extra time in my room cleaning things up and making sure everything was ready to teach the first day after break, just in case.

I went to my OB on Friday morning to follow-up after Wednesday's ordeal.  Unfortunately, I saw a nurse and didn't actually get to talk to my doctor.  I was told to try to avoid things that tend to cause me to contract and to take it easy ... no bed rest yet and to follow up with my doctor in another two weeks.

On Christmas morning, I woke up with a headache.  I figured it was from exhaustion from doing so much, but then my eye sight became blurry.  The blurry vision passed and the day went on as normal.   By the evening, my head was still hurting and my eyes became blurry again, although not as bad.  Knowing that preeclampsia is a possibility with the extra protein in the amniotic fluid, I became a little worried.   Since I had an appointment the following day with my nurse to receive my 17 P injection, I tried not to worry about it too much.  When she is here, she always checks my blood pressure and listens to Kenton's heartbeat.  Luckily, my blood pressure was normal.  In fact, it was on the low side of normal.  I've never been one to be a hypochondriac.  However, this pregnancy is making me into one!

Since then, things have been rather calm. Luckily, I have two weeks off from work and can pace my activities a bit.  I do things for a while and then sit and rest.  Tonight I started to tighten and contract a bit after vacuuming, but it subsided once I sat down.  Next Thursday, January 5th, I have an appointment with my actual OB doctor in the morning, which hopefully will give me some more answers and instructions.  Later on that afternoon, we have a growth ultrasound scheduled for Kenton to ensure he is developing on track.

It has also been four weeks since the latest genetic test was ordered on Kenton's amniotic fluid.  We were told that the test should take three to four weeks.  This test was supposed to tell us whether Kenton had a different type of genetic kidney disorder.  So, assuming the holidays haven't interrupted the test in anyway, we should have some more news on Kenton's diagnosis this week hopefully.