Sunday, July 22, 2007
1/2 week down
Well, I'm half way through my week of bedrest. I've spent a lot of time googling short cervix and bedrest and preterm birth and other related topics. Generally it seems like a short cervix is not a good indicator for delivering at term, but nothing is impending until you're down to 1.5 cm or lower. I tried to stick to recent medical journal articles and studies. A lot of it seems contradictory. There seems to be nothing to support bedrest in helping delay delivery. I read one article that actually suggested that hospital bedrest may be a causative factor for preterm delivery by itself. The best indicator of preterm delivery seems to be transvaginal ultrasound cervix measurements and fetal fibronectin (I may have the spelling wrong on that). If your cervix is very short (< 1.5 cm) and you have a positive fFn, the odds show that you're likely to deliver in the next 3 weeks.
Well, at least the research has kept me somewhat busy. Bedrest has been - not so bad so far. I'm just generally low grade worrying, with some random peaks of doom. Since its the weekend, D is home, so I can go downstairs and visit him and Bacon or they periodically come up and visit me. I'm still contracting, but its generally 0-6 times an hour - even with the mega doses of ibuprofen. Last night was good, but the night before - not so good. I woke up (if you could call it that) thinking I should call the doctor and thinking how bad things were. Things got better. I keep waiting for the ibuprofen to stop all my contractions and its just not happening. I keep thinking that this isn't nearly as bad as the preterm contractions were with Bacon, but then again, my cervix always stayed nice and long when I was pregnant with her.
It comes down to not wanting to complain too much if its nothing but not wanting to miss anything if its something. For all the times that I was checked with Bacon and the several runs to the hospital for shots to help slow the contractions, I just don't know what's acceptable or serious. Prior to the short cervix measurement, I had convinced myself that the contractions were no big deal and just something I had to live with. I thought I was really playing it safe by not walking if I could avoid it and really laying super low. That hasn't seemed to have worked.
I don't want to cry wolf, but I don't know if I'd recognize a wolf if I saw one right now.
Well, at least the research has kept me somewhat busy. Bedrest has been - not so bad so far. I'm just generally low grade worrying, with some random peaks of doom. Since its the weekend, D is home, so I can go downstairs and visit him and Bacon or they periodically come up and visit me. I'm still contracting, but its generally 0-6 times an hour - even with the mega doses of ibuprofen. Last night was good, but the night before - not so good. I woke up (if you could call it that) thinking I should call the doctor and thinking how bad things were. Things got better. I keep waiting for the ibuprofen to stop all my contractions and its just not happening. I keep thinking that this isn't nearly as bad as the preterm contractions were with Bacon, but then again, my cervix always stayed nice and long when I was pregnant with her.
It comes down to not wanting to complain too much if its nothing but not wanting to miss anything if its something. For all the times that I was checked with Bacon and the several runs to the hospital for shots to help slow the contractions, I just don't know what's acceptable or serious. Prior to the short cervix measurement, I had convinced myself that the contractions were no big deal and just something I had to live with. I thought I was really playing it safe by not walking if I could avoid it and really laying super low. That hasn't seemed to have worked.
I don't want to cry wolf, but I don't know if I'd recognize a wolf if I saw one right now.
