Turn of Events...

So we thought this would be the easiest way to update everyone that has been following along, rather than make tens of phone calls; so we hope that's ok...

After our 6 hour visit in the hospital on Saturday, we came home and assumed all was ok and to just make sure I rested the rest of the weekend. Well on Sunday, things were about the same with my contractions and actually got worse as the day went on. I had called the on-call doctor at around 10am and he said it's really nothing for me to go in for again, to just monitor everything and go from there. So that's what we did...the pain in my back was so bad as the day went on however, I finally called the doctor again that night at about 10pm or a little earlier and he said if you're that concerned, you may as well go in as I can't tell you if you're in labor over the phone, etc. So, off we went, yet again.

Once we got back in a room and hooked up to the monitors, they made me drink 4 straight glasses of water to hydrate my system and mainly my uterus as dehydration can cause contractions. They checked for dilation again and I was still a dimple, or basically closed. As the night went on, the pain in my back got so bad I knew something wasn't right. At about 2am Monday morning, they ruled out labor, but put all attention then to my kidney stones. They gave me pain meds and told me the doc would be in, in the morning to see me. Nate tried to sleep in the chair, which wasn't too successful :( and I tried to sleep through the pain, which I was able to doze on and off til about 7:30am.

Once the doc came in; he explained to me they were going to have me get another renal ultrasound to check out how my kidneys look, if they are moving and trying to pass, etc. so they could determine what is going to happen from here on out and the duration of this pregnancy. I headed down to radiology and spent about an hour checking out my kidneys, but aside from that, they did ultra sound the baby again. It sure is great to see her in there and yesterday, I saw her mouth, lips (big bottom lip like her mama) and funny enough, her tongue lapping like a dog...she must have been thirsty, but man was that cool to see. The sonogram guesstimated her at 6lbs already...there is a 2lb error on either side of that, but 6lbs, I was kinda shocked!

I headed back upstairs at around 10:30 and they told us at that point, we just had to wait until Dr. McCurdy, my urologist, came to see us and talk about what we could do if anything. At around 12pm, our OB, Dr. Colombo came up to see me and chat for a little while. She made it sound like with the size of the baby, well potential size, and then all this pain I'm going through, they might even want to take our little girl at 37 weeks when they know at that point she's term and would be healthy and ok. Again, this would all be dependent on what the urologist sees with my renal results, etc.

Since we didn't know when the doc would be up to see us, Nate decided to head home, let Wrigley out and get a few things (some food for sure as at this point, neither of us had eaten since 830 Sunday night and I wasn't able to eat til after I saw the urologist but of course wanted him to get some food asap). He came back at 2 and at that point, still no doc...so we continued to wait all afternoon. I had thrown up 3 times at this point as well and like my initial kidney stones diagnosis, I threw up then too, so we weren't sure if it was from pain, lack of food, etc. At 5:30 Nate went out to the nurse's station again, let them know about my throwing up, how hungry I was (almost 24 hours with no food at this point) and asked if they could call and find ANYTHING out for us. The OB's and nurses were and had been great this whole time, but this urologist was keeping us and it was starting to get very annoying.

Another OB, Dr. Carrington, came in around 6 or so and let us know as much as he could. In a nut shell, the stones are not moving, or at least don't show too much movement, but with the pressure of the baby in my uterus, she is pushing down on my ureters and making the pain and blockage of urine and everything else that much worse at this stage in the pregnancy. Back at 20 or so weeks when these were first discovered, this is what Dr. McCurdy told me could happen; we of course didn't want this too, BUT that's what we're dealing with. Dr. Carrington gave me an Ambien prescription and more pain pills and discharged us finally at 7:30 or maybe a little earlier. Before we left, they gave me a meal and I ate a good chunk of it and was able to keep it down, so that was good!!!!! But then on our car ride home, I had to have Nate pull over and I was that girl yacking on the side of the road...awesome! Pain, exhaustion, mental stress I think were playing into all of this now.

So now what? Well, the doctors have given me a note to stop working as standing and sitting (2 things of which I do all day at work) are the 2 worst things I can do for this condition and lying on my side takes an immense amount of pressure off everything in there. So I'm now having to deal with that and my work this morning and praying all works out and then I'm awaiting a phone call from Dr. McCurdy the urologist to see what his outlook is since we just got the OB's outlook and we'll go from there.

I'm obviously home now for the duration and resting and drinking as many fluids as I can (I swear the bathroom is my least favorite place these days) and just hoping for the best. We go back to see our OB on Friday afternoon and we'll get some more answers about induction dates, etc. at that time.

As always, the good news, is baby and I are doing ok and are back home. Nate and I are grateful for everything and are just happy that she's ok in there and these stones are only affecting me and not her. Gee, what a story we'll have for her some day! Such a princess already :)

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers and after Friday we'll let you all know what they decide to do with the arrival of our little munchkin.

With lots of Love,

Kara and Nate