So, as I'm typing this blog entry, I'm also bouncing on my yoga ball. Apparently it helps induce labor...I have tried everything to naturally induce labor the past few days! Pineapple, spicy foods, yoga ball bouncing, and long walks. It's helped some, so I'm keeping it up! Yesterday, my family and I went to one of our all time favorites for my graduation dinner. Chuck-A-Rama!!!! In the middle of dinner I felt an extremely sharp pain down in my abdomen, a pain that I'd been experiencing frequently throughout the day. So, since this is my first pregnancy and I'm completely clueless as to what a contraction feels like, I turned to my lovely mother and said, "Mom, does a contraction feel like a really sharp pain pressing on you pelvic bone?" She looked at me with wide eyes and said, "uh, yes. Is that why you keep bending over and grunting?" I said, "Oh! Well, ya! I've been having bad ones all day! Do you think it's starting?" She just laughed and said, "I wouldn't be surprised. Every one of you came after I ate out at a restaurant." So, need less to say I've started the stage of painful contractions. Just in case Sophie was to come last night, we immediately prepped everything after dinner. My mom and I finished her little new born dress that I plan to have her dressed in for placement. And I finished packing my hospital bag. We are ready to go! I am praying sooooo sooooo hard that Sophie comes this weekend, for several reasons. But one big one being that my best friend Erica is visiting this weekend from college and I want her to to be here!!!
Anyway, after a couple hours of painful contractions I decided it would be a good idea to give Troy and Rebecca a heads up, just in case. So, I texted Rebecca and informed her of the situation. Did she get anxious? Of course!!! Why wouldn't she be?? We're all so excited and I hate to put them on the edge of their seat, especially because false labor is not uncommon, but I figured they should be warned. We're all crossing our fingers that Sophie inches her way into this world very very soon!
Ok, for those of you who don't know, my pregnancy is high risk. I'll just put out all the details now to save time later. I have a heart disease called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, HCM. It affects your inner heart muscles causing them to grow out of proportion which results in a lack of blood flow through the heart. The part of my heart that is affected by the disease is my left ventricle which unfortunately, is the chamber that creates our pulse and blood pressure. In other words, it's the hardest working chamber. The average size of your muscle wall in that chamber is 7-12 mm. Mine is 31 mm. It's much much too large which means I hardly have enough room for blood to flow in and out. Because of the extra growth I am extremely limited on what I can do physically. Walking up a single flight of stairs wears me out for several minutes. Running is impossible and can result in sudden death (as we've experienced with both Clint and I haha), and when it comes to losing weight...talk about a pain and a half! Anyway, women with HCM are at high risk during delivery and post delivery, not during the pregnancy. In fact, we do very well during the pregnancy because of all the extra blood and fluid our body provides with a baby. The risk is mostly postpartum. When you deliver a baby, your body's fluid level goes from really high to really low in a matter of minutes. A heart like mine can't handle such a drastic change without freaking itself out. It will go into an arrhythmia. Normally, a woman with HCM will have heart failure minutes or days after the delivery of her child. Some women die, some don't. It all varies. A 21 year old woman died last summer 2 weeks after her second child was born. She was watching t.v. when her heart just gave out. She would have been saved, would she have had an ICD inside her. When I was hospitalized in January for a pacemaker/defibrillator (ICD) malfunction, the doctors said I had three options. 1. opt to have my ICD taken out for good and live without one but risk death with the delivery 2. opt to have my ICD taken out, receive a new one from a different company and try to get over the fact that the darn things malfunction, and have something there to reboot my heart after delivery or 3. opt to take my ICD out and get an abortion because the risk of my heart stopping and having nothing there to reboot it after delivery was/is too high.
Abortion at 5 months??? I don't think so. No way. And as much as I hate these ICDs now, I knew that I needed to get one if I was to try and have a safe delivery. So, I chose option 2. I have a new ICD now, and it best be ready to do it's job! Anyway, the doctors have a plan for me of course once I'm at the hospital. They will hook me up to the monitors asap, turn off my defibrillator for the actual delivery, give me an early epidural, pump me completely full of IV fluids, and use forceps to get Sophie out. I can't push and I can't experience hours of contractions because of the strain it would put on my heart, hence the early epidural and the forceps. The IV fluids are so that they can attempt to keep my body's fluid level high even after delivery, and slowly reduce the water intake over a few days. So, that's the plan! I'm not too worried, I think the doctors know what they're up against, and so do I, so whatever happens...happens.
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