Week 21 and beyond...

Alright all, I'm sorry that I fail miserably at this repeatedly but I'm trying to do a little catching up. So this is my attempt at filling you in... on the last trimester!

It has been a busy summer for sure; lots of travel, new experiences and unexpected complications! Charlie and I are doing well but I have definitely put him through a lot these last few months. Below is an ultrasound photo and update of Asher at his 21 week check up:

21 Weeks and 6 Days

 This week Asher had a detailed fetal growth ultrasound and a fetal echocardiogram to check the growth and development of his heart. He passed (for the most part) with flying colors! His heart looked great, it wasn't enlarged like they were worried it might be and it was pumping just how it was supposed to be for his age. They noticed a slightly enlarged spacing between one of the valves that they said he might be slow to close (meaning he would likely have a heart murmur at birth) but that shouldn't cause him any significant problems and would likely resolve by the time he was a toddler. As far as his growth was concerned he was big for his age (surprise, surprise). He was supposed to weight about 1 pound but was measuring at 1#5oz putting him in the 95th percentile for his age. Overall things were going well!

At the 22 week mark I changed my work schedule to part time which was really helpful. It gave me time to finally feel like I could get things at home organized and cleaned. I spent a long time fixing up our apartment but by the end of the week I had started contracting a lot! It wasn't too bad, I would just go home and lay down and they would go away. But once I hit the 23 week mark I had to go back to work, I was scheduled to work 52 hours in 4 days which made me a little nervous! I wasn't feeling great Friday night when I went in and things continued to go downhill from there!

It was a crazy shift by 10pm I was already contracting every 3-5 minutes and things were getting worse. I had to take an active labor patient who was going natural at midnight and by the time I got her admitted and her IV started I was unable to stand up straight or talk through the contractions that were now coming every 3 minutes. Thankfully my co-workers noticed and took over (aka they talked to the MD on call and had me admitted to our last room), my poor co-workers, not only did they loose a nurse but they gained another patient, and not an easy one at that!

They tried all different meds and IV drips but nothing worked to stop the contractions, by 6am the doc had done all she could for me at my hospital and they decided to transfer me by ambulance to a high risk hospital just incase I was actually going into labor. By this time Charlie was there with me and we packed up our stuff and headed downtown. Long story short we were admitted to a few different units at the high risk hospital until they finally determined that although I continued to contract I wasn't actually in labor (no cervical change). So they gave up trying to stop the contractions and just ensured that they weren't going to get worse without the medicine and finally let me go home on bed rest!

I spent the end of July and the beginning of August at home trying to take it easy but finally got the okay from my doctor to go back to work at 27 weeks but only doing 8 hour shifts with no labor patients! Needless to say the end of the second trimester was long and stressful for both Charlie and I so we were both very glad to get into the third trimester! Below is a photo of our fridge and our daily reminder of how big our little man is getting!

Our little guy!

I've since had another ultrasound but the little man was being a stinker and we didn't get a great photo but I will post that next time. I hope you are all enjoying the end of your summer, we here at the Akes' household are but I think we are both eagerly anticipating the arrival of Fall!

-Cait

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