My final Pregnancy

This pregnancy was definitely my hardest!  Glad it was my last!

February 5, 2016

February 25th 2016

I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes very early in my pregnancy, like 10 weeks (although on January 18th I had a physical and my blood sugars were great).  They think that because of all the trauma with my last pregnancy and delivery my body kinda freaked out when it detected pregnancy hormones again. I was also diagnosed with thyroid issues at the physical in January.  I was going to try to regulate with diet but as soon as I found out I was pregnant I started taking medication (levothyroxine) and it regulated my levels well.

My sweet babies profile.

Because of all of this I was sent to a fetal specialist (Dr. Wright) who was fabulous. 

It's a boy!!

My sugars were great and at the beginning of my third trimester my A1C was 5.1 (so great).

How we announced our 4 boys!!

At my appointment for 32 weeks they did an ultra sound and found that I had high amniotic fluid levels and was diagnosed with polyhydramnios.  When I went to my appointment 2 weeks later they found that Qade was measuring 38 weeks instead of 34 and I had about 3 times as much fluid as was normal (normal AFI levels are between 8-18 and mine at one point were measured at 44).

Growing belly!

I tweaked my back the next day bending over to put on a childs shoe.  They said I had to go to labor and delivery because they were scared I was in labor and didn't know it... (sigh... fourth kid, not  in labor, I would know...) but I went like they asked. At the appointment the day before, they took my A1C again and it was 7.0 but my finger stick blood measurements, which I was doing 4-5 times a day, were great (in the 80s and 90s).  So they were pretty concerned about that so admitted me to the hospital to monitor my blood sugars on their own for 24 hours.  Like I had been taking, my blood sugars were fabulous.   I was curious after that so I took them a couple times in the middle of the night right out of sleep and they were high so my numbers were apparently spiking at night while I slept.  The specialist put me on a low dose of levemir at night (16 units) which helped and my sugars were great all the time after that.

Belly getting even bigger!

My poly on the other hand did not get better, it continued to get worse.  The baby looked great but with all that fluid there was danger of me going into labor early.  My uterus was so big I kept having contractions.  At 36 weeks I had contraction about 10 minutes apart pretty consistently but gratefully they stopped on their own.  I was put on partial bedrest and told if I didn't take it seriously they would admit me to the hospital until the baby was born.  Definitely didn't want that!

And even bigger!!

Dr. Wright originally wanted me to go to 39 weeks but as the fluid levels rose and contractions continued he said we would induce labor at 38 weeks.  With so much fluid there was real concern of a prolaps umbilical cord or my placenta detaching from my uterine wall.  They kept telling me, if your water breaks you need to lay down prostrate and call 911 immediately.  Not something someone wants to hear when they have 3 little boys running around at home.  My mother and the ladies from the church were very helpful in making sure that my boys always had someone to care for them if there was an emergency.  (gratefully it never came to that)

My sweet babies face... loves to suck on that hand!

At my appointment when I was 36w 6d the baby was estimated to be 10lbs 3oz!!!  We knew that that number is an estimation (some kids are heavier than others and vice versa) but the numbers that were really disturbing were his head and chest measurements.  They were measuring off the charts which means bigger than a baby with a gestational age of 42 weeks!  EEK! Now, on top of the the poly concerns there was potential of him getting stuck!  At this point Dr. Wright discussed the potential of having a c section.  Because of the numbers, he said that the 'experts' would recommend that I consider a section.  We talked for a while about the pros and cons and he was not opposed at all to my attempting to labor.  He said since I'd already had 3 babies just fine there's a good chance there would be no problem having the baby.  We asked him though if it was his wife or daughter what would he tell her to do and without hesitation he said 'get a c section'.

precious chubby baby!

Jimmy and I decided to go home and spend some time praying about it and on Friday were made the decision to do an elective cesarean section and they wanted to schedule it for Wednesday September 28th when I would be exactly 38w 0d.    

This was a week before he was born.  So precious!