25 Weeks Gestation

So, here we are again..

For those of you who do not know, our son Collin was born at 25 5/7 weeks gestation after premature rupture of membranes ( Water breaking) at only 25 3/7 weeks gestation.  We spent 108 days in the NICU and now have a happy & healthy 9 month old :)

Very much to our surprise, soon after bringing Collin home from the hospital we found out we were expecting baby #2!   Because of the history with my first extremely premature delivery the Dr.s have been keeping a close eye on me.  All appointments have looked great, I've had perfect blood pressures, not put on much weight at all and passed my glucose screening tests.  I have felt great ever since morning sickness passed. ( it was WAY worse this go round).  We found out at 19 weeks we are expecting a little girl this time, which we decided to name Delaney Morgan.

Well, because of my history, the Dr. ordered an ultrasound at 24 weeks to check cervical length.  Right away we were able to notice that the cervix is starting to shorten (efface) and the membranes/amniotic fluid is funneling down into the now vacant space where cervix should be.  Now knowing this, it is the best guess as to what caused Collin's early delivery.  My condition is known as incompetent or weak cervix.  For most women once becoming pregnant the cervix hardens and becomes blocked (known as the mucus plug) until it is time to deliver the baby.  In my case, we have learned that past the 6th month mark the weight of the growing baby, along with amniotic fluid, blood etc becomes too much for my cervix to handle. Resulting in the cervix starting to weaken and shorten in length.  There was some discussion about possibly doing a cerclage (putting a stitch in to keep cervix closed). Well, the bad news is that we waited too long and it should have been performed much earlier.  Since we did not know this was an issue for me..it is now too late to perform a cerclage.  Tampering with it and trying to put a stitch in could actually break the water or start labor..which is too risky at this gestational age.  We got very lucky with Collin, and we arent willing to risk having another 25 weeker. The only other option at this point is to go on mandatory bed rest.

I've been ordered to bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy..now it is a waiting game as to when I will begin labor.  Most likely it will be like last time and the membranes will rupture from pressure and lack of cervical support.  The good news is that they are still intact and me taking it easy can buy us more time.  Unfortunately with Collin.. we had no idea about my condition and I continued to work my 50 hour a week job that requires standing, lifting and running around!  So, hopefully all this bed rest and relaxing will allow Miss Delaney to stay put a little longer!
It is 100% certain that she will come before her due date (November 21st).  We can  only hope and pray we make it further along.

Yesterday I spent an overnight at the hospital for 24 hour observation to make sure that there were no contractions or other signs of labor accompanying the effacement.  Thankfully there were no signs, and baby seems happy in there!  Good heart rates and plenty of kicking around.   I was given a round of steroids as a just in case.  They have been shown to help boost lung development in babies and could help her when she comes into the world.  If we make it another 3-4 weeks I will go back for another round of steroids.  And, tomorrow I have a check-up at the OB office for another cervical length check ultrasound and a shot of extra hormones called delalutin, which I have been receiving since week 16.  It has been shown to also help with women who have preterm labor.

So that is all for now.. Just wait and see where we end up and when Delaney decides to grace us with her presence!

25 weeks pregnant on the way to my overnight hospital stay..hence the not looking terribly thrilled!

Collin very excited to visit Mommy & Daddy! I missed him so much..it was the first night away from him since he came home from NICU.