Liz and Little Boy Blue

As many of you may have heard, some complications have arisen in Liz's pregnancy and she's on bed rest right now. The goal is the keep the baby in gestation as long as possible. She's at the UNC Women's Hospital in room 5W09 right now. Here's a run down of what's going on...

On Wednesday we went in to visit the OB because Liz just didn't feel right. We had an appointment scheduled for Thursday afternoon, but Liz called the doctor on Wednesday with her complaints and they asked her to come on in.

Her doctors have been monitoring her cervical length during her pregnancy because she was at risk for cervical incompetence. The cervix is the gateway to the birth canal so it's basically the doorway or floor of the womb. When it shortens you run the risk of it not being able to hold the weight of the baby (cervical incompetence) which can bring on miscarriage or preterm labor.

During the appointment Wednesday her cervix was critically short and the doctor told us to go straight to the hospital. We went across the street to Rex where Liz was put on bed rest. That was a bombshell out of the blue! Both Liz and I were in shock at this point.

It took us a while to get checked into Rex because neither one of us stopped at the security desk to check in. We just went straight up stairs to the admissions desk. After filling out all the paper work we waited for a while. I finally went back to the desk and asked what was going on. The admissions lady wanted to know if either of us had checked in with security. Apparently the hospital didn't know we were there since we hadn't stopped at the security desk.

Anyway, we finally got into the room and Liz got into bed. And at Rex, bed rest meant you stay in the bed no matter what! She had to lay with her feet elevated above her head and had a catheter put in. They hooked her to monitors that measured the baby's heartbeat and if she was having any contractions.

Thursday morning she had a consultation with some of the doctors from UNC (UNC has a small office at Rex) to determine if a procedure to put a stitch in her cervix (a cerclage) would help. The doctors recommended not to do that procedure, but wanted to move her to UNC in case the baby does come early. She continues to be on bed rest, but bed rest here is much better than at Rex. She got the catheter taken out and can get up to go to the bathroom and to take a shower. She can also sit up in bed while she eats (it's hard to eat laying down w/ your feet over your head!)

We don’t know right now how long Liz is going to be in the hospital. Apart from some mild and infrequent contractions, she's doing well and showing no signs of preterm labor at this point. Wednesday we were given the impression that she would be in the hospital until the baby came, no matter how long that was. Yesterday and today the doctors at UNC have given us hope that she may be able to come home for bed rest at some point. I think we’ll know a lot more in the next couple of days.

It’s been completely surreal to go from normal to crazy like this so quickly. Liz and I were both in shock for most of Wednesday and Thursday. Things are a little better today as reality sinks in and we talk to more doctors and realize our situation and options. I think things will settle out in the next couple of days and I'll keep writing updates here on the blog.