News!

Been a while again!

There's been a lot going on in the McEnaney household. The main and most exciting event has been the birth of our first son, Ciaran Harris McEnaney. He is amazing.

The last trimester of pregnancy was pretty horrible in all honesty. Along with the diabetes I had major problems with my pelvis which ended up with me unable to walk without crutches and pelvic supports (and even then it was the slowest, most painful walk ever) and at 35 weeks my blood pressure shot up and I developed proteinuria and fairly severe swelling all associated with the onset of pre eclampsia so I was admitted at 35+5 for steroid injections and sliding scale for diabetic control and had my induction started at 35+6. Some Drs said I had pre eclampsia and others said I was developing it so I'm not quite sure where I lie there but either way it wasn't good.

Labour was interesting. I was hooked up to sliding scale on 1 side, hormone drip on the other, blood pressure cuff, O2 sats monitor, gas and air followed by an epidural, and right at the end another hormone drip. I literally don't think I've ever been hooked up to as many things at once before and I've been hooked up to lots of things. It meant I couldn't be as mobile as I would've liked, but when I tried the gas and air on the birthing ball I nearly fell off! In the end the best place for me was sat upright on the bed.

Another of the "complications" in my notes was that labour progressed very quickly. It was definitely less than 12 hours from arriving in the delivery room to actual delivery. I had the epidural in for 30 minutes before the Dr said I was ready to go and came back with a ventouse. Everyone had figured I was in so much pain because my labour wasn't natural and was being artificially managed, but it turned out I was much further on than they expected and it all got a bit frantic for a while. If I remember correctly the midwives count active labour from 5cm dilated and in my notes 1st stage active labour lasted 1 hour 20 minutes, 2nd stage lasted 20 minutes and 3rd stage 20 seconds (although that was "super actively managed" because my platelets and haemoglobin were rubbish and they thought I'd have a massive bleed without it).

Ciaran was delivered at 36 weeks exactly. 5pm on May 4th 2014.

The week following his birth is 1 I will hopefully forget in time but it's pretty clear in my mind at the moment. Having been moved to the post natal ward at 11pm on the Sunday, we were all set to leave on the Tuesday morning as Ciaran had managed to maintain his blood sugar and temperature for 24 hours but then the midwives noticed he was jaundiced and needed phototherapy. When they started on the lights he dropped his temperature and ended up in NICU to be warmed up and I was more or less ordered by the midwives to go to sleep because I was an exhausted mess. He did eventually come back to be with me on a bilibed (where the lights are below baby and they are in a little bag type thing so they can be covered rather than exposed with the lights above). He was taken off the lights after 2 days but by that stage had lost more weight than they would've liked so we still weren't allowed home until they saw he was gaining weight again. Once we had the all clear from the paediatricians and they had more or less said their goodbyes the midwives started their final checks on me, particularly my blood pressure as it had been a bit of a concern for a day or 2. I couldn't believe it when the result showed 175/100 and 169/104 and I had proteinuria again. The only good thing was my swelling was actually improving by this stage. However, that put a stop to our escape and I was howling. I've been on hypertension medication ever since, but it's been halved already so I'm hopeful when I return to the GP on Thursday that it'll either be reduced again or stopped. That night Ciaran was taken away to SCBU to be warmed up again and once again I was told to make the most of it and go to sleep but I was caught wandering around aimlessly at 5am. My haemoglobin also continued to drop so I had a nice little blood transfusion to try and pep me up a bit and have been on iron tablets ever since.

I can't believe how quickly things went downhill in the end. I was booked in for induction at 37+3 anyway, so wasn't a million miles off the end, but considering I should technically be 38 weeks at the moment it does seem a little bit weird.

So after 8 nights in hospital, 6 of them with Ciaran on the outisde, we were released on day 9 and spent a couple of days at my Mum and Dad's house with regular visits from James's Mum. We returned to Arran middle of last week and are really just trying to get into some sort of routine before James goes back to work tomorrow. It's a real shame his first week of paternity leave was spent in the hospital but Ciaran and I both needed to be there. Once the school summer holiday comes round it'll be good as he gets 6 weeks off to enjoy our boy.

Diabetes, work and exhaustion

I was right! My OGTT result was right below the cut off for gestational diabetes so I had to monitor my sugars 7 times a day for a week and the result of that is I'm now using insulin with my 3 main meals. I've been using it since Thursday and have already had to increase the dosage 3 times. I started out using it only with breakfast and dinner, increased the dose, added it in at lunch time as well, then increased the dose twice more. Finding it quite tricky to be perfectly honest. I seem to have a couple of days where the dosage I'm using works out fine then they jump up again. Pain. I'm sure I'll get them working out eventually though, just really want good control for baby's sake.

Only 2.5 weeks left of work and I couldn't be happier. I am completely exhausted and not sure if it's just pregnancy related or if I have an infection. I'm coughing during the night and waking up James and no doubt the neighbours, woke up at 6 this morning hardly able to get a breath in and some chest pain so had to get up to neb ventolin so I could attempt to get back to sleep. It took a while to kick in but thankfully did eventually and I got a bit more rest. Also completely sick of being sick after my breakfast in the morning. Only takes the slightest cough and that's me. Clearly everything is getting so squashed up now, although I've been throwing up after my breakfast for weeks now.

Think I'm gonna see how the next couple nights go and if I still keep waking up tight and coughing so much then I'm gonna need to be seen. Yuck.

It's not all doom and gloom though, I just don't really have much that's all that exciting going on. I have another scan next Friday and an appointment with OB so will hopefully find out if the diabetes and insulin use now means I'll be induced early or not. My friend's baby shower is this Saturday which is exciting! She's 35 weeks just now :)

I'm so rubbish at this blogging lark these days.

I really don't have a lot to talk about and I think that's the main reason why I hardly ever write.

I'm now 26 weeks pregnant! Where has the time gone?! Things seem to be going well so far, lots of wriggling around in there and being kicked plenty too so that can only be a good sign. I'm being seen lots at both the CF unit and the maternity unit so I do feel like I'm being well looked after, even if it is a bit of a pain to get to all the appointments without a car (I leave mine on Arran because it costs a fortune to take it on the ferry).

Next week I have an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) to check for gestational diabetes. All CF ladies who are going through pregnancy are offered this if they don't already have a diagnosis of CF-related/type 1 diabetes. I have to admit I'm not completely confident that I'll pass this test because I've been doing some checks on the advice of my CF dietitian and they've not all been within the recommended levels. This morning, for instance, my post-breakfast level was 12 and I was told it should be no higher than 8 in pregnancy so that's great :/ Cue me having a breakdown. Hormones are great fun.

I also have a scan, clinic appointment with the obstetrician and a consultation with an anesthetist next week. The anesthetic consultation is just in case I need to have an epidural/spinal/general at any point so they know what to expect, although I'm hoping to avoid these...

I have 6 weeks left to work and so wish I was able to finish in 3 which is when I can legally start my maternity leave. I can't because I have kids sitting piano exams in the last week of school term which means me doing an extra 3 weeks! I will get these 3 weeks at the other end though and really 3 extra weeks with baby is preferable to finishing work as early as possible.

My lung function is still sitting lower than we'd like but it didn't drop between the most recent clinic appointments so that's good. Annoyingly my lungs are a lot more productive than normal and the antibiotics I took did nothing for that, but consultants don't want me to have IVs unless I REALLY need them and seen as I don't feel horrific we decided to put them on hold again. They've basically been on hold now since Christmas and it's the start of March this weekend! I know it's a good thing I haven't deteriorated any further but it's damn annoying. Doesn't help that baby is squashing my lungs now and seen as I forgot my reflux meds last night (I was knackered) the combination of the 2 resulted in me throwing up 3 times in the half hour after breakfast. Well done. Won't be doing that again!

Anyway, moving on from baby/CF related things there really is very little to say. Work is ticking over and as I say will be stopping that soon. What else happens in my life? Nothing really lol. I have a spa appointment on Thursday though and I cannot wait! Body brushing and massage, yes please, and it's designed for preggos so I'm safe to go. Yay!