I remember when I worked in the dermatologist’s office and we had those patients with everything in the world "wrong" with them and who whined and whined. I can only imagine that it is 1000x worse as an obstetrician. Plus, as an ob, you get the added bonus of seeing those patients every 1-2 weeks when they are wacky hormonal and ready to birth.
My ob admitted to AB and me the other day they call those women, “wimpy patients”.
Today there was a wimpy patient in the room next to me. She was young and there with her mom, who probably wasn’t much older than me. She sobbed and sobbed and cried out in pain on a regular basis. And since the walls are paper thin I got to hear all the details – she was tired of being pregnant and very sore all over. Dr. M had checked her cervix and she was not ready to delivery (as he used to state with me and my first two, “green as a gourd”). She begged and begged him to induce her. Over and over. About four times he told her that her body wasn’t ready, the baby isn’t ready just yet, you need to just sit tight, bad things can happen when you induce someone early for no reason. (She was almost 37 weeks.) He layed out the plan – about four times – she would come back in 10 days at which point he would check her again. If she was still insistent on being delivered he would plan to induce her at 39 weeks, but not a minute before then.
I really like my ob, if you haven’t picked that up before.
He came into my office looking haggard, breathed a deep sigh of relief and said, “it is so good to see you, you probably heard next door, you are a sight for sore eyes right now!” Throughout all of my pregnancies he has commended me on my strength, my willingness to roll with the punches and face things head on. (Not that I had much of that with the first two.)
“I don’t get it,” he says, “you have these girls who come in with beautifully normal, non-problematic pregnancies who just do not have the ability to deal. Then you get the women like yourself where there are actual issues to work through, and they do it with grace. You have grace.”
I know he was venting. But I was kind of sitting there going, “ne ner ne ner, our doctor said I have grace!”
Anyways, onto me.
Let’s see, BP = 112/78. Weight gain a total of 11 lbs for the pregnancy.
I went to L&D last Thursday. I was having very mild contractions. I knew they were mild. But they were sore and not going away when I layed down. I called the office and since my ob was still whopping it up in New Orleans for the Super Bowl, they sent me to the hospital for monitoring. Shortly after getting on the monitor they came back and told me I had a UTI and that was likely causing the contractions. After my full hour on the monitor (hello lovely reading time) and downing a huge glass of water, they sent me on my way with heavy duty antibiotics.
I told my ob I felt like a dork afterwards, in some ways I feel like I should have known that was what it was, except for the fact that I have actually never had a UTI! He was glad I had gone in and not waited till my appointment a few days later as these infections can easily spread to the kidneys and that is very bad.
So next he determines that the baby is actually transverse. He asked me how long he has been lying transverse?
“Umm, probably about 20-30 mins,” I told him honestly. Seriously this baby flips and flops and rotates. Position long term? I don’t think there has been one!
Dr. M chuckled and tried again.
“Seriously, he moves ALL over, I doubt he will stay that position for long,” I told him.
“Well we can hope that is the case,” Dr. M resigned, “but we do need a plan just in case.”
Part of the problem with a transverse baby is that it throws the measurements off. Where I have been measuring big for the last two appts and Ultrasound shows too much fluid being the source for that, now we have no idea where things are and the fact that I am measuring a tad small is indicative of this. And that is concerning. So the ultrasound is this Friday.
The plan:
Ultrasound for fluid levels and baby’s size
Appt in 2 weeks (34/35 weeks) – check position, if transverse consider version for week 37.
(I bet he flips… of course Dr. M’s snarky response was “well then which way does he flip?”)
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