It's been a long couple weeks since my last update. At 23 weeks & 3 days my High Risk practice did a routine cervical check which showed that my cervix had shortened from 3.7 cm to 2.5 cm from the measurement two weeks prior. Anything below 2 cm is a red flag for them so I was borderline and trending in the wrong direction. Once my regular OB saw the report he placed me modified bed rest since his red flag is anything below 2.5 cm. Modified bed rest means no lifting, limited stairs and laying down as much as you can which is difficult for anyone let alone someone with an extremely active 3 year old. It was also explained to me that a typical pregnant woman who has no reason to be monitored may be walking around at 2.5 cm from this point until she goes into labor at full-term but unfortunately the medical field knows so little about unknown prematurity that they don't want to take any chances. While cervical measurements can fluctuate and a cervix is supposed to shorten as a pregnancy progresses, bed rest is not a proven remedy.
My appointment one week later measured my cervix at 2.5 cm again so while it had not lengthened which we were hoping for, it had not shortened even more which could have led to hospitalization, etc. My OB performed a Fetal Fibronectin culture 2 weeks earlier than scheduled and results came back NEGATIVE about 24 hours later which means that I was 99% unlikely to go into labor in the next 2 weeks which was a tremendous relief.
Last Wednesday at 25 weeks & 3 days my cervical measurement revealed that it had lengthened from 2.5 cm to 3.3 cm which was great news so we can rest a bit easier for now but are cautiously optimistic. My Doctor will continue to perform Fetal Fibronectin cultures every 2 weeks and I will be getting my 10th 17P injection this week.
On a lighter note, my last significant day of nausea was Memorial Day during my 23rd week and baby girl Schwarz is very active - the ultrasound technicians have also commented on this several times and I have told them that they don't know what active is until they meet her older brother.
We are very fortunate that both sets of grandparents have been a huge help watching Ryan for the majority of each day that we need and Mike has taken/will be taking some extra time off to help out as well.
We are taking it one day at a time...
