Homecoming and Baby Update

Mary Louise is HOME!!!!!!!!!!!! The orders were given this morning and a mere 2 or so hours later, we were out the door and headed home with out sweet girl. She was taken off of oxygen completely at about 11pm last night and maintained her oxygen saturation between 91 and 96% during her sleep.

She is doing pretty well - definitely happy to be home and happy to see her "Dae-VID" (she started calling him David just over a week ago). She has to take things easy though (which is much easier said than enforced) as she gets easily winded and still has considerable congestion. We have a new family member - "Margo Moo" the nebulizer. I had nothing to do with the name - it was absolutely on the box when the home respiratory supply company (what - didn't know those existed? yeah. me neither. I could have gone 10 life times without that knowledge too...) delivered it about 2 hours late to my house. I practically mugged the delivery guy and tore into the packaging to get Mary Louise her meds - then I had to beg said victim to show me how to use the thing. Ha - make fun if you want - but nurses always have respiratory therapists to call in the hospital - I have never ever had to administer a breathing treatment.

I have now...it was less than spectacular...ok ok, I feel the urge to make a "that's what she said" joke here...never mind...

Both kiddos went to bed with minimal fuss after a horrific bath time - pretty sure they were just tired - but seriously, Mary Louise had not had a full bath since Thursday...

Things sound and look good so far - and I'm hoping I'll be able to relax into some sleep tonight rather than trying to sit up and watch the 2 of them breathe for ohhhhh the 100th ++++ time.

As far as our little Suga is concerned, my lab results came in today and I received an evening phone call from my OB a bit ago...(below is obviously personal lab results - very descriptive - but again, I need to write this somewhere that I have easy access to it for my own reference purposes...bear with me)

Most of the values are fine - BUT - (you knew that was coming) - I'll list the concerns below....
1. I was slightly anemic - solution: increase iron (I already take one supplement, and prescription prenatal vitamins - so...more than that.)

2. My cholesterol was a little high - but pregnancy increases cholesterol levels so it's really not a concern - also, my HDL tends to be high making my overall value on the high side normally. So, not a problem - though he felt the need to bring it up...

3. (the real concern): Typical parameters for protein levels (as a result of a 24 hour urine collection) of a pregnant woman is .3 (which, if you're curious, is double that of a non-pregnant woman...and I think man - so normal non-pregnant is .15). Mine is .32. So it's marginally elevated - but elevated just the same. If this was detected later in pregnancy, it could possibly indicate the very beginning of pre-eclampsia. Getting this value for a baseline can be attributed to a number of factors in this case:
     a. It could be MY normal during pregnancy
     b. There was a "large" amount of blood detected in my collection (explanation on this below) blood is    also detected as protein in this particular lab so it could have contributed to the elevation. (remember this is referring to MICRO not MACRO values so a "large" amount of blood would not be enough to be detected by me - or anyone looking at the sample.
      c. dehydration or missing collections - the latter didn't happen so doesn't apply. I can't guarantee that I wasn't mildly dehydration - the second half of this collection was done at the same time Mary Louise was being admitted to the hospital - I can say that I likely didn't drink as much water as I usually do that particular day - and I can say that I was hysterical for a decent amount of time that morning...so I don't know.

So...the blood detection was accompanied by a fair amount of bacteria detection. There is a likely possibility that I have a bladder infection (and didn't even know). I have been "going" more often - and in smaller amounts - but I thought it was just pregnancy - I was in the bathroom literally every 15 minutes with the triplets so this pregnancy is totally new territory to me. So, I'm starting treatment tomorrow for a bladder infection, and will repeat a UA next Monday. If the UA is negative, (which it should be after treatment), I will repeat the 24 hour urine collection. So - yay for more gas cans! (I still need to put that picture up) I wasn't expecting another so soon - but I'll take that to make sure things are continuing along safely...

good golly - are you getting a little tired of all of my precautionary care yet?? Bless my dear doctors - if I sneeze or wince they hear me and give me a call...ha - admittedly I'd much rather have this than the opposite extreme...but it is a little comical no?

xo,
Heather