Giving the old cervix a rest

Today I had my appointment with the obstetrician to discuss the results of the ultrasound last week.

His tone and concern about the shortened cervix compared with the discovery of the vasa previa were worlds apart. He is very concerned about the cervix. I guess he's seen more of the short cervix problem, so is on more familar ground.

He said straight up I need to take the rest of the week off work. When I asked him about working from home, he wasn't too keen but said it might be alright. I am planning to call them in the morning with the news. They won't be overjoyed - another staff member is off with a dodgy knee, but that's their problem. I am not going to offer to keep up my normal workload from home because I'll just end up getting stressed. I can work from home but I can't get as much done as in the office.

Anyway, Dr I wants me to keep my feet up as much as possible. On Friday we'll see how the cervix is looking on ultrasound. He said if things look worse, I may end up in hospital on steroids in preparation for E3 coming early. He said sometimes things can stabilise and I could go through to 37 weeks no problem.

In his words, the short term goal is to get me to 30 weeks, the medium term goal to 32 weeks and the long term goal to 37 weeks. Let's hope we achieve all three.

I will also be starting the progesterone pessaries tonight, which are supposed to help with stopping the cervix shortening.

I am also on guard for any signs of preterm labour. That could be either contractions or a feeling of liquid leaking out of me that will indicate the membranes have ruptured.

The second one would hopefully be pretty obvious but not sure about the contractions. Lovely husband's work colleague said he went to the doctor with his 40 weeks pregnant wife, who had not felt any contractions and the doctor felt her belly and said she was experiencing one there and then! So they are not always obvious.

From my latest obsessive googling session, it seems that I have in fact been having some Braxton Hicks contractions. I sometimes feel a 'hardness' across one area of the uterus and it seems these are the B-H's.

From now on I will be on the lookout for the hardening to see how often it is happening. I haven't felt it at all while I've been ensconced on the couch for the last 3 hours so it will be interesting to track how often it happens.

So how am I feeling about all this? Well, pretty good considering. It just isn't as scary as the vasa previa problem, even though that was less likely. A rupture would just have been so catastrophic that it was terrifying.

Now we've got a much higher chance of E3 coming too early but at least he has a good chance of survival now. I just keep telling myself (and E3) that he is coming at 37 weeks and everything is going to be fine!

The constant rest isn't going to be easy and it could potentially go on for the next 10 weeks but at least I am at home which is infinitely better than being in the hospital.

It will take real willpower to stay put and not keep walking around the house but I must keep thinking of E3. I am really worried about how much weight I might gain from sitting around and not doing any exercise but again, how bad can it be if it helps bring our wee one into the world safe and sound.

Anyway, I'll be 28 weeks on Wednesday, so another milestone achieved.