Last Day Little

Today is the last day that I get to spend to my "little" baby. Tomorrow, he will be a big ONE year old. I cannot believe it. Where has the time gone?

One year ago today, I was 36.5 weeks pregnant. I was having a great deal of pain on my right side, and I had been for over ten weeks. The problem was that Eli was lying on the ureter going to my right kidnery and it was causing hydronephrosis. Ironically, hydronephrosis was Owen's diagnosis, and part of the reason that his kidney had to be removed. Mine was apparently pregnancy induced. The doctors monitored my kidney and renal function through ultrasound from the time that the pain started. On this day, I was sent to the hospital for another renal ultrasound to see if the hydronephrosis had worsened. During previous exams, it had been labeled as "moderate", but this time, they determined it to be "severe". Once hydro becomes severe, it can cause other problems with the kidneys and result in permanent damage. The radiologist immediately called my OB, and she told me to go ahead and check into the hospital. We went home, grabbed our bags, and a bite to eat before heading back to the hospital. I also gave Matthew his birthday gift because I had a feeling that the next day was probably not going to be his :)

We got back to the hospital around 6 pm, checked in, and got hooked up to all of the monitors. I was contracting every 2-7 minutes and I was dilated 3.5 cm. My doctor had high hopes that I would progress on my own and we wouldn't have to make any tough decisions. Unfortunately, as we waited for Dr. Fenoughty to return from her son's football game, my contractions slowed down and we had to decide what we were going to do.

The bottom line was that *something* had to be done to relieve the kidney. My options were to deliver the baby to get him off the ureter, OR undergo surgery to have a tube put in through my back and into my kidney to drain it. Option two, *REALLY* did not sound like fun to me, so after weighing the options, and assessing our risks, we decided to go ahead with the delivery.

Around 8 pm, they gave me cytotec, I received two doses over the next 6 hours before they broke my water. Within an hour of my water being broken, I was fully dilated and ready to push. Things went VERY quickly from there! Literally, within minutes, we were holding our perfectly healthy, 3 1/2 weeks early, 7 lb, little boy!


Tomorrow he will be one... But today, he's still my little baby.

I love you Eli!