Wednesday, March 11, 2009

IUD and other updates


Since I quit pumping about a month ago my doctor said I could go ahead and get the Mir.ena IUD. (He won't place it in a postpartum woman who's breastfeeding until 6 months due to increase chance of migration.) Before he inserted the Mir.ena he opened my cervix with a device to make sure it would "go through." This was by far the worst part for me because it immediately caused my uterus to go into one huge cramp that persisted then while he placed the Mir.ena. It only took about 20 seconds or so to place it but man was I cramping horribly. The urgency of it reminded me of diarrhea cramps because it just came out of nowhere and became so debilitating. I took some Ibu.profen and checked out of the office. I wish now that I would have taken some before my appointment; I think that would have really helped. I'm thrilled about the low-maintenance birth control though! I had been taking the Progest.in only pills and HATED them. If you take them more than 2 hours off from your set time each day they are inneffective and you need to use backup for 48 hours! If I got more than 4 hours off I started spotting and it would take at least 10 days of immaculate pill-taking to get it to stop so I pretty much had a light period the entire time I was on them. I wish now I just wouldn't have even bothered with them. Oh well though!
Ben is doing great. We have been home for 2 months tomorrow! He's been off the oxygen for a month and rarely sets off the alarms on his apnea monitor. His alarms are always of the bradycardia type as a result of reflux. All but about 2-3 of them since we've been home have been while he's eating so we could have seen that he needed help without the aid of the monitor but a few times he's choked up on reflux about an hour or two after he's eaten at night while sleeping so those are a little scary. I'm not sure how long they'll leave us on the monitor. At one point someone threw out "a month with no alarms" as how to know when we're ready to graduate.

He is scheduled for surgery to repair his bilateral inguinal hernias next week. They will be done at the hospital I work at, the same one he spent his 86 days in the NICU. He will be readmitted under NICU care so they will do all his pre-op (IV, intubation, etc) and then the RN, Dr. and RT will attend surgery so that's a big relief to me! He will most likely stay at least one night and then we'll be back home. Hopefully he will be able to be extubated quickly and not need supplemental oxygen again. We are hoping this makes his belly feel better to get his intestines back where they belong and his gas issues will improve and his pediatrician says that a lot of times reflux is improved post surgery as well so that would be fabulous! He is on Preva.cid twice daily for that and we are using the formula thickened with rice cereal. We tried adding the cereal to my pumped milk but we couldn't get the consistency right. It was either hanging up in the nipple and frustrating him endlessly or coming out too quickly and choking him up leading to more bradycardic episodes. So, we're doing the formula for a month or two until he can tolerate the thinner liquids again.

He's a wonderful baby, loves to be snuggled, and a pretty good sleeper, all subject to change at a moments notice I know. He's up to 7 pounds finally! We are still home-bound which I've discovered is a great way to make me look forward to going to work since it's my only socialization. We hope to be able to go out and about in the next month or so.

I hope to get back into this. I have a lot of time at home right now and I just typed this whole entry with one hand so...no excuses, right?


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