How I got myself some extra time at the hospital...

They were planning to send me home this past weekend at 27 weeks. Now I'm here for... well bare minimum until 32 weeks or so. I'm just telling myself until delivery ;-)

Last Sunday, during my morning toco to check for contractions, there was a good deal more activity than they wanted to see. Not totally unusual from time to time; in fact, the trend leading up to this day was for me to have a fair amount of irritability, a handful of what I call "bunny-slope contractions" a couple mild "legit" ones. Maybe looking back this was a tell-tell sign of what was to come.

After the nurse popped in to see what was going on, the resident on staff was called. First, I was given an extra dose of procardia around noon. Continuing the monitoring, it was obvious it wasn't going to do the trick. So, in comes the nurse with a shot of terbutaline, which essentially only made my heart race and gave me a case of the shakes. It calmed things for a very short time, but really didn't work either. At this point, the resident decides to do both an ultrasound and digital check of my cervix. She finds I wasn't dilated and, while my length looked ok at first, she thought she noticed it get 1cm shorter during a contraction, even though I felt no tightening whatsoever. (I'm still not convinced she was measuring the right thing...)

After the scan, and bloodwork to check my white blood cell count, she decided to give me indocin. I knew at this point that this was the second to last resort available, so I decided to look away from the toco and try to nap, hoping this day would have a better ending.

When I woke, they decided there was still too much activity and we're going to have to send me back down to labor and delivery for, yet another, round of magnesium sulfate. No, it's not fun to be on at all, but what I dreaded the most was the unknown. Would this work? Will the babies be born soon? If so, can Jay make it back in time?? Even though I was still contracting every 3-5 minutes after the first loading dose of mag, I did finally quiet down after the maintenance dose had a chance to collect in my system. My cervical length check the next day came out great... still around 2.1-2.4. I was transferred back to the Antepartum unit late on Tuesday night, still with a good deal of irritability, but some of which was likely caused by the UTI they discovered I had. On Wednesday, I ran a low grade fever (probably from the UTI), but it was gone by the next day.

Fast forward to today and contractions are busy enough that they've had to give me an extra dose of procardia the past two days, but, for now, it seems to be taking care of them. Crossing my fingers we can make it to 28 weeks without having to be put back on mag... not sure how many more times they'll make that an option. Baby girl flipped last weekend in L&D while they were trying to get her on the monitor (she really, really hates them poking on her), so she's now breech and baby boy is still head down. Now that they are bigger, one of my favorite bedrest past times is to feel their little lumps and punches and try and figure out what their up to. I am still in awe every day that I have two tiny beings in me. God is awesome! As you might imagine, they can kick pretty darn hard now and Jay got to see my belly move for the first time over the weekend. Speaking of which, he is home now, for good, as of this past Thursday. It is beyond great having him back. He has already made a ritual of giving the babies kisses and talking to each of them, being sure tell to them to behave when he leaves. :-) I have another cervical length heck this Thursday, as well as a growth scan of the babies. As always, I'm excited to see how big they've gotten over these past three weeks.

On another undeniable note, yes, by now I very much miss "normal" life. I worry that my other kids (my puppy dogs) may have forgotten me or think I've abandoned them and I, without a doubt, miss their warm greetings, snuggles and the way they can lift my spirits on a rough day. My home. My soft covers and nights in front of the fireplace. Even the multitude of critters out my kitchen window climbing up and down the tall trees. Right down to the comforting rituals of a hard days work: greeting those I missed all day, slipping into something comfortable (because it's an option, not a have-to) and spending time with those I love, especially my husband. Being away from those things is the biggest part of my normal. Of course there are many other things: I can't wait to go to church again and to have a night of laughter with friends. I guess you could say also just miss plain 'ol independence and the ability to stroll through Target or, eeek, maybe even grocery shopping.

Ok, maybe not that. I haven't gone totally crazy ;-)

Even though I miss these things, I truly am so very grateful for the trade-off. One day I know I'll look back on this and it will seem like it all happened in a flash.

Thanks to each and every one of you who read this and have been praying for our family. I am amazed by the outpouring of love we've received from family, friends and those who we're just getting to know. You have all played such an important role and we really couldn't do it without you. You are loved and very much appreciated!

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