I'm back, again!

Sorry it's been so long. It was an eventful weekend that left me mostly in bed and not really up for blogging (or anything else). When I posted last time, they had started me on the mag wash and I was doing okay --- very hot flashes, but nothing a few ice packs couldn't fix. That was all day Friday and then all night Friday night I barely slept. Nurses and doctors were in and out every hour - taking blood pressure, checking my breathing, taking blood to make sure the magnesium in my system wasn't too much. I couldn't sleep and was up all night.

Saturday morning around 10 or so, D was in the shower and I was dosing off, finally able to find a comfortable position, and the nurse came in and said "I'm seeing deceleration on baby B and I don't like it, I'll be right back." My contractions were still steady - about 4 - 6 mins apart and Olivia's heartrate was dropping in to the 90's with the contractions. Within 5 minutes of the first time she walked in the door and said that, they had my bed unplugged and we were moving to labor and delivery (luckily D was done with his shower - he stuck his head out the door and they had me on oxygen so he got dressed quite quickly). That was a freak out moment for me because I didn't understand what was going on. Finally we realized my doctor had ordered me over there because the nurse to patient ratio was 2:1 versus 5:1 on the high risk side so they could watch the deceleration very closely -- if it didn't stop they were going to do a c-section and they also wanted me close to the OR if delivery was necessary.

Luckily when we got to the labor and delivery side, Olivia's heartrate wasn't decelerating anymore but my contractions were still steady. They started steroids and they also put me back on 24 hours of indocin -- that's the drug that's worked best with me but I can't take it for prolonged periods of time. I think they put me on it for 24 hours to buy time to let the second round of steroids settle in. That helped my contractions but I was finished with it by Sunday afternoon. My contractions started back but not nearly as organized as they were on Friday and Saturday.

But! We made it through Sunday night with the babies looking great and the contractions somewhat under control. Yesterday morning they stopped the magnesium and put me back on the brethine pump and procardia. I can tell I'm back on brethine with how it makes my heart race and I feel shaky, but so far so good. I'm back to having maybe a couple of contractions every hour or so --- I'll take it. The IV is stopped (although it's still in my hand in case they have to start it back up quickly) and I'm again allowed out of bed for the bathroom and a shower. I'm back to feeling some kind of normal. They also moved me back to the high risk side from labor and delivery (different room) --- thank goodness -- those beds over there are not meant for long-term patients!!!

So.......we're taking it day by day. 28 weeks and 3 days.........and still going. One of the NICU doctors we've known from outside the hospital stopped by last night. Getting to 32 weeks would be ideal - the babies will still spend time in the NICU but they won't have nearly the risk of infection as they would should they be born now (although - should they be born now, their chances are great). We hope to have an ultrasound this week to see how the babies are growing - we expect they're over 2lbs now and still growing!

There's a lot more adventure over on the labor and delivery side and you could tell the nurses weren't used to having a patient who wasn't doing anything - ha. Yesterday we were talking to one of the nurses and we heard pounding down the hallway. A bit later one of my other nurses came in and said "Didn't you hear the girl next door yelling??" Apparently she had been asleep and she woke up and was delivering the baby. The pounding we heard was nurses and the doctor didn't make it for the delivery. Crazy!!

Okay....that's about all I have for now......things are back to being steady and we're settling in for hopefully a few more weeks! Thanks to everyone for the messages and prayers!

Until next time.......