Adventures with Isabella

This pregnancy is proving to be an adventure, just like the last one. I know it's not unusual for people to have some instances of contractions, etc. when they're pre-term, but when that happened to me the last time I was pregnant, it resulted in babies at 29 weeks. So when it happens this time, I get just a little nervous, ya know?!??

I got home Thurs evening from work and was feeling achy. I downed some water and laid down....left side...all the things they tell you to do. At first it was just aches but then I started to feel light contractions, but only on one side. I know "they" say you can have 4 - 6 in an hour and you're still okay, but the aches were getting stronger and were coming and going and I was going to be miserable with worry if I didn't have it checked out. So! Off to the hospital we went. D stayed with the girls who were terrified of the thunderstorm that was coming through and mom went with me to the hospital. I got to a triage room around 10pm.

They hooked me up to the monitors....one to monitor Isabella and one to monitor any contractions. Isabella "looked beautiful" which means her heartbeat was strong and she was having all the accelerations and decelerations she was supposed to be having. I was showing a lot of irritability.........where the uterus is active, but not having full contractions......and I was having minor contractions every now and then. They weren't too strong and they weren't lasting very long so that's a good thing. They gave me an injection of brethine (also called terbutaline) which is the same drug I had administered via pump with the girls. It's supposed to relax the uterine muscles. We noticed a difference after the first injection, but it didn't completely stop all the activity so they gave me a second dose. After the second dose, I was still having the aching I had been feeling all evening, but all other activity finally stopped. One of the side effects of brethine is that it makes your heart race and makes you jittery. And I definitely felt those side effects.

We got home around 4am Friday morning and I went straight to sleep. I had a visit with my OB later that morning who confirmed the irritability and contractions weren't "productive" which is a good thing. I think I may have been a little dehydrated and trying to do a little much so I'm downing even more water and paying even more attention to my activities.

26 weeks down......will be 27 weeks on Tuesday. We can do this!!