I feel like I've been grounded, except instead of being grounded from TV or computer, it's from housework and cooking... hmmmmm, this might not be too bad.
Tuesday morning at the doctor's office they put the external fetal monitors on, and the contraction monitor. My Braxton-Hicks contractions have been every 20-30 minutes for about a week, but during that 30 minutes on the monitor, they came every 5 minutes. So they promptly sent me next door to the hospital to be monitored more closely for the day and see if they could be stopped.
At the hospital, I was again hooked up to all the monitoring wires, and yes, Alyna still doesn't like to be found. We finally found just the right position that if I held the monitor pressed down at just the right angle, we could hear her heartbeat. So all day I had to periodically make sure to track her rate for at least a minute.
I wasn't dilated or progressing at all, which was a good sign that we could stop or slow the contractions.
They were still coming every 5-6 minutes apart a couple hours later, so I was fed lunch which was really good for hospital food. It was a club sandwich, salad, and carrot cake.
After lunch they slowed down, but then sped up a lot... so they gave me a shot of a relaxing medicine in my hip. I joked with the nurse that the shot hurt worse than the contractions which still just feel like the tightening of a blood pressure cuff around my abdomen. They slowed down again but only to about 7-10 minutes apart. So at 4 pm they gave me a shot of a medicine to stop the contractions. I had one more contraction about 10 minutes later, and then nothing for 50 minutes, so I was discharged.
Barry probably had it rougher than me, because I kept calling him and telling him not to leave work. I just knew they weren't going to deliver me today. At only 33 weeks, they would do everything they could to not let the babies come yet. The babies were moving around just fine and had strong heartbeats throughout.
So Wednesday, I didn't do much at all except watch TV. Today (Thursday), I went back to the doctor for more fetal monitoring. Again, my contractions had only been every 20-30 minutes this morning, but as soon as they put me on the monitor they went to every 10-15 minutes. I'm not sure if it's psychological, or something the babies are doing, or just a fluke.
So I was sent home after 1 1/2 hours of monitoring, and I'm not on bed rest, but I am on restricted activity. Thankfully, some ladies from church have volunteered to come over tomorrow and clean the house. Barry was really getting overwhelmed with all the yard work and indoor chores too.
So we're praying that the babies will wait at least until 35 weeks... although they should be okay even if they were delivered after this weekend at 34 weeks. They just might need a little time in the NICU at that point. Oh, and the closest NICU is in Lubbock, 1 hour 45 minutes away.
Please keep all of us in your prayers.
1 comment:
You guys will be in my prayers! Fingers crossed on the NICU front. The NICU isn't as scary as it sounds. Our staff was great and they adored Braedon. Knowing that there's a chance the crew may end up there should help psychologically. Just prepare yourself to know that it's incredibly hard to leave your spankin' new baby with someone other than you. I had a panic attack when I was disharged and had to go home without him. I'd see if you can find some resources online on "questions to ask" and have pen and paper handy just in case. Hopefully you guys won't need it, but my biggest regret is that I was so fried that I would forget what I wanted to ask and then forgot the answer to what I did ask! Keep us posted!
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