Week in review

So one week ago today around this time I was at my appointment at the perinatal center for a check on my cervix. The appointment did not go well as you already know and they sent me to St. Johns. Since my cervix was shorter after a week on bed rest at home they needed to determine what was causing it to shorten. I was sent to the monitoring area so they could decide where I was to be admitted, the 5th floor or labor and delivery. When they hooked me up they determined that I was having 7 to 8 contractions an hour, none of which I was feeling. This bought me a ticket straight to labor and delivery. What was happening is that my body decided that it was time for the babies to come out. Once your uterus gets to a certain size it knows what to do, and with one baby this would probably have been fine, however with 3, it was way too soon. Pre-term labor is a major risk and fairly common with multiples which is why they check you so often.

The next couple of days were a whirl wind as we were not sure what direction things would go. The contractions obviously had to stop or the babies would be here much too early. They had to take all precautions just in case so I received a steroid shot (2 rounds of shots). The shot helps with the development of the babies blood vessels and lungs which reduces the risks at birth for preemies. In addition I received a lovely IV drip of magnesium, which makes a person who feels perfectly normal really weird. For me it made me feel really hot and VERY thirsty. Because it affects some people worse than others I was not allowed out of bed without assistance. By the time they got the IV in me it was late in the day and I had only had breakfast. I could have gnawed my arm off by then, and thankfully they decided to let me eat dinner and drink water which totally relieved how awful the mag was making me feel. The problem is that this stuff has side effects (which depending on why they are giving it to you may be good), but it can decrease your blood pressure and drop your oxygen level, both of which happened to me.

So throughout the night they were constantly trying to monitor the babies and their heart beats. Since my oxygen level had dropped they were concerned with how much the babies were getting so they put me on oxygen. I'm not sure how they would think someone trying to lay on their back with 3 babies smashing their insides while they try for hours to keep track of 3 active babies would would not cause a decrease in oxygen, but they had to be careful as I am sure some of it was from the mag. Anyway, the mag did not work completely so they ended up weaning me off that and giving me another pill and that one did the trick. Thankfully at that point they decided to only monitor the babies every 4 hours for 30 minutes...which was always a lot longer because sometimes it would take them an hour to get all of them on the monitors. They were really busy at times and would just keep moving. Then if they could not find them they would bring in the ultrasound machine to locate them in hiding. Either way, every 4 hours was a lot better than all day.

So, once that magnesium was out of my system, I felt pretty good and things were looking up. They did switch my meds again to what I was taking at home since there are no long term effects on the babies with this drug. Since my contractions had slowed, they moved me Friday to my more permanent room on the 5th floor. They still monitor my contractions twice a day and I am happy to say that I am having less than 3 an hour which is good. The monitoring is important since I never did and still do not feel the contractions, which concerns them. The babies heartbeats are checked daily and up until today it was by the doplar machine here on the floor, but they changed it to be the ultrasound machine which they also bring into my room. I will only get my cervix checked once a week and hopefully at the next check will not be more bad news...we need it to last as long as it can.

So, you wonder how long I will be here...as long as it takes. If my body cooperates they will keep me here as long as they can which could be up to my 34 week mark (I am only 26 weeks now so you can do the calculations). Each day I can keep these babies in me increases their chance of survival and reduces their stay in the NICU 2-3 days, so the stakes are obviously very high. I feel fine, just like I did before so as long as they can keep my contractions in check this is really an uphill mental battle to stay sane while locked up.