Pre-term Scare

So Thursday (6/16) was the 28 week mark! I think I may have even posted about reaching my first HUGE milestone in this pregnancy...Thursday evening things turned around.

After dinner, as we usually do every night, we were sitting in the livingroom watching tv with Emmalee and contractions were going. I had been having a few here and there the past couple days, but nothing to cause alarm. I decided after having 3 in about a 30 minute span to start writing them down. I only wrote a few down because after that 3 I had 5 more within the next half hour. They weren't painful, but very uncomfortable and took a little bit of my breath away each time.

I was back and forth about calling. I didn't want to go in for no reason, and even more so, I did NOT want to be in labor. I decided I'd call, and they wanted to see me. Andy's dad came over to sit with Emmalee, who was ready for bed soon, while we went in. We were thinking they'd check me out, a few hours tops.

I was a wreck. Crying of course, and just terrified that these babies were coming too soon. We checked in, got put right into triage and they started hooking up the baby monitors. This took hours because there are 3, it's harder to keep all the monitors on my belly without them moving...and the kiddos were moving all around as well. The pushing and tight belts holding the monitors on were not helping contractions any...in fact, they were getting closer together and stronger.

The Attending OB/GYN had to check things out, and discovered I was 1cm dialated (which if you know anything isn't very uncommon to be 1cm for months and months) but my reaction was just tears. I was hoping to hear that I wasn't dialating at all, and these were just Braxton-Hicks (false) contractions. I was not effaced at all (thinning) so that was very good. They would check me again in an hour to see if the contractions were progressing, which would me Pre-term Labor.

Of course when I first arrived they took my blood pressure (BP) and it was sky rocketing because of how worked up and freaked out I was. But there was also protein in my urine so they wanted to rule out Pre-Eclampsia, which is a dangerous thing to occur in pregnancy. After the first BP, the rest were quite normal. So they thought I would be okay.

At around 11pm they checked me again, no change, still 1cm and 0% effaced. A very good sign. So I was not in Pre-term Labor I was just having pre-term uterine contractions, mostly likely because I've got 3 babies and am the size of a full-term mother of 1! So my uterus is just not liking the stretching anymore. So what does this mean? It means I could have contractions for the rest of my pregnancy.

The doctors decided to keep me overnight for observation of the babies and myself, they wanted to give me a steroid to help speed up the development of the babies' lungs just in case things took a turn for the worst. Also they wanted to collect my urine for 24 hours to rule out Pre-Eclampsia for sure. So I didn't start the collection til 1am and didn't get the first of 2 shots (which have to be 24hrs apart) until 1am also. So my overnight was quickly turned into 2 nights. (Not happy).

Contractions continued thru Thursday night into Friday morning. But were not as strong and often. A very good sign. They were also giving me an oral medication to help slow/stop contractions. Didn't seem to work until later Friday. Every 4 hours they would check the babies with the monitors, and the contractions would get stronger. After my 7am check, they decided I could be taken off the IV fluids, and stop monitoring the babies as much, and most of all, I COULD EAT!

I got moved to a different room before lunch, and here they would continue monitoring every 4 hours, but just thru the doppler and get a quick heartrate count for each baby. This was much better, and contractions were pretty much done at this point. I was just exhausted because I didn't sleep at all, and very uncomfortable.

My mother and sister brought up Emmalee for a short visit. I was so happy to see her, I cried of course. All this was so unexpected it was very hard to leave her, but thank God for the family we have, taking such good care of her on such short notice.

I basically just had to wait around, sitting in hospital bedrest until the next day when they would give me the 2nd steroid shot and get the results from my 24 hour urine collection. It was the longest stay ever. We did have more visitors, my sister and her husband and our friends E & A came. It really helped relieve some of the annoyance of being there.

Around 11pm Friday night I felt really weird, hot all of a sudden. I think the exhaustion finally hit me and I just had to sleep. I did until 1am, when they gave me the next shot, then went back to sleep again until 5am for my next vitals/baby check. It was what I needed for sure. It's just so hard to sleep pregnant in my own bed, and hospital beds are NOT comfortable I don't care what anyone says.

At 5:30am I put on a movie and waited for Andy to wake up. (He stayed with me both nights, thank God...as uncomfortable as he was I'm sure. I couldn't have been there alone.) At 6am, a resident came in to let us know that the Attending would be in to discharge us and let us know what to do from here. (She said 15 minutes). They didn't come until 10am. Annoyed. So finally they came. No checking my cervix, thank goodness, and they were just waiting on my 24 hr collection results. 11:15 we finally got the discharge papers and were set FREE!

I am to remain on modified bedrest until my next Dr's appointment Monday the 27th. I cannot lift Emmalee (so I have to have help every day this week), and I am to basically stay sitting/laying down except for the bathroom and to get food/drinks. It stinks, but luckily I have people willing and able to help! And this is the last week of work for my mom and MIL and so that means they'll be able to come if I have to continue this from here on out the rest of my pregnancy. It's very hard not picking up Emmalee, luckily she can climb on my chair and sit next to me.

I'm terrified the contractions will start again and be worse. I'm terrified something ELSE will go wrong. I just want these babies to stay in for 6 more weeks. PLEASE God, keep them cooking!