What a Difference a Couple of Days Makes

After the results of Monday's test, we though we were in the clear for the next 2 weeks. Not so much. Last night when I got home from work, I was contracting. A lot. I took a bath. I drank tons of water. I rested on my side. And after counting contractions between 8 and 9pm that ranged from 2 minutes between to 10 minutes between, I called the doctor. The told us to head to the hospital for monitoring.

Once we got to the hospital, I was hooked up to monitors (one for contractions and one for each baby) and watched. The doctor stopped in and we talked. She did another fetal fibron.ectin and manual exam of the cervix (which looked great still). Then they started me on terbu.taline to try to relax the uterus and slow down the contractions. I got two sub-cu shots of terb and then the results of the fetal fibron.ectin came back positive. Very confusing since the one from Monday was negative and supposed to predict very little chance of pre-term labor in the next two weeks. But a positive isn't relied upon as much as a negative because it just means you are at increased risk of pre-term labor, but many people won't experience it. Regardless, because of the positive results, they decided to admit me over night. They started alternating oral terb with oral proc.ardia (another medication to slow down contractions) and gave me the first of two shots of betame.thasone (a steroid shot to help the babies lungs mature in case of premature delivery).

I stayed on the monitors all night last night and because of the jittery, heart racing side effects of the terb, didn't really sleep at all. This morning we were told that the plan was the same until the doctor was able to come see me (around 9am). They did decide that the babies only needed to be monitored 3 times a day since they looked great (good heart rates and lots of movement). I don't think Apple and Banana like having the monitors on as it felt like they kept trying to kick them off. The doc showed up at 4pm. It was a long, long day. They decided to keep me at least one more night to do the second shot of beta.methasone. It is most effective when the mom is given two shots 24 hours apart. This means the second one falls at 1:30am tonight.

The medications did slow down the contractions, but they have started to get a bit more frequent as the afternoon and evening wears on. This is the pattern I've been in for a couple of weeks now. The doc said as long as I'm contracting no more than 6 times an hour, they will send me home tomorrow and keep me on the medications. Once home, I will be on modified bed rest, at least for a couple of weeks. This means I get up really only to go to the bathroom, shower, grab some food, etc. Guidelines are 1 hour up, 2 hours of rest. I can be sitting up if it is more comfortable to rest that way. I can also try to work from home as much as I feel up to. So we'll see how that goes. If a couple of weeks go by smoothly, we might try cutting back on the medications and cutting back on bed rest a bit (maybe go in to work for a couple of hours a couple of days a week). We'll see though. This is a critical point in the pregnancy and the doctor pointed out that we should do everything we can to prevent premature delivery or we will always be stuck with the "what ifs." I whole-heartedly agree.

We are hopeful that things will go well from here. I don't know why or how, but for some reason so far I haven't shed one tear over this situation. Sooooo unlike me. I've gotten permission to take my tyl.enol pm tonight to try to get some sleep and hopefully some relief from the back pain that is now constant. Wish me luck.

Oh, and if anyone out there has stories about pre-term labor (contractions) that have happy endings (term deliveries), please let me know! I want more reassurance of a good outcome!

(sorry if this was rambling post. I'm going on no sleep and jittery side effects from medication right now)