28.5 weeks-30 weeks

It feels like I haven't been on this forever to update. It has actually been 3 weeks or so now. I am writing this from a hospital bed so it will probably be in two posts so it is not so long.

After my first baby shower that Sunday, I felt a little weird. I had gone a little crazy on the cake and ice cream and soda but I hadn't felt Jocelyn (baby A) move in what seemed like forever. But I thought, well, I will just give it awhile and we will see. I went to work Monday and I guess I sort of forgot about it. I don't know how you can forget but I did. On Monday night, I mentioned it to my hubby again and he wanted me to go to the doctor's office right away on Tuesday morning. So I did, thinking that I was crazy and everything was going to perfectly fine. Well, they scheduled me for a non-stress test. At that point, it was the first that I had ever had. She hooked me up to all the monitors and fairly quickly we (the nurse and I) started noticing all the contractions that were going on. I wasn't feeling them though. Then Jocelyn had a dip in her heartrate. It was only one but the nurse did not like that at all. Also she just wasn't as reactive as her sister was. She was moving from the ultrasound but her heartrate wasn't going up. The doctor came in to do a cervix check on me since I was having so many contractions and found that I was dilated to a 1. She said, "Go straight to the hospital."

Long story short, I was in the hospital for 1 day and a half. They gave me the steroids to help the babies lungs to mature and they kept me on contraction medication that they sent me home with. Even though, I was still contracting, the doctor took a look at my cervix before he cleared me to go home and I was still a 1. He said that the contractions were not changing my cervix so it didn't worry them. I was on bedrest for then on out and needed to follow up with my doc a few days later.

I did what they said, I stayed on bedrest for a few days. When I went to see my doctor, she checked my cervix again, still I was a 1. I asked her if I was able to take my daughter to school and pick her up in the afternoon. Basically, she told me to do what I needed to do as long as I wasn't having contractions.

So I did. I had the second baby shower with my in-laws but I took it easy. I sat down most all day. I felt great.

22 weeks, 2 days-BEDREST!

This just in, folks, I am officially on bedrest.

Yesterday morning, when I was at work, I noticed that I was having a lot of irritability/contractions. I tried to just not think about them and get some work done but by 12:30 or so I was worried. I was not quite sure what to do because I didn't want to go to the hospital for them just to tell me to go home but I didn't want to miss an opportunity to stop labor if it was really coming. I decided to call the advice nurse whom promptly stated to go straight to Labor and Delivery. I was scared again. When I got to L&D, they listened for the heartbeats; of course, Jocelyn didn't want to cooperate and it took them a long time to find hers. I was really freaking out. They finally found both of the HBs which sounded perfectly and hooked me up to the contraction moniter. I was contracting every 2-3 minutes. These were more like contractions, not irritability, even though they didn't really hurt. They gave me some turbutelin to try and stop the contractions but that didn't even make them waver. At the same time, the doc came in to examine me. My cervix is the same that it has always been, closed, firm, and 4 cms long. They gave me another medication to stop the contractions but it still didn't work. The doc was a little flabbergasted as to what to do. She told me that she was going to send me home with a prescription for the 2nd medication to take every 6 hours as needed. Since the contractions aren't changing my cervix, there is nothing that they can do for me in the hospital.

So I am on full blown bedrest until further notice... no work, no getting up unless I have to go to the bathroom. I don't know what I am going to do for the next 14 or so weeks. I think I am going to go stir-crazy. I am usually the kind of person that always wants to be on the run. I guess I can handle it knowing that my babies are safe and sound inside of me for another 98 days but who's counting anyway? I guess I am going to be on the internet a lot and watching TV, reading books... what else is there to do? I slept until 1:00 this after afternoon because c'mon what else is there to do? I am thinking about all the stuff I am going to miss over the next 3 or so months. School-shopping for my daughter, her starting soccer, first day of school, our family vacation to Orca's Island in September, our birthing classes, halloween...its all worth it if I have two healthy babies at the end.

21 weeks 1 day

Yesterday, I had a bit of a scare, actually a HUGE scare! I have been having a preterm labor nurse call me every week until the babies are born. This was set up by the hospital. When they call, they ask how my week went, if I have had any contractions, back pain or anything else that would suggest I am going into labor. The nurse emailed me yesterday. I emailed her back with a few things. A few days ago, I felt some tightening in my stomach. I couldn't really tell if they were contractions but it was really hot outside and I had been doing some cleaning, so I figured they were. I drank a bunch of water and went to bed and they went away. Yesterday, my lower back was killing me and I felt like (TMI coming up) I was having a lot of vaginal pressure. I was entirely concerned but wanted to ask her about them. She told me that I was probably having contractions and that it was a good thing that I got them to go away on my own. Then she said that I needed to keep a really close eye on my back pain and pressure. I kind of just deleted her email like it was nothing but as the day went by, the pain and the pressure were still there. I called my husband who said, "its better to be safe than sorry." So we called the nurse's advice line to ask their opinions. I thought that they might just tell me to come in and get checked out but instead they told me to go straight to Labor and Delivery. I started crying and freaking out. I didn't think it was that serious. As soon as I heard Labor and Delivery I was thinking, "but wait, I am not delivering anything..." I went to the hospital and the nurse hooked me up to a contraction moniter. Much to my astonishment, I was having very small contractions every 10 minutes. I started freaking out staring at the contraction moniter. I can feel the tightening of my stomach but I just figured it was the babies moving around in there. The doctor finally came in (about 2.5 hours later) and did a cervical check. My cervix was completely closed. They did a speculum exam to see if I had any infections... I did not. They looked at my urine to make sure that I was hydrated... they said I did a great job at that. They did a vaginal ultrasound to see if my cervix was shortening... it wasn't. By the end of 5 hours, they have no idea why I was having contractions. They think it might be from the heat... it is SO hot here but they aren't sure. The doctor says that she is not worried about it since my cervix has not changed a bit. She believes that the back ache is from the babies and has no clue why I feel pressure. Needless to say... I am realived about the cervix not being dialated but so scared about contractions. I don't think that this is normal.

I talked to the babies. I told them that they had 15 more weeks. They are not allowed out until 36 weeks and hopefully they will make it to 39 weeks. I told them they would be in big trouble if they came out before then... haha! like they are going to listen... they just twisted and kicked me more. I love these babies so much! They are my children. I am already the mother of 3 kids, I don't want anything to happen to them. I guess we will just have to see. I have an OB appointment on Tuesday so maybe MY doc will have something to say about it.