Wow!! Time flies!!

It's amazing to think how fast time goes by! I can't believe our baby girl is over 7 weeks old now! I haven't posted in over a month, and for that I apologize. Been a little busy with Reagan! She's grown so much over the past weeks. We take her back to the doctor next Friday for her 2 month checkup, but we are estimating her to be around 6 lbs right now! She's eating well-although not breastfeeding, I'm pumping and she's getting mommy's milk, with a couple of feedings of formula supplemented a day. Some days she's rather gassy and fussy, but, that's okay. Earlier today, I just looked down at her and stared in awe. I can't believe we made something so perfect and beautiful. Life is really something, isn't it? My original due date is tomorrow. It's really crazy to think back at how everything has flown by. I've been printing these posts out to put in her baby book, and re-reading them as I go. It was all so hard to go through, 10 and 12 weeks ago, but now, it's all just a distant blur. And, oh, it was so worth it. I would've stayed in bed the entire 40 weeks if I had to. (Probably wouldn't have said that 12 weeks ago, though!!) I'll try to post here and there in the future. More so to document Reagan's progress and be able to read to her one day than for anything else. Well, I must go now. I've got a perfect, fussy baby in the next room who needs me. :) Oh, and I have to add--I was right about Mike. When I read back on previous posts at how wonderful he was and how he would be the best daddy for her, he really is. He really is. I love them both so much.

Sweet Baby!!

What a whirlwind the past 2 weeks has been!! Let's see where to begin!! Two weeks ago today, on June 30, I woke to excruciating pain at 3am. I woke Mike up and we called the nurse. Things happened so quickly, I'll try to recap! Since I never called out for help, the nurses came running-and they brought a labor and delivery nurse with them. While they tried to get me on the monitor (while I was writhing in pain), they also called the doctor on call. A resident came in to check me, and they determined I was indeed in labor (duh!) and dilated to 4 cm already. Now if you'll remember, with her being so small and my cervix already being thin, they had previously said that if I got to 4 or 5 cm, she could easily come out! Well, they quickly removed my terbutaline pump (the one that kept the contractions away up til this point) and got me on a stretcher headed to the OR. Now all during this time, Mike was on the phone calling in parents and my sister-they all got there really quick! Mike and I were taken to the OR for a C-Section and at 4:38 am, little Reagan Alexis Williams was born! She weighed in at 4 lbs and 7 oz and was 17 inches long. She was quickly whisked away to the NICU. It was about 4 hours  or so before I could see her-we had to wait until I could feel my legs again!! Mike wheeled me over to the NICU (he'd already been by to see her and check on her and gave me a little warning as to how she looked). She looked so pitiful, so fragile. She was on a CPAP breathing machine and had heart monitors and a pulse ox and an IV. Bless her heart!! I cried when I saw her! The next several days went by in a sort of blur. She had to be intubated for a short time to have some medicine put down into her lungs (Surfactant), then got put back on the CPAP. This medicine helped, though, because after a few days she was put on oxygen by nasal cannula and after several more days, she came off the oxygen completely! We had some issues with getting her to eat at times, and she had an NG tube a few times, but after 13 days, she behaved, gained weight back to her birth weight, and was able to come home!! That (almost) 2 weeks seemed like a lifetime to be without our little girl, but traveling up to the hospital several times a day and visiting her helped. Thanks to all our family for driving me all over the city and back!! I was frequently a basket case, but Mike was wonderful to me, and helped me cope with the stress of it all. He is such a wonderful daddy!! Reagan came home yesterday-and we feel so blessed! We have our whole family under one roof now! Mugsy is adjusting well-he's very curious about the sounds she makes and is checking on her often. We thank everyone for all the prayers and will continue to keep you updated on Reagan's progress as she grows!!

An eventful past few days

Whew! The past few days have been busy! Mike and I usually have our "date night" on Saturdays. This past Saturday was going to be no exception-or so I thought! I had some family in from out of town (both California and Georgia), and they were supposed to be coming by for a visit Saturday night. While we were waiting on them, Mike suggested we go for a wheelchair ride, since it was still light outside. Well, he ended up wheeling me down by the ambulance bay and into a conference room-I was clueless!! My whole family was there!! It was a surprise baby shower!!! It was so wonderful!! My sister organized it and decorated it-she did so awesome!!!! I love my family!! 

Now, today, I just got back from an ultrasound! Great news!! My cervix is stable when compared to my last ultrasound-which is great! And they did measurements on Reagan. Now these measurements are just estimates, but she measured at 34 weeks and 2 days (I'm 32 weeks and 4 days currently), and her weight measured at 4 lbs and 15 oz!! Even though these are estimates, and even if they are about a pound off, that's still bigger in comparison to her last ultrasound measurements!!! I'm so excited that she's measuring bigger! Yay!! Oh, yea-and no significant contractions in several days now!! WooHoo!!!

One day at a time

So up until a few days ago, there was nothing to update. No news was good news, right? Well, day before yesterday things changed a little. About 5 pm, I started having contractions again. Nothing painful, but about every 7 minutes apart. Just felt a little tightening. They gave me a bolus of my medicine through my pump and that seemed to ease them. then about 9 or 9:30 pm that night, they were back. Same as before. Nothing painful. Actually, on these, I barely even noticed them. I told then nurse that I had felt 2 contractions, and she said, "well, you're having a few more than that." I asked how many, and she said they were every 6-7 minutes again. I was frustrated, but they gave me another bolus of my medicine and they stopped. I had a few yesterday morning, when they were monitoring me, and my doctor's nurse practitioner was already on the floor, so she increased my basal (continuous) rate on my medicine up by 10%.  That seemed to knock them out again. Then nothing all day, until last night. The nurse came in to put me on the monitor (they do this twice a day, unless I feel something, then they'll put me on more often), and I had told her that I felt good and that I had been behaving! Unfortunately, the monitor showed something different! I was contracting every 5-6 minutes! Grrrr!! I hadn't even been feeling them until I had to lay back and relax-that made me think of nothing else but the contractions. This was very frustrating. They gave me another bolus dose of medicine and it helped ease them, but I was so frazzled. Why does this keep happening?? I had a breakdown after all this last night, but I'm better today. I'll be 32 weeks tomorrow!! I'll have been in the hospital for 4 weeks tomorrow, but hopefully, I only have about 2 weeks in here left. The hopeful plan is to send me home on bedrest at 34 weeks, then possibly stop the medicine pump (terbutaline) at 36 weeks. Hopefully, Reagan will hold out til then!! This weekend will be a test though-it's a full moon Saturday!! The night I came in in pre-term labor was a full moon too!! I'll update as things go along! 

Stable is good

I just realized I had not updated in a few days! I had an ultrasound on monday, and it showed that my cervix is basically stable (it was a little bit better than the last ultrasound, but not enough to get excited about). It also showed that Reagan is measuring right on cue for where she should be. I then took my 1 hour glucose test, and failed, but just barely. The medicine pump, Terbutaline, that I am on now can affect my blood sugar, but they can't take that into effect too much. So on Tuesday, I got to do a 3 hour glucose test. I passed! Barely, but I still passed! So I don't have gestational diabetes! So here I am, just chilling out in the bed, being stable. But we hit 31 weeks on Friday, so at this point, stable is good!

Reagan's still in charge

Well, things were going really well. Until late last night. I mean, they're still going well, things just snagged last night. About 10 pm last night, I started having contractions again. After monitoring for a little while, the nurse called the doctor and they gave me a fluid bolus and one shot of terbutaline. I was able to sleep for a while after that. Then this morning, they put me on the monitor again and the contractions started back up. They were about 7-8 minutes apart today, and lasting about a minute each. My maternal-fetal medicine doctor was up on the floor at this time. After a while of being on the monitor and deciding what to do, they decided to stop my procardia pills tonight and they went on and gave me another shot of terbutaline and then put me on a terbutaline continuous subcutaneous pump (it's kindof like an insulin pump). So my contractions have now stopped, at least for the time being. And I'm going to be getting another ultrasound on Monday. It won't decide of going home anytime soon-I'm going to be here for a while-but it may tell us if the contractions caused my cervix to thin even more. And they're going to measure Reagan to see if she's grown more. So we'll just continue to take it one day at a time, and hope that Reagan doesn't decide to change our plans! 

30 Weeks!!

Well, we've hit a milestone!! I'm 30 weeks pregnant today!! Yay!! Mike has planned a date night for us for tomorrow night. I think this is now a weekly occurrence, which I love!! He picks up a movie and dinner-this week, we're going to have ribs!! I can't wait!! The maternal-fetal medicine doctor looked at my ultrasound yesterday. Looks like I'm going to be here til about 33-34 weeks. And that's okay. Someone told me that every day Reagan stays in my belly, it saves her 3 days in the NICU. I don't know exactly how true that is, but I'm using that as inspiration and encouragement to keep her in place! Of course, she makes her own plans and lets us know what they are as we go along!! I has a contraction this morning. Only one, and it was small, but it's the first one I've felt in several days. The doctor says I'm probably having more, and just not feeling them and that's what is making my cervix change and thin out. Oh well. Nothing more I can do about it than what I'm doing right now! So here I sit, on my 30 week mark, thanking God we've made it this far and counting my blessings for all the wonderful people in my life right now. I'll update again soon!!