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!!

Goals

So I've seen one of my doctors this morning. Still waiting on the other one, but I did get some answers to my questions and, more importantly, some goals to keep in mind! My short term goal: possibly going home on bed rest at 32 weeks, still depending on the ultrasound results. My long term goal: possibly getting induced or sectioned (depending on Reagan's position) at 39 weeks. Now a lot can happen in between those two goals, or even before the short term goal if Reagan has anything to say about it! This little girl has had her own agenda from day one, and every time we think we're on track, she derails us! But it's great to have these goals to look forward to! I'll be 30 weeks pregnant on Friday, so my short term goal is only about 2 weeks away! I know that going home still will depend on my cervical length on ultrasound closer to 32 weeks, but when I think that almost 2 weeks ago, we almost had a little girl join us so early, I feel so blessed to know that we've already come this far safely. Every day counts!!

Better today. Yesterday was a different story

Well, today is a better day for me. Yesterday, not so much. So I went for my ultrasound yesterday. We had been hoping that my cervix had stayed stable, and that I might be able to go home on bed rest. But unfortunately, my cervix is at it's thinnest since all this has been going on. It was very hard for me to deal with. I really tried not to get my hopes up about going home, but that's hard to do! Especially with my back getting very achey from this hospital bed, and the fact that I'm really missing Mugsy. I know he's being taken care of wonderfully by Buddy and MaryJo, and that he's happy as a clam, but I still miss him. (On a good note, they are planning on bringing him up here and Mike will wheel me downstairs in the wheelchair so I can see him for a few minutes on Thursday!) I was just so frustrated because I didn't know why this is happening. I've stuck with my bed rest just like they've told me, only getting up to the bathroom then back to bed. Why is my cervix thinner now? Does this put Reagan at risk? I'm not having any contractions any more, so what's causing my cervix to thin even more? I've had a couple of different doctors covering for my regular doctors for a few days, which I totally understand, but I look forward to tomorrow, when both of my regulars will be back. What I do know about all this, is that I am not getting to go home. I get to stay here, at least for a while longer, in the hospital on bed rest. When I got back to my room from the ultrasound yesterday, I cried. A lot. Mike was at work, unfortunately, but he was wonderful. He called me and talked to me a lot. And he called in reinforcements! I had called my mom already, but he called and texted his mom and my mom to have them come up here as soon as they could. MaryJo was the first one here, and I didn't even know she was coming. My mom and dad were not far behind. And my sister came up later, after work. I was a basketcase yesterday. It was a great help having family come spend time with me. I don't know what I would do if we didn't live so close to family. So now today is a better day. I wish I could go home, but I know that this is where I need to be. And I'm okay with that. Whatever it takes to keep my precious baby girl healthy! She just keeps acting like she wants to make an early appearance! She's already a diva!! So, that's where we are today with everything. I'll continue to keep you all posted on progress, trying to post daily, but some days are a little harder than others. Love to you all, and thanks again for all the prayers and support. 

No news is Good news!

Well, the doctors have come in today. We are planning for an ultrasound tomorrow morning. Once we see how my cervix looks there, we'll see what the new plans are! If my cervix is stable or better than it was on Friday, then I may be going home on bed rest tomorrow or Tuesday! I can't wait to see what tomorrow holds!! I'm really trying not to get my hopes up though. I'll post more tomorrow once we know if things are changing! Til then. . .

New Possibilities

So a little bit has happened since my last blog entry. Yesterday, I had an ultrasound. We got good news from that. My cervix has "thickened", so to speak, and is now measuring 1.1-1.5 cm! Yay!! Well, today, when the doctors came in, they discussed this with me and discussed the possibility of me getting to go home today. I have been stable since on the procardia pills, and that has kept the contractions away for the most part (yes, I have had a very occasional ctx, but nothing like last weekend). I thought about this possibility, and while it excites me to think of going home on bedrest rather than being in the hospital on bedrest, I'm also very nervous about risks and don't want to put Reagan in any more risks than necessary. So I discussed this with the doctors, and I'm going to stay here a little bit longer. I'm hoping that they will get another ultrasound maybe Sunday or Monday and, as long as I'm stable or better than the last ultrasound, then I'll feel more comfortable going home. Of course, we have awesome family and friends who will be willing to stay with me and be on standby in case anything happens (thank you all!!). I'm looking forward to seeing what next week holds for us! I'm 29 weeks today, by the way! It's so great to know that I made it another week, when we really thought we would meet little Reagan last Friday! Anyway, I'm here at least through the weekend, but its great news to know that there are other possibilities on the horizon for us!