Big Milestone

As some of you may know, I've spent the last 3 weeks at the wonderful Resort MUSC...or in other words, on hospital bed rest.  I'll spare you some of the details, but basically what prompted this was a check up appointment at the doctor where they realized I was having contractions every 4-6 minutes that I wasn't feeling.  It just so happens that it was Friday the 13th... just our luck huh?  Anyway, having contractions that close together along with a couple of other symptoms qualified me for preterm labor, so I was admitted to the hospital immediately for observation, evaluation, and medication.  I was immediately given fluids as standard procedure as well as a shot of terbutaline and then a powerful dose of a medication called indocin.  The hope was that the concoction of medicine and rest would calm the contractions enough to buy us many more weeks of pregnancy.  Luckily, my body responded well to the medicine and the contractions calmed down after about 2 days.  The first week was kinda scary and unpredictable.  The doctors don't want to tell you everything's going to be ok when they just don't know...unfortunately, for pregnancy, there's no rhyme or reason to why things happen the way they do sometimes.  There was not a definite prognosis that they could give us, so we just took it day by day.  Sitting here thinking about all the uncertainty could definitely drive you crazy and we just wanted the doctors to say "ok, everything's under control, you'll be able to hold on for another 10 weeks now," but that's just not the case!  Instead, they were constantly monitoring and checking me for any signs of change, which was nerve racking too because they would tell me that my next check up would be 2 days from now, so for those 2 days, I would just worry about what the results would be!  Luckily, we know that we have a great team of doctors and nurses working with us...they have all been so wonderful and comforting!  We are also super blessed to have such wonderful families...my mom and dad were able to come and help take care of things at the house and Vida for the first week I was in here, and then Brian's dad has been able to come and stay at our house for the past week and a half, again to help with Vida and just normal everyday household stuff.  I must say I've been super blessed too with a wonderful husband who has spent nights in the the hospital with me as well as comes to hang out with me everyday after work...if I'm lucky he brings me a good dinner too:)  

Ok...back to my hospital stay.  A lot of people have asked me some questions so I figured I'd answer them here!

How far along are you?  

I'll be 25 weeks tomorrow which is a huge milestone!  The first 2 weeks in here were very nerve racking in that the hospital leaves it up to the parents between 23 and 25 weeks as to whether or not you want to resuscitate the babies due to the simple fact that babies born at that gestational age are technically considered viable, although there are many complications, long term and short term, that are probable.  At 25 weeks, the hospital is required to do what they can to keep the babies alive so that takes the burden off of me and Brian.

What have you been doing to occupy your time?

Believe it or not, I have a pretty full day most times...here's what my daily schedule looks like.

6:30 - Generally, around this time there is a doctor that comes in a wakes me up from my beauty sleep just to make sure that everything went smoothly throughout the night

8:30ish - wake up, brush teeth, get dressed, order my breakfast 

9:00 - 9:30 - Sometime in this time frame, my breakfast usually arrives, my nurse comes in to give me my medications, and the tech comes in to take my blood pressure, oxygen level, pulse and temperature. 

10:15 - I finally finish breakfast...it takes a while to eat a lot with such a big belly!!  

10:30 - Doctors come in to do their rounds and make sure everything is going ok and to discuss any important appointments/milestones coming up that I need to be aware of.

10:30 - 11:45 - After I eat and talk to the doctors, the nurse comes back in to hook me up to the contraction monitor for an hour.  During this time, I really can't move a whole lot, so I just lay here and watch TV or read.  

11:45 - Most days around this time, I have my nurse tech come in to change my sheets while I take a shower.  

12:30 - Order lunch

1:00 - 2:00 - Eat lunch

2:00 - 5:00 - This is generally my nap time, reading time, free time really.

5:00 - 10:00 - Brian comes to keep me company and we eat dinner together.

11:00 - Go to bed

12:00 - Get woken up to take my medicine and day is done!

Now that's a day that I don't have any appointments, such as an ultra sound (I get about 4 a week), fetal fibronectin tests, glucose tests, EKGs done on the babies, dietary/nutrition consultations, and NICU consultations.  

I've been a good patient so they gave me outside privileges, so someone can take me outside in a wheelchair.  The best part about it is when we get back in the elevator, everyone thinks I'm in labor and they ask me if it's a boy or a girl...you should see their face when I say, "Actually, it's 2 girls and 1 boy."

Any major hiccups? 

Aside from the babies having the hiccups sometimes, we have had one minor speed bump.  Medications used to stop preterm labor are called tocolytics... although they are not manufactured for that purpose specifically.  Tocolytics generally are used to treat something completely different than preterm labor but have an off label effective use of stoping contractions.  Not many drug companies produce drugs that they can say are 100% safe to use during pregnancy since not many people agree allow their unborn child to be the subject of a science experiment.  Through advancements in medicine though, doctors and scientists have come to realize that the use of many of these drugs have secondary effects on slowing contractions.  The first medicine I was on was called Indocin...it's an NSAID so it's kind of like Advil but it's generally used to treat patients with arthritis.  Consequently, it also does something with prostaglandins which are a big component in contractions.  The drug does have down sides though...it can close the ductus arteriosis between the babies heart and lungs (this closes after birth but shouldn't close while still in my belly) and it can decrease their urine output, which then decreases their amniotic fluid which is essential for lung development as well a many other things.  Luckily, both of these side effects are reversible.  Fortunately, the first 2 weeks on the drug went smoothly...a pediatric cardiologist came down to my room every week to to an EKG on all the babies' hearts to make sure the ductus wasn't closing and an ultra sound specialist would come to check all the fluids of the babies to make sure that wasn't decreasing.  Unfortunately, last Thursday, they saw that Baby B's fluid was low, so I had to quit taking it.  With in 48 hours of stopping the drug, my contractions were back, so the doctors checked the fluid again and it had gone back up...so they gave me indocin again for 48 hours until they checked the fluid again...and it was low.  At this point they started looking into other options...I am now on a blood pressure medicine called Procardia which can be secondarily used to slow/stop contractions...it has no real side effects on the babies but some people don't tolerate the drug itself well.  I, luckily, don't have any of the dizziness, dropped blood pressure or headaches that can be associated with it and it seems to work just as well!

What else...???

• I've gained about 7 pounds since being in here and I'm expected to gain about 20 more.
• My room is like a freezer box because I'm my own incubator.
• Hospital food is pretty good although I'm getting tired of it.
• Doctors are all pretty positive about everything especially since I've been stable for the past 3 weeks
• I feel like I'm in a college dorm room...minus the loft beds.
• I'm starting to be known as "The Princess at the end of the hall" because I told the doctors I had medical students coming in to wake me up at 4:30 in the morning just to ask me how I was feeling...I understand they are just doing their job but seriously??  One of the residents though that was ridiculous so he posted a sign outside my door saying not to other me between 11pm and 7am, unless it's for medicine:)
• I feel pretty caught up on all my trashy reality TV
• I have a view out my window...kind of...I can at least see the sky and what the weather is like.
• I can wear my own clothes...I don't have to be in a hospital gown all the time.
• I sleep great for the most part.
• I don't have stretch marks.
• The babies kick around like crazy and it wiggles my whole belly when they do.
• I miss Vida like crazy:(
• As far as my attitude/sanity towards all this...I figure there's two ways I can look at this:
• I can complain a lot and hate staying in this small little room and cry all the time (don't get me wrong, I have cried...more because I feel helpless than because of the fact I'm on bed rest)
• Or I can be positive about it and realize that although I'm limited as to what I can do, I can have a good attitude with all the nurses and doctors, and know that I'm in here for the health of my babies.  I chose this route:)

24 weeks...google what a singleton pregnant person should look like at 24 weeks 

The "Princess" warning sign on my door.

That's all the pictures for now...we'll try to take some more and put more up!  Thanks to everyone who has been thinking about us and praying for us!  We truly appreciate all the blessings!