Friday, June 20, 2008

33 weeks

On June 17, around 5:30 p.m., I started having back to back contractions. I thought they were just braxton hicks. After lying down and realizing they weren't letting up, I decided to call the nurse's line. When asked how many I had in the last hour and I said 12, they said I need to come in. In complete denial, I showered, we dropped Addie off at my parents, and went to the hospital. I had no bag and thought I would just be hooked up to some monitors for an hour and be sent home. Boy, was I wrong!!! The monitors showed that I was having contractions every two to three minutes. I was immediately put on magnesium-sulfate and given the first of two steriod shots to help the twins lungs develop. Here I sit three days later, hoping to be discharged tomorrow for "house-arrest" on brethine. They are currently switching me from magnesium-sulfate to brethine and if I can keep the contractions at bay, then I can go home tomorrow. I am hoping to keep these babies growing until at least 35 weeks. My doctor feels that since the contractions were so easy to shut down, I will do well on this medicine at home and still make it several more weeks.

The ultrasound the other day showed the babies are still doing great. Baby A weighs around 4 lbs. 1 oz, and Baby B weighs about 4 lbs. 7 oz. On the fetal monitors, their heartrates are always strong. My cervix is shortening and my fetal fibronectin test came back positive, but my doctor doesn't feel like those items by themselves indicate pre-term labor. We'll just be taking it one day at a time and every day I can keep them in is one less day that we have to visit them in the NICU!!!

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