Update #1 for this week. . .I anticipate more!

Hi all! Sorry I haven't updated yet - I was trying my best to keep the largest number of people updated that I could, and facebook seemed to be the easiest avenue to accomplish that (for the time being anyway).

That said - I'm still pregnant and the babies are still tucked safely inside me. . .for now. . .

Tuesday, well, I guess technically Sunday, I started having back pain. I have had back pain previously (prior to getting pregnant), but I haven't had ANY since I have actually been pregnant. Weird, right? Anyway, so I starting having some back pain on Sunday. I didn't think much of it. I figured I had overdone it doing laundry or something, or I had slept wrong. Monday the back pain was still there, and was a bit more consistent. Tuesday the back pain was still there, and was getting pretty intense! I wasn't having a ton of abdominal contractions or anything so I didn't really have any idea what was going on. I decided around 2 PM on Tuesday to call my OB and get his opinion. Well, I didn't even get that much. I got "go straight to L&D at Bergan to be checked out". Sigh.

Okay, I understand being cautious and all, but seriously, I didn't think I was in labor or anything. Si and I had googled and thought that maybe, just maybe, I was having some back labor, but I had no way to tell how far apart any contractions may be or anything like that. Overall, I just didn't want to go sit in L&D and be monitored for 6 hours again just to be given terbutaline and sent home (like I was every other time I went in). AND, I wasn't any too thrilled about the prospect of them stopping my contractions if I was indeed in labor. I mean, I understand that every day that the babies are in mommy make a better outcome for the babies, but seriously. . .they are over 5 lbs a piece, we were 35w1d at the time. . .the babies would be FINE if they were born. Anyhow, I digress.

So Si came home from work and hour early, and we went in to L&D at about 4 PM. The nurses couldn't really figure out why exactly I was there since I wasn't having too many abdominal contractions that I could feel, but they humored my doc and hooked me up to the monitors anyway. Well, for once I was glad that I went in! The on call doc from my OB's office ordered them to monitor me and to check me (dilation, effacement, etc.). I was dilated to 3.5! Holy buckets! 50% effaced, -2 position. Sure, these aren't incredibly impressive results, but when I wasn't dilated at ALL before, being a 3.5 was craziness to me! The doc ordered IV fluids, and wanted to monitor me for a couple of hours to see if that made any difference in my contractions. Well, the IV fluids made me contract like no one's business! Who would have thought? They pumped one bag of fluids into me, then started another, at a much slower pace. At this point they checked me again to see if I had progressed. Nope, still at 3.5. The OB decided to give me some procardia to see if it would slow down the contractions. It did slow them down a bit, but it didn't stop them. He decided that he wanted to continue to monitor me for the next few hours to see how my contractions reacted. By this time it was 10 PM. I was STARVING, and all I really wanted to do was go home! The nurse cleared it with the doc for me to have some food (yay!) and told me that if my contractions slowed down to less than 4 per hour that the OB would potentially let me go home at 2 AM. Fine by me! So, I watched a whole pile of bad late night TV, and watched my contractions. I was down to about 3-4 per hour so I was pretty sure he was going to let me go home.

The nurse came back in at 1:45 and told me that she was sorry, but the doc wouldn't let me leave and wanted to monitor me overnight. Seriously??? UGH. So, with the pregnancy hormones, here come the water works. . . and for no apparent reason mind you. . .I mean, what's the big deal? Sure, I hadn't brought my hospital stuff with me (we live 5 minutes from the hospital and figured we could go back and get it if this was the real thing), and we didn't have anyone set up to watch the pugs for the night, but otherwise, we were bound to have babies sometime and I was bound to be confined to the hospital bed for monitoring eventually. I guess I was upset because Si was going to have to go home, and I was going to have to hang out by myself. I am SUCH a wuss! Si finally went home around 3:30 AM to get some sleep. Anyway, long story short, the OB came in first thing in the AM (at 7 AM - Wednesday) and checked me and told me I could go home. YAY!

I had a follow up appointment scheduled with my OB for yesterday (Wednesday) at 4 PM, so I actually got to talk to my OB about what our plan would be from this point forward. I guess the deal is that they really want these babies to stay in until 36 weeks if at all possible (for us that is Monday). They understand that this may not happen, but they want to try and do everything in their power to try and make it happen. They sent me home from the hospital with procardia (which has been causing me massive nasty headaches), so then they also added butalbital (to help with the headaches).

The OB did an ultrasound check and measurements on the girls, and they as usual look awesome! There is ZERO room left in there, but they are still growing and developing perfectly. He even showed us how they are "breathing" - SO cool! They really would be fine to come out whenever! Here are the approximate weights:

Baby A - AKA - Baby Olivia - 5 lbs 13 oz (head down, ready to go!)
Baby B - AKA - Baby Brianna - 6 lbs 1 oz (this little lady WAS head down last time, but has since flipped breech again! Little stinker!)

At this point the OB is most concerned about momma. My blood pressure has been elevated, there was protein in my 24 hour urine check last week (this was news to me!), and since I am dilating early and have had several bouts with pre-term labor, they think that my body is about done being pregnant. My OB thinks I may be able to last another week, but he said he wouldn't be surprised either if I didn't last but a couple of days. SO. . .that's the scoop! These little ladies are going to come when they are darn good and ready, and it isn't going to make one little bit of difference to them when that may be!

I will try to keep you all updated as new things happen. When I am actually in labor (for sure) and they aren't going to stop it I will at least do a quick post and let you guys know=). Hope you all are having an uneventful week - there's enough drama going on here for everyone! LOL! =)

Contractions??? Really???

Let me preface this by saying I've been having Braxton Hicks contractions since I was 17 weeks pregnant with these two little princesses. I'm used to them. . .and generally they don't hurt. . .they can be uncomfortable, but not painful. . .

Well. . .last night I was quite rudely awoken at 2 AM in pain! It felt like a Braxton Hicks contraction except with a decent amount of cramping and pain added in. Not just in my abdominal area either. . .down low (like menstrual cramps), up high (like the normal BH contractions for me), and some low back pain thrown in there for good measure. The contraction lasted about 65-75 seconds, and then slowly released. I was relieved. I got up to potty, then went back to sleep.

2:37 AM. . .AGAIN, I woke up to pain. . .the same thing. . .lasted about 65-75 seconds. I tried changing positions. I tried drinking water. I tried breathing techniques. Nada. Nothing helped.

This pattern had repeated itself 3 more times by 6 AM. At 6 I woke up Si and told him what was going on. He immediately thought I should call the OB's office. Of course the OB's office is closed (it's not only the weekend, but it's a holiday weekend). I thought about going directly to labor and delivery at the hospital. . .but I was SO tired at that point. All I wanted to do was go back to sleep and see if the contractions would go away. So that's exactly what we tried. We slept for another 3 hours. Luckily, the contractions got further apart and I only had one contraction between 6:30 AM and 10 AM. YAY. I continued to have contractions throughout the day, but they were totally irregular, and were further apart then they they had been in the middle of the night.

I kept arguing with myself during the day today whether or not I should call the OB's office. I knew that my OB was out of town not only this weekend, but all week, so it wouldn't be my OB giving me advice if I called. Finally at 4 PM I decided that I should just call the OB's office. I talked to the answering service and then a triage nurse who suggested that I go ahead and go into the L&D department at the hospital I was intending to deliver at just to make sure that I wasn't actually in labor. That's exactly what Si and I decided to do.

After being hooked up to the monitor and watching the heartbeats of the girls and the peaks on my uterine "activity", the L&D nurse confirmed that I was having contractions. The good news? That's apparently relatively normal at 31 weeks, especially with multiples, I wasn't having more than 4 an hour, and the girls seemed relatively unaffected by the contractions. The nurse spoke to the on call OB for my OB's practice, and she decided to order a fFN test (fetal fibronectin test - to determine my probability of going into full labor in the next two weeks), to have my cervix checked (to check for thinning, dilation, etc.), and to give me a shot of terbutaline to calm the muscles in my uterus and hopefully stop the contractions.

Thank you God. . .the fFN test was negative (meaning there is an incredibly low probability that I will go into labor and have these kiddos in the next two weeks), I am not dilated, my cervix is still thick and high, and the terbutaline slowed down my contractions after just one shot! YAY. We were at the hospital for about 3 hours, and were so happy that they let us leave with essentially a clean bill of health. I am supposed to call and go back in to see them if I start having more than 4 contractions in an hour at any point. The nurses also told me that each person seems to have a time of day that they have the most active contractions. . .for me it may end up being in the middle of the night/early morning hours. Lucky me! I can deal with it though (I will just be tired), just as long as these babies keep cooking for a while longer! So blessed to still have my babies healthy and inside of me!!

Hope you all are having a VERY uneventful weekend!