Contractions....Hospital...WHAT??

So we've had an eventful couple of days. I'll start at the beginning and try to make this as short as possible. Towards the end of last week, I noticed a bit of cramping. It was extremely mild and I only noticed it like 3 times the entire day. I chalked it up to gas cramps. Well, I noticed it a little each day. Monday, at work, they seemed a bit stronger and more frequent so I started asking the girls at work. No one seemed to think it was a big deal, maybe Braxton Hicks or my uterus stretching so I sent a msg to a friend on facebook and asked her b/c I knew she'd had cramping before. She said the call the dr and I figured she was right. I didn't feel like it was anything but better safe than sorry. I left a message and one of the PA's called me back. She wanted me to come in to get checked, especially since it's twins.

I get to the dr, wait all of about 5 minutes and I'm taken back immediately. The PA came in, did an exam, and told me I was 1cm dilated. Oh Gosh!! She sent me to ultrasound to have my cervix checked to make sure it was still long. Luckily, James arrived at the office just before the ultrasound. She told me anything above a 2.5 was good. Thankfully, mine was 3.25 so we are still long. She wanted me sent down to labor and delivery to be monitored and see how far apart the contractions were. Wow, that hit me, they weren't cramps, they were contractions. She said 1 or 2 an hour were fine, but when we start seeing 4 or 5 an hour that wasn't good.

We walked down to registration, and they sent us to L&D triage. They hooked me up to two fetal heart monitors and a contraction monitor. I was looking stylish!









I was being monitored for not very long and the 4-5 an hour she didn't want to see, we were getting that within about 15 minutes. So we got a shot of I can't remember what, but it was to stop the contractions. Then I got a steriod shot in my hip (OUCH!) for the babies lungs just in case. The shot didn't calm them down completely so I got a pill, Procardia, that they started me on that I'll continue on until my 30something week. My dr in the practice was on call so she stopped in a couple of times. She decided since it took so long for the contractions to taper off, she wanted me to stay over night and be monitored. Looked like I was going to be spending my first night ever in a hospital. I was moved out of triage into a L&D room. Thankfully all the nurses were great so that made it easier. They took me off the monitor to move me and said I could be off it for the rest of the night. I didn't sleep much at all, a few hours, but James stayed with me. He didn't have to stay, but I was glad he did.

The next morning, the doctor stopped in and talked to us. She said they were going to monitor me through the day, keep me on bedrest and then later make sure I hadn't dilated any further, do some kind of test, and if everything was good, I'd go home. So I was hooked back up, James had to go to court for work, and I laid around watching tv. I attempted to read about baby's first year, but I couldn't stay focused. Luckily I didn't freak out at all the whole time we were there. The nurse came in around lunch and said that Baby A was moving around a lot, but Baby B wasn't getting as many spikes on the monitor so she was going leave me on longer than expected to see if he would move around more. B is my little buddy that moves all the time so I was completely surprised by that. After a little while longer, I was taken off and not too longer after that the dr came back. She said the same things as earlier, they were going to do an exam, test me for an enzyme that your body produces if you're going to go into labor within a weeks time and if that was negative I'd get to go home. The nurse was in with us so she mentioned the movement of B and so the dr ordered a BFP which I believe she called a Beta Fetal Profile to check movement, breathing, heart and organs. If we got an 8 on that and the enzyme was negative, we'd get to go home. So I ate dinner and the nurse told me the on call ultrasound tech wasn't back in until 7:30 so we'd have to wait until then to do the BFP but she went ahead and did the exam and sent down the swab to test for the enzyme. Thankfully, we were not dilated any further than the 1 we had been on Monday. Just after 7:30 I was wheeled over to the Maternal Fetal Med office for the ultrasound. I had a little chat with the babies and asked them to move for her so we could go home and they listened. We got an 8 out of 8 on each boy. The thing that kind of shocked me, a week and a half ago they were both 2.5 lbs, this time one was 2.11lbs and the other was 2.14lbs. Those babies keep growing and growing, which we're thankful for. That's just almost 6 lbs of baby in there. I'm measuring 33 wks at 28. No wonder my uterus is contracting :) Thankfully, shortly after the ultrasound, I was able to go home. The enzyme was negative, my body wants to keep these babies. I was so happy. I wanted to come home and shower and put on my own clothes and lay in my bed. Thank you for all the prayers!!!