Yep, I'm back!

I still really can't believe it. I've been feeling some pretty major dejavu the last few days. But I am back at the hospital once again. Here's the story...

Last Wednesday I had an appointment with my doctor, well more like his nurses to get my weekly 17p Progesterone shot. It takes a lot of effort these days to shower and get dressed, let a lone get in the car and go to an appointment. They decided that now that I was 32 weeks along, they'd also give me a second round of steroid shots to help with the babies lung development. So TWO shots were on the line up for that day. Later that evening, I started having all sorts of contractions and some were even a bit painful.  I timed them and they were coming pretty consistently between 6-10  min apart. With all my knowledge of how to stop contractions I did everything I'd been taught and laid awake in bed with Stephen seeing if they would just stop on their own. Finally at 11pm, we decided to call the on-call dr and see if we needed to go in. She told us to just keep doing what we were doing and if they got worse to head in. About an hour later (3 hrs total) they stopped and I was able to finally fall asleep around 2am.

The next day, Thursday, I had another appointment this time for an ultrasound and yet again....another shot. So I quickly showered and threw a hat on not wanting to spend any time on my feet getting ready. We went in and my cervix had changed dramatically, measuring only 0.8 in length and completely open at the top. We explained what happened the night before and the doctor had me put on the monitors in the office. (My biggest issue is that I can't always feel my contractions. So the fact that I COULD feel them, had everyone worried a bit)After a while it was clear that I was still contracting and pretty consistently, even though I only felt one or two here and there. Thank goodness their office is at the hospital and they sent me upstairs to check in to L&D. I was again monitored for a few hours and then my OB came by. He checked me and said that I was dialated to a 3-4. I was seriously in shock and then the routine of trying to stop labor started.... or so we thought.

All of the sudden there was somebody there to give me an IV and was talking like I was going straight into the OR for my c-section. Then somebody else came and to get blood samples and I was totally confused. Our doc had said previously they'd try to stop things up until 34 weeks and I was only 32? Then apparently they changed their minds or something because they put me on magnesium sulfate to slow things down and see if it would help. It did. Thankfully. I was then switched to an L&D room overnight for close watching. They were monitoring both babies as well as contractions all night long. The next day I started having more contractions so they upped the dose of magnesium.

This stuff is the worse out there. You basically lose function of your entire body and feel awful. Hot sweets, constant headache, foggy brain, can't keep your eyes open(yet you are fully or somewhat fully conscious of everything going on), nausea, light headedness, you lose the ability to urinate. (sounds awful, but it's true) and the longer/more intense you are on the medication the worse and more severe the symptoms become. They kept me on this awful stuff for 36 hours this time and things finally calmed down. Then after a little while, I stabilized, my contractions were minimal and they decided I didn't need to be right there next to the OR in Labor and Delivery. So a few hours later they sent me up to the High Risk Perinatal floor which is where I was before.

What a relief. It was so nice to be off that awful medicine and was so great to see familiar faces of the nurses and staff. And yet at the same time so weird to be back. Didn't I just leave this place? I promised myself I didn't want to be back at the hospital until I was going to deliver. We'll I'm back...and I'm here to stay until I do deliver.

It's a bit harder to be back here now that I know how "luxurious" bed rest at home is. Trying to wrap my mind around it is weird. Last night I woke up in the middle of the night not knowing whether I was at home or here. It's all such a blur. Going on week 8 of bedrest, I'm very ready to be done. The end is in sight though only a few more weeks. Then we will move from this craziness of life to a whole other crazy with two babies in our house.

Back in Bed

32 weeks

First Day of School

Now that it's been over a month, I'm finally getting around to posting about Andrew's first day...or month of school. 

It was kind of a crazy start with everything going on in our lives. His meet the teacher & school open house was just a few days after I went into the hospital. We didn't quite make it there and school started just a few days later. It's been quite the process to get his records transferred over from Texas. We met with a district person during the summer to sign a new IEP and get things going, but come to find out... the day before school started...there had been some miscommunications between the district, his teacher and transportation. It was crazy, I was trying to sort things out over the phone at the hospital and Stephen with his teacher.... It took a while and we are still trying to a few things out, but what a stress! Stephen has been such a trooper stepping in as mr. mom. 

It's hard not to be as involved as I want to be with his school, but that's just how it will have to be for now. He has a great teacher and she is so wonderful in working with our situation. School was a harder transition for him this year, than last. Part with me being in the hospital and part with how early it is. We have to wake him up at 6:00 just so we can get ready and out the door to catch his bus at 6:45, which he rides for an hour before school starts at 7:40. 

Since daddy forgot on the first day of school, here's the 2nd day of school picture! Way too early in the morning, in his school uniform and still in casts. 

Walking down the hall to find his new teacher and friends. 

Despite all the craziness. Andrew has been looking forward to school and asking for his school bus since the last day of school. It's so fun to hear him talk about what he does each day and the friends he plays with in his class. As far as I can gather...from his 3 year old self...he is sad and cries when his music teacher Miss Missy leaves. Music is his absolute favorite time of the day!

I'm Home

So on Wednesday, Sept 3rd after my weekly ultrasound,  the doctor said that I could go home. "There isn't anything we are doing here that you can't just do at home" He commented.

It was great to see the girls over 3 lbs (Baby A 3lbs 8oz and Baby B 3lbs 1oz) and my cervix looked the best it had been since before the hospital measuring at 3.6-3.8 in length.  I wasn't too surprised by this news of getting to go home. It had been the plan to get me to 30 weeks and if everything looked great they'd send me home on strict bed rest...but apparently he wrote in my notes that I could go home that day. So my insurance wouldn't let me stay any longer. I was kind of tentatively planning on going home Thursday or possibly even Friday when my parents arrived,but nope we were heading home that day. So to have to suddenly go home that day really threw me for a loop. Stephen got off work early and came to pack up my room. I'd been in the hospital one month exactly. (August 3-Sept 3) It was so surreal to leave the hospital and climb into our car. I just kept looking around at everything.

I've been home almost five days now and it is so wonderful to be here. I love the fact that I get to see my boys more than an hour a day. I have missed them more then anything. Seeing Andrew laugh, cry and hearing his funny little sayings, just warms my heart. I feel like I've missed out so much the last month and he's grown up on me while I've been gone. Sleeping next to Stephen, seeing him, laughing with him and feeling his gentle touch has been good for my soul.

Although it's temping to do things around the house, my parents are both here to help for the next few weeks. We've loved having them here the last few days. They have already done so much to help us. We are very grateful for so many family members who've wanted to and who have and will come out here to help us. It is times like these that I wish we lived a little closer to family, so it's not so hard.

I am now at the point where I'm not scared for these babies to come...don't get me wrong I want them to stay put and grow as long as they can. But, I now feel like I can get excited and start to plan and buy things. I haven't dared to do much with everything that happened with Andrew and Ethan. We haven't bought much of anything, for fear of having to take stuff back. Now that I am 30 weeks, I better get started...these girls could come as soon as 1-2 weeks, but hopefully more like 4-5 weeks, around the first part of October. It's becoming very real these girls will be apart of our family.