I spent another day in labor and delivery today- still contracting every couple of minutes. The terb shots I got Tuesday night worked only very temporary. I was hoping that when I called the office, they would just prescribe me some kind of pill to take every few hours and that would be it but they wanted me to go back up to Labor and Delivery to be hooked up and checked out.

Dr. Platt (the high risk OB) was on for Dr. Lupton. She did a vaginal ultrasound to confirm that my placenta was in fact covering my cervix (she said that these are often diagnosed, but many times are not correct b/c they are diagnosed with an abdominal ultrasound). Unfortunately, this was not the case, I am still a complete previa. She said that most people would have started bleeding by now with all the activity from my uterus, but since by cervix is "long" it has probably helped in preventing it. I have also not yet started to dilate. Hooray!

Fortunately she said that she hates terbutaline and went ahead and tried procardia on me. She also gave me a shot of celestone (a steroid to help with fetal lung maturity). I continued to contract and received another dose of the procardia an hour after the initial dose. She went ahead and released me after that and said that she thinks it had slowed things down and I was just having some uterine irritablity at that point. She sent me home with a prescription for Procardia to take every 4 hours around the clock and wants me to go back in to the office for a second dose of celestone tomorrow at 1 pm. She also wrote a script for me to not return to work until after delivery. I am not on "bedrest", but "bedrest as much as possible". I am going to try my hardest to obey!!

My next Dr. appt is scheduled for Monday still. I will update then...
Thanks Amy for heading up to the hospital with me!!! I really appreciate everyone and all the help I have been given! I love you guys!

Round 2...

Starting Friday of this weekend, my contractions really started to pick up. I had a very relaxing (non busy) weekend, so this time I can't blame it on my activity. I made it through the weekend and figured if the contractions got strong enough, I would eventually start bleeding (b/c of my previa). That is a typical nurse for ya!
After work last night (I got off at 11 pm) I went ahead and headed over to Labor and Delivery just to see what was going on. I had thought my contractions setteled down at rest. I was proven wrong. I was contracting every 4-5 minutes. The nurse paged the Dr. (Dunlop was on for Lupton) and he said to go ahead and hook me up (he didn't know I was already on and for them to give me terbutaline if I was contracting). I had a contraction and immediately got a dose of terb. Since John was home with Aaliyah, I was in that room by myself. If anyone has had a shot of terb, I am sure you can relate, but I honestly felt like an addict withdrawing from some kind of drug (and I was stuck in a room wigging on my own). That stuff is terrible- My heart rate raced up to 160 beats a minute and I couldn't sit still. I HATE that feeling and this drug. But, it did help to slow things down. Since I was still having a contraction here and there, they decided to give me another dose. Megan (a co-worker/friend) had came to my room by this point and was able to stay there with me for the second dose. The side effects are not as bad when you have someone there with you. :) Thanks Megan and Ebony! I was not contracting at all on the monitor by this point and was able to be released. I have only had about 5 contractions in the last couple hours this morning which is unusual for me.
In talking to Dunlop, he mentioned that with a complete previa and me contracting like I am he didn't seem so sure working was all that good for me. He told me that I was done with work until my next appointment with Lupton (which is on Monday) and he would let him make that decision. I am hoping for a modified schedule- atleast a day or two a week. I guess we will see then. I will keep this updated...

Baby Shower Pictures (John's side)

Moving right along...

Today we are 29 weeks and 3 days! Hooray, we have made it past the gestation that I delivered Aaliyah! I have been doing fine. I still continue to contract on occasion (when I am up and moving around) but, they seem to settle with rest. I have had no bleeding at this point.

I had a Dr. appointment on Tuesday and he did a repeat Fetal Fibronectin which came back negative again and I have not started to dilate! Hooray! He will continue doing these every two weeks with my appointments. Her heart rate sounded great-144 beats a minute and she has been very active lately. She was so active last pm at work that the kicking almost started to hurt. :) The girls at work were able to see my belly moving without having to feel it. As you can see from the picture, my Lovenox bruising contines to get worse. It is becoming more difficult to find places to stick that aren't bruised already.

I have continued to be an emotional mess. I keep thinking that I am at an emotional peak and eventually my mood will start to get better. Now I am in the third trimester and they have only gotten worse. I guess my family will have to keep putting up with me a while longer. Poor John- I think I have divorced him 20 times so far this pregnancy- and the crazy thing is- at the time I really feel he deserves it- leaving dishes in the sink??? It is bad. I guess Aaliyah has begged her Nana to pick her up from school instead of myself on a few occasions b/c she says I have been in really grumpy moods lately. Poor thing. It will be over soon.

I had my first planned shower this past weekend with John's family. It turned out to be a beautiful shower and I think I got almost everything on my registry. I am so thankful for such a wonderful family and group of friends on his side. I will add a few pics from that. The mom's from Aaliyah's cheer team threw me a surprise shower a few weeks ago when I freaked them out with my hospital visit. They are such a great group of mom's. Some have offered their help in running Aaliyah around, fixing dinners, etc. I am so fortunate to have people like this in my life!

My next appointment is scheduled for June 2nd. I will keep this updated if anything new comes up between now and then...

28 Week Appt

Today we are 28 weeks and 3 days. We had our ultrasound done yesterday and they said she weighs about 2 pounds 12 ounces now. John (determined it's a boy) had them check for the 4th time now to determine the sex... It's still a girl! :)

We received both good and bad news yesterday. The good news is that my placenta and baby continue to grow at the normal rate. The antibodies my body produces haven't taken over at this point yet. The bad news is that I am still a complete previa (my placenta is completely covering my cervix). The ultrasound tech and Dr. Lupton said that the chances of it moving at this point are very slim. The main concern with previa's is that babies are not to be born vaginally (since the placenta would be delivered before the baby). Since I was already planning on having a repeat c-section, this is not a concern to me. After doing some research last night, it seems to be common for most people to be put on bed rest early on for bleeding episodes. They said that 10% of people make it to term without having any bleeding episodes. Some related the bleeding to contractions, while other sites said it comes with no warning signs at all. Let's hope I am in the 10% that make it to term with no problems. Maternal hemorrhage at delivery is also a concern. Since I am on the Lovenox, I have a few questions that I will bring up at my next appointment.

I have split my days up at work so I am not doing my three 12 hour shifts in a row. I think this is very helpful. I do still continue to contract when I'm up and moving and occasionally at rest. Nothing painful. Dr. Lupton says to call if I have more than 5/ hour and they will hook me up over in Labor and Delivery to see what is going on.

I will see him again next Tuesday for a repeat Fetal Fibronectin to make sure that still comes back negative. I will try to post a few pictures later on from our ultrasound. They did not do the 3D so they are not anything too exciting...

Update

I decided to call the office yesterday (5-5) since I had never spoke to a Dr. in the hospital and felt that I had a lot of unanswered questions. Dr. Lupton ordered a Fetal Fibronectin test which indicates whether or not delivery will occur in the next 2 weeks. A negative result is 99% accurate, while a positive result is only about 38% accurate. We were hoping for the negative, more accurate, result (obviously). Sure enough, I got a call from the nurse this morning and it was negative!!! Hooray- now I can sign up for that Marathon next week ;)! Ha! This does mean that I will be able to continue working.

He was also able to check my cervix at that time. Fortunately, I have not started to dilate yet.

I will still see him next Wednesday with the follow up ultrasound (I saw a sign yesterday that the office just got a 3D ultrasound), so hopefully will have some more good news and pics to share...

and the contractions begin...

As some of you already know, I started this past Friday cramping pretty bad. I had debated calling the Dr. at that time, but decided to lay down, drink a ton of water and wait it out. After about an hour the cramping had stopped. I decided to hold off on calling the Dr.

I was fine until Sunday night when it started again. I laid down, drank water and it got better in a few hours.

Today when I woke up, I felt fine. Only a few contractions with no pain(which I have had for a while now). After talking to a friend/co- worker she told me how ignorant I was being, that I should know better, etc, etc and that I needed to talk to a Dr. I finally made the call. They told me that they wanted me to go to Labor and Delivery to be monitored a little closer.

Glad I called (thanks Megan)- they hooked me up and the nurse said I was having quite a bit of "irritability" with contractions. The baby's heart rate looked fine. The nurse gave me a shot of Terbutaline which slowed the contractions. They discharged me a few hours later and told me no work until at least Thursday and as much rest as possible. If I start the cramping/ contractions again, I will need to be seen prior to my Dr. appt with Lupton that is scheduled for next Wednesday and probably a more strict bedrest. I will continue to update...