It started out innocently enough. The ultrasound was uneventful and I was soon settled in for a nice rhythmic listening session when the nurse practitioner came in looking slightly alarmed and asked if I was feeling any contractions. Before I knew it, they were escorting me downstairs to Labor and Delivery, I was handed a plastic bag for my street clothes, a hospital gown, and instructed to get into bed. After about 45 minutes, it was clear that I would not be going home soon or possibly at all. Turns out I was in pre-term labor, contracting every 4-6 minutes and dilating at a slightly alarming rate. By the time I called Paul to alert him of the situation, I had iv lines inserted, three different monitors on my stomach, and some really sexy compression hose around my lower legs that were accompanied with inflatable plastic sleeves. Definitely not how I'd envisioned my day going.
Without going into all the nitty gritty details, the rest of Friday was spent trying to stop my pre-term labor, making arrangements for Caroline to be cared for at home, and hoping and praying that the twins would wait at least a few days to make their debut. Being just a day shy of 34 weeks, the doctor was eager to keep them "cooking" a little while longer to avoid a higher chance of complications and a potentially lengthly NICU stay.
We are SO lucky that our friends and family responded quickly and with overwhelming support. Our babysitter stayed all day with Caroline, Allison and Michael hopped in the car and drove down from New York to take over child care duties by that evening, and Paul became my constant companion (in a very uncomfortable armchair) at the hospital. Caroline took all these abrupt changes amazingly well, especially since Aunt Allison and Uncle Michael weren't at all shy in showering her with extra attention and presents :) By Saturday evening, the twins had successfully received two rounds of steroids to help their lung mature more quickly and my contractions had calmed down considerably. After an uneventful night and morning, my doctor decided that I was stable and could be moved to a lower care room - hooray! I cannot even begin to convey the feelings of relief and joy I felt being unhooked from all the machines and monitors that had been tethering me down for almost 48 hours. My new room is so much more comfortable and I have been allowed to move around freely, thank goodness.
As of right now, I'm under observation for another 12-16 hours and then I might be able to go home tomorrow to finish as much of this pregnancy there as possible. Since I am now past the 34 week mark, the doctors will not stop labor if it begins again, but I am so hoping to make it at least another week to give the girls as much time as possible to grow fat and happy. We're dying to meet them, just not quite yet.
Thank you, thank you to everyone who has reached out via phone, email, text, etc to offer support. And for those of you who are wanting to help in more concrete ways - don't you worry - I'll be accepting that help soon enough! Luckily, my mom is now in town and will be here until the girls arrive, so are pretty well set at the moment.
I don't have any pics of the twins (thankfully!), but I do have some cute pics of Caroline from Thursday before all this craziness began...
8am and already decked out in a tu-tu, necklaces, hair bows, etc. and taking Babies Gigi Ni-Ni and Dog-Dog for a stroll. Busy litttle lady.
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