Greetings From Roanoke Memorial Hospital

A lot has happened since my last post. Most of you know that I went into preterm labor Friday. I started having some abdominal pain Thursday evening and it was always very low below my navel. I at first chalked it up to gas. Then on Friday the intermittent pains continued and by Friday night they were occurring frequently. I talked to the oncall doctor over the phone and she didn't seem to think they were contractions because they were not starting at the top and working down like typical contractions and I couldn't feel my uterus tightening up, but she said it was up to me if I wanted to go to Montgomery Regional's Birthing Center for monitoring. I decided to lay down, drink a bunch of water, and right down how often these pains occurred. And when I realized they were occurring every 8-12 minutes we decided to go to the Birthing Center to get monitored. I figured it would end up being diagnosed gas pains but I didn't want to take a chance that it was something more serious. We got to the center at midnight and I was hooked up to a fetal and contraction monitor. I told the nurse every time I felt one of those pains and for 3 hours or more she couldn't detect them on the monitor or feel my uterus noticeaby tightening. Finally she thought she felt a small one. And at 6am the oncall doctor got in and checked me and told me I was 4cm dialated and that the water bag was slightly bulging out. She had a very grave look on her face and said they would try to stop labor from progressing but that there was no guarantee. Then a slew of nurses flew in to insert an IV, catheter, take blood, and give me a steroid shot to help mature the babies lungs (though they need to stay in the womb for 48 hours to get the benefits of those shots). I was also given magnesium sulfate to stop the contractions and that is not a pleasant drug. Around 10am I was transferred to Roanoke Memorial via ambulance, and that was a rather unnerving trip zooming up I-81 with tons of holiday traffic in a narrow stretcher crammed up against the wall jumping up in the air on every bump. But we made it and they got me setup in a room. I was checked out again and my water was still in tact, thank goodness.

I felt much better knowing we were at Roanoke with a great NICU unit upstairs. I was not allowed to eat anything or drink water, just ice chips, until Sunday at lunch time. A hospital meal never tasted so good either. As of this morning they have started letting me get up to go to the bathroom, which beats the heck out of laying in bed with a stiff back 24/7. They've been giving me procardia twice a day to keep the contractions at bay but they plan to stop the procardia 24 hours after the last steroid shot, which should be given today (or maybe I got the last shot yesterday evening, not sure). But for now all is well and the babies still look great on the fetal monitor, but they're a little ornery sometimes and make it hard for the nurses to keep their heartbeats on the monitor. I had another ultrasound yesterday and they said the babies looked fabulous with plenty of movement and amniotic fluid and they got a 8/8 score. Which meant I didn't have to sleep w/ the fetal monitors last night, so I slept a lot better not getting tethered in those chords and having the nurses come in every couple of hours to reposition them to pick up the heartbeats again. They did hook me back up to the fetal monitor a little while ago and I hear the "horses running" good (that's what their heart beat sounds remind me of).

Okay, I think everybody is all caught up. And believe it or not this long post is actually the condensed readers digest version. I'll likely be here in Roanoke on hospital bedrest until I deliver which could be days from now or weeks, its really hard to say. But I know I'm in good hands. If anybody wants to call me please use my cell phone number because the room phone is not conveniently located for me to get to.

Wish us luck everybody!