We've been chugging through this pregnancy with just a few hiccups along the way.
At the end of March, I noticed one evening that I had been having quite a few contractions and by morning I was still noticing them. So I called the doc and they wanted to see me that day.
After a visit and a Non-Stress Test, they agreed that I was indeed having contractions and sent me over to the hospital. I went over around 5 in the afternoon and was there until 10:30 that night. While there I was given Procardia, a blood-pressure medicine that also happens to reduce contractions and was ordered to continue taking it every 6 hours. They also gave me a dose of steroids to help the baby's lungs develop, just in case I did go into labor anytime soon.
After the hospital trip, I was also put on modified bed rest which means to stay off my feet whenever possible, while still being able to get up to take a shower or make some lunch.
Luckily my job allows me to work from home when needed, so I began working from home the first week of April. It actually wasn't too big of a change, since I work remotely with the Chicago office most of the time. It is however, lonely and it didn't take long to realize that Stoli wasn't much for conversation. ;)
At this point, I got to start going into the office weekly and was getting ultrasounds every couple weeks to measure baby's progress, growth, oxygen levels, amniotic fluid and blood flow.
After this, we were going pretty good for a while and so excited to be hitting the weeks in the 30's.
At one of our many ultrasounds, baby's abdomen was measuring small and we realized that my placenta had started to mature and was not working as well as it should be. But as long as baby was still growing and not distressed, they wanted to leave her in there. So we were now seeing the doc twice a week, doing ultrasounds and NSTs just to keep an eye on the baby. My Dad joked that I need some kind of punch card to get every 10th ultrasound free. :D
On May 21st, week 35 and 5 days, I was having more then 4-6 contractions an hour, which was the cut off point for calling the doc. So yet again we found ourselves at the hospital. I stayed the night and was having consistent contractions 3 min apart all night, and knowing that this was the same week that we had Henry, we were just sure that we would be having a baby that next morning.
They upped my dose of meds to double the amount every 4 hours and somehow that managed to slow the contractions down. And we were able to go home by midday the following day.
So now we've made it to 36 weeks and would love to make it to 37, which is no longer considered pre-term. I'm still having contractions, but all the meds are slowing everything down. At this point, I'm kinda ready to have this baby and I'm more then thrilled to have even made it this far!
So here's hoping that we'll make it at least to May 30th, which marks our 37th week!
