Wednesday, November 26, 2008

The past couple days

Sunday evening we went down to Provo to eat a DELICIOUS dinner with Micah and Rachel. Eric and I decided that we'd stay in Provo overnight since we were going to have to come back down early Monday morning for work and school. Something weird happened with my body Sunday night that didn't cause me too much worry. In the morning I asked my mom about it and she said I probably ought to call the hospital to see if they thought I needed to come in. I called, they told me to come in. I got hooked to some monitors to keep track of any contractions and the baby's heart beat. What I'd been thinking were braxton hicks and just tightening from baby moving around so much were actually contractions coming on every 2 - 4 minutes and they measured me and found that I had already dilated to 2 1/2 cm, which isn't the best news at 33 1/2 weeks pregnant. Great! Pre-term labor. They gave me three rounds of shots to stop the contractions and a shot of steroids to help the baby's lungs develop quicker in case she were to come.

After that they sent me home with a prescription for meds to keep me from contracting. They told me to take some pills but call if I had contractions of 4+ per hour. Well I waited things out for a few hours and the contractions were still the same so I called in and they told me I needed to go back to the hospital to try something else. They monitored me some more and decided to give me a shot of morphine to keep me from contracting at least through the night so that I would be able to keep my baby in at least until my next scheduled steroid shot at 10:15 am the next morning. The morphine knocked me out pretty well, but still contractions. Well, I went and got my steroid shot in the morning and then went to my Docs for my check-up. He told me that although I'm still having the same types of contractions, the prescription he had ordered must be working fine enough since I am still pregnant. I have to be careful until December 11 so as to keep her in, but starting Dec 11 he said to throw away any remaining pills and start doing whatever because by that point the baby's lungs will be developed and at that point wouldn't have to stay in the hospital for longer than the required 2 days or whatever after being born.

Anyway, pregnancy hormones don't help anything, but I've had a lot of mixed feelings. Tons of excitement when we found out that she might be born really soon, a lot of nervousness knowing her lungs probably wouldn't be well enough developed to come home with us for a bit, some confusion having the belief that my pregnancy was probably one of the healthiest out there, yet for some reason my body was going into labor. All in all it has been a fine last few days, but also quite the emotional roller coaster - just waiting to see what would happen. For now, baby is still cooking, things look good, and we'll try our best to keep her in until Dec 11. Who knows... maybe she'll decide she likes it in the womb so much that she'll camp out for much longer than we're expecting and finally come after her due date. Much unknown - which I HATE - but I guess it keeps life exciting :)

On some high notes: 1) Doctor felt baby yesterday and said she is quite a big baby, which doesn't suprise me since my mom has HUGE babies, so at least if she came early she'd probably be bigger and heavier than the average premie. 2) With the thoughts of having the baby soon we have our hospital bags pretty well packed, figured out what we still need to get done, and Eric and I decided on a name for our little girl, it wasn't any of the names that we were debating over all along, but we both love it. We will announce it once she is here :)

12 comments:

janaya said...

scary times. i'm glad you're doing ok. the unknown and waiting in life is probably my least favorite thing. you'll be in my prayers, as will your little girl. for what it's worth, we have best friends who had a baby boy born at five months (scary, i know!) and he's a happy healthy little guy about to turn 1 now. the miracles of modern medicine and the skills of so many doctors and nurses who care for these little babies is amazing! i'll keep my fingers crossed for you til dec 11th though.

Alison said...

Wow that is scary! I am glad you went in to the hospital and everything was fixed before it got worse. Hopefully you'll be able to keep it low-key for the next couple weeks and everything will go smoothly. Ethan and I will keep you in our prayers.

Stain and Katie said...

hey scary! I am glad you and the baby are doing okay though! I still can't believe your pregnant! I hope things continue to be okay! Miss you

Lindsay said...

wow!!!! I can't believe that happened. it is amazing how fast our bodies can do weird things like that!! glad everything is ok. love you

Hey Ho it's Ashleigh Noel said...

Good luck!! Those shots and Morphine are amazing. Stay down until the 11th!! Keep that little girl cookin as long as possible!

Kayla R. said...

EEEEEK...Yeah good luck*

Whitney Bonnett Taylor said...

Hopefully she comes when you're done with classes and finals. Are you just going about your daily routines? Or are you taking it easy?
I'm excited to see her!

Whitney Bonnett Taylor said...

Oh yeah I'm in colorado, but when I get home I"m going to edit your prego pictures and post them! Good thing like you said that we did it on Saturday....haha close one.

Tab & Nate said...

Wow! That is pretty scary. I am glad that things worked out. Good luck with the birth!!!

Megano said...

oh that really is so scary!! I'm glad that you and the baby are both okay! Can't wait to find out what the name is!

Kari Ann said...

Good luck! I will pray for you!

jenna said...

nakita. i'm dying to know what the 'weird' thing was. i've had early labor signs and am concerned. email me jmrammell@gmail.com if you are comfortable with it!!!!
thanks!