Well, I had more contractions this morning and ended up being on the monitor again for about 3 hours. I was given more medication and that helped somewhat again - just more irritability. I think I've been having contractions on and off the whole day so I'm thinking tonight's monitoring may show more of the same.
One of the OBs came by and said that my body may be getting used to the medication, so it may not be working as well as it has in the past. Another OB came by and said that they would like me to be pregnant at least another week or two so there is less chance of the babies being in the NICU. We'll see what happens.
Some good news from yesterday - after being stuck in hospital prison for 3 weeks, I got to go outside for a full 30 minutes yesterday - Jon pushed me around in a wheelchair. It was sooooo nice. At first, we went to a patient and visitor terrace but it wasn't that exciting, so we down to the main lobby and just went around the block near the hospital. By the time we got out there, it wasn't as hot it was earlier in the day so it was very pleasant.
Some not so good news - last night, or rather early this morning, I woke up around 12:15 (after going to bed at 11) with some pelvic pressure. I went to the restroom and it was still hurting quite a bit. I was thinking that our baby girl was pushing her way further down into my pelvis. I then started to feel contractions. I called the nurse in and she immediately put me on the monitor. I was indeed having contractions - really intense and painful ones. I started to become nervous and scared that the babies were going to be born on the last day of May. I really want to make it to the 34th week.
The nurse called the OB on call after only being on the monitor for just a short period of time because the contractions were coming every 3 minutes. They decided to give me the terb. shot (the jittery medicine shot) and that was working for a while, then I started to have contractions again. Usually the terb. shot worked, so I was really starting to get nervous that today was going to be the twins' birthday and at this time it was between 2 or 3 in the morning and I wondered if I should be calling my husband to get here somehow. They next gave me another dose of the one pill that is supposed to be fast-acting. This seemed to be stopping the contractions altogether. I was just having some irritability at this time. Thank goodness.
I was finally taken off the monitor at 3:45 this morning. I couldn't sleep during this whole time. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night at all. I was woken up again at 6:40 for my morning dose of the contraction reducing pill and since it is blood sugar day, a blood test. I tried to go back to sleep, but so far I've been unsuccessful.
So far today, I haven't felt any contractions. All I feel is a little bit of pain when I get up b/c our baby boy is resting on my ribs and that is just uncomfortable! I feel the baby girl rubbing on the cervix too - which is also not pleasant either. I haven't seen my nurse yet this morning, but I assume it will be any minute now that I will be put back on the monitor. Hopefully, the contraction line is very flat.
The babies do very well on the monitor - they don't seem to be affected by the contractions, so that's good.
That's all for now - hopefully, it will be a very boring day.
Today marks 3 weeks since I've been admitted into the hospital. I'm really anxious - I just want to go home. I wish I could be spending my bedrest time at home. I don't think it will be too much longer though.
I do keep having contractions - not as much as I've had in the past though. It's weird though that I feel the contractions more when I'm on the monitor than when I'm not. I feel them off, but maybe the monitors on my belly just increases my sensitivity to them or something? I don't know. I imagine when they become more intense, I'll feel them without the monitor.
I was just looking at my registry to determine what we still need - we don't have any bottles and I imagine I won't be able to breastfeed the whole time - I'll have to pump too - which is another thing I need - a pump. We also don't have the snap 'n go stroller yet. There are a couple other things too. I was going to try to order some of these things online - at least the stroller since I haven't found those in the store. The other stuff, maybe I can get my husband to get those things at the store. Of course, we don't have a car at the moment, so we'd have to enlist the help of a friend too.
Jon said it could possibly be 3 weeks before we get our car back! We'll find out for sure tomorrow. I think as soon as the babies come, we are going to rent a car until we get our car back.
This baby boy of ours really likes resting on my ribs - so uncomfortable!!!
Well, that's all for now. Looking forward to Jon coming here after work (thank you Jon for coming to visit me everyday!!!) so I can go enjoy the hot weather - I haven't been outside in 3 weeks! It looks so nice outside. I can see someone enjoying their boat out on the water - wish I could go join them! O.K. that's really it. I'll write more later if anything happens.
After my last visitors left last night (thanks Ally, Paul and Ruth for visiting!), I started to feel more contractions. As wtih the contractions the other day, these ones were starting to get painful and about 5 minutes apart. An OB was called and she said to go ahead and give me the jittery shot medication - the terb. shot. And of course, they also needed to take my blood to test my blood sugar - nothing like having your finger poked when you can't control your shaking hands. Luckily, the terb. shot was able to control the contractions. I was getting really nervous - I don't want to have the babies this week - I really want to wait until I'm at 34 weeks at least.
This morning, I started to have more contractions and apparently, the OB is o.k. with what I'm feeling as long as the intensity of the contractions and frequency don't become higher. It definitely feels like it will happen any day now and now I feel like I'm running out of time to read all these books that I have on twins and such - I don't know why I procrastinate as much as I do. It's not like I haven't had plenty of time to read the books - I have read some, but not that much.
On a side note, my OB said that she isn't going to need me to have ultrasounds anymore as I'm not on ibuprofen anymore so they're not concerned about the amniotic fluid and now the OBs are going to do cervical checks themselves rather than have with an ultrasound. So I don't have the ultrasounds to look forward to in order to get out of my room during the day. However, if I do make it to the Friday of my 34th week, they will do another growth ultrasound (is what I understand anyway).
Well, that's about it for now. I'll update later if anything changes.
We've made it to another week - yay! My OB came by earlier this morning and we went over the exam and the ultrasound from the other day. She thinks that there is a chance that we could make it to 36 weeks but she won't let me go past that. However, everything depends on if and when I go into active labor - if I start having more painful contractions. I did have a few painful ones on Saturday night, but luckily, the medicine was able to stop them. If the medicine isn't able to stop them, then I'd be in active labor and it would be time to go to the OR for a c-section.
My OB isn't concerned right now about the weight discrepancy between the two babies - if the discrepancy was a little bit more, there might be some concern there. She did bring up the marginal cord insertion and that perhaps without that, our baby girl could have been as big of a baby as her brother. Can you imagine that? Right now, I have about 10 1/2 pounds of baby in me and it's only going to get more.
One thing I forgot to mention about the cervical exam I had done the other day is that the doctor said that our baby girl is at +2 station.
More info here on what that means: http://www.babiesonline.com/articles/pregnancy/effacement.asp
I asked my OB what that means in terms of possibly going into labor anytime soon, and she said it doesn't mean much right now. She could have been there for a while and since I haven't been checked by a doctor and only the ultrasound since I've been in here, that could be possible. She said that if I start to feel more pressure, then that could mean she is getting lower.
So basically, right now, we are just waiting. Waiting to see if my body goes into active labor on its own or if I'm just going to continue to have these mild contractions for the next few weeks. She did mention that if we get to 35 weeks, then that's when we could possibly select a c-section date.
Hmm, what else? Oh, since I wasn't able to finish the c-section class the other day, my OB went over what will go on during the c-section.
I'm thinking that they might come sometime next week - but I could be wrong - it would be nice if I was wrong and they came later (though honestly, I am a little tired of being pregnant - it is becoming increasingly uncomfortable - but I'm willing to put up with the uncomfy-ness if it means less time in the NICU for them).
Other than that, the only other thing I have to say is that I have really noisy neighbors on both sides of my room. Either it sounds like one room is full of arguing people and a screaming child or there is a party going on in the other room.
Oh, and my jacuzzi privileges have been revoked b/c of the contractions I've been having lately. So mean - I was looking forward to just floating in the water. I do get to go on a wheelchair ride outside for 1/2 hour - I didn't go outside today but maybe sometime this week I will when it is supposed to be quite warm here in Seattle.
I watched the movie "Crash" - I just don't know what to think of this movie - it was kinda irritating for me to watch - it just seemed way over the top. I don't know if I agree with the rating on rottentomatoes.com.
Thank you to my visitors for today - Joby, Alyssa and Michelle. :-D It was very much appreciated!
Well, my back is starting to bug me, so I think I'll get off the computer for a bit.
Just after I tell a friend that they haven't done cervix checks in my room, but rather in the ultrasound room, an OB came in and checked my cervix (really uncomfortable). Great timing. As the ultrasound check showed, the length is at about 1 cm now. She also said that I'm about 1 cm dilated and the cervix is really low.
She also said that even if baby A was vertex and baby B was breech that because baby B is bigger than his sister, that they would do a c-section in that case too as they would rather have the bigger baby come out first. But since they are most likely in their final positions, we already definitely know that we are having a c-section. The only question is when that's going to happen.
Thank you Kelly for coming to visit me again! :-D Jon's mom and sister also came by for a visit - thank you to them as well! Right now, as with last weekend, I'm watching the Spurs-Jazz game. Jon went to walk his mom and sister downtown to their bus stop (they don't have a car right now either) and should be back in a little bit.
Well, that's all that's going on here today.
After waiting until nearly 5 today, I was finally transported down to the 4th floor for today's ultrasound. Luckily, the cervix stayed the same at 1 cm (though again, it looked different to me, but that's what they said). Our baby boy is measuring in the 96th percentile still at 5 lbs 11 ounces. Our baby girl has dropped in percentile to the 54th percentile and she's at 4 lbs 12 ounces. That's a lot of baby in me!!!
The babies were moving around quite a bit - our baby boy was enjoying putting pressure on my ribs - it was really uncomfortable. He's still doing it - he seems quite comfy there. And our baby girl was still doing her booty dance on my cervix.
As far as contractions, I had 6 in an hour this morning. They don't seem too worried because I was only feeling maybe 2 of them (I fell asleep during most of the monitoring). I'm coming up on the nighttime monitoring session, so I should probably end this post. Hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. I'm pretty sure I'll have a very laid back weekend here in the hospital.
Well, my little adventure today to the planned c-section class was short-lived. My doctor told me to come back if I started to feel contractions. I was feeling quite a few this morning until they gave me an extra dosage of the medication, then they slowed down. However, I felt like I was feeling more when we got into the class and it didn't help that our baby boy was pushing up in my ribs. It was just uncomfortable to sit up in that wheelchair. I'm bummed I didn't get to stay out longer.
So after an hour, Jon wheeled me back to my room and he went back to the class. I'm expecting him back in the next 1/2 hour or so.
Jon and I watched the finale of Lost last night and it was a pretty interesting finale, I thought, especially that ending. When the survivors were walking toward the radio tower though, it felt like I should have been watching a western with the music they were playing.
The insurance appraiser guy came this morning and they are going to fix the car - so Jon just needs to find a place to take our car to get it fixed. Hopefully, it won't take too long to get it fixed as we may need a car here pretty soon to take a couple babies to their home. Hopefully, not too soon though. I'm a little anxious about my cervix thinning out completely - we'll see what it looks like tomorrow at my next ultrasound.
I feel like I was going to write about something else, but it has escaped my mind, as it seems a lot of things do lately.
It's been 2 weeks since I've been in the hospital. On the one hand, I can't believe it's been that long, but on the other hand, it definitely feels like it's been that long.
Update on pregnancy - yesterday's ultrasound showed that my cervix went back down again to 1 cm. My OB said that I have a dynamic cervix meaning it changes all the time. I also had some contractions last night - quite a few of them - and again this morning. I was on the monitor this morning for around 2 hours or so b/c of the contractions. They have since calmed down. MY OB though is a little nervous, it seems, about the combination of the contractions and the cervix length. We just hope to make it 34 weeks - though it would be very nice to make it to 36.
The contractions I have been having lately are becoming painful - which is not good. I really, really don't want to have these babies this soon. I'm glad that I've made it to 32 weeks, but it is still too soon for them to be born.
I am very much looking forward to Friday's ultrasound so we will have an estimate on how much these little babies weigh right now. Last time, they were 4 lbs 10 ounces and 3 lbs 15 ounces. That was exactly 2 weeks ago today.
I had quite a few visitors today. A friend from college came by, then my OB, then a support group friend came by with one of her twin boys (little guy born just last Monday - the other twin was in the special care nursery but they are being discharged tomorrow), then another support group came by with her (nearly) 4 month old son. So it was a busy room this afternoon!
I also had a phone interview this afternoon with a student writing her thesis on IVF - she found me via my blogs. Hopefully, I was helpful to her!
Well, that's about all for now. Oh, and to answer Jon, we also did watch Walk the Line - it was a good movie.
First before I mention the ultrasound, they moved me into a bigger room this morning - so yay. Now I have a view of downtown and the water. Much nicer view than before.
And now to the ultrasound - the amniotic fluid still looks good and according to the radiologist, things look the same with the cervix though it seemed things looked different to me. It seemed there was a lot more funneling than I have seen before. I'm waiting for the official report to see exactly what's going on.
One thing that freaks me out about going for the ultrasound is the length of time I have to wait in between the tech going to get the doctor and the doctor coming in (or not). I always start to worry that there is something wrong when they take a while to come back in the room. So far, there hasn't been anything to worry about, but it still worries me.
Well, anyway, that's all for now. I'll write again once I know what the official report says.
Well, my nurse just told me that I'm not having an ultrasound today. When my OB came by, she mentioned going down to having an ultrasound once per week or even once every 2 weeks, but I thought that would start later - my nurse is telling me differently. I was looking forward to it to because not only will I get to see the babies again, but I get to leave this room!
And just as I was writing the above, the nurse came back in and my OB had said that she thought the ultrasound had already been ordered, but it hadn't been so the nurse went ahead and ordered it so it will probably be sometime this afternoon - that's good to know so I can go ahead and order some lunch.
With Friday's ultrasound, they are doing a measurement check along with the cervix check and amniotic fluid check, so I have that to look forward to. I'm curious how big these babies are now.
I also asked my OB this morning if I could go to the planned c-section class I signed up for before I was admitted into the hospital, and she said that I could go. The class is over in the Nordstrom Tower, which is the next building over from the hospital, this Thursday. So my hubby needs to bring me some clothes to wear for that as I am not going in this lovely hospital nightgown they give me to wear.
The monitoring this morning showed some minor contractions that I really didn't feel so the doctors aren't worried about that.
Another thing that I mentioned to my OB is my itchy feet - she wanted to do some blood test just to rule something out - she didn't think it was that, but would check just in case. She also got me a prescription of some hydrocortisone cream so hopefully, that helps.
My OB also brought up the bigger room issue (I did not ask her about it) - she said she was going to talk to the charge nurse to see what's going on. It's most likely because they are full or so I was told before.
Well, that's all for now. I'll write again when I come back from the ultrasound.
I mentioned in my last post that there was some excitement this weekend - it isn't the jacuzzi visit I was referring to - it was that my husband was involved in an accident last night when he was on his way to see me in the hospital. He's alright, but our car will need to be fixed (at least, I hope that our insurance will deem it fixable and not total it). You can read more about it on his blog (I should have a link to it with my other blog links). There was a bit of rain yesterday, so he just lost control of the car and spun around and hit the guardrail on the on ramp to the freeway. I didn't write about this sooner b/c he wanted to write about it first.
I feel like I was going to write about something else, but I can't remember what that was.
Hmm, it feels like the babies are starting to wake up - I guess I'll have an earthquake moment pretty soon here.
Thank you to Kelly for sending me blog posts of some of the blogs I read since I can't access them myself! I wish I could comment on them!
Thank you to my visitors of today - I really needed it!!!
Well, that's all I have for today. I'll write again tomorrow after my ultrasound tomorrow (maybe sooner)!
Well, the weekend was mostly quite boring. There was a bit of excitement, but for the most part, quite boring. Besides the nurses and doctors, the only visitor I had was my husband which, of course, is wonderful that he was here. Not sure if Jon is coming tonight or not - it depends on a few things. I had a pretty emotional night last night for many different reasons - it's probably a good thing that I didn't write a post last night with all the stuff I was feeling.
I'm very tired of being here. If I could go home, I would have my kitties to keep me company. A member of the medical staff came by a little while ago and said maybe Jon can sneak them in - if only! I don't think either of them would be quiet enough to sneak them in.
The babies continued with their movements - last night, it looked like a wave going through my belly. I just got off the monitor and the contractions have slowed down and the babies are looking good. Today is blood sugar day - they test my blood sugar 2 times a week now - on Mondays and Thursdays. Tomorrow is my next ultrasound.
I'm watching Ellen now and she's about to show a sneak peak of the next Harry Potter movie - looking forward to seeing that movie! Of course, I don't know if I'll be able to see it in the theater since the twins will be here then - and then, the final book comes out the week after the movie! I'm not going to get any sleep - I'll be taking care of babies and reading the Harry Potter book! Before she's showing that sneak peak, the 3 remaining contestants on Dancing with the Stars are dancing - I haven't watched that show, but I kinda watch that show tonight (there isn't anything on until 9 anyway (that would be Heroes)).
To answer a question, I think full term for twins or for any pregnancy is considered around 37 weeks - the average birth of twins happens around 36 weeks though. My goal is to make it to 36 weeks, but I think things will be o.k. at 34 since the babies are a good size and hopefully, their lungs are quite developed by then. So odd to think I could have babies in 2-4 weeks! I can't believe this pregnancy is almost over!
Well, that's enough of my rambling.
Well, after I wrote that last post, our baby girl decided to get in on the action and cause a little earthquake of her own. They were both quite busy. Our baby boy definitely moved a little bit as we had to search for his heartbeat when I was being put on the monitor (that always makes me nervous when we have to search for the heartbeat for a while).
I fell asleep during the monitoring - I was on the monitor for 2 hours! I woke up to some show on marine life and they were talking about the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago - now I'm wishing Jon and I would have went there when we went to Chicago last year - that aquarium looks so cool!
Right now, I'm watching the Spurs-Jazz game. Such an exciting day. Weekends are always the longest days when I'm in here. All I can think about is what fun other people must be having - going to the U-District Street Fair or going to see Shrek or even hanging out in their own home with their kitties.
Oh, by the way, I only had a few contractions. It seems things are going well today. I only hope that continues. I'll be at 32 weeks tomorrow, which I'm happy about. Another week for the babies in my belly is another week that they'll be at home with me rather than in the NICU.
Last night, while trying to sleep, our babies - well, especially our baby boy, had other ideas. It was time to do a lot of moving around - my belly looked like there was an earthquake going on inside of it. I really wonder what he was doing in there. I don't think that he moved positions so perhaps he just needed to flip over to one side then back again then back again after that.
Apparently, during last night's monitoring, I had quite a few contractions but I only remember feeling two so I guess the OB was o.k. with that. I didn't wake up feeling any last night, so that's good news. I should be going on the monitor soon - but hopefully, not too soon since I just ordered breakfast.
Per Kelly's suggestion (which is a good one) - if anyone wants to comment, you will get a pop-up asking for you to sign-in - the sign-in and password are given to you in the pop-up. This pop-up is to help keep spam away.
Well, more later.
The last monitoring I had this afternoon (it seems I'm back to 3 monitoring sessions a day) showed the contractions have slowed down to maybe around 2 or so. So that's good news. I'm about to go onto the monitor again. Jon just left to go back home. He stayed here last night when we hadn't planned on him staying - he stayed when I kept having so many contractions - intense ones too - again not painful, just really intense.
The true excitement for me today was that I was finally given the privilege of using the jacuzzi tub - OMG! That felt soooooo good. I'll have to do that again. And not only did I get to use the jacuzzi tub, but I was allowed to WALK to it. Sure, it's just on the other side of the nurse's station, but still, I got to walk to it. Yes, that is the extent to my excitement around here.
I did manage to also take a nap, read a twin book I have, watch a movie, and do some crosswords - so exciting. huh?
Well, I suppose I should get myself ready for another hour of monitoring.
While in the hospital, I've had some time to watch some movies and tv shows. Here's what I've watched so far...
Over the Hedge - this was a cute movie - it was funny. I enjoyed it.
Open Season - this wasn't as fun for me. it was an o.k. movie, but not nearly as fun to watch as Over the Hedge.
Date Movie - stupid, but that's what I expected and at the time, I wanted to watch a stupid movie.
Superman Returns - I don't think I enjoyed this very much. I kept falling asleep to it - I don't know if it was the movie or that I keep getting woken up late at night and early again the next morning for medicine or monitoring or whatever. It was alright, but I don't feel the need to see it again ever.
Charlotte's Web - I loved this book growing up and the movie did a good job of portraying the book, but I was a little weirded out with this being a live action movie with talking animals. However, I liked it though I don't think I'll need to watch it again.
The Pursuit of Happyness - this was an alright movie too. Sad and happy movie.
1st episode of Firefly - the first episode (the true first episode) really did make things make more sense than what the network aired first. I don't know what else to say right now about this - I'll wait until I've seen all the episodes before I decide if I like the show or not. I do have to admit that the first show was a bit too long for me - but I was feeling a little restless since I was on the monitor at the time so it may not be the show's fault.
That's all I've watched so far (of movies/shows I haven't seen before - I have watched one movie I've already seen and that movie was Bridget Jones - love that movie - if anyone has the sequel, I would love to watch that again.
Siince I'm not able to access my other site to post pregnancy info on, I've asked Jon to direct people to this site to read updates on what's going on. I guess the hospital finally figured out that they missed one site - it's kinda irritating - it would be nice if they would let patients access those sites.
Anyway, on to the update. Yesterday, I was having a lot of contractions in which they gave me a shot of terb. which made my heart race and made me feel very jittery. That medicine seemed to have helped things more so than the oral pill I was taking for contractions before. Things calmed down for a while and I finally was able to go to my ultrasound around 3 or so. The ultrasound provided great news in that my cervix got even longer. When I first was admitted into the hospital, my cervix was really thinned out at 7 mm, then on Tuesday it went to 1.6 cm and yesterday, they told me it was at 2.2 cm - longer than what it was at when my doctor told me to start taking it easy and reduce my work hours. At least, that was going well.
Later on last night, the contractions returned. They gave me a higher dose of the oral pill and later, gave me even more of the oral pill. I was able to sleep through the night with only waking up to go to the restroom or for only one contraction (that I felt - there could have been more). This morning came and the contractions were back. I had 7 in an hour - not good. They gave me the higher dose of the oral pill and for now, are holding off giving me the terb. shot that makes me feel like I just drank a whole cup of espresso. I really don't like that shot too much, but if it makes the contractions go away, I'm all for that.
I should mention that the contractions don't hurt - they just tighten my belly and cause me to feel like I am very much out of breath. I'm glad that they don't hurt, but they are still rather uncomfortable.
We'll see what today brings. I don't have another ultrasound until Tuesday of next week - I wonder if they will measure the babies again so we know how much they might weigh now. I was told by someone that they usually do that every 2 weeks, and it will be nearly 2 weeks by Tuesday since they last measured them.
That's the update for today so far...more later if anything happens.