3 Days in a Row!

Can you believe that I would actually post these photos of myself on here? I actually can't believe my husband took them! This is a long post with REALLY great pictures because these are three days I don't want to forget-eventhough I don't know how I could!
Last week we had 3 long days hanging out with the doctors and nurses in the Labor and Delivery department of Kapiolani Hospital! It was quite the trio of fun!

On Tuesday night I could not sleep because my back and my belly were really sore. I wasn't really concerned just uncomfortable and tired. I finally fell asleep Wednesday morning but was up in time to call my doctor when his office opened at 9am. They said just to be safe I should go to the Labor and Delivery department so they could check me out. I called Trav at work and told him I was just going to go down by myself because I didn't think it was a big deal. Well that didn't fly and Trav came to get me. By 10 am I was checked in and all hooked up on the baby heart monitors and contraction detectors.

My casualness about the whole thing was instantly crushed when I just happened to ask my nurse when she stopped by for the 15th time: "But I'm not having any contractions though right?" At this point Travis had left to go get some work to do and get us both some lunch. I wish he had been there to see the look on my face when she responded: "Oh yeah, your having a contraction every 2-3 minutes." WHAT? I am only 26 weeks!!!! YIKES! After several more hours of the same and several cervical exams, it was determined my cervix was completely closed and I was not having pre term labor- just the oh so fun pre term contractions!

I was sent home with a new prescription to add to the list to keep these girls inside. This new drug was a blood pressure medicine that is widely used to stop contractions. Whether due to sleeping all Tuesday afternoon or all the excitement, again on Wednesday night I could not sleep. At 4:30 am the last thing I remember was going to the fridge to get myself a glass of water. I woke up on the ground not understanding why I was there and then realized I must have fainted for the first time in my life. Scary! So back to the hospital we went for more monitoring and chit chat with many doctors and nurses.

Thursday was spent listening to our little girls heart beats and them moving around ALOT in my contracting belly. The great news was that our tough girls were completely unaffected by the contractions or the fainting. As is the big concern with contractions and what often happens, neither of the girls was at all effected by what my active uterus was doing! That was quite a relief! Again we were sent home Thursday late afternoon with the explanation from 3 different doctors that my body was adjusting to the new medicine and my blood pressure had dropped so quickly when I stood up to get a drink, that it caused my beautiful black out.

Then came Friday. Apparently the girls must have missed the oh so comfortable hospital bed and just wanted to force their dad not to go to work for a third day in a row! I was sorting the clean laundry on my bed when the next thing I knew I was on the ground again!!! This time I think I may have been out for a little while and I hit my head on the end of our sleigh bed before daintily landing back where I had been yesterday. You would think this would just be routine by now but I had an insane headache, was even more scared, and even more unhappy about going back to the hospital! After more baby and contraction monitoring, blood work, exams, an EKG of my heart, a Cat Scan of my head, and another entire day in the hospital we went home Friday night knowing that these contractions were just something I was going to have to live with because the medicine with the least amount of side effects just wasn't going to work for me.

We are doing great now-besides the contractions which aren't particularly fun. The thing I mostly care about is that our girls are healthy and strong and we have had alot of reassurance of that this week. Today Travis is very happily back at work with hopefully no interruptions. When I was being wheeled out of the department on Friday I told several of our nureses that they are not going to see me back there until I hit 37 weeks and I am ready for my C-section. Lets all pray that is the case!