30 Weeks!

also known as day 25 in the hospital.

Apparently even with all kinds of free time I still suck at keeping up with this here blog. It certainly isn't for any lack of thinking about what I've wanted to say here, its just that I'm kind of lazy about actually getting the words down on paper--or the computer in this case.

But now that I'm here I'll do my best to provide an update on the last 2 weeks.

First the numbers. Based on the sonogram I had in the office in 2/18, they estimated the baby's weight at 2 lbs, 2 oz. 2 weeks later, on 3/4, I had a sonogram here at the hospital and the weight estimate was 2 lbs, 13 oz. The great news from that sonogram was that my cervix had actually lengthened from 1.7 to about 2.5. I have a couple of NSTs a week and so far they've all looked good. My blood pressure is fine too. The only not so good news was on 2/26 I failed the 3-hour glucose test and so was put on a restricted diet. However good news followed, after 1 week of monitoring my blood sugar levels 4 times a day they were looking good so they let me go off the gestational diabetes diet; my only restriction was no sweets or fruit juice. After another week of 4x a day monitoring my blood sugar levels were still looking good, so I still can't have sweets or juice, but they only stick my finger twice a day now.

Medically speaking things are pretty unexciting, which is just how I like it. Every morning at 6am I get 2 Heparin shots and then I fall right back to sleep. Anywhere between an hour to an hour and a half later a resident comes in and asks me if I've had any bleeding, any leakage of fluid, any contractions, any swelling in my legs, any pain, any questions, and have I been feeling good fetal movement. My answers are always the same, no bleeding, no fluid, no contractions, no pain or questions, and lots of fetal movement. A little later in the morning one of the doctors stops by and asks the same set of questions, and I provide the same set of answers. Three times a day my nurse of the day takes my blood pressure, my temperature, and checks the Bumblebee's heart rate. So far so good! Other than that, the nurses check in about once an hour to see if I need anything and to bring me my various cocktails of vitamins, oh and at 6pm I get my second 2 shots of heparin. Thanks to the heparin, my thighs look like some sort of grotesque dot-to-dot! After 6 IVF cycles the needles don't bother me, but the Heparin really stings!

As far as coping with the bed rest, things have actually gone pretty well. The first two weeks I was pretty paranoid about every twinge and it only got worse when after the first week I asked one of my doctors what he thought my chances were for staying here for awhile. I was not at all surprised by his answer, but disappointed nonetheless. He said that there is no way of knowing, and that I could be here for months or I could have the baby tomorrow. The good results of the sonogram a week later helped relieve my nerves quite a bit. So, I keep myself occupied with a combination of the TV, the Internet, reading, phone calls and visits, and a couple of hours of work each day. It really hasn't been anywhere near as difficult or boring as I thought it would be.

My in-laws, who live just a couple of hours away, have been staying with my husband and daughter for the better part of each week. This has been really helpful to my husband and it's meant that I get to see my daughter more often. Since they pick her up after school earlier than my husband could, they are able to bring her to see me earlier and stay longer before heading home for dinner, homework and bed. Unfortunately, the Ladybug is sick again--the 2nd time in the last 3 weeks--and since my in-laws had to go home for a few days, I haven't seen the Ladybug or my husband in a few days. She seems to be on the mend, so they are coming over in about an hour - yeah!

I have to confess that I'm getting greedy. When I landed her at 26 1/2 weeks I was so scared of delivering the Bumblebee so early, that I just hoped that I could make it to 30 weeks. Now that I'm here, I want lots more time! I kept saying that if I made it to 30 weeks then I'd be looking toward 32 as the next milestone. Of course I'd rather deliver at 32 weeks than 30, but even 32 isn't good enough anymore. I'm really hoping I can make it to at least 35. My daughter was born at 32 weeks and she has had no long term problems due to her prematurity. Nevertheless, she spent 4 weeks in the NICU, 6 months on a monitor, had to have RSV shots, lots of extra appointments with ophthalmologists, developmental specialists, etc, and, of course, we had a healthy dose of paranoia about her overall health. I would REALLY like to avoid all that this time around! So, I'm feeling greedy and I don't want to meet this baby for AT LEAST 5 more weeks. Which brings me to the conversation I had with one of my doctors this morning. But first a little background.

When I got here I was told that my job was to stay horizontal, which I've done. Even after the good sonogram results, that prescription hasn't changed and not a single medical professional has said anything to me about going home. However, since almost everyone I talk to (friends and family) asks if there's a point at which they might let me go home, yesterday I finally asked the resident who's here most mornings whether that could happen. He said he didn't really know, but he doubted it. Then, the doctor who came by this morning asked me if anyone had said anything to me about going home. I told her no, and she said she planned to talk to one of the other doctors about that since my sonogram was so promising. Now I have to say that I'm actually terrified of being sent home now. First, I like the fact that if something happens, like going into labor or abrupting again, I'm already in the hospital. Also, it will be much harder to stay horizontal for as many hours of the day at home. I certainly won't have anyone there that can bring me all my meals and snacks! (In case your wondering, my in-laws are leaving the country in a week, so that's not an option.) I won't have daily monitoring for contractions (important to me, because while I haven't had so many that they worry about it, I have had more than a few that I couldn't feel!). No one will be checking the Bumblebee's heartbeat 3 times a day. And of course it will put a lot of added stress on my husband. With my in-laws about to head out of town, he's really going to be single parenting, and while that's never easy, doing it for (hopefully) many weeks with a full-time job and over 2 hours of commuting a day is pretty stressful. If I'm there, but on bed rest, not only will I be unable to help him, but he'll also have to be doing stuff for me in addition to everything else. Oh, and then there's the small issue of the 2 to 3 appointments the doctor said I'd have every week -- um, how exactly am I supposed to get there?

Obviously, I miss my husband and my daughter and the idea of getting to spend a lot more time with them is appealing, but honestly the thought of being sent home at this point terrifies me.

Until next time, here's some photos of my home away from home.