Hangin' Around

On Friday night, I was busy making Magnolia's mobile. Jake was helping. We were stuffing, embroidering, and sewing on buttons. I bet he never thought he'd learn such fun things from me.

Magnolia was excited, too. She was going crazy for almost 3 hours. It was fun. And weird. But mostly fun. Towards the end of her thrashing about, I took note of my tummy. It had become low and pointy. The top half was no longer solid feeling. Squishy, one of those weird gel balls everyone loves to squeeze.

"Hmm," I thought. "She dropped."

Saturday we went to a little outdoor shindig at UChicago. We had delectable veggie burgers, some jamba juice, and a fried twinkie. I had the fried twinkie. Jake had a cupcake. It was good. It was free. And just as we were leaving, we got to see Damian Marley get out of his limo. Plus a few other guys with seriously awesome dreads.

Things livened up on the way home. I started having some regular contractions. They were different. Not what I would call painful, but they were definitely taking my breath away. We got home, I parked it on the couch, put my feet up and got serious about timing. Every 3 minutes. Ugh. I sent a text to my OB, she had me go to the hospital to be checked out.

When I got there, I was dilated to a 1, Magnolia was stationed at a -2*, but my cervix was still pretty thick - about 2 cm. Not bad. An hour later, same reading, but my cervix was getting thinner. 1-1.5 cm thick [50% effaced*]. And then the results of my fetal fibronectin test came back. Positive*. I was admitted.

I am still at the hospital. The good news is that my contractions are much better, and I haven't progressed since last night. I've taken two different medications. The first was a shot that didn't do anything. The second, Procardia, seems to have things under control. Which is awesome because the same treatment didn't work at all with Cora. The first dose threw me for a loop. It's generally used for high blood pressure, but it can relax the walls of the uterus. My normal bp is 90/60, which is on the low side. After the first big dose, it dropped to 86/41. It's been better because each dose after has consisted of 1 pill, rather than 3.

There's a good chance I can go home tomorrow morning if I don't progress anymore. I received the first steroid shot for Magnolia's lungs last night around 9. The treatment includes 2 doses that are supposed to be administered 24 hours a part. After all the precautionary drugs are out of the way, I hope I can get out of here. I miss my home and my bed, and Cora and Jake. The good news is that everything is set at home. We are fully prepared to bring Magnolia home. What a wonderful feeling.

Our goal is to make it to 35 weeks. I'll have the option of staying in the hospital, but my doctor thinks I'm reliable, phew. What that really means is that at home I'll be on strict bed rest and taking my medication to keep the turbulent contractions at bay. I'll be 34 weeks on Wednesday.

PS: I received 4 liters of fluid through my iv last night. I have never gone to the bathroom so much in my life. And it was not easy negotiating all the cords that were connected to me. I had an awesome nurse who helped. Sister Thomas. Yes, she's a nun. We had some great late night conversations.


* A baby’s station, refers to how far down his/her head has come into the mother's pelvis. 0 station is when the head is fully engaged in the pelvis and ready to enter into the birth canal. The decent into the pelvis is measured from -3 to -1, and the decent from entering the birth canal to a position where the baby is ready to be born is measured as +1 to +3.
*As labor nears the cervix begins to shorten and thin out. This action is referred to as effacement. When the cervix is fully thinned out, it is 100% effaced
*A positive fetal fibronectin test means the glue holding a pregnancy together is starting to come a part.

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