The Clock is Ticking

Well, after a nice calm patch, it looks like baby might be gearing up to come sooner than later. I started having a lot more contractions Thursday and Friday -- not painful, but not comfortable and much stronger and more frequent than I have had recently. I went to my doctor's appointment first thing on Friday morning and discovered that I was 1 cm dilated, although not at all effaced. This isn't uncommon in second pregnancies, but not necessarily a positive sign for me, so my doctor scheduled an appointment up at the hospital later that day for another cervical length check. She also took another early labor test so we could get a better idea of what was going on.

As I feared, my cervical length check revealed that I have just a smidge of cervix left -- it's back to being fun and dynamic, so it was measuring between .6 cm and 1.4 cm (a LOT shorter than last time and definitely in the danger zone). Possibly a bit of funneling, but not major. So, needless to say, they sent me right over to L&D and admitted me straight to a room as a 24-hour (minimal) observation patient. They hooked me up to the fetal monitor and the contraction monitor -- I was having decent-sized contractions every five minutes (which I already knew anyway). Baby looks great -- nice strong heartbeat, moving around all over the place, and still head down.

The SWAT team of doctors came in to talk to me -- I had to laugh because for each shift, I'd already met 2 of the 3 doctors on previous visits -- one of the chief resident this time had just been a lowly resident when Max was born (I wonder if the hospital gives out "frequent flyer" miles). After talking with my OB, going over my history and the current treatment, the doctors doubled my dose of nifedipine (I'm now on the maximum dose) and started the steroid shots to mature the baby's lungs. My poor long-suffering legs got a couple more nasty pokes (steroid shots are not pleasant). I wasn't allowed to eat anything (pure pregnant woman torture), so I couldn't talk them out of hooking me up to an IV (this time it only took about 20 minutes to get it in and ended up with blood everywhere ... twice :P). They hospital did have the results from my early labor test back by the time I got up there and they were actually negative. I totally expected them to be positive, so that was a little surprising. A negative test results supposedly means that 99 people out of 100 won't deliver their baby in the next two weeks, so I'm hoping I'm not going to end up falling into the 1% false negative category.

Thankfully, the increased dose of meds settled things down -- the contractions are MUCH better and back under control for now. After they got the second steroid shot on board, they checked my cervix again before sending me home. It's was actually a little better -- the lowest reading was about 1 cm and the highest almost 2 cm. Still being dynamic and still possibly a little funneling. At this point, we've taken all the preventative steps we can take -- there's nothing more we can do except hope my body lets this baby stay put a little longer. Basically, the next time I go to the hospital it'll probably be to have the baby, since there is no point in my going up there unless I think I'm in labor (or if I think the baby is in distress). We can't do anything more to hold off labor than we're already doing. That's both somewhat of a relief and somewhat scary.

At this point, the chances of me making it to term are pretty slim, so I'm trying to wrap my brain around the idea of having another preemie. Dad went down to the NICU while we were there to check and see which neonatologist was the attending doctor right now. :P Things were going so well for a while there that I was hoping I might get that "take home" baby after all. At this point, I'd really just like to squeak on through to 32 weeks -- anything past that is bonus. When I went into the hospital yesterday I wasn't expecting to walk out still pregnant -- so I'm glad I still am!

It was interesting to see the doctors' reaction to a threatened 30 weeker delivery rather than a threatened 27 weeker delivery -- much less doom and gloom. They didn't trot in the social workers and the NICU reps this time around. The "big dog" doctor yesterday told us that, in general, having a 30-weeker was night and day from having a 27 weeker. The doctors would really like to see me get to 32 weeks -- that seems to be kind of their benchmark "safe" gestation -- the long-term outcomes for 32 weekers, in general, are as good as those for full-term babies.

Hospital beds are still horribly uncomfortable and the food stinks (I did eventually get to eat the next day). I'm tired of walking around in the butt-baring robes and I hate IVs. I'm SO glad to be back home. Dad brought Max up to visit me in the hospital and he thought it was GREAT fun to press all the buttons on the bed and make Mom's bed move all over the place. This was a good warning to me to get all my ducks in a row before baby comes -- it's time to give in and pack my hospital bag and get ourselves as prepared as we can be before baby arrives.

I'll get another cervical length check on Wednesday and they'll also measure the baby to see how big she is, then I have a follow-up appointment with my OB on Thursday. Hopefully I can convince my body to let this little girl stay put for a bit longer yet!