Hospital Details

So Sunday morning I woke up feeling like crap. I thought I just needed to make a trip to the bathroom. Except that it didn't really stop after that. I was feeling intermittent, painful lower abdominal cramps accompanied by lower back pain. And while I am no stranger to back pain, usually mine is of the upper back variety. After about two hours, I called in to see what we should do (still not convinced that I just wasn't extremely constipated). Since they don't mess with twin pregnancy, I was instructed to head to the birthing center right away.

The birthing center at our hospital of choice is 45 minutes away. During that first drive, the cramping almost completely subsided. We were shown to a room and I still wasn't very worried, per se- I just had a feeling that they were going to be ok. I was given Zofran for the cramp-induced nausea, trebutaline for the cramps, and steroids to speed up their lung development in the chance that things would progress and not be able to be stopped. Then I started to get a little worried. I was hooked up to three monitors; one for each baby and one for the cramps to see if they were "contractions." According to the nurses at that time, they were not, and they did not seem sure what was causing my issues. A nurse did an u/s- but she wasn't really trained in how to do them, so it basically just gave her an idea where to put the monitors. The babies were doing fine while we were there- great h/b and still moving a lot as usual. My cervix still felt good according the the nurse. I was sent home about 4 hours later.

Side note- while driving home, I called my mom to let her know about the day's events. I thought I would wait until I knew what was going on before causing her unneeded worry. After I explained that we were headed home and things appeared to be fine, she told me that she had actually had a dream that morning that woke her up that the babies were born today, and couldn't get back to sleep. That really made me thankful that I waited to call her until it was over. Or what I thought was over.

After the 45 minute drive home and about a half hour, my husband left to go grocery shopping since I was doing fine. Then the cramps came back with a vengeance. This time, I did not feel that the babies were going to be just fine- I was given meds before and the pain was worse then ever. I started sobbing that it was too early and they couldn't come now. I called my husband and told him I needed him home right then. We called the birthing center and then headed right back. That 45 minute+ drive in slightly bad road conditions was the most excruciating thing, and cliche as it sounds, seemed to take forever.

This time when I was hooked up to the monitors, it was showing that I was in fact having contractions, and the nurses were concerned that the trebutaline didn't last very long to stop the cramping. I was started on magnesium sulfate- a muscle relaxant, that thanks to The Southern Belle Baby, I had just read all about and what to expect. It is some wicked stuff. I also got a u/s from a u/s tech this time and things still looked good on the babies side of things. I had some more intense cramping so my dosage of the mag sulfate was upped and I was told I would be at least staying the night. A catheter was put in (fun, fun) and I made it through the night with only one more cramping occasion. Since it was contractions without a shortening/soft cervix my OB is not calling it preterm labor. Today I only had one minor cramping incident, and so I've been slowly weaned off of the mag sulfate throughout the day. I should be able to go home tonight if things continue to go well.

I am unsure of what this means from now on- one nurse said we wouldn't be able to travel to our families' for Christmas- another said I should stop working, the NICU lady that took my husband for a tour while I was resting believes I should be on bedrest... I am concerned about the future, but ever so thankful that throughout it all, our babies were doing well and despite the contractions, nothing else was worsening/looking badly. They have 12 weeks to keep bakin'....