Roller Coaster Week

The past week has been rough. After a nice, relaxing Christmas with Matt's family (who generously brought Christmas to us), we have been on a very stressful roller coaster of news and emotions.

I went back to the MFM on Tuesday 12/28 for another cervical check, at 27 weeks. Because things had been so stable for the past 7 weeks, and because my appointment was inconveniently in the middle of the day, we decided that I would just go by myself so Matt didn't have to take off work. This is the first appointment he's missed. It turns out that he's good luck, and things don't go well in his absence...

My cervix, which had been holding steady around 2.5 cm since 20 weeks, was measuring only 1.5 cm on Tuesday! That was a HUGE change, and very scary at only 27 weeks. To add to things, they found some funneling - meaning the cervix was starting to open from the inside (dilation is where it opens from the outside). The MFM called Dr. Elliott (one of my OBs) and they decided to admit me immediately to labor and delivery so I could get a round of steroid shots to speed the babies' lung development if they come early.

The steroid shots - betamethasone - are given 12 hours apart, and I had to be hooked up to the contraction monitor the whole time. I got the first shot around 6 pm, Matt came after work and stayed until 10 or so, then I tried to settle in for some sleep. This proved nearly impossible becuase the nurses came in every couple hours to take my blood pressure and put the babies on the monitor for non-stress tests (NSTs). While they only needed 20 minutes on the monitor for the NST, this proved much easier said than done. Every time they tried to monitor him, Frack would give the monitor a firm kick and run away from it. It took at least an hour of chasing him around to get 20 minutes of readings. Needless to say, I was exhausted and didn't get much sleep that night.

Then the nurse came in to wake me around 4:30 Wednesday morning to say I was having some "uterine irritability" and they wanted to start an IV for fluids. By 6, they gave me the second dose of steroids, but said I was having contractions - which I couldn't really feel, and Dr. Elliott ordered terbutaline to stop them. Apparently the steroids can cause mild contractions, so this wasn't too suprising. I got two shots of terbutaline, about half an hour apart, followed by an oral dose. The shots stopped the contractions, but made me feel awful - racing heart, low blood pressure, anxiety, flushing, etc. No fun... but overall, all seemed to be going fairly well until a couple hours after the oral terbutaline, when I started vomiting. Fortunately that was short lived, and I was able to eat lunch shortly after. They couldn't figure out what caused it, and Dr. Elliott attributed it to exhaustion, stress, and bad reflux that I'd been having for a few days.

They watched me for the afternoon and all seemed to be going well. I was about to be discharged and was talking to Dr. Elliott when I had a couple Braxton-Hicks contractions close enough together to earn me another oral dose of terbutaline. This time we figured out what had made me sick earlier. Within 45 minutes, I was vomiting blood (sorry for oversharing). It didn't last too long, and never came back, but I earned myself another night at the hospital and a whole lot of Prilosec and worry. They will not be giving me oral terbutaline anymore.

By Thursday morning, things were quiet, my breakfast stayed down, no contractions, and they finally let me go home. My bedrest orders are very, very strict now - no getting up except to use the bathroom. I'm really happy to be home, and Matt has been taking great care of me as always.

So, after that fun diversion, I return to where our story began - my suddenly shrinking cervix, which sent us all into a panic that the babies were coming sooner rather than later. I spent the weekend resting, and we went back to the MFM and OB this morning. My cervix measured 2.4 cm and the funneling is gone!! We are thrilled with this news! While it's still short, and we're certainly not out of the woods, we're back to where we were before this whole crazy week began, and we can live with that.

I will be 28 weeks tomorrow, which was one of our big milestones, becuase many of the more serious risks of premature birth drop at this point. Dr. Elliott wants to get me to 35 weeks (Feb. 22), and we're really hoping that can happen. We go back next Tuesday for a growth scan on the babies and another cervical check. Until then, fingers crossed for a quiet week of bedrest!