Well, yesterday was NOT fun day. I woke up around 1AM early Tuesday morning to contractions that were stronger than any that I had experienced before. They weren't terribly painful, but I certainly noticed them more than any of the contractions I'd had before. And, they seemed to be coming pretty regularly--to the tune of every 5-10 minutes. After over an hour of trying to time them and deny that they were there, I buzzed the nurse. They put me on the NST monitors, and kept me in my room for a while.
The babies looked mostly fine, but I continued to contract. Baby One had a few decelerations during the contractions. So, that made them want to make sure he was tolerating the contractions ok. So they sent me back down to the labor and delivery floor. Third time in less than a week. I stayed there for a few hours, and when they were convinced the babies were ok, they sent me back up to my room on the recovery floor.
I thought I was in the clear. But around noon, my doctor came in with the doctor from the OB/GYN practice group who was actually on call yesterday. Not a good sign when 2 doctors come in to see you. It turns out, my CBC (white blood cell) count was a bit higher than they would have liked yesterday. They want to see it below 15. It was 18 on Thurs/Friday when I had first gone down for contractions. They chalked it up to the steroid shots I'd had earlier last week. The count was 17 yesterday. So it had gone down, but was still elevated. They were starting to suspect maybe there was an infection brewing. Oh boy.
It was Carlos's birthday, and he was having lunch with some friends of the office. The doctors told me to tell him go to lunch while they consulted with the Maternal and Fetal Medicine (MFM) doctors. However, they warned me that they may do amniocentesis to check Baby One's fluid (the one with the ruptured membrane) for infection. And, if there was any sign at all of infection, they'd induce me or do a C-section the same day. After Carlos was finished with lunch, we still hadn't heard back regarding what the plan was. So he came directly here.
Finally, a MFM doctor came to see us. The said that after much discussion, they had decided that I probably don't have an infection yet. They decided not to do the amnio and to just keep monitoring my vitals. They also decided to draw blood for a CBC count more often to make sure it was moving in the right direction. What a relief! I am not ready to deliver! I'll be 32 weeks on Monday, and they tell me there is a huge difference in brain development even between where I am now (31 weeks 3 days) and 32 weeks. So I want to at least make that goal. At the same time, it is looking less and less like I will make it to the ultimate goal of 12/8. You never know, but I'm not sure how much longer we can stave off labor or infection! I'll keep trying! It just creates a tremendous amount of anxiety for me! I'm afraid to go to sleep at night since it seems that is when things start to happen.
Last night, I tried sleeping on my side with my head elevated in the hospital bed. I had previously been sleeping with the bed flat, like I would at home. But I figured, I spend all day with the bed back up or slightly inclined and I don't notice contractions. I'm able to nap well with the back down a bit, but still up so I'm not lying flat, so I thought maybe it would work for nighttime.
Well, it seems it did. I didn't feel any contractions last night, and managed to sleep through most of the night without waking up. So I'm going to stick with that until it stops working. If nothing else, I think psychologically, it helped. I FEEL like it's helping!
This morning, the boys seem to have passed the NST. We're still waiting to hear from the doctor. But I hope there will be no need for an ultrasound. Baby One continues to be a superstar regardless of the low fluid. He now consistently has 15x15 accelerations when he only needs 10x10! However, as of 32 weeks, both babies will be held to the 15x15 standard to pass the test. (This means that during an acceleration, their heartbeats need to rise by 15 beats above the baseline instead of just 10 beats.) We'll see how they do! I hope we make it that far!!
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