A week ago...

Day 7

Today is day 7, which means that one week ago we started going into labor.  It started out with what I thought were gas pains in the afternoon.  I asked them to put me on the monitor, and nothing showed up - just the same steady toco line that had always been there.  I took some gas-x and felt a little better, so Sean went out to get some food while I went in the shower.  It was then that I felt the pain move to my abdomen, and I knew something was wrong.  I called Sean and just told him to get back, and so he raced back as quickly as he could.  They hooked me up to the monitor again and it was at that point that I started having intense pain.  The monitor was now all over the place.  The pain was absolutely unimaginable, and I'm not sure of the exact timeline from that point on.  I begged to go down to the 4th floor.  They wanted to see if the fluids would stop the contractions but I knew this was it.  They were coming strong and every 2-3 minutes.

Eventually I was brought down to Labor and Delivery, where they gave me the steroid shot and put me on magnesium.  I have heard horror stories about the magnesium, but I will say I think that I was in so much pain at that point that I barely noticed.  The contractions were so close together they almost couldn't do a speculum exam.  When they did, they said I was 5cm and I found out later that Baby A, Alexander's, feet were down low.  It was showtime.  I remember wanting it to end because of the pain, but being so scared that we were only just past 27 weeks.

There was either a med student or intern or resident who was doing the spinal.  We had a short window of time between contractions - at that point maybe 60 seconds at best.  I remember begging for the doctor to do it.  Eventually they got the spinal in, and I felt one more strong contraction after before the spinal took effect.

At some point Sean came into the L&D room.  By that point I had already thrown up, and made sure to tell him that (why do we feel that is something we need to share right away?)  Then things really became a blur.  I was in and out of it, and we weren't even sure when the babies were taken out.  I do remember shaking violently throughout the procedure, and for several hours after.  Baby A, Alexander, was born at 12:26 and Baby B, Matthew, was born at 12:30am.

And now, a week later, the scar is still healing.  They did start me on antibiotics today as there's still some redness that may be increasing.  I am hoping the antibiotics start to work quickly and that no further intervention is needed...

Now for some updates on Matthew

The Good

Matthew had another stable day, which is always good.  He is still on essentially the lowest (?) vent settings, so we pray he stays that way.  His WBC is up more which is also great news.  He did a poop in his diaper yesterday, and his nurse Lynn said he did a giant poop in his diaper today.  He almost went out of the diaper!  The term diaper blowout takes on a whole new meaning with preemies.  It seems almost cute, whereas diaper blowouts with Christopher were not....

Matthew's feedings have been increased to 5ccs every 2 hours.  The weight still seems to be a little bit of a question mark in terms of if its going up or down.  They said that it was up an ounce today, so I'll take that as a good sign.  Sean thought he looked a little beefier today, like maybe he had a little belly.  He is still not at his birth weight, but hopefully he keeps going up.  They gave him some time on his tummy today, which he tolerated, but he does enjoy sleeping on his side.  Still likes to put his one leg, and today his one arm out.  It may not be clear from the picture but his hands and feet are HUGE!

There's another preemie that joined the space across from where Alexander was.  She is a 24 weaker from Griffin hospital, but the poor mommy is still there.


The Bad

Luckily not too many bad things today.  Matthew did have some desats throughout the day.  While we were there he had a little period of time where he forgot to breathe, as it seems he still does.


The Ugly

No ugly today to report.  Fingers crossed it stays that way.