Hospital Updates

First of all I want to say thank you for all of your prayers and words of encouragement. I was very nervous about sharing Alex's story but I felt relieved that we had so many people, many that I've never even met, in our corner and interceding for us. I also want to thank all of the brave people who have shared similar stories with us. I pray that I can find strength and encouragement through your story and that the Lord continues to comfort and heal you. Thank you all again. 

So, hospital updates. 

Wednesday afternoon we went for our weekly ultrasound and monitoring. It's amazing to me how challenging the ultrasounds are now that the boys are getting so big! We were able to get a weight estimate on Sam - 3.4 lbs! It's too hard to get accurate measurement son Alex because of his condition, so he will be our little mystery until he arrives. 

Speaking of arrival...while I was having my monitoring done, I was having multiple contractions in a rhythmic pattern.  I've been having these for weeks now but since there is no pain, I haven't paid any attention to them. But just to be sure, the nurse thought it would be a good idea to check the length of my cervix via internal ultrasound. (I had been checking "manually" aka fingers to your throat, the week before and was closed so I didn't think much of being checked this week) so, they checked my cervical length and it was only 5mm. A healthy length is 25mm. So they were nervous and so was I. The doctor decided to move me to the hospital to administer meds to slow down the contractions and continue to monitor my cervix for dilation. 

So we moved to the hospital at about 4:30 and have just had SO much fun since then. Here is the lowdown:

- started iv of basic fluids

- was cleared to eat some dinner (hello Wendy's! Thanks to the FIL)

- had my cervix checked via speculum (love that!) was about 1 cm 

- got moved to an actual room instead of a triage room

- started magnesium in my iv, then noticed immediately that my iv site was itching and my arm had swollen up. The fluid was going into my arm. So scary, but everything was fine) 

- got new iv site on my right hand and started a strong drip of magnesium (which makes you feel like you have the flu. Hot all over, burning and watery eyes, muscle soreness, all the fun stuff)

- changed to slow drip of magnesium (much better but still fever like)

- started a new antibiotic drip for an bacterial infection I have

- had a steroid shot at midnight to help with the babies' lungs just in case

- had to insert progesterone capsules into my lady tunnel

- changed rooms 

- got hooked up to some nice compression socks to make sure my circulation was good

All of this while also having a blood pressure cuff, pulse of monitor, and baby/contraction monitoring on the entire time. Needless to say, it is super fun when I try to get up to pee. 

The doctors and new nurses will be making their rounds soon so I will update again later. As far as we know right now we will have to be here until at least midnight because that is when I will get my second steroid shot. They might keep me on the magnesium for 24 hours, so we will check that also. 

Until the next lovely cervical check,

Courtney