Well, I'm in surprisingly good spirits at the moment. No contractions for the past several hours and I got in a little nap. Unfortunately I am now wide awake. I have always had wonky sleep schedules so I'm sure I'll survive.
As long as it's fresh in my mind, I wanted to start documenting the start of baby's "Birth Story," because no matter what happens in these next hours, days, weeks, this is where the story begins.
This morning I woke up to contractions 5 minutes apart and not painful, but quite uncomfortable. Lyla and I arrived at the hospital at 8:40 and rode over to the birth center in a wheelchair. Lyla clung to me the whole time but did say that she thought the wheelchair was fun. She was a bit upset when we got to our room, so I gave her my phone and it looked like she was trying to "tweet" and was quite content. At this point I called Erik to have him come over from work. My mother-in-law, Lyla's mormor, came up and took Lyla home for a nap and then to the cottage for a fun night with family! We are so thankful to have such great family!
We were all a bit surprised and upset to discover that I was in fact 3 cm dilated already. So in roll the meds. I'm on a Magnesium Sulfate that is meant to slow down or stop contractions of smooth muscle (i.e. THE UTERUS!) but it really just made me feel awful. As soon as it started running into me, I felt hot, and then like my body was made of lead. My arms and legs were heavy, I felt that my chest was heavy on my lungs, and my words were sluggish. It was actually kind of scary at first, but started easing up once the medicine slowed down. I also started receiving penicillin as a precaution to group B strep in the baby, more serious in a pre-term baby. I then received a steroid shot in the butt which I did NOT enjoy, but this shot is hugely important as it helps expand our baby's still developing lungs. My goal is to make it to the next dosage of the steroid shot... tomorrow at 11! 10 hours to go, and then we'll see how we're doing from there!
Erik and I got kind of bored and played a game of Settlers of Catan.
At about 7 o clock, I was given the go-ahead to eat a meal, and I realized that my arms were still slow and heavy. I could barely lift my eyelids, and I was just absolutely miserable. The nurse looked at me and said, "Well I think you look overmedicated." So she lowered my dosage of the horrible magnesium stuff and I started to feel like a real person again. This has made the evening and night go much better so far as I feel like I can actually move and open my eyes for more than 1 second at a time.
Contractions have been sporadic, a couple painful ones here and there. I have not dilated past 3.75 cm since I've been here, so I'm feeling hopeful that we can hold out until tomorrow, and then maybe even a couple days beyond that, though I don't want to get too confident... but every day helps!
Emotionally, things have been difficult. My first reaction was to be afraid... afraid of what such an early delivery would mean for our little girl, not yet prepared for our big world. This was not what we had pictured in our heads for her, this was not WHEN we pictured in our heads for her. I cried and cried as I talked to our doctor, and as the realities of being in labor early set in. However, the doctors and nurses have all been very encouraging. Our first nurse delivered her son, now 2, at 32 weeks and 5 days, and he had no long term issues from an early birth. She has been in here commiserating with me and comforting me, and I am so thankful for her honesty, care and openness with me. She told me before the magnesium that I'd likely feel like a "drunken sailor" (understatement).
But I am feeling very at-ease now. Although it's hard to imagine our little girl spending some time in the nursery or NICU instead of at home with us, I feel confident that she is well cared for here, that God is watching over her, and I am so thankful that she is already surrounded by so much love and so many prayers. I told Erik before bed that I am feeling good about things, no matter what happens tonight or tomorrow or whenever. I am happy to be able to relax and smile a little now!
Actually I'm starting to feel a little tired so sorry if these recent thoughts have been a bit jumbly. I am waiting to go to sleep until 2 because I have to have blood drawn then anyway. I have to have it drawn every 6 hours! I hate needles so much, I don't think I've ever been poked and prodded so much in my life, but it's all worth it! I hope I have a new lab technician lady though because the last one drew blood from my hand and it was painful!!!!!!!!!!!
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