E-Mail Update #6

Hello, everyone. As of today, I have made it to 29 weeks and 3 days! I can hardly believe it. Now we're less than one week away from our second goal delivery date, and we're more one week past the first goal delivery date. I am amazed and thankful and just really glad to still be here in the hospital and pregnant.

I had an ultrasound this past Monday to make sure all the babies have good amniotic fluid, and they are looking good. This coming Monday's ultrasound will be for amniotic fluid as well, then the following Monday the babies will be measured to determine approximate weights. Measurements of the babies are only done every 3 to 4 weeks to make sure that we are getting good measurements. Apparently measuring them more frequently can lead to inconsistent results.

From here on out, pretty much any time I have the babies, we can expect for them to come home from the hospital sometime around the first week of August. The neonatologist said that after 28 weeks that you can expect the babies to come home around the time that I would be 35-36 weeks pregnant. If they were born before 28 weeks, however, we could have expected a much longer NICU stay.

These babies are really getting anxious to get here. It's as if they're saying, "Okay Mom, you said 28 weeks and we did it -- now let us out!" My contractions have picked up a lot and seem to pick up more every day in frequency as well as strength. Up until this point sedation seems to work to slow them down. The new attending doctor on rotation for this past week and next week does not like using "narcotics" to stop contraction, so we have tried some different drugs to try to stop the contractions. They didn't work, but I also didn't become more dilated or effaced, so for now I'm to just deal with the contractions. Not fun, but so long as these babies stay inside for as long as possible, I can do it. I haven't been sent back to Labor & Delivery in the last week or so, so that's great. As of this morning, I'm still 3cm dilated and 75% effaced, but I was told on Tuesday that Rosemary has "dropped" since last Saturday.

I think we're going to make it past 30 weeks -- but how much past I don't know. Most of the doctors seem to think that 30 weeks will be about all I can do. The new attending doctor said that I could make it several more weeks and possibly go to 35 or 36 weeks. But she also had tried to send me home earlier this week, so I'm not sure what I think of her predictions. She had admitted that if I went home I may have to make daily trips -- or perhaps two trips a day -- to be checked due to the frequency and strength of my contractions. I still don't understand why this was considered a valid plan. I've been having contractions consistently 2-4 minutes apart for the last few days, but if I'm at home I'm supposed to come in to the hospital if I have more than 10 an hour, so I don't understand why they would send me home just to drive straight back.

Anyway, I told Gary about the plans to send me home, and he tracked the new attending doctor down to plead our case. Gary had told me beforehand that he was willing to go to jail to keep me in here, and I don't think he was kidding. Gary did a good job when he talked to the doctor and she has now agreed that she will not try to send me home until I am at least 32 weeks. Considering that every time I go home I come back in less than 24 hours more dilated and more effaced, we both think that if I'm sent home again that I'll be back to have the babies. Even the attending doctor said that labor probably wouldn't be stopped if I were dilated to 5cm -- and possibly even to 4cm, and I'm very close to that now. At least for now, I'm staying at the hospital, which I think is good news for all of us.

Well, this was not a very exciting update -- but in my position a lack of excitement is good! I hope everyone is doing well, and thank you for all of your good thoughts and prayers.