Week 24 Day 1

I wanted to post a semi-quick update.

I went in for my normal MFS check-up this morning.  My sister was in town so she went with me instead of J.  After all, it was just another in a long line of "stable" appointments.  First the good news:  Baby B has more fluid this week than previously.  This couldn't be better for him and really makes us happy.  Also, their heartbeats continue to be strong and they're not shy about moving around in there.

The not so great discovery is that I've started funneling, meaning my cervix has gotten shorter from the inside.  I am not dilated, though, so the exit is still blocked.  They also found that I'm still having "irritable" contractions despite the medicine I've been taking.  The only option was for me to go to the hospital so they could be stopped.

I checked in around lunch time.  They put me on an IV and gave me a dosage of the same medicine I had been taking.  They took the edge off the contractions but didn't stop them completely.  They also gave me a steroid shot to help improve the babies' lungs should they need to be delivered.  Don't let this last part worry you.  It's one of those things that they do as a precaution since it takes at least 24hrs for the steroid to be effective.  It's not something they could do in an emergency later.

Around 10pm they called the OB on call for further instructions.  He ordered some additional testing and for them to start a magnesium sulfate treatment.  This was the second stage at stopping the contractions.  The side effects didn't sound that bad, but I could tell J was worrying about me.  The look he gets on his face...  That's worse than anything the nurse could do.

The first 30 min of the treatment was not pleasant, but I tried to keep a smile on my face.  I think it helped me as much as it helped J since it gave me something to think about besides the pain in my arm.  Over all it hasn't been as bad as the stuff the MS gave me a few weeks ago.

So it's 2am and the nurse is going to slip me some sleeping meds if I don't at least lay down.  I won't be going home until Wednesday at the earliest since the magnesium treatment takes 24hrs to complete.  On the bright side, an IV is far easier than the bottles of water I've been having to drink at home.