My life as I know it now

So I just wanted to let you all know what was going on and give you an update on my crazy life. A month ago I had worked 5 nights in a row. By the last night I was starting to have a bunch of contractions. During my break I went to Labor and Delivery and went on the monitor for an hour. Everything was fine so I wasn't too concerned at that point.

Then we went to Colorado for a week to visit my sister Megan, Phil and Taeya. We had a very busy and fun time. I did go white water rafting but it was on a very quiet part of the Colorado river and I didn't paddle at all. It was very relaxing for me as we floated down the caynon and had water fights with another boat. I was able to get a nap every day and sleep at night which was wonderful. My contractions had just about stopped by then.

A week later we flew back to California bringing Megan and Taeya with us. They stayed for two weeks. We had fun going shopping, doing swim lessons and hanging out. Megan watched Bekah while I was sleeping after working at night. We had a blast on the camping trip to Hendy woods. The next week we went to the fair, out to the beach, to the sweet shop in Windsor, and had dinner and game nights with family. I was also working some nights too. I still felt fine by this point. A few "harmless" contractions but nothing else.

So Saturday morning I had breakfast with Megan and Taeya, ran to Trader Joes and then dropped her off at my grandma's house since she was going to Redding for a few days. Then I went home to clean our apartment that we are getting ready to rent out. After a few hours cleaning I took a nap, and then cleaned my house a bit. Jeremy and Stephanie came over for dinnner and a game night. By the time we were into the game I was starting to have contractions. I called work to see if I could just be on call that night, but they said they needed everyone to work, so I went.

That's when things started to get a bit troubling. I was being to have contractions everytime I walked or moved. I asked for an easy assignment. They gave me a baby that was a new admit and "just needed an IV". No problem, or so I thought. It took two hours to get an IV in the baby. She was not stabilized for a while and so took some work. My coworkers kept making me sit down instead of helping. After the baby was doing better I was able to keep my feet up for most of the night but I still kept having contractions. In the morning the nurses encouraged me to get checked into Labor and Delivery and get checked out. I just wanted to go home and sleep. I thought I would be just fine. Denial can be pretty powerful. So I kept waking up with contractions while sleeping. When I got up we had a house full of family for Jessie's birthday party. I continued to have contractions though and so finally called me doctor. She told me to come get checked out. I thought that the next day would be fine. She said no, that I needed to go to the hospital right then. I was only 26 weeks along at that point and that is not a good time to have a baby.

We showed up a 5:30pm and got checked in. The nurse told me that I was going to need to be on bedrest and that I was not going to be able to go back to work. I really thought she was joking. Again, denial is pretty powerful. They almost let me go home on bedrest but then I had a bunch of contractions. At that point I was admitted. I still didn't think it was too big of a deal. I had had contractions with Bekah and everything had been fine. However, this was going to be completely different this time. Once settled in I my contractions started to get more consistant and more uncomfortable. They gave me morphine hoping to help the contractions to settle down. It did nothing. They gave me an anti-contraction drug which also did nothing. By this time my contractions were a minute apart and had moved from uncomfortable to getting pretty painful. I had to start blowing through the contractions because they hurt so bad. I started thinking that I might actually have our baby that night. That woke me up and the denial was no longer there. At that point I was started on Magnesium. They gave me a 4 mg bolus and then went down to 2mg. They had to increase it up to 2.5mg and then up to 3mg because the contractions where so hard and fast. Finally around 6:30 am the contractions settled down to the point where I could finally sleep though them. Then my not so fun day started.

I got an hour of sleep that morning and then woke up and felt so increadibly aweful. I knew Magnesium didn't make you feel good, but wow. I had no idea what it would do to me. I had hot flashes, threw up all day, couldn't read at all since my vision was blurry, had a headache and had such a dry mouth I could barely talk. I could only have 25 ml's (5 Tablespoons) of liquid an hour since the mag. can make fluid accumulate in your lungs. The worst part was that I could barely move. My muscles no longer responed to my commands. I couldn't turn over or sit up or even reach my call light. I slept for almost the entire day. My contractions slowed down and I only had one when I moved. They finally started to turn down the magnesium on Tuesday. As it started to get out of my system I started to feel better. I was able to eat a little bit of cereal on Tue. By Tuesday night i was even up to eating some icecream that my friend had brought to me. On Wednesday morning they turned the magnesium off and started me on oral anit-contraction meds (Niphetapine). I felt so much better and was able to finally get out of bed by myself. I was allowed to go home on Wednesday evening with strict orders to stay on bedrest and take my medication every six hours around the clock.

I had 7-8 contractions that evening going up the stairs to bed. I am allowed 4 an hour. If it gets more than 6 an hour I will have to go back to the hospital. After resting and then taking a bath I went to bed and prayed that the contractions would stop. I have only had a few the rest of the night and only 2-4 contractions an hour today. I am being very careful and am staying put on the couch. I will take everyone's advice and do absolutely nothing for the next several weeks. A 26 weeker is too little and I really want her to stay in a little longer.

So now I am home on strict bedrest and life is going to be a little different around here for awhile. I do want to say thank-you to all who are praying for our little one and for our family. God is almightly and powerful and can easily keep our baby inside my womb for as long as He wants. Prayers lifted up to Him are so much appreciated and needed. I have felt all of your love and support during the last couple of days. The willingness of so many to help watch Bekah and clean house and cook meals is just over whelming. It is such a testamony of how the church family works. I feel your prayers and your love. I am not worried or restless or anxious at all-just resting in the Lord's comfort and trusting His good plan what ever that my be. I'll keep you updated on how everything is going as much as I can. Thank God for portable laptop computers.