For Now

I spent the day in my own bed today, and it was lovely. I was sent home yesterday evening, but was worried about announcing it to the world-didn't want to jinx it!  The doctor on call for the practice we go to came into my room Monday morning and asked, "Are you ready to bust outta this joint?" I was shocked they were thinking about letting me go because I was still having runs of contractions that were 5-8 minutes apart.  She decided to add in a demand dose on my Terb. pump since my heart rate has gone down a little bit.  That way if I have more than 6 contractions in an hour, I can do that before we would have to go back to the hospital.  The deciding factors would be the cervical check and the morning monitoring session of the babies and my contractions.  She checked my cervix and found that it had not changed since I arrived at the hospital. I was relieved the hear that-I was worried about that!

As I waited for my nurses to come in and hook me up to machines, I was excited and nervous about the possibility of going home.  I wanted to go home so badly, but I didn't want to risk the health of the babies of myself.  I figured that they wouldn't be sending me home if it wasn't safe though, so I started to hope that the monitoring would go well.  The babies did great during monitoring, which wasn't surprising since they had been great the whole time I was in the hospital.  My contractions were also low, mainly just irritability (not surprising either with 3 babies in an overstretched uterus)! So it looked like I would be going home!

I have a Terbutaline (sp) pump that gives me a constant dose of the medication that is supposed to help minimize contractions.  I was using the hospital's pump, but if I was going home I would have to get one through the same company that I have my home uterine monitor from.  So I couldn't go home until a rep came and taught me how to use/change the pump and site.  I also had to wait until Brad could leave work to come pick me up.  I ordered what I hoped would be my last lunch at the hospital for a little while.  The rep came and showed me how to change the medication vial in the machine, switch the site where the meds go in, etc.  Not too tricky, especially since I was used to giving myself meds when we did IVF. 

Brad came a little later and we were on our way! It was great to actually see the outside and not the brick wall outside my window.  And then we went outside and it was cold-which I absolutely loved.  I was so worried I was going to spend the beginning of fall inside the hospital! Brad had picked up frozen Gino's East pizzas for dinner-yum! I had to monitor again when we got home and I was terrified that I would have too many contractions and be sent right back, but luckily I only had 1!

It was great to sleep in my own bed-I actually slept for a couple hours at a time! I decided to camp out upstairs in our bedroom because I knew if I was downstairs I would be doing more than I was supposed to.  So Brad helped bring up all my "bed rest supplies," for the day since he had to go to work.  I monitored in the morning and had 8 contractions, (my limit is 5), so I had to give myself a higher dose of meds and drink 4 glasses of water.  I was convinced I was going to have to go back into the hospital that day, so tried to mentally prepare myself for that.  Luckily, the next monitoring session showed 0 contractions, just moderate irritability.  Same thing for the evening session! Maybe this medicine is going to help me stay home a little longer than I thought!

We go this afternoon for our weekly appointment, so we'll get to see the babies again! My ultimate goal is still 32 weeks, but I am so happy and grateful that we made it to 30 weeks and had the steroid shots.  I still can't believe we will meet these little ones soon.  It took so much time to get to this point, it just doesn't seem real yet.  It probably won't until we see their little faces and hopefully hear their cries.  I will try to post a belly picture today-it has grown even more in the past week. Good for the babies, not so good for the stretch marks! :)