A Little Excitement (32w4d)

Nope, no babies yet... I'll just clear the air with that one first off.

I had been planning a post entitled "Quiet on all fronts" until today, when that changed.  Warning: This is a TMI post so if you're sqeamish you may want to skip.

The past 3 days I have suddenly developed a case of diarrhea.  You may remember that this is something I faced all throughout pregnancy until I got into the hospital.  Here, I have had to take something to keep myself regular.  So the development back to diarrhea was a bit unexpected.  Additionally, when I went to the washroom the other day, I noticed a bit of fresh red blood when I wiped.  I was told to keep an eye on it and found that it only happened after a bowel movement, but it was coming from the vaginal area.  Strange.

Well, today I woke up and got up to go to the washroom.  I noticed a bit of blood on the sheets and as soon as I moved to walk, I felt something come out of my lady parts.  I recognized the feeling right away and knew it was a clot.  Sure enough, I went to the bathroom and there was a clot almost the size of my fist in my underwear (gross!).  I cleaned up and called in the nurses.  I wasn't sure if that is what the mucous plug is like, but it seemed much bigger to me.  They confirmed it looked like a clot and put me back in bed with a NST.  Sure enough, I was contracting and had an "irritable uterus."  I was also cramping pretty bad and my back ached a lot.  I was hooked up to an IV (just in case) and breakfast was cleared away (though I begged for some ice chips to moisten my dry morning mouth).  The doctor came in to do an internal check of my cervix and said that it was closed and dry, and about 1cm in length.  

I've been resting now for a few hours and it seems like things have settled down a lot. We are hoping this is the clot from earlier that has just passed now (though I don't know why it hasn't been noted in the past few ultrasounds?).  Hopefully things will quiet down and go back to normal and we'll wait a few more weeks for these babies to arrive!  For now, I am just being monitored and playing the "wait and see" game. DH was at home (3 hours away) but planning to come down today, so I called him this morning and told him to get on the road right away, just in case.  He is on the way down now.  

So that's my story this morning.  I'm so happy to have made it this far with this difficult pregnancy, but hoping these little rascals stay in there a bit longer.  I'll do my best to keep you all posted.

Monday morning musings

This weekend was rather boring. DH left on Saturday morning and apart from his brother stopping by for an hour yestserday, I didn't have any other visitors. I'm looking forward to him coming back this afternoon. My thoughts are scattered today so I'm going to do a bullet point list of what is on my mind.

• Uterus update: I had (another) ultrasound yesterday to check my cervix and the baby's fluid levels and all was looking great. In fact, my cervix was longer than last time at 3.2. I spoke to the doctor this morning and asked about the clot. He said that the u/s did not make mention of it, but that it was much easier/clearer to see the cervix. I take that to mean that it has most likely bled out or been reabsorbed! With that out of the way, and Baby A's placenta not showing as previa, my risk of bleeding has greatly decreased. We can't say for sure, but they are talking about letting me got home at 32 weeks if no other issues pop up. I keep telling myself: Don't get your hopes up, don't get your hopes up, don't get your hopes up... 
• Homesick: This last weekend showed me just how homesick I really am. I just want to go home so badly! I think the thought of being discharged early (32 weeks) has found its way into my head and all I want is to be at home... To sleep in my own bed, to eat my own food, to use my own bathroom... I just want to go home! At the same time, I worry about being overwhelmed if I do go home. All I will see is how much needs to be done before these babies arrive. At least here, I am forced not to really think about that too much. But still, I think being at home would be so much easier than this. 
• Vanity: Okay, I really, really want a haircut! I just want to have new, fresh hair before these babies arrive (I don't know why it is so important, but somehow it is). Last night I dreamt that I was discharged to go home on strict bed rest, but the first place I stopped was my hairdresser. You know you're desperate when...
• Transition: Probably the biggest concern on my mind currently is how I am going to transition back to the "real world" after being in the hospital. If I do have to stay right until the babies are born, that is going to be even harder. Going from such a controlled environment, where everything is practically done for you, to being the caregiver for two small life forms is a HUGE adjustment. I know that bringing any baby home is an adjustment, but I know that for me, I do better with adjustment when I have some control and have things in place. With all of that being stripped away, I am actually scared about how I will handle it. I expect to be bitchy, emotional, unreasonable, anxious and difficult. I don't want my first days with our little ones to be like that. I just don't know how else to prepare myself... 
• Circumcision: And on another note, DH and I are trying to decide if we want to circumcise our child if we have a boy(s). This is a completely random point, and not one I hear discussed in blogland that often, but I would love to hear how others have made this decision. It is something I have never really considered before, but now that the option is there, I want to make an informed decision. Right now, my biggest "pro" point is just ease of cleanliness...and my biggest "con" is that you have to pay money to do it, when there aren't that many clear advantages. I think at the end of the day I will let DH make this decision. 

So, that is where my mind is at this Monday morning. Feel free to way in on any of the above points. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Hospital Bed Rest - One Week! Plus ultrasound update

Well, I made it through the week!  Things have settled down immensely, and so I am into my routine and just chilling most of the time. It was nice having my parents hang out yesterday. My bro-in-law and his wife brought me Chinese food for my first non-hospital food meal. It was delicious!!!  At this point, the novelty of hospital food has worn off. Breakfast is good and lunch is okay, but I am really not into the dinners.  Still, I eat them just to keep these babies happy and growing strong!

Today DH arrives back I'm town. I may have mentioned that he was sleeping on his brother's floor but he is now on the wait list for the hospital subsidized housing for parents/families with preemies or kids in the hospital. We are planning to watch the NICU video today as part of our preparation in case they do come early.

As for me and the babies, I still have not met with the OB, but every day a family doctor checks in with me and she gave me some updates.  I was told that Baby A does not have placenta previa and that the placenta is now on the side of the uterine wall, right where it should be.  But the doctor came back later saying she spoke to my OB and she is not convinced that I do not have previa. So they want to do another ultrasound (thus time internal) later this week.  Baby B's placenta is up higher on the other side of my uterus so no problems there.  My cervix is shortened a bit to 3.5 and has just started to funnel. They didn't check internally again but since it was open last week, I am still to be on bed rest to keep as much pressure off it as possible. The other good thing is the babies growth!  I may be off by an once or two, but I think she said Baby A is now 2lb,10oz (up from 2,5 last week) and baby B is now 3,2 (up from 2,13). They are both well within normal range and not too different from one another.  She mentioned something about percentiles but I forget what she said. Hopefully they keep up this good weight gain for the next few weeks!

And, here is a shot of my sweet, sweet love, just arrived to take care of me.