Last Friday I went I for my standard once-a-month visit with my OB Dr. Hoff. One of the questions I had written down was, "how will I know if I am feeling contractions?" I had read that I should call my doctor if I felt more than 4 in an hour, but I didn't really know what they felt like. I explained one type of "expansion" of my belly that I had felt before and asked if they might be contractions. Dr. Hoff said "almost certainly" and noted that some amount of contractions are normal. Throughout the rest of the day I started noticing these funny contractions and naturally started flipping out every time I felt one. I told myself nothing had changed except that now I knew what I was feeling, but that didn't help much. That night we went to our "twin pregnancy" class and I started noticing a number of contractions towards the end. On our way out Boris asked the instructor about the contractions and she said Braxton hicks contractions are very common and that I should go home and relax with some tea. I did and felt better. That weekend I also felt surprisingly good.
On Monday I noticed a few more and downloaded a "contraction counter" app on my phone. On Tuesday I felt a little "off" (generally sick) and counted what I thought might be 5 contractions in an hour. I figured I was overreacting but my friend (who is also pregnant) convinced me to just call the doctor so I would feel better. I called and they suggested that I come in to sequoia hospital to be monitored for a few hours. I ended up staying for 5 hours because my doctor was swamped and that's how long it took him to come see me. He did a brief exam and told me to stay home from work the next day to see how I felt - if I felt bad, I could come back to the office the next day for a sonogram.
The next day I actually felt great. I felt a contraction here and there when I moved, but generally felt pretty fabulous. I knew I probably didn't need to go back to the doctor since I felt good, but since I still felt contractions when I moved I decided to just go in. Why not? I had taken the day off so I has time.
Dr. Hoff is very chill. He is typically very unimpressed by the complexity of my pregnancy. Twins? Big deal. He delivered 4 sets last month. So when he started the sonogram and immediately said "ooooooooh that's bad. Ooh, that's really bad. You are definitely on bed rest" it pretty much scared the shit out if me. His typical smile disappeared and I struggled to fight back tears as I tried to understand what this all meant.
What I saw on the sonogram was also really scary. Nine days before, the perinatologist checked my cervix and it was a nice healthy 3.8 cm. Now it was "funneled" (ie opening) and less than 1cm at the shortest point. Dr. Hoff told me to go straight to labor and delivery at sequoia hospital next door and that he would meet me there. I left and went over, feeling contractions along the way, and texted Boris and my mom about where I was headed.
By the time I got set up on the monitors Boris was already there. They hooked me up so that you could see each contraction, which was really scary because I realized there were way more than I had been feeling.
When the doctor arrived he started me on nifedipine, an oral drug to stop the contractions. That did basically nothing so they added terbutaline, which makes you feel like you justlhad 10 cups of coffee. That stopped the contractions for a while but wasn't going to last for long and it still didn't stop them completely. I was really anxious to stop them and didn't really understand why they were taking the slow route - I was like "DRUG ME!" So they opted to out me in the infamous magnesium sulfate, affectionately known as "flu in a bag." When my sister was in pre-term labor a few years ago I witnessed what it did to her so I was pretty aware of what I was in for. The "loading" dose where they load you full of the stuff was pretty miserable. I went from feeling drunk to feeling like I was going to melt from the inside (SO hot!) to promptly throwing up all over the place (many thanks to my fabulous husband Boris for predicting this in advance and locating the barf bags before I actually needed it!)
After a while on the magnesium I started feeling better but the contractions hadn't stopped so I was surprisingly anxious for more drugs. My doctor had been consulting with my perinatologist, and they decided to add indomethacin to the mix.
Fast forward 12 hours and the contractions have slowed down, I'm on an IV, I've had blood drawn multiple times, I am now on about 10 different drugs, and my magnesium level is approaching the highest level that my nurse has ever seen. Needless to say we did not sleep much that first night. I think breakfast arrived right around the time things were slowing down.
Somewhere in the middle of this I realize how amazing my mom and Boris have been, and that this is probably pretty unpleasant for them as well. At one point Boris broke my heart when he said "I just keep thinking this is all just a bad dream and we are going to wake up and be in bed." I had been so focused on my own stress that I hadn't really thought about how hard this must be for him. He had to worry not only about out little ones, but also about his wife being harassed and poked and made to be so sick.
At some point in the middle of the night the results come back from our fetal fibrobectin (ffn) test, which theoretically indicates whether I'm likely to go into labor in the next week. The result was negative (yay!). The doctors and nurses spoiled my fun by reminding me that there is a 10% false negative risk, but it was still good news (although I would argue that labor in a week, at 25 weeks, is still pretty flipping terrible. Admittedly better than 24 weeks though).
By the weekend (4 full days in the hospital) things were starting to normalize. My doctor had seen me every day and things at least were not getting worse. My mom gave me a "Pinecrest shower" (or washed my hair in a bucket on the bed) so I even almost felt human again.
At this point though, the discomfort of being in bed was almost unbearable. It's one thing to be stuck in bed - that I could handle. It's quite another thing to be stuck in a bed with a decline (ie my head is much lower than my feet) and stuck laying on one side or the other. Every time I lay on my back I get a contraction, so that seems to not be a real option. By Monday (nearly a week) I felt like I was laying on two broken hips, but every time I tried to adjust I was punished with a contraction. I figured it was better to be miserable and pregnant than miserable with micro-preemies, so I mostly just toughed it out (although not silently - I bitched a lot!)
On Monday I noticed a few more and downloaded a "contraction counter" app on my phone. On Tuesday I felt a little "off" (generally sick) and counted what I thought might be 5 contractions in an hour. I figured I was overreacting but my friend (who is also pregnant) convinced me to just call the doctor so I would feel better. I called and they suggested that I come in to sequoia hospital to be monitored for a few hours. I ended up staying for 5 hours because my doctor was swamped and that's how long it took him to come see me. He did a brief exam and told me to stay home from work the next day to see how I felt - if I felt bad, I could come back to the office the next day for a sonogram.
The next day I actually felt great. I felt a contraction here and there when I moved, but generally felt pretty fabulous. I knew I probably didn't need to go back to the doctor since I felt good, but since I still felt contractions when I moved I decided to just go in. Why not? I had taken the day off so I has time.
Dr. Hoff is very chill. He is typically very unimpressed by the complexity of my pregnancy. Twins? Big deal. He delivered 4 sets last month. So when he started the sonogram and immediately said "ooooooooh that's bad. Ooh, that's really bad. You are definitely on bed rest" it pretty much scared the shit out if me. His typical smile disappeared and I struggled to fight back tears as I tried to understand what this all meant.
What I saw on the sonogram was also really scary. Nine days before, the perinatologist checked my cervix and it was a nice healthy 3.8 cm. Now it was "funneled" (ie opening) and less than 1cm at the shortest point. Dr. Hoff told me to go straight to labor and delivery at sequoia hospital next door and that he would meet me there. I left and went over, feeling contractions along the way, and texted Boris and my mom about where I was headed.
By the time I got set up on the monitors Boris was already there. They hooked me up so that you could see each contraction, which was really scary because I realized there were way more than I had been feeling.
When the doctor arrived he started me on nifedipine, an oral drug to stop the contractions. That did basically nothing so they added terbutaline, which makes you feel like you justlhad 10 cups of coffee. That stopped the contractions for a while but wasn't going to last for long and it still didn't stop them completely. I was really anxious to stop them and didn't really understand why they were taking the slow route - I was like "DRUG ME!" So they opted to out me in the infamous magnesium sulfate, affectionately known as "flu in a bag." When my sister was in pre-term labor a few years ago I witnessed what it did to her so I was pretty aware of what I was in for. The "loading" dose where they load you full of the stuff was pretty miserable. I went from feeling drunk to feeling like I was going to melt from the inside (SO hot!) to promptly throwing up all over the place (many thanks to my fabulous husband Boris for predicting this in advance and locating the barf bags before I actually needed it!)
After a while on the magnesium I started feeling better but the contractions hadn't stopped so I was surprisingly anxious for more drugs. My doctor had been consulting with my perinatologist, and they decided to add indomethacin to the mix.
Fast forward 12 hours and the contractions have slowed down, I'm on an IV, I've had blood drawn multiple times, I am now on about 10 different drugs, and my magnesium level is approaching the highest level that my nurse has ever seen. Needless to say we did not sleep much that first night. I think breakfast arrived right around the time things were slowing down.
Somewhere in the middle of this I realize how amazing my mom and Boris have been, and that this is probably pretty unpleasant for them as well. At one point Boris broke my heart when he said "I just keep thinking this is all just a bad dream and we are going to wake up and be in bed." I had been so focused on my own stress that I hadn't really thought about how hard this must be for him. He had to worry not only about out little ones, but also about his wife being harassed and poked and made to be so sick.
At some point in the middle of the night the results come back from our fetal fibrobectin (ffn) test, which theoretically indicates whether I'm likely to go into labor in the next week. The result was negative (yay!). The doctors and nurses spoiled my fun by reminding me that there is a 10% false negative risk, but it was still good news (although I would argue that labor in a week, at 25 weeks, is still pretty flipping terrible. Admittedly better than 24 weeks though).
By the weekend (4 full days in the hospital) things were starting to normalize. My doctor had seen me every day and things at least were not getting worse. My mom gave me a "Pinecrest shower" (or washed my hair in a bucket on the bed) so I even almost felt human again.
At this point though, the discomfort of being in bed was almost unbearable. It's one thing to be stuck in bed - that I could handle. It's quite another thing to be stuck in a bed with a decline (ie my head is much lower than my feet) and stuck laying on one side or the other. Every time I lay on my back I get a contraction, so that seems to not be a real option. By Monday (nearly a week) I felt like I was laying on two broken hips, but every time I tried to adjust I was punished with a contraction. I figured it was better to be miserable and pregnant than miserable with micro-preemies, so I mostly just toughed it out (although not silently - I bitched a lot!)
On Tuesday we were discharged to my perinatologist so I got to go OUTSIDE! It was awesome (although surprisingly, I was more excited to just see the hallway if the hospital because I had been trying to remember what was out there for the past week). At the perinatologist I got the standard ultrasound to check the fluid of the babies, etc. my doctor and perinatologist were there with the technician to look. Fluid levels looked good, and there was no evidence of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (remember when THAT was my concern?!??). Then the moment of truth, they looked at my pitiful cervix via ultrasound. What we saw was as good as we could have hoped for - while it is still small and I still need to be on bed rest, much of the funneling had disappeared and it looked like it was closing up a bit. The doctors were cautiously thrilled, and while they noted that it could change again tomorrow, this was a great result. The perinatologist is convinced that two of my medications - progesterone and the indomethacin, had decreased the fluid build up and taken pressure off the cervix, allowing it to close back up a bit. It didn't "re-grow" (unclear whether or not that is possible), but the smallest point is now much longer because the funnel isn't there. So we will take it!
I got home later that afternoon. My family had come and set up my new rented hospital bed with much more comfortable mattress pads, so I am much more comfortable now. My brother Jason also stepped up to the plate and agreed to be my caretaker during the week while Boris is at work. He's been great - keeping track of my calories and always asking if I need more food :) we are going to fatten these kiddos up as much as possible in case they arrive early!
So that's my explanation of where I have been all week. Thank you to everyone who has been praying and sending good thoughts. They seem to be working! No doubt I will have more posts about my bed rest hell - hopefully for 12 more weeks!!
Ps sorry for any typos... Had to write all this with one hand on my iPhone!
Sent from my iPhone
Sent from my iPhone
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