34 Weeks & Growing

Last weekend Justin and I took our last trip to the coast. We went to our favorite breakfast restaurant & spent sometime in the ocean. We ended up watching some dolphins (which I thought were sharks) and then driving home in our soaking wet clothes. The beach will be something we both really miss next summer.

Wednesday morning I had my 34 week check up. I put on the usual 2lbs & had a good blood pressure. While the doctor was measuring my fundal height (33 inches) he noticed I was having a contraction. After discussing the frequency of these, he decided to put me on the monitor to get a better idea of what I was experiencing. 30 minutes later the doctor felt as though the contractions were strong enough and close enough that he wanted me to be observed at the hospital. Over the first few hours I was put on procardia. The contractions subsided for about an hour and then came back. I was then put on a single dosage of magnesium. This medicine has many symptoms. I felt very disoriented, weak and over all exhaustion. Like the procardia, the magnesium had temporary success. Since the contractions were increasing in frequency, the doctor felt he needed to take a strong approach.

I was moved to an observation room (right across the hall) and put on a continuous drip of magnesium for 15 hours. Again, I had the disorientation, weakness & exhaustion feelings. Unfortunately, it did not help me sleep. Justin stayed with me the entire time & sleep on a mini pull out couch. Around midnight they moved us (again) to an inpatient room in the high risk OB unit. We slept about 45 minutes at a time, woke up for routine checks and bathroom breaks.

On Thursday morning my doctor came in to see me. I was still only dilated 1 centimeter and he felt confident that the contractions were slowing down. He spent a few minutes reassuring us that hitting the 34 week marker was big. In the worst case scenario, Alexa would be born early but should only have a few temporary complications, if any. He decided to switch me back to the procardia to see if the contractions would stay low. Over the next 12 hours I started to regain my energy & positive outlook.

Thursday night was made up of fewer bathroom visits and only 4 nurse visits. We sleep 2-3 hours at time and it felt great. Around 2:30am I was put on my left side because the contractions were returning. At 3:30am the doctor was called. My contractions picked up to ever 3-4 minutes. Fortunately I was able to sleep through most of them because they are not painful. The doctor had my procardia administered 30 minutes early, which did not help the contractions. The doctor does not want to put me back on the magnesium, but will also not send me home while the contractions continue at this rate.