What an exciting weekend!

We had a very eventful few days, but not in a good way. On Thursday afternoon right after getting out of a meeting, I made one of my many daily visits to the restroom and was dismayed to find that I was spotting. I knew that this was a big deal and not something to take lightly with the previa, so I immediately called my OB and of course had to leave a message for the nurse because my OB had just been called in for a delivery. So, I stewed for a couple minutes, and went back to the bathroom to see how things looked and I was having more spotting, so I called the office again and they told me to go straight to labor & delivery.

I drove myself and Brad met me there about 15 minutes later. In that short 15 minutes, they already me in a gown in bed and hooked up to the monitors. Baby Lauren (yes, we finally officially decided on a name!) sounded fantastic and she definitely is not a big fan of the heartbeat monitor because she was kicking the heck out of it the whole time :)! The contraction monitor unfortunately, showed quite a bit of regular activity which they deemed to be uterine irritability and minor contractions that I couldn't feel coming about every 3-5 minutes. The nurse asked how much I'd drank that day and I realized that I might not have drank as much as I normally do, so they started pushing fluids because dehydration can definitely bring this stuff on. I chugged a couple big jugs of water and it still hadn't worked, so they hooked me up to an IV and gave me half a bag in about 10 minutes and that eventually stopped all activity. They take any contractions very seriously with a previa because that is what causes the significant bleeding. So, they kept me on the IV all night and the OB on call talked to me about the likelihood of bedrest but everyone was comforted that the contractions were stopped with fluid alone.

On Friday morning, the Peri showed up but not my normal one and that is a whole other dramatic story that I'll share later. Anyway, this Peri, Dr. K did my sonogram and Baby looked great and is weighing in at 3 pounds 4 ounces, and my cervix was still long and closed which is a very good sign that my body isn't preparing for labor in the next 2-3 weeks. My previa is still complete though. She did tell me that she would recommend a course of steroid shots to help give Lauren's lungs a boost in case she is born too early, and my OB agreed, so I had my first shot at 12:15 on Friday. Because I needed my second shot 12 hours later, and they wanted to continue to monitor me, I spent a second night in the hospital. Let me tell you, those beds are NOT comfortable! I was sleeping in a labor bed which means that it comes apart for delivery so it has all kinds of crazy parts and lumps. The nurse had told me that if I had to stay longer they would get me a more comfy bed. The first night they gave me an Ambien and that really helped but the second night, no such luck. So, on Saturday morning, I woke up at about 5:30 AM and noticed that my contraction monitor was showing regular minor activity again and the nurse came in soon and we started pushing fluids again but without the IV which again got everything under control.

Fortunately, Dr. P, my OB, decided that it would be ok for me to head home on bedrest which I was so grateful for, so we were released around noon on Friday. It was great to get home and take a shower and just be on our own couch and sleep in our own bed! I was told to be a couch potato for the next 6 weeks and stay off my feet as much as possible but I can of course make my MANY trips to the bathroom, take a shower and fix myself something to eat. I'm not allowed to leave the house except for Dr appts so those will be my "big outings". I also have to continue to really push those fluids. I think this will be a long 6 weeks but I just pray that I make it that long! We're still sticking with the plan to have the amnio on Dec 20 and c-section Dec 21. I'm so glad that this happened after Brad got home because I was so scared that it would happen while he was gone! Poor Brad is going to be one busy bee over these next weeks! He is now in charge of laundry, running errands, cooking, everything! He was working non-stop this weekend, while I just pointed and supervised. He's being great though and of course just wants me and Lauren to be ok!

So, that's the exciting update! I have a sono with my regular Peri tomorrow, and I'm sure we'll get some new pics, so I'll post those later.