Hospital Visit #1

Well, after a surprise 4 and a half day stay in the hospital, I am back at home and still pregnant, which is a huge blessing! I have been contracting since 16 weeks, but on Monday night, something was different. The contractions were much more painful and much closer together. Seth and I were watching movies, so I tried to stay distracted and ignore it. We finally went to sleep, and I slept okay. The next morning, though, the contractions were right back where they had been the night before. I had Seth email our doctor from work, completely expecting him to say that I would be okay until my appointment on Thursday morning. Instead, Seth called me 10 minutes later and said he was on his way home to take me to the hospital. For most of the next two days, I was sedated to try to stop the contractions. As soon as the medicine wore off, the contractions picked right back up. I clearly couldn't go home on those types of meds, and I couldn't be on them for very long without all three of us becoming addicted. After 3 rounds with no luck, the doctors switched their approach. Instead of trying to stop the contractions, which clearly wasn't going to happen, they decided to try to slow down the extreme ones. They put me on Procardia and that seemed to help some. Thankfully, throughout all of this, I never went into labor. They did have us meet with the neonatologists and tour the NICU because they wanted us to be as prepared as possible in case I did go into labor. That was some scary stuff, but it actually helped me to see what we might be dealing with if they come this early. Again, thankfully, this morning I still had not progressed, so my doctor decided it might be best to send me home for a few days so I could rest in my environment. I was on the antepartum wing, which means everyone there is pregnant and most are on hospital bed rest for several weeks. He told me that I need to mentally prepare for the fact that I could very well spend much of the rest of my pregnancy there but that he thought it might do me good to go home for as long as I can. So thankfully I will get to sleep in my own bed with my hubby tonight. Here's a 23 week {extremely scary looking} picture of us. No one looks good in that hospital light (at least I keep telling myself that).

Throughout all of this, I have realized how blessed I really am to have so many amazing people in my life. Our friends and family have reached out and been more supportive than I could ever imagine. Thank you for all of the calls, texts, messages, visits, thoughts, and prayers! Seth and I know that God has big plans for these babies, and we appreciate your love and support more than you know!