Our babies had their first experience with the ER at Kennestone Hospital yesterday. When we got home from the perinatologist on Friday, I took it easy just as instructed and drank lots of fluids. Unfortunately, the cramping got worse throughout the evening, and I wasn't able to fall asleep until almost 5am on Sat. morning. I woke up around 7am and drank 2 big glasses of water, hoping maybe I was just dehydrated. Around 10am, we decided I should call my OB and ask her if I needed to be checked further. She instructed me to go to the Women's Center at the hospital and she would attach me to a monitor to check for contractions. So off we went to the hospital.
After we finally got checked in a little after noon (gotta love the ER experience!), they hooked me up to all kinds of monitors. Two monitors were attached to our babies to monitor their heartbeats and one was attached to me to monitor contractions. The babies were really active, probably because of all the extra attention being paid to them, so we kept having to adjust their monitors every 10 seconds! They also checked my urine sample for infections, etc and did a pelvic exam (ouch!). The monitor showed that I was in fact mildly contracting, which was concerning for the doctor since my cervix was also measuring "soft". They decided to hook me up to an IV and pump me full of hospital grade gatorade and give me a shot every 20 minutes that was basically a muscle relaxer to help stop the contractions. At this point Dan and I were really anxious as our biggest concern was to stop any and all labor because our babies are just too little to be born yet.
Luckily the muscle relaxer shots eventually helped ease the contractions, and our babies were showing no signs of distress. They also determined I had a bladder infection and gave me an IV antibiotic as well as a prescription to take for the next week. The fluids and antibiotics should ease the cramping, but they haven't started working just yet! The doctor decided that due to the nature of my job, which requires lots of walking and driving, that I should stay out of work for the next week and make the couch or bed my new best friend! I will go back to the doctor on Tuesday to be rechecked and to the perinatologist on Friday to make sure my cervix isn't getting any worse and the contractions haven't restarted. My long term work status is still uncertain at this point, but the most important thing is making sure we do everything we can to keep our babies growing for several more weeks.
Dan has been so great at being the domestic house husband and making sure my water glass is never empty! He is heartbroken about having to travel this week for work, but he has made sure all the laundry is done and dinners are made for me for the week so I won't have to do too much standing over the next several days. I am lucky to have such a wonderful husband! Hopefully we'll get positive news from the doctor on Tuesday. For now, back to bed!
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