Hospital bed rest

Well, Thursday, Sept. 13 (27weeks 1day) I went in to have my bi weekly ultrasound to check my cervix and to see how much the boys have grown.  My cervix shortened to 0.76cm (which is very short) and I was admitted to the hospital on bed rest.  They gave me steroid shots (one on Thursday night and one on Friday night) for the boys to help their lungs mature quicker.  I was also put on Magnesium Sulfate to stop my contractions.  The first 4 days were rough, the magnesium sulfate (M.S.) makes you sleepy, messes with your vision and gives you headaches...there are other symptoms but these are the ones I had and they were mild luckily. 

So early Monday morning, my contractions were pretty intense and getting stronger and stronger about 3 minutes apart, they bumped my M.S. dosage up to 3.5grams (usually the highest they go is 3 grams) and put a foley catheter in.  I contracted at that rate for about 4 hours.  I was scared I thought- Why isn't the M.S. working? I don't want them to come yet they are so little. This is it we are having them!  THANK GOD they contractions started to space out around 4:00 am by 8:00am they spaced out to every 8-10 minutes and were less intense.  After that they put the M.S. down to 3 grams and watched me for the rest of the day. Tuesday my OB tried to go to 2.5 grams of M.S. but by the end of the day I was contracting about every 5 minutes so he put it back to 3 grams and I've been there since.  Monday my head/vision was more with it and Tuesday even better  and Wednesday was my best day as far as my vision and head go.  Thursday and Friday I felt more sluggish but my contractions were much quieter, the same with today.  I still have a hard time focusing my eyes most of the time but the contractions are less frequent and less intense.  We still aren't sure which contractions are changing my cervix.  They don't want to check me unless there is reason to, and my next ultrasound is on Thursday so we'll see where things are at then.

This is the hardest thing I've ever had to do.  But I am willing to do whatever it takes to keep these boys safe.  We've worked too hard, and have come too far to give up now!  Our OB reassured us if the boys' come now we will be walking out of here with normal healthy children (unless something crazy happened) so that was nice to hear, however we want them to stay in as long as possible, getting to 29, 30 and 32 weeks would be the best (if not longer). 

I will probably be in the hospital until delivery.  The earliest my OB said he'd let me go home would be 30 weeks or more like 32 weeks, and he said he gave me a 5% chance of leaving here pregnant at 32 weeks to go home.  So most likely I can count on this being my home for quite a while.  I'd rather have me laying here for more weeks with them in me than them laying in isolets for weeks on end.

We are staying strong and know its worth all of our energy and strength, because we have so much love for them.  They are so wanted and so loved.