My new life

I know it's been a very long time since I'm posted anything on here. This is a very long post and I'm sorry but so much as happened in the last few weeks!

It all started on Thursday July 15th, ok well really the afternoon before, when I started having some cramping. I really played it off as normal pregnancy aches and pains. I had worked as an MA that afternoon during a busy clinic and didn't really get a chance to sit down at all, so I thought I had just over done it. The pain and discomfort continued throughout the night so I decided I would call the doctor first thing that morning. Keep in mind we had just been to the doctor for our 20 week appt. on Tuesday and everything was fine. So I called the doctor Thursday morning and of course it happens to be the day when my doctor is off. So I talked to nurse, who talked to the on-call doctor and they informed me of the office protocol. If after the 20 week mark a patient is having cramping and doctor is not in, they want you to go across the street to the hospital to have Labor and Delivery monitor you to find out what's wrong. So they told me to go and get hooked up to monitors to find out what's going on. After spending 7 hours in the triage section of Labor and Delivery it was determined that I was having some contractions, but no dilating and no change in the cervix. They suspected that I will probably always have contractions because there isn't a lot of room inside my stomach for the boys and it puts a lot of strain on uterus. They gave me some restrictions about being on my feet, lifting heaving items, vacuuming, cleaning, stay hydrated and try to be as tress free as possible. I spent the rest of the weekend with my feet up and really felt great.

Fast forward 2 weeks........ I had been following my new restrictions pretty well, but I was really starting to not feel that great. I felt like I had that little stomach bug that was going around. My stomach just didn't feel right and I could feel the boys ball up really tight in my stomach and then relax again. It felt like a charlie horse in my stomach all the time, but not really painful. I finally called the doctor on Thursday just to let them know how I was feeling. The nurse was able to get me an appt on the next day at 11:30 just to make sure everything was fine. I really didn't think much of it and was fully expecting them to probably start limiting my work hours or up my restrictions.

Friday July 30th........ I'm working as an MA at the Round Rock office that day and pull into the office at 8:00am. Right as I pull in I get a call from my doctors office saying she has a c-section scheduled at noon and they want to move all of her patients up, so they want to know when I can come in. I picked 11:30 because our last patient would be checked in by then and I could sneak out a little early for lunch and run next door to the doctors office. I ran in the office and by chance, our first patient had just rescheduled so I could be seen right now. The office said great and I told them I'd be right over. I told the ladies I worked with I'd be right back, I was running next door to the doctor. I fully expected to be back in 20 mins. ready to work.

The doctor comes in (Dr. I.) and she has me tell her wants been going on. She decides that she's going to have a test run to determine the likely hood that I'll go into labor in the next 2 weeks. All we needed to do was to get a sample of ... and I would run it across the street to the hospital lab. The office would have the results back in a few hours and we'd go from there. She does a quick exam and informs me that I'm actually dilated to 3cm. My immediate reaction is to start crying because I know I'm only at 23 weeks. The dr. holds my hands and tells me how serious this is and that she wants me to go across the street to the hospital and they will transfer me to St. Davids downtown. Then she said a little prayer with me, which was really touching. I quickly get dressed and they have a wheel chair waiting to take me over to the hospital. I can hear her on the phone making all these phones calls to get things rolling. The whole time I'm trying to get my head wrapped around what's going on and still crying. As we're walking across the street I remember to call the office and let them know what's going on and that I'm not coming in. I try to compose myself enough to call Chris and let me know he needs to come up asap. But as soon as he answers the phone I lose it all over again. Luckily he understood what I was trying to say and he was on his way. I forgot to mention that in a few hours my Dad is scheduled to have a heart cath. done at the same hospital. So both my parents are at home preparing to have this stressful procedure done.

We get inside the hospital and I expected to be wheeled into the triage area again, but we went right into a Labor and Delivery room. Waiting in the room was 4 nurses armed with various needles and tubes and monitors. They had my change really quick and began hooking my up to everything. They started an IV, drew numerous samples of blood from my other arm, started a catheter, took samples of my cervical fluid, hooked up monitors on my stomach to track the babies heart beats and contractions and my blood pressure. They quickly noticed that I was having a lot of contractions but I still couldn't really feel them. Chris was there within 10 mins and when he walked in and I started crying all over again. We just held each other for a few minutes and cried together. I was so glad he was there! The Dr. came in shortly after and she said an ambulance would be here shortly to take me downtown. They were going to go ahead and start a heavy dose of meds to stop things from progressing any further. At this point in time I still didn't comprehend the severity of the situation. They started the magnesium, which they warned me was some of the worst medicine they have to give to patients because it makes you really sick and feel like you're on fire from the inside out. They also gave me a shot of steroids right in the booty and that really hurt for hours afterwards. The magnesium was already starting to make me sick so they also gave me some anti-nausea meds and those seemed to really help. The Dr. came back in and said there was a change of plans and they were going to have Life Flight take me downtown and not wait for an ambulance and the helicopter would be there in 20 mins. It wasn't until then that I started to really understand just how severe this situation was.

Chris had called my parents right after he got there to let them know what was going on. They arrived right before the helicopter crew. They came in and quickly moved me onto the stretcher and got me ready for transport. Things get kinda blurry from all the meds but I remember saying bye to everyone and telling Chris to make sure he gets pictures of me flying away in my first helicopter ride. I remember being wheeled through the hospital and going out to the helicopter and thinking how surreal this whole thing was. The helicopter was surprisingly small inside and there was no room to move around. To bad I was strapped down the whole time, I would have to like to look out the window. All in all, I was only at Round Rock hospital for about an 1 hour. They were really worried I would delivery the babies there and they NICU at the at hospital is not equipped to handle babies this premature.

We landed at St. Davids after a 15 min. ride and I was taken directly into a labor and delivery room. I was greeted again with 3 more nurses who were armed with more meds. In addition to the magnesium and the IV fluids, they started me on a heavy dose of penicillin (I later learned that was to protect the babies in case they were born in the next 24 hours.) They also hooked me up to blood pressure monitors, pulse and oxygen monitor, the baby and contraction monitors and these huge cuffs that covered my entire lower leg that pulsed every 10 seconds to make sure I didn't get blood clots. I really felt like I couldn't move with all this stuff hooked up to me. The next 24 hours were kind of a blur for me, but I had some serious side effects from the magnesium. I developed pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs) and that combined with my pulmonary stenosis can be deadly. I remember several times not being able to breathe, so they had me on heavy doses of oxygen. My oxygen and blood pressure levels dipped dangerously low on several occasions. There was a point when they had to stop the magnesium so my body could recover a little bit. I had terrible migraines for 5 days and lived with an ice pack over my head and eyes. I was also battling dehydration so there were pumping in huge amounts of sugar water to help combat that. I was even having crazy dreams and hallucinations with the meds they were giving me to sleep and for pain. I know the neonatologist came and talked to us about what to expect if the babies came this early. He told us we needed to discuss what we wanted them to do if they did come. They only had a 40-50%chance of survival and most are born with severe handicaps. That was a very hard discussion, talking about whether or not you want the doctors to try and save your babies or let them die peacefully in your arms. Thankfully we didn't have to live that nightmare!!

On Sunday morning the bishop came and gave me a blessing. It was a wonderful blessing that didn't say what was going to happen but did reiterate that God was here and he knows what's going on and he's with us watching over us. The bishop had sent out an email to ward on Saturday about what was going on and asked for a ward fast on Sunday. I have to say that those really truly work. I've never in my life ever felt the spirit so much and felt so calm that day! I could really feel the prayers and fasting from everyone and it was so comforting to know so many people were thinking about us. The spirit was so strong in my room for those crucial days. Mom even brought the Tabernacle choir cds and we listened to those non-stop for days. We were so calm and comforted during a time of total chaos. I can't express my gratitude those of you that have been fasting and praying for us. THANK YOU!

Over the 24-48 hours, they slowly weaned me off most all the meds. I was finally able to get up and use the restroom since removed the catheter. I'll never take that for granted again! Our next big step was being moved out of labor and delivery and into long term care were I will stay until I have the babies. Hopefully for a few months!

On Tuesday we finally got a room and I was moved into a new world. I'm on strict bed rest with bathroom privileges; meaning I have to lay down all the time but I can get up for very short periods of time to use the restroom. I can only shower a few times a week and they mush be short showers. There is no sitting up in a chair and no leaving the room. I have to have things low key and non-stressful. The contractions seem to pick up with a lot of activity. Luckily I have a wall of windows that looks out into a beautiful court yard, so I do have something nice to look at and I can see the outside world. My parents brought up a small fridge so I can keep some snacks in it. My mom and sister have been wonderful and bring up things to help make this small room feel more like home. The hospital encourages you to bring what ever you need to make you feel comfortable. The good thing is that I get cable tv again! I also couldn't have a picked a better month to be here. While everyone else is suffering in this 100 degree heat, I get to lay here in a nicely cooled room that's kept at 67 degrees and I didn't have to pay for the electric bill!! I get 3 meals brought to me each day, that I get to eat in bed and I get snacks. I have all the jello I can eat! This does have it's perks.

It's taken these last 2 weeks for all the effects of the medicine to finally get out of my system and I'm finally feeling better. Hopefully this week I'll feel up to having some visits come by. I'm not hooked up to anything, so that's a real nice change of pace. The nurses come by every 8 hours and take my vitals, listen to the babies heart beats and give me my meds. Every 3 days that lab comes by and takes a new vial of blood so they always have a fresh sample on hand. The labor and delivery nurses come by every Tuesday and Friday and they hook me back up to the monitors to track the babies heart rates and my contractions. The doctor comes by every day to find out how things are doing and to answer any questions. The perinatologist will come around every 3-4 weeks to do an ultrasound to check their growth. (Which they did last week and both boys are measuring big and are in the 88 percentile!) I have a dietician that monitors what I eat and makes sure I'm getting enough good food. Luckily they don't care if you bring in outside food. It's definitely been a rough adjustment and some days are better then others. It's really hard to lay down all day long for weeks on end! It's also hard not to be at home with Chris and our dogs. Chris tries to sleep up here as much as he can, but unfortunately the real world keeps going and he still has to work and take care of things. I do miss him and my family. My Mom has been amazing and has been working from her lap top in the afternoons so she can help take care of me. I'm so blessed to have to have people put their lives on hold to be with me! It's really hard to be so far away from everyone and everything that's going on. But I just have to remind myself this is for the babies. Each day we can keep them in my belly is 2 less days of them being in the NICU and is reducing their risk of having complications.

Now that our dear friend is letting me use their computer, I'll get to update this a lot more often and keep everyone up to speed on things.