dramatic adventures

I'm not really sure if anyone but my old soccer coach is still reading, but I guess I'll keep this up for him (and whoever else might stumble on my site.) :)

The most recent update is that the last few days have sucked. Prior to the sucking, I had a wonderful time visiting my mom, throwing a bridal shower for a family friend, and then getting stuck an extra day in the Tri because the pass was closed. Sadly, I was so exhausted after the shower that we hardly ventured out to see anyone except my grandma.

It all started sucking when I got home. On Tuesday night, I started having weird tightening and pelvic pressure. I was having a lot of cramping too. I blew it off, and thought if it was still happening in the morning that I'd call the doctor. It happened all morning on Wednesday too, so with much urging from my mom and another good friend, I called the triage nurse at my OB's office. She suggested taking a bunch of ibuprofen and calling her in two hours if it didn't get better. Well, it didn't get better, so I called back and she told me to roll into the ER.

The annoying part of this story is that my husband (who is seemingly always home) has been working days this week, like a normal person does. Only he's taking a rope rescue class for work and doesn't have access to his cell phone except for briefly at lunch. So I was wildly sending text messages that he'd receive after I was already at the hospital. Normally, I'd call M's parents next to take me to the ER. However, they just flew to Kwajalein to visit for a month. Thankfully, my friend who lives down the way was free, and took me to the ER in Issaquah.

We got to the ER and they looked a little panicked when I told them the situation, and that I was 20 weeks pregnant with twins. They immediately transferred me up to the OB floor of the hospital for monitoring. Meanwhile, I'm trying not to freak out. Since the age of 18, the ER has been a place of comfort...usually it means that I've gotten so bad that I'm ready for the medical community to intervene in my guts. However, since I'm no longer just dealing with my own life, and don't have any frame of reference about what should hurt, the ER is no longer a simple adventure. At this point, however, I am holding it together. I am assuming that the cramping is just my normal GI stuff, and that perhaps I have a bladder infection or something else easy to fix--just as my nurse at the OB office suggested.

We arrived at 3:30 pm. I was hooked up to some monitors looking at my contractions, and told to pee in a cup. I threw up 4 times during my stay. The nurse was very nice, but weirded me out a little when she was talking about how they have to treat me very "gently" because of my lengthy medical history, and the previa, and the twins. Ugh. I was finally seen by the OB doctor on call at 6:30 pm, who talked to me for a bit, and thought it was best to page the high-risk OB from the office that I'm seen in downtown. Duh. They'd been telling me that they were going to talk with them from the beginning...why had no one called yet? It'd been 3 HOURS. After reaching the high-risk OB, they sent me home with a regimen of ibuprofen and progesterone. They told me to call the high-risk docs first thing the next morning. Yesterday I called and they squeezed me in for another long ultrasound and a short doc visit.

The gist of the visit is that everything is mostly fine. My cervix was closed and long, so even though I'm feeling contractions--they are not causing any problems so far--and the babies are staying in. My placenta previa is not better, but worse--the placenta is covering the cervix completely now. It's the boy that's the problem, just for the record. They'll continue to keep an eye on this, and there is still a chance that it'll resolve on it's own. They think that the pain is my uterus expanding, possibly ripping scar tissue from previous surgeries/peritonitis--and that it's probably irritating my GI system too. awesome. I was also told not to do anything anymore. No heavy housework, no exercising, not even shopping. I'm basically supposed to laze around, eat a lot, watching tv and movies. I guess I'll get that scrapbook done after all--from the couch. I'm allowed to drive myself to the doctor still, so my fun adventures will now be to see the IV therapy team in Issaquah three times a week. They've only put me on restriction until next Wednesday when I have a follow-up appointment. Perhaps they'll lift the "inaction" plan. But, maybe not.

I'm 20 weeks and 2 days now, and I'm back to puking all the time again. I'm keeping some things down at the moment (maybe one meal a day), and the babies are still growing regularly. They're about 13 oz each now and about 10 1/2 inches long head to heel. They also do flips all the time causing trouble for the ultrasound team because they won't hold still for their pictures. I was a little worried because I only feel kicking on one side. The ultrasound revealed that they're facing each other, scheming, and that all 4 of their little feet are lined up right next to each other. The whole time I've been blaming the boy for the kicking, when it was probably both of them all along. We can chalk that up to my first incorrect placement of blame as a parent. I'm sure it won't be my last. :)

In spite of all this, we still think these are miracle babies--and we are so thrilled to welcome them into the family. We're so thankful that God has control of this whole situation and that He's given us a great medical team to take care of us too. We hope and pray that they'll continue to be "knit together in their mother's womb" just as Psalm 139 talks about.

Please pray that:
1. they stay in there until at least 36 weeks.
2. they are healthy.
3. the placenta previa does not rupture and cause other problems.
4. my cervix stays intact.
5. i stop puking.

Lots of hugs to you all.
b