Yesterday we had a great appointment with Dr. Tabor, perhaps the best we’ve had in weeks. This time, all of the babies performed on cue. My vitals were fine, and he said my blood sugar was “perfect”. So, I was sent home for another week of freedom.

As usual, I was totally exhausted when I got home. I tried to take a nap, but never got comfortable enough to rest well. By early evening, I was getting increasingly uncomfortable and had sporadic contractions. As the evening progressed, so did the contractions. They eventually ramped up to a pattern of occurring every 10-15 minutes so we called Dr. Tabor who instructed us to head to labor and delivery. By the time we got to the hospital, contractions were two minutes apart and intense. Once we checked in, I was attached to a Toco monitor to check the contractions and a fetal heart rate monitor for two of the babies’ heartbeats (it was too difficult to get all four so we settled on two at a time). Dr. Tabor ordered for me to increase fluid intake and prescribed Vicodin. At first, I was uncomfortable, but not in pain so I didn’t know why I needed Vicodin. Well, two hours after having contractions every two minutes cleared it up for me. That many contractions becomes painful! The Vicodin literally couldn’t start working fast enough. My nurse, Katie, checked my cervix and it was unchanged, but we were in it for the night.

Lucky George got to sleep on the sofa in jeans with what he called “denim sheets” and “diaper pillows”. My bed was fairly comfortable, but I was hooked up to several monitors, there were lights from the monitors and I could hear everything in the hallway. Needless to say, sleep was somewhat elusive. At 6:00 sharp, Dr. Tabor stopped by to check on me and my cervix. That was a fun wake up call! My cervix was still unchanged so we just had to wait for the fetal fibronectin (ffn) results to find out what would happen next. My ffn was negative meaning labor would not likely occur within the next two weeks so we got to come home. Whew! This is becoming quite the roller coaster!

After spending the night at the hospital, George is now tweaking a few things so it is better next time (we know there will be a next time). He is packing a “go bag” for himself with a toothbrush, pjs, and bedding at the least. Plus, he got the neighbors phone numbers so we can call them to care for the dogs if needed.

This is the computer screen showing my contractions, the hills are contractions and the lines between show one minute intervals. Below is what the Toco monitor looks like from my perspective.

Since we got to stay the night, I was served a delicious hospital breakfast in bed. I bet you wish you had some too. George refused to have any of it and I choked down the toast and hash browns. I have no idea what that bacon looking stuff was.

Hugs,

Amber

29 weeks, 3 days