I started having contractions about every 3 minutes, and then they started to hurt. Not a lot, but enough that I didn't want to talk while I was having one. I took some Terbutaline which slowed them, but didn't stop them. Realizing this could be true labor, I called our MFM's number which automatically transfers to the answering service on the weekend. Usually. I tried it no less than 10 times and it disconnected me each time. I gave up and tried calling our hospital directly, and was also disconnected! Eventually we found a number that was not in their main network and someone transferred us to Labor and Delivery. After about 45 minutes of trying! Of course, they said to come in, but I had hoped to talk to Dr. P first.
When we arrived, they hooked me up to the monitor and only saw about 8 contractions and hour, and the babies looked wonderful! They were having good accelerations and great baseline heart rates. After the oral terb started to wear off, the contractions picked up again, this time more painful and longer. My awesome nurse checked my cervix and announced I was dilated to 2.5 cm and about 80% effaced. Not a huge deal, since I have had a child before, but we wanted to make sure it stayed that way. The nurse went off to call Dr. P and said, "Do you want to have them now? Sometimes doctors just decide your "done" and deliver." After we picked our jaws up off of the floor, we said, "We want to get to 34 weeks, and we are sure Dr. P will too."
When Dr. P came in she asked why we didn't call her and I explained the answering service didn't ANSWER! The nurse told us the entire hospital's switchboard had been down and that affected the service. Dr. P was a bit horrified and said, "Yikes! I hope it was not down too long..."
She agreed with us, of course, that she wanted to try to get to 34 weeks, and I received a shot of Terbutaline which stopped the contractions right away. They kept me overnight to make sure the contractions stayed away after the Terb wore off, which they did, and monitored the babies again in the morning. Dr. P used words I have not heard spoken by her: "gorgeous monitoring session for the babies" and "they look beautiful!" were phrases that set my mind at ease.
We left the hospital, happily, the next afternoon and I will go back tomorrow for a quickie ultrasound and NST. Then back for my LAST appointment on Friday and then three short days later, my sons will be born! There are just about seven days remaining until the big C-section. What's that? You want to know how many hours? Okay, 166 hours and two minutes. And you can figure we sleep 8 hours per day, so that is about 110 waking hours left!
So I am alternating between states of excitement, overwhelming gratitude, fear and organization. Really, you should see the closets around here. Tidy and labeled! In fact, I have been labeling everything. EVERYTHING. My daughter's toy bins, the boys' drawers, art supplies. (I am aware of the psychological implications here and that by creating order in my drawers and closets, I feel some control over the outcome of this pregnancy, but ANYWAY...)
Cases in point:
I become very annoyed when I cannot get things into a label-able category, as is often the case with my techie husband's gadgets, cords, chargers and nameless pieces of electronics. In this case I found something that fit:
Seriously, I should be a professional organizer, but I am willing to admit that I am only this good when pregnant.
