Another eventful day

Too much excitement today for my liking. I had an OB appointment in the morning. I am measuring...are you ready for it?? I'm measuring in at exactly 40 weeks!! No wonder I feel huge and can't breathe! And I have gained just shy of 31 pounds. I have been drinking a ton of Ensure and Carnation Instant Breakfast to try to gain weight. It's just been such a struggle to actually put weight on. I'm still shooting for a total of 40 pounds.

The ultrasound she did in the office showed that both babies were practicing their breathing! I could see their little chests and bellies rising and falling. It was so amazing. Baby A has dropped further into the birth canal, so Dr. L wanted to hook me up to the monitors to see if I was having more contractions that were pushing that baby down.

And sure enough, I was contracting every 5 minutes. I was only feeling about every third. So again, I was sent to Labor and Delivery. I knew my luck had to run out sometime, right? Oh yeah, "A" also gave us a little scare while in the office because all of a sudden the heart rate dropped to the 30's-40's. It is supposed to stay above 120. After a few minutes, we figured out that the monitor got confused and was picking up the baby's hiccups instead of the heartbeat!! Whew!

Anyway, on my way to L&D, I made a short stop (via wheelchair) on 7th floor to say 'hi' to all of my 7th floor ladies! It was so great to see so many familiar faces. HI GIRLS!!

Once in L&D, I was hooked up to the monitors again. They ran 2 liters of fluid through as quickly as possible. And I was given 2 shots of terbutaline (the same med I was taking at home every 4 hours). All of that did little to decrease the contractions. So they tried a different med...nifedipine. An hour later, that seemed to be working and they sent me home.

I'm now taking the nifedipine every 4 hours around the clock and they stopped the terbutaline. In just 4 days (Saturday), they will no longer attempt to stop labor. I will still stay on my home meds, but they won't try other meds in the hospital. Hard to believe, isn't it?? Any day now.

Oh yes, and for those of you who have asked whether I (or Dr. L) really think I am going to make it to 38 weeks to be induced...the answer is no (at least that's my opinion). I think she was just giving me that date to humor me! I have gotten so uncomfortable so fast that I think she wanted to assure me that it will all eventually end. Seems like we've been saying "any day now" for the past 7 weeks that it kind of felt as though "any day now" would never actually arrive!! So yes, I am assuming the talk of induction at 38 weeks was just to humor me. Regardless, 32 days or less!