So it all started 17 days ago, when I noticed my usual braxton hicks has turned regular and extremely frequent. Timing them, they were every 3 min, for about a minute long. Not painful, just irritating. I thought I'll give it time to either go away or get painful, but alas, it stayed like that for 24hrs. So I went to the labour and delivery ward late the Sunday afternoon where they said baby's still doing beautifully. Heartrate of 12-130, going up to 140-160 with contractions. Contractions were weak though, only around 20%. I wasn't dilating or any other signs or symptoms, so they sent me home with some more meds and told me to contact my dr if it continues. Well, it did so by Tuesday and she doubled all the meds. So day after day after day I would wake up, feel okay with only a few mild contractions. By mid-morning it would start, and by evening it would be regular and sooooo tiring. On Friday night I had the show, and on orders from the dr, went straight back to hospital. I was admitted and monitored through-out the night. The one dr was prepared to do the c-sect, but fortunately phoned my dr who asked her to just sedate me to see if that helps. And it did!!! I slept sooooo well, and woke up with contractions irregular. I've only started to dilate. So I was sent home with antibiotics because they said it was a UTI causing the preterm labour.
On Monday I saw my dr and she said we'll just have to take it day by day. I need to take all the medication on double doses to keep the contractions at bay and hope that baby stays put. Throughout all of this, baby was doing extremely well. Still very, very quiet, like always, but heartrate good, growing well and lungs maturing quite suddenly. At that point, the sonar guesstimated baby's weight at 2.6kg.
The rest of the week went by like the previous week. Constant contractions that turned regular sometime throughout the day but don't really go anywhere. Yesterday I had another checkup and baby is almost 3kg's!! Lungs still need a little bit of maturing to do, so dr has told me to try and hang on. She can take baby out now, and I'll have immediate relief from the contractions and the UTI's and kidney pain, but for baby's sake, she wants to wait just 2 more weeks. Until I'm 38 weeks along. So we wait. My kidneys are struggling, which is causing the UTI's, which is causing the contractions. I'm still taking the double dose pills, which I absolutely HATE. I don't like to take any medication in pregnancy. But if it's a choice of baby going to NICU, or me taking some medication, I guess I don't have a choice really. So ya, here we are. On the eve of being 36 weeks. With contractions as strong as ever, kidneys in agony, and me counting down the days....
The kids can't wait either. They were a little bit thrown when we had to drop them off with friends and family twice so that I could go to hospital. They don't like the unknown. They like routine and to know what will happen when. But they're coping, we all are, and just sooo excited to see and meet baby. And to hear the gender!!
Fortunately, it's school holidays. A 3-week winter holiday. The first week went by in a haze for me, with the every-3-min-contractions all day long, the whole week. It was tough. The kids just went their ways. Playing sooooo well together and entertaining themselves with their lego's, toys, fingerboard, cars, Wii, computer, and on Daddy's iPad of course. There's really no lack of things to do around here. They enjoyed the cool but sunny weather outside with their dog and really made the best of that week. The 2nd week we took them to their grannies to stay over. They had loads of fun with all the extra attention. Granny cooking all their favourite meals, grandpa playing with them and their cousins also visited. I missed them terribly, but used the quiet time to get all the last baby things ready and went for a haircut and some last-minute shopping. And I rested ALOT to give baby a chance. This week we've been to the dr, and visited some friends today (I had a mini-baby shower, was so sweet!), and tomorrow some other friends are visiting us. Boeboe's very best friend that moved away during their grade 1 year. On Thursday we'll just rest. Friday we're going to the movies with my sister and her children, and then we have one last weekend together before school starts again on Monday. Then it's just 1 week left, and baby's coming! That is...if baby doesn't come sooner. :)
So all in all, it's going well with us. Boeboe's still struggling with the nr2's, but that's another post for another time. Mr N went to see his neurologist, and had a clear EEG!!!! We were over the moon! So his meds have been halved for 3 months, and then we stop it for 6 months. We'll have a repeat EEG and if that's clean again, he will be declared epilepsy-free for now. Isn't that fabulous?!?!?! I don't want to get too excited though, because we've been down this road once before, and his EEG wasn't clean twice in a row. But, I can't help but hope!!
Monkeyman is having an absolute blast having his siblings with him 24/7. He really misses them when they're at school. So he has been so easy...always playing with one or both of them all day long, and demanding absolutely nothing from me except the occassional hug, a bit of help putting on his jersey and brushing his teeth, LOL. So easy. He did have accidents twice in the last week since returning from the grannies though, which bothered me and his dad a bit, but for now we'll just pretend it never happened and see how the next few weeks play out.
Boeboe....ag, my sweet sweet wonderful daughter. So stubborn and righteous and fair and demanding. But so so sweet and kind and loving and caring. She's really such a joy to have during holidays. It's so sad to see how the stress of school turns her into this raging little girl, and then during holidays she's so happy and laughing and just carefree. Reading and playing and just enjoying life. No school-stress, no pressure, nothing. Just being a little girl. I love seeing her like this! That's why, for this post, I don't want to talk about the negatives of her life.
And this is her newest joy! Meet Angel, our new baby bunny. :)
