The Twin Story (Part 3)

Somewhere in the middle of the night my nurse came in to tell me I had gone from 3 contractions an hour to 6.  I was still not feeling them so there wasn’t too much concern.  However, they started giving me some medication (every 6 hours) to reduce the contractions.

I have to take a short break here for 2 things:

1.  Nurses are amazing.  The amount of work they have is crazy.  The amount of people they are monitoring and keeping safe while doctors float about is incredible.  I believe my story would have been MUCH different if I hadn’t had such amazing nurses.

2. My blood pressure is pretty much always on the lower side.  I’m usually around 90/60 (this will make sense later)

And so for 3 days/nights I just did my thing.  I woke up every 6 hours for blood pressure checks (by the way – I didn’t know why they were doing this), magic contraction prevention pills, and moving the baby monitors so my belly wouldn’t get sore (I had them on at all times).  And since I was being monitored for contractions 24 hours a day I also learned VERY quickly that everything in life causes contractions.

• If I sit up – I had more contractions

• If I laid down my heart burn would pick up and make me cough – coughing caused more contractions

• If I didn’t drink 3-4 ounces of water an hour I wasn’t hydrated enough so – I had more contractions

• Drinking all that water made me have to pee like every 3 hours and when I had a full bladder – I had more contractions

• When I slept – I had more contractions

• When talking to Justin (who makes me laugh) – I had more contractions

So I am apparently REALLY good at having contractions.  But when you are just over 24 weeks pregnant that’s not such a good thing.

So then Monday came along.  I assumed this was the day they’d do another ultrasound and let me know if I could go home.  My doctor had other plans.

She told me they would NOT be doing an ultrasound because it was very likely that my cervix had shortened more because of the number of contractions I was having.  She didn’t want to do an ultrasound and risk irritating my cervix because it could CAUSE MORE CONTRACTIONS.  She told me I would be at the hospital until I delivered.

In my mind I thought… I’m 24 weeks! I’m going to be in here for 12+ weeks?!  Here is where I would freak out.  Here is where my inability to not be in control would cause me insane anxiety.  

However, I had a crazy peace that I know came directly from God in that moment.  A calmness that did NOT come from me in any way.  I felt it and thought, “Why am I not freaking out right now? I should totally be freaking out right now”.

My doctor even seemed confused my calmness  - in the few weeks we had been in this patient/doctor relationship she had seen my desire to be “in control” and want things to go “as planned”.  She asked if I was OK:

In the end, I want these babies to be healthy and if being here is what will do that, then I’m ok with it.

I said it…I thought… “am I ok with this is?”…”I think I am”