The Middle Chapters

Well, she's still inside. After working from home Friday in bed, I started having regular contractions early Saturday morning, which led to a hospital visit which led to another shot of Terbutaline and a higher dose of Nifedipine. (The contractions were 4-6 minutes apart at the hospital and my cervix was "thinning.") No contractions until Saturday evening, but they weren't regular. Sunday we had an all day birthing class which I attended fully reclined in a recliner. Contracted every 10 minutes or so then went back to the hospital and got another shot of Terbutaline and they added oral Terbutaline to the Nifedipine. No contractions! (Well a few before my first oral dose, but none now.)

The goal is to get me to 36 weeks. As explained by one of the doctors, most babies born at 36 weeks go home with their parents. Most babies born at 34 do not. Counting from my original due date of 2/14 (like they seem to do some of the time), tomorrow I'll be 35 weeks.

I'm glad we had a chance to get to the birthing class. With all the early contractions and bed rest, I put it off until all of the December classes were filled. I really didn't think there would be a problem scheduling it for now, but with my history with this pregnancy, you never know. It was a lot less breathing than I thought and more videos on birth, relaxation techniques, drug options and C-sections. We got to see people going through the various things which was a touch scary, but mostly just helpful. Other than the women having C-sections, the births didn't seem so hospital/surgical as I thought they would. There was a high emphasis on using various positions to move the labor along (and a high emphasis on getting out of bed to do so.) We learned that every birthing suite in our hospital has a jaccuzzi tub and that birthing balls are available at request. All the nurses that we've met in our now 4 visits to labor and delivery triage have been kind and helpful.

We don't have a strong birthing plan. My thought was just whatever gets us a healthy baby. The instructor said that epideral rates in the US are 85-90%. I had no idea they were so high. The hours involved in each phase of labor were a bit intimidating, but seeing that I've already been through something like 18 hours of the early stages of labor, that part at least doesn't seem so bad (of course I haven't dilated yet, so we'll see what that part's about sometime soon).

It's going to be strange to have this baby when the focus over the past almost three years has been to keep one in. I understand that if these drugs don't work to stop the contractions, they may up my Terbutaline, but won't go so far as to admit me to the hospital for IV drugs. We're just too close for that. Based on her ultrasound measurements of 3 lbs. 13 oz. at 30 weeks, she should be well over 5 lbs. by now. But that doesn't tell us about her lungs. With DH's bad asthma and allergies, she needs all the good lung karma she can get. Well, its an adventure.