A bump in the road

As many of you already know, we hit a bump in the road on Wednesday. We discovered that our reality is going to be different than we thought for the next days, weeks and months. We had to make adjustments to this news very fast.

Wednesday morning, we went in for our scheduled appointment at HEB with the perinatologist that we have seen about every 3 weeks for a level 2 sonogram. This would be the first appointment where they would actually measure my cervix and start monitoring it for any thinning. Our appointment was at 10:45. We finally went in to see Dr. Payne around 11:15. This was our first time to meet him. The previous two times we had seen Dr. Graham. They rotate every other week at HEB. Anyways, Dr. Payne was great! He was immediately making jokes and very lighthearted about everything. We had our normal sonogram to see how the babies are doing. They are still doing so great! Cooper was head down very low as she has been most of the time. She measured at 1 lb 5 oz. Conley was still up in the "penthouse" with her head on my left and her feet on my right. She is laying across me. She measured 1 lb 9 oz. The doctor was very happy with the girls and he got us some sweet profile pictures of each. I love the profile shots - precious! They look like perfect little girls!

Next, he said he would take a look at my cervix. I was anxious since this would be the first time I'd get any feedback on how my cervix looked, but I wasn't worried since I had never had any signs of early labor with Campbell, and I haven't experienced (at least not that I've noticed) any contractions or any other signs of labor with this pregnancy. Within seconds of looking at the image on the screen, Dr. Payne said, "you are going to be admitted to the hospital today and you are probably not going home until these babies are born." I honestly said to him, "you are joking, right?" He said, "no, I'm serious." I reached for Matt's hand to hold as we listened to the doctor explain what was going on. He said that the nurse was going to get me a wheelchair to take me down the hall to get me checked into a room. A wheelchair, really, is that necessary??? I feel fine! This was crazy to hear! He said that my cervix should be about 3-4 cm thick right now, and it's only 0.6 cm...wow! At this point he said that I would need steroid shots to help get the babies to mature and develop faster to prepare them for pre-term delivery. He gave it to us straight and said that we would be delivering premature, but he's not sure how premature. He said right now the goal is to get them to 28 weeks where survival is drastically improved. Then our goal will be 32 weeks. He said it's really just one day at a time right now. This was a lot to take in, especially since everything had seemed great up until this point.

The nurse took me in the wheelchair down the hall to get checked in. I was told I would be the sixth patient to check in for bed rest with twins. I guess that is a lot for HEB. I waited in a labor and delivery room for about an hour for Dr. Wood. I had to fill out paperwork with the nurse and answer questions just as you would when you check in for labor and delivery...questions like, "do you already have cribs and car seats?" Oh my, talk about going into panic mode! I do realize that at this point, we are not taking home babies anytime soon, and I also realize that Matt could very quickly head up to Babies R Us to pick up the car seats, however, reality really started to hit with a question like that. First and foremost we are scared for the babies and of course will do whatever the doctor says is necessary for their well-being, but then the reality of all the millions of little things that go with our everyday routine started to sink in. What about not being home with Campbell for months? What about work? What about my stuff, I mean I hadn't packed a single thing? I left the house in disarray that morning and had lots of things our social calendar over the next few weeks. It was overwhelming with all the little things that we were faced with in such a short conversation. Dr. Wood came in to see me, and she confirmed that I would NOT be going home. She said IF I made it to 32 weeks without delivering, she would consider bed rest from home at that point, but before that I would definitely be in the hospital. She said, even though the perinatologist recommends putting a stitch in my cervix, she would not put a stitch in beyond 20 weeks because of the risk of rupturing the membrane. So, strict bed rest at the hospital would be the best thing. She told us a doctor will check on me everyday, I would have a non-stress test (NST) every Monday and Friday to make sure I'm not having contractions and that the babies are not under distress, I would have a sonogram with the perinatologist every Wednesday to check the babies and my cervix and I would also be hooked up with a Terbutaline pump in my thigh that would constantly administer meds to help prevent/minimize contractions. This is what I've come to know as the T-Pump. I learned a few hours later after getting settled in my room that this is a pump similar to an IV tube just under the skin that I (yes ME) would learn to setup, refill and change between legs every 5 days. Yikes!! I also would receive 2 steroid shots for the babies within my first 24 hours at the hospital. She said I would be allowed to take a 5 min shower each day, get up only to go the bathroom and be allowed a 30 min wheelchair ride to go outside once a day. Whew, that was a lot to hear!

Well, I did have my few meltdowns within those first couple of hours, but we were able to get settled in our room and welcome visitors shortly after that helped keep spirits high. Wednesday I had Matt, Campbell, my mom, my dad, Tina, Katie, Sara, Jenn and Stacy all visit. I was spoiled with LOTS of great chick flicks, magazines, a treat basket, cookies, and other good stuff. It was so surreal since I still felt completely fine. Here I was in a hospital bed that I would be living in for the next who-knows-how-long with people visiting me and bringing gifts and treats. SO SURREAL! Matt was amazing as usual. He handled everything so calmly and confidently. He immediately wrote a list of whatever I said I needed so that he could go home and pack some bags for me. He really stepped up right away with no hesitation or panic to take on his new responsibilities. I love you Matt! God, thank you for my husband! As overwhelming as this was for me, I know things are going to change for him too. He will have a lot on his plate without me to help with any of it.

I plan to document this journey as best as possible in hopes of sharing with our two healthy baby girls one day the story of this rollercoaster ride that they came into this world on :-) ! Stay tuned!!!