My home away from home...the hospital

Our Thanksgiving went great and we were having a wonderful weekend until Saturday night. I wasn't feeling very well; my belly was very tight and I was having shooting pains in my back. We called the doctor and she advised us to come in just to check things out. So, we headed to the hospital at 10:30 pm and when we got there, they hooked me up to monitors to check the babies heart rates and to check for contractions. The monitoring process was very difficult to accomplish because the babies are still so small, they can still move around a lot. The goal is to monitor them all simultaneously for 20 minutes, which is virtually impossible. After they got all the monitors in place, we saw that the babies looked fine but I was definitely having contractions every 3-5 minutes! They told me I had to stay the night for monitoring, gave me procardia to help control the contractions and ambien to help me sleep as well as relax my uterus. And man was the ambien great! It was so nice to be relaxed enough to sleep deeply for a change.

The next morning, we were moved from labor and delivery to the anti-partum area. My contractions had gone from every 3-5 minutes to about every 8 minutes. My doctors were glad to see the medicine working, but wanted to see the contractions further apart, so in the early afternoon, we were told we would be staying a second night. Throughout the day Sunday, my contractions got much better, only coming every 20, 30 minutes...and occasionally an hour or more apart. Later that afternoon, I was wheeled over to Koster's office for a sonogram and cervical check. Everything looked great, so we were told that if everything continued to go well with the contractions for the duration of the day and night, we would go home on Monday on complete bedrest.

We had several visitors that day...Craig's parents stopped by, my mom came by and my brother and his wife came by. It was so nice to have visitors; it doesn't take long to start feeling like you are in a prison in the hospital.

Monday, they did more monitoring and Nivens came by to talk to me; the babies were still doing great as well as my contractions, so I was discharged around noon that day. My doctors now want to see me twice a week, once to Koster and once to Nivens office. I can't drive anymore, so we will have to line people up to help us get me to all these doctor's appointments. Now, I am home on complete bedrest. About the only thing I can do is take a shower and get up for bathroom breaks.

Ever since we got home, Craig has been working like crazy researching which laptop would be best for our needs. He found one and has been working on getting everything set up so I could have something to help maintain my sanity and to keep me connected to the outside world. It has been very busy for him these past 5 days taking care of me. He goes back to work tomorrow (Thursday) and I am sure he is ready to get back to work to get a break...a much needed break.

The whole experience was very scary. I freaked out a little when they told me I was having so many contractions even though I was prepared for this and knew it was very normal with a triplet pregnancy. Being in the hospital wasn't fun, but in a way, I am glad it happened because by watching the monitors and seeing when I was having a contraction, helped me have a better understanding of what a contraction feels like. These are pre-term contractions, so they are not painful and very difficult to detect. Being in the hospital also helped give me peace of mind regarding the whole hospital experience. I have been very worried about being in the hospital, having the c-section etc, but now I have a better understanding of what kind of care I will be getting and it helped me tremendously.

Thank you to all of you who called and came by and thank you for offering to help with chores, running errands and providing meals during this time. We appreciate your help and prayers!