Bedrest

It appears we might have blamed the wrong culprit for the contractions on Saturday. Trudging through the snow probably exasperated things, but after my ultrasound with the perinatologist yesterday morning, the cause of the contractions has become more clear. My AFI (amniotic fluid index) was up to 35 (it was 30 last week and anything above 20-25 is considered high). After the ultrasound, she connected me up to a monitor and found my contractions consistent at every 3 minutes. "I know you don't want to hear this, Jennie, but we need to check you in down the hall." (L&D - Labor & Delivery). Great. I got a shot of betamethasone to help mature baby's lungs (and another shot today) and they tried the Terbutaline shot again. This time it only worked for 30 minutes. After taking procardia and then upping the dose of that and still not seeing much of a reduction in contractions, my ob informed me he was keeping me there for the night.



So, after a night in L&D (trust me... those beds are meant for activities other than sleeping), I'm finally home with a prescription for Procardia and orders for bedrest. We now have to decide whether to do an amnio reduction on Monday to reduce the amount of fluid in my uterus. That could help in eliminating the contractions. But the risk is that it might break my water and cause me to go into labor. I'd really like to see if these meds will help with the contractions long enough to keep us from making that decision too early.



At least I'm home. Hospital bedrest stinks. I hate that I can't pick up Nathan, but if he'll climb up into my lap, at least we can snuggle. Mark will be home from Chicago late tomorrow night. We're blessed that by God's grace, my mom is here this week. After Mark returns, we'll start making plans for Nathan for next week.

Please continue to pray for a 2008 baby for us (2007 would be scary), preferably mid- to late-January. Thanks!