First Week in Hospital

We checked into the hospital (UW medical clinic) on November 11th. They immediately took us to a Labor and Delivery room for further ultrasounds and cervix checks.  The babies both looked good on their ultrasound and non stress test and my cervix had not changed from earlier that day so they felt that I was stable enough to move out of a delivery room to an antepartum room. We were very excited to hear this because at that point, they did not think I would go into labor right away.  They got me moved to an antepartum room,  Dillon got me all situated, and then he headed home so he could go back to work on Tuesday.

I was able to get some sleep that night and then my mom came down Tuesday morning to spend the rest of the week with me.  They took me for another ultrasound and cervix check that afternoon and determined that my cervix had now shortened to 0.4 cm.  Things got pretty scary after that.  Even though I was not having many contractions, they were concerned that I might go into labor within the next week or two so they wanted to get the first set of steroid shots in me to help develop the babies lungs should they come early.  I got back to my room and had a lot of nurses and doctors in there.  The nurses were busy getting my IV in to issue the magnesium sulfate.  The magnesium sulfate is used to help control contractions and also help prevent brain bleeds in the babies.  They got my IV in and started the magnesium and then gave me my first steroid shot.  I had been getting progesterone shots weekly so I was used to shots, but this one was definitely a lot more painful!  Once all that was taken care of, the doctors needed to go over a birth plan with me and needed me to sign C-section consent forms just in case I went in labor and they did not have time for me to sign.  The babies needed to be on monitors while I was getting the magnesium so the next day and a half  was very uncomfortable.  Wednesday afternoon the doctors came back to check on me and they felt that both the babies and myself were tolerating the magnesium very well so i was able to come off the monitoring. I was then given my second steroid shot and was able to get a good night sleep.  From there on things started to get a little quieter and I was able to get a little more settled in and into a routine.