Ann-Marie woke up early on Friday, Sep 18th with intense back pain. By 11 a.m. Ann-Marie started having contractions. At 1 p.m. we went into Dr. Lamoreaux's office and she started having contractions every three minutes and the Doctor told her to go directly to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. Dr. Thorpe became our OBGYN at this hospital.
To try and stop the contractions the nurse gave Ann-Marie nifedipine. This unfortunately did not work and the contraction pains were so intense that the nurse gave her a shot of morphine. Then the doctor went to the second line of defense to stop the contractions by having the anesthesiologist insert an IV and start magnesium sulfate. With the IV the doctor told us we would spend the night in the hospital. Contractions were coming about every 2 minutes at this point.
The doctors and nurses then felt like they needed to prepare for the possibility of the babies being delivered since her uterus showed such resistance to the medication. The nurse gave Ann-Marie a shot of steroids that are designed to strengthen the babies' lungs and a shot of antibiotics for the babies.
Around 10 p.m. we had an unexpected but welcome visit from Dr. Lamoreaux. He comforted Ann-Marie letting her know that she has done amazingly well this pregnancy and that the fact she went 28 weeks without any contractions was above and beyond what he thought would happen. He said that now that she's in the hospital she need just focus one day at a time and reminded us that every day in the womb is worth 3-days in the NICU.
Through the night Ann-Marie needed another shot of morphine and about 12 pillows to try and get comfortable. Sleeping proved to be difficult as she had four monitors on her stomach, one for each baby and a fourth to measure the contractions which slowed to about every four minutes. When Ann-Marie needed to move, the babies also moved, which meant the nurse had to come in and adjust the monitors which kept her awake even longer. Twice the nurse had to bring in the ultra sound machine to find where each heartbeat was so as to know where to put the monitors.
By 3:30 a.m. the contractions had slowed to every 5 to 8 minutes. By 5:30 a.m. the contractions had slowed to about every 8 to 10 minutes.
Again we thank all of you for your many prayers. We are so grateful for them and we are so hopeful that the babies can stay inside Ann-Marie. The doctors don't really think it's realistic, but we are still hopeful she can reach 35 weeks before she delivers. That of course means 6 more weeks for Ann-Marie to be in the hospital.
Ann-Marie, you are amazing! I'm praying that the rest of your hospital stay will be more comfortable than last night's experience, that the food will be delicious, and that you won't go crazy just sitting there. I love you!
ReplyDeleteTammy