Hospital day 5

Wednesday - I'm Still PREGNANT!! YAY!! Each day that goes by is seriously a miracle! From being transported to one hospital the next, spending 2 nights in labor and delivery next to a baby incubator...to now being stable enough that the word "discharge" is on paper. We have made amazing miracles already!
No contractions since Monday night! How awesome! Today has been calm and quiet. I toured NICU and met some amazing people. Yes....baby girl still has a SUPER HIGH chance of being preemie so we are still in constant contact with all the neonatologist in the hospital. Our 'magic' number is 34....as long as we get to 34 weeks, baby girl won't have to spend 'as much' time in NICU as she would have if born a few days ago. They say "One day longer in the tummy is 3 days LESS in NICU" and the fact that shes a GIRL -- girl preemies ALWAYS do better then boys. Plus, shes had her steroids for her lungs and extra antibiotics to boost her immune. The Mag is also a contributor to her neuro development. We're doing great and staying positive!!! I also heard a rumor.....IF I don't contract at all tonight then tomorrow i'll be discharged!!!!!

Hospital day 4

Tuesday - More great news! Last night, I was moved OUT of labor and deliver and into "Antipartum" -- the floor where other mommies are in my same situation...trying to STAY pregnant. This means I am more stable now and the threat of delivery has drastically lowered. I have a few contractions every now and then but they aren't in patterns...just my uterus settling down. I am told I may be here 'till she delivers OR if things remain stable, I can find myself going home in a few days. I am still on my Mag IV drip but because of its "harshness", I am being taken off it today, and all other drugs. If you are on it too long, it will 'cause heart problems to me and baby. They say if I start contracting again once I'm off this drug, they will have no choice but to deliver me. So lets cross our fingers in hopes the medicine has calmed everything down enough that the contractions don't come back.

Hospital day 3

Monday morning - Good news!! The amnio came back negative so I was not forced to deliver baby girl and was given another chance to stop these contractions and keep her baking. I had an u/s last night to check on her lungs and to see if the steroids were doing their job. She PASSED!! We saw her breathing for 30 seconds straight, twice...which is GREAT!! This Mag IV drug is awful. I feel like absolute crap. I can't walk at all so it takes two people to literally carry me to the bedside potty. I can hardly keep my eyes open long enough to talk to the doctors..or type this. I'm at the highest dose they can give BUT -- as of this morning, my contractions have STOPPED!! The medicine is finally working!! The room is a lot less chaotic then the last two days. Although we are still preparing to deliver her....the chances of 'staying' pregnant are getting higher! Baby Phiona is still doing great on the monitors and is showing no signs of distress or symptoms from these nasty drugs. I've had amazing family and friends here every hour of they day, even with my tears. I miss my baby boy so much. I have never been apart from him more then a few hours. We're going on 3 days now. I'm trying to stay strong for BOTH babies now.....here's to another day!

Hospital Day 2

Its now Sunday afternoon. Here I am at Banner Desert...the best hospital for my baby to be born at. I have had over 5 turb shots and am now on IV Magnesium, a real strong drug to help stop contractions, IV antibiotics to 'ready' my baby for the outside world AND I'm taking pills every few hours to also help stop my contractions......I am still contracting though. I have also had a shot of Betamethasone, a steroid shot to help mature babys lungs. I'll get another one in 24 hours. Baby Phiona is looking great on the monitors, shes not in distress at all thank goodness. I have so many doctors coming in and out of this room that everyone is starting to look the same. I was just 'checked' again for dilation - I'm steady at 4cm but I have a bulging bag now and therefore, will no longer be checked for the protection of my bag - they may accidentally break my water. I now have a high fever so they say I might have an infection in my uterus OR it could be all the meds (4 total now) so they just performed an amniocentesis. I was sooo scared but I actually didn't feel a thing! It was cool to watch the whole thing on the u/s screen while they did it. (yea, I'm weird like that). If the results come back positive for infection, I will be delivering her in the next few hours. If its negative, well then that means no infection and its just the meds 'causing the fever. The Neonatal team just left and gave us a clear visual of what to expect shall I deliver her between now and the next 2 weeks. I'm so scared. It feels like i'm in a dream. I can't believe this is happening. Just a few hours ago, I kissed my son and hubby goodbye and headed to the hospital to 'check' if I was having contractions or not. Thinking I'd just be sent home....I'm now in a whole different hospital then what I started out in and preparing to deliver my baby 9 weeks early. I can't stop crying. My heart hurts. I feel like I'm failing my daughter already. I will give my life at this point to save her.......

Admitted to the hospital

Saturday night around 7pm, I started having some contractions again. Every 8 mins...no big deal. Then every 6... okay, I'm awake now......boom! Every 3 mins now. Alright, headed to the hospital I go! The monitors proved I was right. I was contracting every 2-3 minutes. Three days prior I was about a 1cm dilated. After 2 hours in the hospital and 3 shots of turb (medicine to help stop contractions) I was dilated to a 2 and STILL contracting! Perked everyone up!! I was immediately admitted to the hospital and was told I'd be in over night at least with another turb shot to help stop the contractions. After 2 more hours and another turb shot the contractions continued on. I was then checked again around 6 am. The room got quiet as we waited for the nurse to announce if I was more dilated or 'the same'. She said "I'm so sorry hunny, you are now 4cm dilated" I swear everyone in the room gasped and looked at me. I started crying my eyes out for I was getting prepared to deliver my baby at just 31 weeks along. Things got crazy from here. I had an IV placed in my arm (after, NO JOKE, 6 attempts- they had to get out an U/S machine just to place my IV....sucky veins). My OB came in the room and said "We can't handle a baby this small at this hospital, we're flying you to Banner Desert. They have a level 3 NICU and its the best place for you to deliver". Deliver??? Yes.....I was in labor and they weren't sure they couldn't stop it at this point. Luckily, it was a Sunday morning now, no traffic so they decided a ambo transport would be okay. In 40 mins time, I was introduced to at least 12 nurses, doctors, paramedics - putting IVs in, signing papers, explaining what was going to happen, the possibilities of Phiona having trouble 'making it' etc......I had to have both AirEvac and Southwest Ambo (One helicopter co and one ambulance co) because I am 'two' people, we had to have double the crew in the ambulance just in case I delivered in the ambo.  - I was switch to the ambo gurney and we drove off to the bigger hospital around 7am. MAY I ADD--- I was alone for most of this. Hubby stayed home 'cause our 2 year old was sleeping and I figured I'd "be right back" My BFF came while I was in triage and stayed with me for a few hours. The 'news' of being transported as well as being transported...I did alone. I was soo scared!  My world was spinning like no other!! ---

Crazy-ness

Well, Phiona sure gave us a scare a few nights ago. Long story short I started to have some contractions. They were about 7-8 mins apart and didn't hurt or feel 'real' so I went on with my evening. Within an hour, they become closer and closer together and more and more painful. We hit the 4 hour mark of contractions and they were now just 3-4 minutes apart and painful enough that I'd have to take deep breaths during them. We headed to L&D and was immediately put on the monitors. Sure enough, contractions were now even closer at just 2 mins apart. The nurse checked me and found that I was 1.5 cent dilated and 60-70% effaced. YIKES!! I was given the trib shot to stop my contractions/labor for obviously its way to early for miss princess to make her debut.  As of 3 days prior, I was closed, not dilated at all so those contractions were doing some damage!

I also had an ultrasound scheduled for the day after to check on my current cervix-length situation. We were hoping that it would have 'grown' or perhaps remained the same....buttttt nope. It had shortened over half of what it was 3 weeks prior. My cervix is now right at an inch long. Double Yikes! So now I have a cervix that is less then an inch long, I'm 1.5 cent dilated and almost 70% effaced at just 31 weeks. Shes head down (has been for weeks) and WANTS OUT!! On the other hand, we got to see our sweet princess and watch her practicing her breathing! She also got hiccups and it was so funny to see her 'pop' each 'hiccup'. Her poor little bottom lip would get sucked in with each one. hehee She weighs an estimated 3.7lbs and its right on track! She was snuggled up to my right hip so we only got one pic of her face...looks like shes smiling at us!

So....because Phiona may or may not be making an early appearance, my baby shower has been moved up 2 weeks (to next Friday). I'm hoping to remain pregnant for another 8 weeks....or at least through my baby shower of course. We've been reading up on NICU and preemies and are trying to prepare ourselves JUST.IN.CASE. We have super high hopes that some good 'ol bed rest and TLC will get us through another 6-8 weeks with her baking inside :)

Here are some pics that Mike and I took today while Remington was taking a nap. We make a pretty good team!!