Bumpity Bump Bump

Well, at about 6pm today (exactly 30 weeks) I started having a fair amount of bleeding, so we headed immediately to the base hospital to get checked out.  They could not determine the cause of the bleeding, and were displeased enough with what they saw, that they transferred us to Miami Valley Hospital downtown.  We've been admitted to the PICU and are being monitored/treated for preterm labor.  They seem very happy with how miss Abby is doing, but less happy with the number of contractions I'm having after being on magnesium for a couple hours.  It's still too early to tell for sure, but the doctor seems to think our little bird may be making an early appearance. If you could keep us in your prayers, we'd really appreciate it.

Update June 3 (8:30am): Abby's heart rate is looking good, the bleeding seems to be letting up, and my contractions went from every 2-3 minutes to every 20 overnight.  I've had some weakness/nausea this morning and my blood pressure is pretty low, but otherwise we're hanging in there.  They're going to get us in for an ultrasound sometime today, but it looks like we'll at least be here the rest of the week.

Update June 3 (11:15am): Got in for our ultrasound, but they were unable to determine a cause for the bleeding/contractions, but explained that ultrasound is not a great method for identifying possible placenta issues.  Found a possible anomaly with Abby's heart, but don't think it's cause for concern.  I've been a little dizzy/woozy today and had some nausea problems this morning, but am hanging in there.

Update June 3 (2:30pm): As the bleeding and contractions have essentially stopped, and there's been no cervical progress, it looks as though they will be taking me off of the magnesium tonight after our 2nd dose of steroids (to jump start Abby's brain and lung development if she does come early).   The magnesium has made me really dizzy and hot, so I'm looking forward to possibly being off of it!. They've also let me start eating a clear diet, yay Popsicles!  They told us that we'd need to stay here for 72 hours after the bleeding stopped - I'm not sure when the countdown started, but we'll be here most of the week.

       Other related but sort of unrelated news: Jameson has been talking to our MFM at Wright-Patt through all of this and it looks like I passed my 3-hour glucose test, so I don't have gestational diabetes, yay! We heard the results of the fetal MRI and they point heavily toward Abby having a syndrome paired with her craniosynostosis. We still won't know which until after she's born, but it's something we can at least try to prepare for.  Based on this information, I now know that I will be delivering here at Miami Valley as opposed to the base when the time comes.

        Thank you all for your love and prayers, we appreciate it so so much.

Update June 4 (9:15am) After taking me off the magnesium last night, I was moved from the PICU to the normal maternity wing for the evening, in hopes that I would be there for the remainder of our stay.  It was nice to take a shower and sleep without being hooked up to anything.  This morning the contractions started back up again though, so it's back to the PICU we go.  They aren't painful, but were happening every 3-5 minutes.  They've started me back on the magnesium to slow them down.  We should be going down for a fetal echo at some point today to check out Abby's heart in more detail.

Update June 4 (2:00pm) Contractions have subsided, so they've taken me back off of the magnesium and are letting me eat normal food.  The pediatric cardiologist and sonographer came by to do a fetal echo, but seemed to think that if there were any anomalies present, they shouldn't interfere with Abby's heart function. They mostly seemed so excited by the clarity of the images they could get on their fancy new machine, that I was having trouble following what was actually going on with our child.  Sounds as though they will want to recheck her heart post-delivery, but for now things look ok.  I'm still having some occasional bleeding, but nothing like what was happening when we came in Monday night.  Thank you all for your continued prayers!

Update June 5 (10:30am) Things have calmed down for the most part.  The doctors seem to think that since the bleeding is minimal, and certainly not at a level that would be precarious for me or Abby, that we may be able to go home in the next few days, but they're being cautious.  The contractions I've had did not progress labor in any way, which is also promising.  My mom came up to help take care of the three of us, and I've been out of the PICU since yesterday afternoon - hopefully the excitement has passed.

Update June 6 (7:30am) No new excitement, so it looks like they're going to let us go home today!  They are no longer worried about labor progressing and I'll just have to take it easy to keep any residual bleeding down.   Thank you again for all of the thoughts and prayers, we are so appreciative and look forward to going home!

Update June 7 (9:00am) We're now home and well-rested! We are happy to get back into our normal routine and are scheduled to meet with our MFM and the Dayton Children's neurosurgeon on Friday.  I guess we'll see what the plan is from there. Thankful that God got us home safely and that Abby will be staying put for a little while longer!