Keeping the buns in the oven!

So I have officially been taken off work until at least 6 weeks after the babies are born. Between my blood pressure issues and my new onset of contractions Dr Demeyer, Dr Berg's partner, decided it would be best if I stayed off my feet as much as possible in order to keep the babies in my belly a while longer.

Fortunately I had all weekend to prepare for this. My parents came down for a very relaxing visit last Friday. We went to lunch and a movie. During the movie the babies were really active so we all kept feeling my belly. About half way through the movie I noticed my tummy was getting hard as a rock and then it would go away for a while, then it would get hard again. I was so unsure that I had my mom feel to tell me if she thought they were contractions or just babies moving, but she agreed that they were probably Braxton Hicks.

I had recently read that Braxton Hicks are normal throughout pregnancy but to call your doctor if you have four or more contractions in an hour. After I got home from the movies I did everything they told us in Lamaze class. I emptied my bladder, grabbed a glass of water, and plopped down on my left side and started counting and timing them. Even after trying all the techniques to stop the contractions they kept coming, although not regularly, I had 4-5 in one hour so I decided to call up to Labor and Delivery. They agreed that it was worth checking into and told me to come get hooked up to the monitor.

Of course, for the first hour that I was there the contractions had stopped completely. I told the nurse “Maybe I’m crazy”. My blood pressure was also elevated so they decided that since I was there they would go ahead a do some lab work before sending me home and while waiting for the results keep me hooked up to the monitor. I asked if I could use the bathroom in the meantime and right when the nurse had taken me off the monitor I had a contraction. I said “Here you feel. Is that a baby or a contraction?” She said “Oh, no. That is definitely a contraction”. I had two contractions before making it to the bathroom and then three immediately after she hooked me back up to the monitor that I did not even notice.

The nurse had me lay on my left side and called the doctor on-call. They decided it was worth monitoring for another hour. During that hour I had two contractions that I could feel and several that I could not feel. Because they were so irregular they felt that it was safe to send me home on bed rest until I could get into my doctor. Dr. Bigsby told the nurse I was lucky to have worked this long, they use to take twin moms off work, complications or not, at 20 weeks. The nurse warned me that this may be reason enough for my doctor to consider taking me off work. I cried and contracted some more but thankfully Bryan was there to give me a pep talk and convince me that we would be okay. He said, “All that matters is keeping you and the babies healthy”.

Since my doctor is out until Thursday, I was scheduled to see her partner on Tuesday. He checked the babies’ heart rates, which were great, and talked to me about these contractions. He felt it was necessary to take me off work. I knew it was coming, so I wasn’t surprised. I called work and set up all my insurance stuff and Bryan and I went to Costco to stock up on food for me to snack on during the day. We also went to Hastings where he insisted that I pick out at least one movie. He also tried to find some games for the Wii that I could play sitting down but all the ones I would enjoy were rented out.

Although I will miss work and the people that I work with, I have come to terms with the fact that I will have to lay low until these little guys get here and do all that I can to make sure they don’t get here too soon. I have decided to not stress about whether or not my position will still be available after my 12 weeks of FMLA (Family Medical Leave of Absence) is up and figure that everything happens for a reason. My new job is keeping these buns in the oven.

We have our regular scheduled 2 week appointment Tuesday the 16th so I should have more information about what’s going on then.