An Unexpected Christmas

Christmas this year was very, very,....very different from any Christmas I'd imagined. My idea of what Christmas would be like was Nate's parents arriving Christmas Eve, putting Abby to bed knowing the excitement she'd have the next morning, watching her wake up to a pile of presents under the Christmas tree, and having a wonderful and relaxing morning being around family.

Instead, I spent Christmas on the Labor and Delivery ward of our hospital trying to stop preterm labor issues.

Here's a rare picture of me out of bed. I was given permission to shower each morning and decided to wear my "festive" pajamas instead of the hospital gowns to try and make the morning feel more normal.

To back up a bit, I'd like to use this opportunity to tell the entire story (so far) so that I remember these moments years down the road so I can be thankful for the celebration of Christmas no matter how it comes. Very early in December I went to a routine OB appointment where I got to experience my first Non-Stress Test (NST). During that exam it was discovered that I was having mild, but consistent contractions occurring roughly every five minutes. Similar to Abby's pregnancy I felt nothing. But after a dilation check showed I was 1cm dilated, my doctor decided I needed to go to the hospital to be monitored as I was only 29 weeks at the time. After roughly six hours of monitoring I received a shot of terbutaline to slow/stop the contractions and was eventually sent home to take it easy.

Weeks went by and all was going well. Small changes indicating labor on the far horizon was happening, but nothing too big or scary. Then, the Friday before Christmas I started feeling some pains in the early evening. I followed directions and laid down on my side and started chugging water. After 45 minutes of consistent pains every 8 or so minutes I felt a combination pain in my front and my back. I immediately thought of all the back labor I'd had with Abby and jumped from "let's see what's going on here" mode to "this is labor get to hospital" mode. After calling Nate, the after hours doctor line, and Katie to take Abby, I was off to labor and delivery to see what was up. A long night of monitoring and two shots of terbutaline and contractions finally subsided and I was sent home with instructions to follow up with my doctor on Monday.

Monday's appointment had me back for an NST where I once again showed consistent contractions, so back to L&D I went. However, this time a cervical check showed I was dilated to roughly 3cm. Not good. However, over the course of the hours I was there contractions slowed significantly. So I was sent home with orders to come back to L&D the next day for my second fetal fibronectin (fFN) test, which basically tests for an enzyme that can indicate if labor is soon. Although, truly, a negative test result means more than a positive as a negative means no labor in the coming hours/weeks whereas a positive result means there's a 17% chance of labor in the coming hours/weeks. Negative is conclusive. Positive is inconclusive. Guess what I tested? Yep, positive.

With that positive result I was officially admitted to the hospital with preterm labor at 32 weeks 1 day gestation.

That same night (Tuesday) I received my first of two steroid shots to help develop the babies' lungs (side note: painful but not as painful as progesterone in oil shots) and was also given a different medicine to stop contractions called procardia. After a long night of pretty much no sleep (procardia at 10pm gave me the jitters so bad that my heart didn't calm down until after midnight and since it was also given at 6am (plus 2pm) I was up super early) I tried to focus on the positives of HGTV and on demand assistance and food.

Wednesday night the doctor came back and, after after another check showed I'd dilated slightly more to 3.25 cm, gave me the bad news of a hospital Christmas.

I'm not sure that I can adequately explain how devastated I was by this answer. On the one hand I knew I needed to be where the babies' would get the best care possible that would keep them gestating as long as possible. But on the other hand, the thought of missing out on all the excitement of Abby experiencing Christmas....let's just say that Nurse Hillary was beyond awesome in giving me time to come to grips with what was happening before coming back into my room and giving me the second shot of steroids and my last procardia pill. (I was only on the procardia pills for 48 hours (3x per day)). I was having enough trouble that Nate actually grabbed Abby and visited me in the hospital at 9:30pm (well past Abby's bed time) to cheer me up, which did help.

Thursday morning my Mom showed up bright and early with some Christmas cheer. (I was already up so no worries that she showed up and I didn't appreciate it.) Two fake poinsettias that looked so real that, literally, every nurse that came in commented on their beauty and then asked if/when they needed watering. As well as the.best.Christmas.tree.ever! Dad went out to try and find me a small Christmas tree for my hospital room. However, the only thing he could find the day before Christmas was a small tree made out of glitter sprayed pine-cones. The thing was so tacky and gaudy that it was the most awesomest tree ever!!! What made it even more special was the 25% discount my Dad asked for as some of the pine-cones were missing. :-) I'm keeping that sucker for years to come and will proudly display it in our home and tell its story as that's how much I love it! The nurses also helped make Christmas as comfortable as possible by moving me out of Inpatient room 222 and into Birthing Suite 18 which was a much larger room to accommodate lots of people.

Finally, Friday..Christmas morning...arrived. I decided that I was NOT going to have a sad face for my Abby and would make the absolute best of the situation. Nate arrived a little before the rest of the crew and helped set out the presents under the "tree".

A view of our presents with the "tree" pretty much hidden under the loot.

When Abby arrived her joyous smile and "I don't care where I open presents and celebrate" attitude was exactly what I needed to make the morning okay. We opened presents (and I totally rocked on the gifts I gave her, or recommended others to give her, this year!), hung out for a bit, then it was decided to have everyone else go home where Abby could run and play without worrying about being in a hospital room.

Abby arriving to celebrate Christmas in all her glory. She decided what to wear and I think she looks fantastically festive! You can also see the pine-cone Christmas tree among the gifts. 

Abby opening the watch we got her. That was one of the very few requests she made without being prompted by a magazine or seeing something down a toy aisle. So we had to get it. :-)

Abby reading one of the books gifted to the babies to me. 

Nate liked the growler I got him. :-) Or, well, that I directed my parents to go buy for him and then wrap as the week in and out of the hospital prior to Christmas really threw a wrench in doing the last minute Christmas wrap-up.

These dolls were also a HUGE hit! As soon as I saw them at Costco I knew they would be something she'd love (but I let Grandma and Grandpa get them for her cause I'm awesome like that. :-))

It was a little sad seeing everyone go, but by this fourth day on full bed-rest it was also nice having some quiet before everyone came back with prime rib dinner later that evening. Due to some potential extended family illness, eventually it was just Nate that came back later with dinner. I missed Abby but it was nice to just focus on Nate as it hadn't been just the two of us in almost a week. Comically, two bites in to dinner and transport arrived to take me downstairs for an ultrasound. :-) But after dinner was finished my doctor came back, checked me again for dilation, and determined that I'd stabilized enough to go home. HOME!!! I was told I was on modified bed-rest (I can get up to go to the bathroom and make myself food but otherwise need to be sitting or laying down) until basically I delivered these babies with the far reaching goal being 34 weeks (Monday, January 4th).

Being home after so long at the hospital was weird. There was so much noise and activity that it was a little off-putting (we did end up going to Mom and Dad's on Saturday for an Akers' family Christmas celebration and Grandma and I were the two curmudgeons in the corner talking about how loud and noisy everything was) but really, really nice to be able to see Nate and Abby whenever I wanted.

So here I sit (Wednesday, December 30th) on modified bed-rest at 33 weeks 2 days trying to do as little as possible and praying that I make it until at least Monday (34 weeks). And this is the full story of how I spent Christmas 2015 in the Labor and Delivery ward of the hospital.