May 6, 2006

Another Saturday afternoon, another blissful blog entry from my home computer! Ahh...the joy of sitting in a chair that isn't upholstered in vinyl or taking a nap in a bed whose feet and head don't go up and down...

As I am sure it is clear, the girls are doing great! It hasn't been a week without a little bit of excitement, but I wouldn't be blogging this entire pregnancy (and beyond) if there weren't at least a few interesting tidbits here and there.

The most interesting part of my week was last Sunday. I didn't have a chance to come home that day, but I did get to go to Mass at the chapel inside Methodist Hospital. I returned shortly after 4:00 and was promptly put on the monitors. Both girls seemed to be doing well, with Faith running in the 170s and Grace making her signature little dips from the 160s to the 130s and back. Nothing to be worried about -- in fact, all good signs.

Now I never nap while being monitored. I'm way too much of a control freak for that. If I'm not watching and one of the girls dips way, way, way low, what will happen? I may be in the hospital to be monitored, but ulimately the girls are my responsibility.

Of course, there's always the exception to the rule. Remember, I'm technically about 45 weeks pregnant (and for those of you who aren't familiar with pregnancy, it only lasts 40 weeks). I'm huge (or "yooge" as Donald Trump would say) and just about everything I do makes me tired. Even walking more than a 20 yards or so gives my hamstrings the feeling that I've just done a few sets of squats. No kidding.

So going to Mass was very tiring for me. First the walk to the chapel, then the sitting and standing (I forewent the kneeling for fear I'd never get up) and walking back. I know it seems like no big deal, but let me tell you, it's the equivalent to running a few miles in my book.

So I dozed while monitoring. I didn't mean to, but it happened. I couldn't have been asleep more than four or five minutes when I awoke to my nurse, Paula, running (yes, running) into my room saying, "Where is that baby???"

"WHAT?" I shot up in bed, wondering if I had given birth without my knowledge...

Just behind Paula were two other nurses and before I could get a, "What is going on?" out of my mouth, one was picking up the phone to call my doctor, one was reading the monitoring strip and one was taking my pulse.

I tried to shake off the sleepiness to ask what was going on, but another nurse ran in and my adrenaline shot through the roof. It finally dawned on me -- something was terribly wrong with one of the girls.

I took a peak at the monitoring strip between two nurses and realized that Grace (of course) had slipped into the 80s from the 160s in a matter of seconds. I mean seconds -- like two or three. Paula had seen it from the central monitoring center at the nurses' station.

By this time, the nurses were calming down and I was starting to regain the ability to speak. To put it into perspective, it had only been about 45 seconds since the first three nurses had shot into my room at break-neck speed.

It seemed that they had figured out what had happened. Apparently, Grace had artfully slipped out from under the monitor in one of her signature flips and the monitor, instead of going blank (which would have been no big deal), picked up my heartrate. Hence the taking of my pulse. Moments later, she slipped back underneath and the monitor was picking up a heartrate in the 160s again. It didn't take long for the nurses to figure it out, thankfully, since if they had panicked, I would be the mother of three right now.

They kept me on the monitor for another hour or so, which was fine with me, and we all laughed at how the girls' heartrates both went up and stayed up for quite awhile the scare, as the adrenaline that I produced caused them to take a leap, too. Needless to say, when all was done and I was peeled off the ceiling, I slept very well that night.

The rest of the week went off without a hitch. A blip here, a dip there, but nothing alarming. A few times I was monitored for more than an hour at a time for precaution's sake, but, obviously, all went well. It's to be expected and I'm learning to not panic at every little variation.

Yesterday marked my halfway point, assuming we make it to May 21. It was a good day that gave me a new outlook on this whole thing -- I'm on the downhill side of my incarceration.

To top the good day off, we had a biophysical profile done on both babies. It's a standard procedure for high-risk pregnancies and it measures the babies on five different criteria: Monitoring strips (heartrate, essentially), movement, breathing motions, tone (ie: flexing of a hand or foot) and amniotic fluid. The profile essentially tells the doctor just how prepared the kiddos are for the outside world, since oftentimes multiples are a somewhat delayed in their fetal development. In short, it lets the doctor know just how mature the baby is without taking into account gestational age. I was 29 weeks, 5 days when we had ours done.

The profile results in up to eight points (don't ask how they divided five into eight...wouldn't ten have been easier?) and I was told by a number of nurses to not be worried if the girls scored a 6/8 because at this age, breathing motions may not be present. It's not a sign, they assured me, of their ability to breathe once out of the womb, it's just a sign to indicate if they have started to learn the breathing process.

Well, I'm more than proud to say that my little overachievers both scored 8/8! Breathing motions were present in both, as were all of the other criteria! Dr. Higby took a quick look at all of the other stuff, too, like their kidney functions, bladder functions, etc. In his words, "They look perfect." Well duh, Dr. H ... of course they're perfect. :)

So that was a good top-off to the week. I had a little high all day yesterday, knowing that the girls are doing so well and was even happy to talk to both of my doctors about scheduling my c-section since we're getting so close to 32 weeks. Anything could happen between now and then, but we've come so, so far.

I got tears in my eyes when I recalled our first appointment on February 2 when we were diagnosed with mo/mo twins. We were so terrified by the diagnosis and couldn't believe that we were in a situation where abortion is often considered therapeutic. It just seemed like we'd never get to this point and yet, here we are, still pregnant with two little angels. God is so good.

As for news from the home front...Devin spent the week at Todd's parents' house and had a great time getting to rule the roost. Todd drove to Yoakum this morning to pick him up and was in my room at the hospital before noon. It was great to see Devin, but there is a little bit of "reprogramming" that will need to be done, as someone may have had a little too much freedom while away from home. But as he put his head down for his nap today, he did say something to the effect of, "I'm glad to be home."

I can relate to that comment 100%.