Our Twenty Eight Week Surprise

If you've seen me recently, it's pretty obvious that I've been extremely swollen.  Given that I'm pregnant with twins in the Texas summer some swelling was to be expected.  Although, my swelling was getting pretty ridiculous!  My ankles honestly started looked like Gwyneth Paltrow's in 'Shallow Hal' when she's wearing the fat suit.  Even my mom thought so!

On Wednesday August 1st I was sitting at my desk, swollen as could be, and decided to google to see if there was anything else I could do about it.  I ended up reading that if you have any swelling of the face you should call your doctor and it just so happened that the last couple of days my eyes had been so swollen when I woke up that I could barely open them.  I debated back and forth, but decided to call my doctor and they had me come in immediately for a blood pressure test.  My blood pressure, which is typically on the low side, was 150/110!  My doctor took one look at me and said I need to go upstairs and be admitted to the antepartum wing for bed rest.  (Her office is in the hospital.)

This was a bit of a shock for Ross and I.  Even though we're having twins I had always kind of thought were going to cruise along to 38 weeks!  Although, my doctor kind hinted that it was obvious that this was going to happen given the severity of my swelling, but I never thought so!

After being admitted to the hospital we saw our perinatalogist for our regular appointment.  The boys were moving all over the place as usual.  'J' weighed 2 lbs 8 ounces and 'C' weighed 2 lbs 10 ounces.  They are still just a little bit ahead growth wise and their hearts and everything looked great.  The perinatalogist recommended that I go ahead and get the steroid shot they give to women to help the babies' lungs mature at a faster rate, just in case they are born early.  That was a bit nerve wracking, just thinking about them being born that early, but I am glad we were here to do it.

The goal was to get me back home on bed rest.  My blood pressure went down and almost back to normal in the hospital, but as I was about to be released for home on Friday I started having contractions 6-8 minutes apart.  They had to give me medication to stop them, which caused me to stay in the hospital 24 more hours.

Once released at home on bed rest I just couldn't relax.  The condo we're living in while building our house isn't the most comfortable place in the world normally and it definitely wasn't set up for someone to stay in bed 24 hours a day.  The dogs kept barking, the people who own the condo were trying to rent it out and kept wanting to show it and there was so much going on it was driving me nuts.  Needless to say to my blood pressure went back up and I was re-admitted to the hospital.

Even though we have so much going on with trying to finish the house, pack and move, I feel like this is where I need to be.  I'm closely monitored here and so are the babies.  We know everyone is safe and sound and the longer I can keep my blood pressure down, the longer it will be until they are born.  My doctor said we're no longer shooting for 37-38 weeks, but if we can make it to 34-35 that will be great.  35 weeks is the youngest they can be born and avoid being in the NCIU.  So all of your thoughts and prayers are so, so appreciated!

The sweet gift my friends Troice and Linda brought by when they visited me!  Our babies don't have much yet, but at least they have something to sleep in and it's super cute!