Ripening "Produce"

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”

~Lao Tzu

The plan was as follows:  Get me on Magnesium Sulfate (smooth muscle relaxer) to prevent any further contracting and in the case of early delivery, IV antibiotics (GBS test results would take a couple days for results), and a round of steroids (to promote the baby's production of surfactant in the lungs...again, in case of early delivery).  Because of the affect the steroids have on blood sugar, my dosage of metformin was increased and sugar levels were to be checked after every meal.  If my levels were climbing too high, a "Back-up" of Insulin would be administered.  Glyburide would also be administered at night because my fasting sugars will be higher since movement in sleep is less than awake, thereby less sugar would be utilized for energy.  Mission #1: Keep this baby inside for another week and 2 days...let's get to 28 weeks (Survival rate of the baby is the same as that of a full-term).  My personal goal...keep this baby "cookin'" until 36 weeks...AT LEAST.

That night I was put on 24-hour fetal monitoring.  Let me tell you, this baby may have been trying to come out early, but he/she was SURELY going to let us know they may be small, but they are MIGHTY!!  He/she was moving NON-STOP!!  Every 10-20 minutes, the nurse would have to come in and reposition the monitor because the baby was playing hide and seek.  This went on all...night....long.  Several nurses took their turns coming in and trying to locate the baby again. The little stinker would get back on the monitor....then "run away" again.  I swear, this kid WILL be a Hide and Seek CHAMP!!  Because we are staying strong in not finding out the sex of the baby, and the amount of movement the baby was doing, he/she developed a reputation and was nicknamed "Taz".

Once I was settled in, I felt it was time to contact the family and let them know where I was and what was going on.  Needless to say, it was a difficult phone call...not because of WHAT was happening, but because I hated the fact that they would probably cut their trip short.  I reassured them that I was okay, where I needed to be, and under the best care possible, and they decided to head home the following day only cutting their trip short by 1 day.  As it was getting later, Hubby needed to get to the other kiddos and get things set up at home.  We both knew this was going to be an "interesting" next several weeks.  Fortunately, we knew we had the love and support of our families to help with the kids' schedules.  That weekend was New Year's weekend, and we had already planned on spending it at my sister-in-law's house for our annual NYE celebration.  Hubby made sure the kiddos were taken and they stayed overnight, spending the time with family and their cousins, while hubby picked up "Date Night Dinner" and we celebrated New Year's together.  Fortunately, for Christmas, we got two of the kids iPod touches and were able to Facetime with them at midnight.