29 weeks and contracting in the hospital

Update: I was discharged this afternoon after having my contractions stop for about 6 hours and being taken off the magnesium sulfate. My cervix still hasn't changed too! Praise the Lord! I am home resting and thanking the Lord for more time inside for this little blessing!

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Yesterday we were officially 29 weeks and our little peanut must have gotten confused by all the excitement and thought it would be fun to have a little party in the hospital with pre-term labor!

As many of you know this little bugger has been giving us a run for our money since 20 weeks with contractions continually since. However, they have never been anything we were too terribly concerned about until last night. I had gone into work to help out after a whole bunch of babies decided to be born all at once!

I got there at 5pm to help work and was doubled over in pain with tears at 6pm with contractions. My WONDERFUL co-workers wouldn't allow me to persuade them to let me be and personally delivered me to labor and delivery to be evaluated.

Fortunately, they did that because shortly after being placed on the monitors I was contracting quite significantly ever 2-3 minutes. It became a whirlwind as I was being examined, tests ran, and medications given hoping to stop them quickly.

The first drug they gave me (terbutaline) would hopefully stop the labor and then I was given betamethasone (a steroid) to help the baby's lungs mature a little quicker if he or she did decide to arrive so early. When the terb didn't work they added nifedipine (another med to stop labor) and when that didn't work we went to the big guns...magnesium sulfate. Wow, that is some fun stuff, if you have ever been on it I am sorry! Yuck!

That finally did the trick. At about 430 in the morning they slowed from every 2-3 minutes to every 5 minutes. Then now this morning to every 10-15 minutes. I was quickly reminded how painful labor is and how grateful I am that it does work (when it should). I am a little nervous now that I have been reminded of it, but very thankful that God has stopped the contractions and let our little one have a little longer inside!

Please pray for the contractions to stop, and for wisdom with bedrest and work. My physician is wonderful and is confident that we have found the right cocktail of meds and that I won't need to be bedridden for the remainder of the pregnancy, but may need to take it a little easier. We are going to play it by ear and see how it goes.

I will update if anything changes and appreciate your thoughts, prayers, calls, and emails! They are very encouraging and help me keep my focus on God's plan and not my own!