Waiting to Exhale...

Tina started preterm labor early Tuesday morning. She woke me up at 2am saying that she was feeling contractions and that her water broke. We called my parents to come over to watch Isaac and we got ready to go to the hospital.

At the hospital, Tina’s hopes of a false alarm were dashed as they confirmed that she was indeed contracting. They admitted her and gave her Terbutalyne to stop the contractions. Because the baby was only 31weeks old, they were afraid that her lungs weren’t developed enough for her to breathe on her own. Over the next 48 hours, they gave Tina to doses of Beta something, a steroid to speed development of the baby’s lungs.

The first dose of “Terb” didn’t stop the contractions, and they wanted to give her a 2nd dose. Unfortunately, a side effect of Terb is an increased heart rate, which if it doesn’t go down, prevents more Terb from being given. We waited for a few minutes, then saw that it was ok to give the second dose.

Still, the Terb wasn’t working, further, Tina’s heart rate was still elevated. They called our OB/GYN and she decided to put Tina on Magnesium Sulfate. That was at about 9am Tuesday morning.

While at Washington Hospital, they swabbed Tina for Fetal Fibrosis something. It came up positive, which according to them meant that probability was high that the baby would come within two weeks.

Most hospitals are equipped to deal with babies 34-36 weeks or older. Washington could handle a 34 weeker, but our baby was only 31 weeks and two days.

Our OB/GYN made the decision to transfer us to a hospital with a Level 3 nursery which could handle 31 week old babies.

So Tina was placed into an ambulance and rushed to a new hospital 35 minutes away.

And here we wait. Tina’s been on “Mag” for 48 hours and they have finally taken her off of it. Luckily, it or something worked. Her contractions have lessened in intensity and are now further apart. Tina feels maybe only one contraction every few hours.

The contractions have stabilized and the baby is doing fine. Mommy is doing great too. I’m always so proud and amazed at how calm and sweet she’s been. The staff at the new hospital have been professional, positive, and reassuring. We are in a good place for preemies.

We’re trying to keep the baby inside for at least a week and hopefully more. Ideal would be to reach 34 weeks. We’ve been here since Tuesday and it looks like we’ll be here for the next few days, with the possibility of staying the next few weeks.

Now we just wait…