Happy New Year continued...

forgot to mention that they did another FFN test tonight and it was negative! yay! so we should have at least another week before baby arrives but hopefully many more than that!

Happy New Year!

well, sort of. i had some spotting so we went back to the hospital. they kept me on the monitor for a few hours and checked my cervix. it's still at 1cm but when i have a contraction, it goes to zero and starts to dilate. not good. so the dr now has me taking 20mg of procardia every 4 hrs instead of every 6 hrs. i just have to keep an eye on my blood pressure to make sure it doesn't get too low. we watched my cervix for a while as i contracted to see it change and saw the baby basically poking at my cervix like he was TRYING to get it to open! he literally had his finger poking my cervix like he was thinking, "hmmm... i think this is the way out". knock it off, baby!! the dr pushed on my stomach a little to get him to move away from my cervix and he finally moved. :)
i have an appt to see dr. connelly on wed. i'm hoping i don't have to make any trips to the hospital before then! Happy New Year!!

belly pic 28 weeks

don't worry... i was only out of bed long enough to go pee and take a quick belly pic. yay for 28 weeks! man, i need some mascara PRONTO!

see? back in bed with the little lo...

so far so good....

ahh.... it's nice not to have anything alarming happen for a couple days. no spotting, no contractions. not to say that i don't worry about it all the time still but at least things have seemed to calm down for now. today i feel very weak. i think it's because of the procardia and my level of total inactivity. maybe my blood pressure is running low again. at least i don't have the nurses coming in every 5 minutes to check my blood pressure and temperature anymore. i mean, i appreciate it and all, but it gets annoying. john is the best nurse anyway. he takes care of me better than any of the nurses ever did. i love him so much. i'm the luckiest girl in the world to have someone like him. he woke up this morning and went to del taco to get me a breakfast burrito. yummy. he went to church this morning and i'm sad that i couldn't go with him. we go to the best church in the world (sandalschurch.com) and i haven't been there for a long time. i miss it and everyone there. i miss fresh air and the outside world. i miss being able to sit up. i have to lay on my side at all times (except to eat and shower) to keep extra pressure off of my cervix. but all of this will be worth it if it means that the baby will stay put for a while longer. please baby, stay put!! at least i have lilo, my mini weiner dog, to keep me company. she's constantly by my side and doesn't mind at all that i'm stuck in bed. she'll bring me her ball sometimes and we'll play fetch for a while but mostly she's right here, snoring in my ear. i missed her when i was in the hospital. i think she missed me too. :) hopefully i'll be stuck in bed with her for many more weeks to come.

What a rollercoaster!

so.... we spent 10 days in the hospital after the dr saw that my cervix had shortened even more than before. they put me on 20mg of procardia (a smooth muscle relaxer) every 6 hrs to prevent my uterus from contracting and gave me steroids to help the baby's lungs develop in case they couldn't stop labor. luckily, they stopped labor and seemed to have things under control. they moved me from labor & delivery to the post partum area and that was "home" for the next several days. they finally dicharged me on sunday, 12/23. we got to spend christmas eve in OUR OWN BED!! it's so much better than a hospital bed or the recliner/"bed" that john had to sleep on. christmas morning was nice. our families came over to celebrate with us and i was very careful not to get up except to use the restroom. but... it didn't last long. around 3:30 on christmas day i noticed a tiny spot of blood when i used the restroom. so off to the hospital we went. we were hoping that it would be a quick trip and that they would send me back home but in the back of my mind i knew that wasn't going to happen. they hooked me up to the monitor and it showed that i was having pretty big contractions. i wasn't even feeling them!! then they checked my cervix and said that i was dialated 2cm!! WHAT!?!? they put me on magnesium and loaded me into an ambulance to go to kaiser in baldwin park (fontana was too full to take me -- kaiser riverside doesn't have the licensing to take care of a baby less than 32 wks gestation so that's why they had to transfer me). i was really scared. john followed me in the ambulance and met me in baldwin park. there we were, back in labor & delivery. i had an IV with magnesium (pretty nasty stuff), antibiotics and a catheter (didn't like that AT ALL!). after the contractions stopped they moved me to their post partum area and we stayed there for the next couple of days. we thought that since i was dialated they would keep me for a while but they sent me home yesterday. neither of us were happy with that decision since the last time we were sent home i ended up being dialted to 2cm after only 2 days. but, we had no choice so back home we went. then the drama continued this morning when i started spotting again. this time we went straight to fontana to avoid the whole ambulance ride thing. they hooked me back up to the monitor and the contractions were pretty small. after taking another dose of procardia the contractions went away. whew! they checked my cervix and it hadn't changed so they ended up sending me home again. i'm really hoping this weekend is uneventful! i'm using john's laptop right now and i'll try to keep my updates more frequent. but i'm really hoping that i don't have anything new to report for a while. my next dr appt is on wed, jan 2nd. i'm finally at 28 weeks and the next milestone that they want me to get to is 32 weeks. i'll be 32 weeks on jan 22nd and i'm going to try my best to get to that point. :) wish me luck!

27 week & 2 day "photo shoot"

Kim had her appt. with her Dr. today & here's the latest...
The Ffn test came out negative!!! That means that they have at least 7 more days! Her cervix has shortened a little more & is now at 1 cm., so she's staying another week & they'll test her again next Thursday. She says, "thank you for everyone's prayers, they are working!" Oh yea...they also found out today that they are a couple of days further along than they thought (they thought she was 27 weeks today, but that changed a little). Every little day helps a lot since the Dr. says that he's almost sure that the baby will be early and every day he's inside her is like 2 days less in ICU. be patient, baby. :)


p.s.~isn't my nephew handsome! :)

almost 27 week update...

Hi, this is Shannon...i'm updating Kimmy's blog while she's in the hospital. Here's the latest:
not much has changed, which is good news. the plan for now is to keep her AT LEAST until Thursday and the dr. will check her cervix then and do some other tests & tell them what he wants them to do after that. We went to see her tonight and she's doing really good...she wasn't having any "real" contractions (they're giving her something to help keep contractions from starting)...she's only having Braxton-Hick "like" contractions, which is normal & the baby is kicking and moving A LOT! everything seems really good and we'll just continue to pray that he stays put for a while longer. :) i'm sure kim will update (or have me do another one) as soon as we know more.

26 week video update...

Fetal Fibronectin

my results were negative!! yay! having a negative fetal fibronectin test result means that i have about a 99% chance of NOT going into labor within the next 2 weeks. that's really great news. now i just have to stay on bed rest and go back to see dr. montgomery on 12/20 so he can check my cervix for changes. i'm feeling much better about everything now. baby is really active and loves getting his feet in my ribs and kickin' away. i love feeling every little movement. as long as he's moving i feel like he's ok so he can kick me all he wants!

Update

today's doctor's visit went as well as possible. my cervix has not changed, which is really good news. dr. montgomery performed the Fetal Fibronectin test (to see if i am at risk of going into labor within the next 2 weeks) and we should have the results no later than tomorrow. he said that he expects it to be negative, especially since there has been no change to my cervix since monday's visit. if it is negative, then he is going to see me in two weeks to check my cervix again for changes. in the meantime, i need to stay on bed rest and take it as easy as possible. however, if the test results come back positive, then he'll bring me back in to be admitted into the hospital. so we should know by tomorrow what the next step will be. i'm feeling much better about everything after today's visit. i'll post again as soon as the test results are back.

Bed Rest

i saw dr. montgomery yesterday so he could check on the baby's development to make sure everything is still going well. the good news is that the baby looks great. all of his organs and parts are in tact and where they should be. the ultrasound looked perfect and he is a beautiful baby, if i do say so myself. i love him so much already.
the bad news... my cervix has shortened to the point where the doctor is concerned i will go into preterm labor soon. my doctor wants me to carry the baby through the next two weeks for sure, and then if possible, make it to the 32 week point. at that point, the baby will be far enough along to have a good chance at survival without having severe lifelong health problems. he put me on bed rest and is bringing me back in for a Fetal Fibronectin (FFN) test on thursday. that test will tell him if i am at risk of going into labor within the next week or two. if i am, he will admit me to the hospital and give me steroids to help the baby's lung development along in case the baby arrives. if the test shows i'm not at risk of going into labor within the next week or two, then he will most likely put me on medications and keep me on bed rest for the duration of the pregnancy.
i'm so scared. i love this baby so much and have wanted him for so long. i pray that he is healthy and that i'm able to carry him to term.

belly pic 24 weeks

wow... my belly is huge... check it out!