Weekend Update
With all the goings-on this past week, I decided I would give a "weekend update" to let everyone know how ALL the Guthrie's are doing (Miss P included):
Thanks be to God that we are still a family of 3 at the moment, but not for lack of Miss P trying! This week started rough with Rory dealing with an especially bad dose of the stomach bug, courtesy of Emma. He finally was able to get back to somewhat normal activity on Tuesday but wasn't 100% until Wednesday. I'm convinced Penny and my body decided to wait until then to throw us a curve.
I began having preterm contractions on Wednesday afternoon at work and I tried my hardest to do everything I could to slow them down myself; drank tons of water, deep breathing, trying not to move much. Nothing worked so Dr. Favor sent me to L&D with contractions still coming every two minutes :(
Once in L&D, I was tested to see what the likelihood was that Miss P would make a SUPER early arrival (like in the next two weeks) and thankfully, the test was negative. That really only means we're good for another two weeks, though. I was given a muscle relaxant to see if that would slow the contractions and those were a no-go either. From there, it was bags upon bags upon bags of fluids to see if the contractions were being caused by dehydration - which they weren't because I was plenty hydrated when I got to the hospital because of my quick thinking to drink a ton of water at work.
Dr. Favor instructed us to stay the night for observation. I was immediately reminded of our trip to L&D when I was 36 weeks pregnant with Emma for the same kinds of contractions. Thankfully this time too, I was not at all dilated so there was no way Miss P was coming out. Miss P was also much less cooperative with the nurses and monitors than her big sister so the nurses were constantly having to come in and adjust the fetal monitors to try and find where she moved to. Finally, at about midnight, the nurse told us that Penny was doing so beautifully that the doctor was going to let the monitor come off and we would just put it back on every 6 hours for about 20 minutes just to check. That meant Rory and my's night was MUCH quieter than we were expecting. I actually got about 6 hours of sleep! :) I didn't have any issues with contractions once I went to bed so that was a good sign.
Thursday morning was much of the same as Wednesday evening. As soon as I was up and "going", the contractions started again. The doctor came in to express her concern that they were still coming and decided for us to try the muscle relaxant again since I obviously wasn't dehydrated at this point. By the grace of God (seriously!), the medicine worked! The contractions spread WAY out, but unfortunately didn't stop completely. Once my doctor arrived at noon, she noted that the medicine was working so her plan for us was to get a prescription of the meds to take at home and gave me instructions to be a couch potato all weekend to keep the contractions from ramping up again.
I'm praying really hard that this reduced activity order gets lifted after this weekend, but only time will tell. So far today, I've only had a couple minor contractions that were more annoying than painful and they only happened while I was up getting a shower. I have an appointment on Tuesday to go see my doctor so I'm hoping for the best!
One thing to come out of all of this that I wasn't prepared for was how much I missed Emma while we were in the hospital! She was well taken care of but it was so weird for me not to have her there with us. Once we made it home yesterday and our friends dropped her off, I didn't want to let her out of my sight! She sat next to me and watched Peppa Pig until bed time and I had the hardest time not just letting her fall asleep on the couch in my arms! I know that when Penny does get here, it will be a lot of the same, but with an infant in my arms to boot.
Thanks be to God that we are still a family of 3 at the moment, but not for lack of Miss P trying! This week started rough with Rory dealing with an especially bad dose of the stomach bug, courtesy of Emma. He finally was able to get back to somewhat normal activity on Tuesday but wasn't 100% until Wednesday. I'm convinced Penny and my body decided to wait until then to throw us a curve.
I began having preterm contractions on Wednesday afternoon at work and I tried my hardest to do everything I could to slow them down myself; drank tons of water, deep breathing, trying not to move much. Nothing worked so Dr. Favor sent me to L&D with contractions still coming every two minutes :(
Once in L&D, I was tested to see what the likelihood was that Miss P would make a SUPER early arrival (like in the next two weeks) and thankfully, the test was negative. That really only means we're good for another two weeks, though. I was given a muscle relaxant to see if that would slow the contractions and those were a no-go either. From there, it was bags upon bags upon bags of fluids to see if the contractions were being caused by dehydration - which they weren't because I was plenty hydrated when I got to the hospital because of my quick thinking to drink a ton of water at work.
Dr. Favor instructed us to stay the night for observation. I was immediately reminded of our trip to L&D when I was 36 weeks pregnant with Emma for the same kinds of contractions. Thankfully this time too, I was not at all dilated so there was no way Miss P was coming out. Miss P was also much less cooperative with the nurses and monitors than her big sister so the nurses were constantly having to come in and adjust the fetal monitors to try and find where she moved to. Finally, at about midnight, the nurse told us that Penny was doing so beautifully that the doctor was going to let the monitor come off and we would just put it back on every 6 hours for about 20 minutes just to check. That meant Rory and my's night was MUCH quieter than we were expecting. I actually got about 6 hours of sleep! :) I didn't have any issues with contractions once I went to bed so that was a good sign.
Thursday morning was much of the same as Wednesday evening. As soon as I was up and "going", the contractions started again. The doctor came in to express her concern that they were still coming and decided for us to try the muscle relaxant again since I obviously wasn't dehydrated at this point. By the grace of God (seriously!), the medicine worked! The contractions spread WAY out, but unfortunately didn't stop completely. Once my doctor arrived at noon, she noted that the medicine was working so her plan for us was to get a prescription of the meds to take at home and gave me instructions to be a couch potato all weekend to keep the contractions from ramping up again.
I'm praying really hard that this reduced activity order gets lifted after this weekend, but only time will tell. So far today, I've only had a couple minor contractions that were more annoying than painful and they only happened while I was up getting a shower. I have an appointment on Tuesday to go see my doctor so I'm hoping for the best!
One thing to come out of all of this that I wasn't prepared for was how much I missed Emma while we were in the hospital! She was well taken care of but it was so weird for me not to have her there with us. Once we made it home yesterday and our friends dropped her off, I didn't want to let her out of my sight! She sat next to me and watched Peppa Pig until bed time and I had the hardest time not just letting her fall asleep on the couch in my arms! I know that when Penny does get here, it will be a lot of the same, but with an infant in my arms to boot.
I am looking forward to having my next baby girl here in my arms, but I also realized yesterday that I'm not quite ready yet. I know she'll be here when she gets good and ready, and trust me, I believe she'll be more independent and stubborn than Emma, but I would like to soak in just a couple more months of my little family of 3 before we throw in more crazy!
So what does all of this craziness this week tell us? First, life is completely and beautifully unpredictable. Sometimes this can be a scary unpredictable. Sometimes this can be a devastating unpredictable. Along with the nurses trying their hardest to slow my contractions, Rory and I were exposed to a mother who came in not having felt her baby for a day and, unfortunately, they were not able to get a heartbeat. What broke my heart more was learning later that she was 40 weeks along, more than ready to meet her baby! This and the realization yesterday that there was nothing that I could do to control my contractions hit me square in the face just how unpredictable and uncontrollable life is. This is all the more reason to have a hope in life! My hope is in something that is more powerful than anything that this life can throw at me or anyone else. My hope is in the promise that regardless of the pain and discomfort that I have in this life, one day I'll have the chance to have a perfect body and be in the presence of my Creator forever! I know that this doesn't in any way make pain go away, but it makes things more bearable.
Second, this week tells me that there's a VERY good possibility that we will be a family of 4 much sooner than 8 weeks from now. This is a little harder for me to come to terms with because there is so much that we still have left to do! I know the possibility for Penny coming before the end of the year is very slim, but it won't stop me from packing a bag and pushing to at least get the nursery painted before January! Whenever she decides to come, I want to make sure we at least look like we're somewhat put together lol!
Finally, this week tells me just how horrible I am at relinquishing control of anything! I am very much a control-freak of sorts. I like having a plan but I try not to get too upset when it doesn't go exactly as I pictured, but this kind of kink in a plan drives me crazy! Being told that I have to be confined to a couch and that I can't cook or clean or take care of my husband or daughter like I'm used to doing makes me feel useless and depressed. I will say that I've been trying to find ways to still help out where I can without breaking the rules, and so far today, I was able to do a little of that. I figured out that I could still get Emma's breakfast ready and lay out her clothes but Rory had to be the one to change her and get the rest of her things ready for daycare. Thank goodness I can still love on both of them!
I would ask that for now, you pray that Penny will stay put for as long as possible and that I can have this "bed rest" order lifted so I can continue to be the wife and mother that I'm used to being! If that's not in the plan for me, then I just pray that I can do what I need to do to keep Penny cooking for as long as she needs!
God bless!
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