Deja Vu - Pregnancy Update

Whew, this has been a hectic/rough week.  Last Tuesday Avery came down with a stomach bug and and I stayed home with her for two days while she healed.  Thankfully she seemed to feel okay and was her normal, happy self.  It was great to be home with her for a couple days and I was actually able to be productive and work from home!

Friday night I came down with the same thing but it hit me much harder.  I spent the majority of the weekend in bed and couldn't keep anything down which lead to me getting dehydrated - not good for a pregnant woman with a history of pre-term labor.  I started having quite a few contractions during the weekend and as I was able to get more water and Gatorade in my body they slowly subsided on Sunday.  I went back to work Monday morning feeling better but by 9:30 daycare called to tell me Avery had a fever and needed to be picked up.  I didn't know what to do, after working from home two days the previous week there was no way I could leave to go get her, Matt called his mom and thankfully she was available to drive up from Temple (2 hours away) to come watch Avery.  Matt went and got her and stayed with her until his mom arrived.

Hello mommy guilt. There is nothing worse than knowing your child is sick and that you cannot be there to comfort her.  It just tore me up that I couldn't take care of her.  I think this is one of (if not the worst) parts of being a working mom.  Some days are just too busy at work and we need to find another option besides me being home to cuddle and care for her.  I hate it...

Tuesday she was still sick and my work was still piling up... hello stress.  I spent the majority of the morning trying to physically will myself to not stress out, knowing what that has led to in the past.  No luck.  The contractions started not long after I arrived at work and despite my best attempts to calm down and drink a lot of water they were coming every 5-7 minutes.  By 10:30 it was clear they weren't going to stop and that I needed to call my hubby and doctor.

After about 30 minutes of monitoring contractions at the doctor's office they decided to send me to the hospital for additional monitoring, tests, needles, etc.

Trying to have a sense of humor about the whole situation...

We went through all of this with Avery; it is somewhat comforting to understand the process, medications and treatment but I was really hoping that by some miracle we could avoid a repeat.  I was given a steroid shot to help mature the baby's lungs, and a muscle relaxant to stop the contractions which worked within five minutes but left me feeling very jittery and light-headed.  They ran a few additional tests and had us out of the hospital by mid-afternoon.

I went in the following day to see my OB and get my marching orders... praying she wouldn't put me on bed rest.  She ran a few additional tests and did a quick sonogram and everything still looks good!  At this point she is more concerned with the possibility of me developing another blood clot while on bed rest so she put me on "common sense" rest. Basically telling me I need to be a good pregnant patient and not over-exert myself.  The goal is to keep stress levels low enough that I don't start having contractions again but maintain enough daily activity to lower the chances of a blood clot.  

Whew... long post but if I don't write this stuff down I know I'll eventually forget the details.  

The bright spot to all this drama... getting to see our little guy's sweet face.  I cannot wait to meet him in 10 weeks or less!