Saturday at the birth center

Greetings from the birth center! We had an eventful last day or so & things are going well.

Theresa was on an i.v. of magnesium sulfate all day to put the brakes on the contractions. That worked for quite some time, long enough for her to get the 2nd shot of the steriods that are designed to speed up lung development in preemies.

I forget the name of the steriod, but they only give it when pre-term birth seems inevitible. It comes in a big needle and they give you a shot in the ass with it. The first shot Tee had went in a bit better than the second one, which made her bum hurt for a time.

Maybe it's no surprise, but there are only women that work here. I've seen one dude since I got here and the rest are ladies.

So, the magnesium! Holy shit. When it's brought up around here, the staff get a pained look on their face. Then, softly, they'd ask, "Did they tell you what to expect with that?"

Um, they did, and you're supposed to expect, it seems, to get your ass kicked. Tight chest, headache, overheating. Deep, deep malaise.

It did its job, though, at least for a while, and she had minimal contractions yesterday and throughout the night.

Most babies, when their mom's are on magnesium!, absorb some of the side effects of the meds and are listless, don't move around much, and sometimes have lowered heart rate. Not my son! He's been in there playing tic-tac-toe with himself and jump rope with the umbilical cord. It's been kind of a wow factor with the nurses when they see his heartrate and stuff - pretty cool. Regardless of what else is happening, Fenix is super healthy.

After a time - oh dark thirty this morning - the magnesium! wore off and the contractions returned. Not returned in a "oh gosh this baby is about to come out" but "yyyyyep, that's a contraction. yyyep, that's another one", etc. So, thankfully, they removed the magnesium! i.v. and T started to feel better in pretty short order.

So here we are, Saturday morning. Been here at the birthing center since Thursday afternoon. Theresa is on bed rest, which not only means that she's in bed except for trips to the bathroom, but that she needs to be in bed in such a manner that does not put weight, and therefore stress, on her cervix. = lying down. = boring.

We're in the "wait and see what happens next" phase. Either labor will begin in earnest, or not.

Stay tuned!