Back to blogging...

Well, it has been quite the eventful couple of weeks. Let's start with the trip back east. Saturday, July 19 started with a wonderful surprise baby shower at Dad and Elaine's (orchestrated by Jacqui!), continued with cousin Erica's wedding (lovely and had a great time), and ended with a 1:00am trip to Abington Hospital's emergency room because I was bleeding.

A sleepless night with terrible residents and wonderful nurses trying to diagnose the problem. Thankfully they determined my water was not broken. Had a couple hours of contractions which eased after they put in a bag of IV fluids. Ended up staying there for 36 hours (until mid-day Monday) hooked up to a fetal heart rate and contraction monitor under observation. The whole family was so wonderful and visited multiple times per day. Mom was kind enough to bring us some reading material (see alarming titles in photo below...what was she thinking bringing these to the hospital?)!



Ordered home to bed rest until I could get cleared to fly. Here's a tired but excited Erica getting wheeled out to the car (I look awful.)



Once home at mom's, got lots of visits from more family and friends (special thanks to Amy and the Newhart's, who drove down from Brooklyn)! Doctor's visit on Friday 7/25 allowed me to do so, but couldn't arrange a flight back home until Tuesday 7/30. Arriving home Tuesday afternoon was such a great relief! Back on our home turf with our familiar doctors. Not to mention we missed Major terribly.

Doctor's appointments on Wednesday were a mixed bag...first appointment with OB went well. She was thrilled I had no symptoms for over a week and cleared me to slowly build back up to a normal routine. Freedom! But, she sent me along for my precautionary ultrasound that afternoon. Well, ultrasound showed I have a shortened cervix (only 26mm, which is very low for 30 weeks). Suddenly we found ourselves having a non-stress test (no contractions, we passed), and a fetal fibronectin test (negative, we passed again). The back half of the week found us right back where we started; at risk for pre-term labor and on strict bed rest.

So, I can be found either in my bed or on my sofa until Wednesday, 8/13, when I'll have the next ultrasound. The docs don't want to predict anything yet, but my prediction is continued bed rest of the cervical length is the same or shorter than last measurement. We shall see. In the meantime, feel free to call or e-mail to entertain me!