It’s day 19, and I’m 27 weeks 1 day. That means I get to throw out this scary 26 weeker pamphlet!

Here are some important updates!

#1. I’ve started to document the strange combination of items the nurses use to try to keep the babies on the monitors. This is quite the imperfect system, and I spend many hours a day thinking “there must be a better way!” The problem is that the monitors often need to be at specific angles to capture the heart rate. This requires an elaborate combination of straps, washcloths, tape, and yesterday we even tried one of Sam’s Duplos! The nurses keep saying this gets easier as the babies get bigger, but I asked “when is that?” the other day, and the nurse said “about 32 weeks!” which is pretty much the end of the road for us. So, there’s no end in sight basically.

#2. They started me shots of blood thinner medication 3x a day. The shots leave bruises, and they inject them into my stomach. It’s horrible. The rationale is that I’m more at risk for a blood clot because I’m less active in the hospital. I tried to resist. I looked at my step count on my iPhone, and I’m actually taking more steps a day than I was before! I successfully refused 2 of the shots, but then when the doctors came back for their rounds, I caved. I guess it’s better to prevent a blood clot if we can. But I’m still going to complain about it at least 3 times a day.

#3. Art group is cancelled for the next 3 weeks!! Oh, the horror. Here is the project we did this week — tacky picture frames. Pregnancy brain must be kicking in because when I was using the stencils, I first spelled Sam’s name wrong — S A N. Then I had to redo the whole thing.

#4. The babies are doing okay. They are still small – 5th and 10th percentile, and their femur length continues to lag behind by about a week. This sort of thing is common in babies that share the same placenta, since it’s working overtime. I started doing weekly ultrasounds to check the cord flow. The one this week was fine. And the monitoring has looked good all week. I just hope they keep on growing! Last Friday, I got bumped up to 3 monitoring sessions a day after some concerning decelerations (and a new IV) on Thursday night. I’m now doing them at 8am, 2pm, and 8pm. This week has been pretty smooth heart rate wise, however the babies have not been staying still very well! Monday was the worst. The babies were very close together in a strange position — basically overlapping. In the morning session, it took 1 hour just to find them on the monitor (so that’s just the beginning of the 1 hour monitoring session), and then in the afternoon, it took 2 hours. We almost gave up in the afternoon, but we persisted and finally got them.

#5. We are getting more creative with toddler activities to do around the hospital. Some recent highlights were making water balloons out of gloves and the drinking fountain with the water bottle filler. Sam likes to “push the button” to make the water bottle filler water flow. We also continue to have fun with wheelchair rides. I love this photo of Erin and Sam down below. It’s important to note that Sam kept yelling “hey, pipe down!” He was the only person making noise.

#6. I’m grateful for all the visitors! THANK YOU! It really does help the time go by. So far, weekends have been the hardest because they feel long. There are fewer people around, a lot of my friends are off doing fun adventures so fewer lunch visitors, and I don’t work on the weekends. But the week goes by fast!

#7. It’s humbling to frequently see some legitimately sick people. It makes me thankful that I’m here for something more positive, and that I’m able to walk around freely without an IV pole.

#8. Some things about hospital life really drive me nuts. I started to lose it on Wednesday with my ultrasound. As I think I mentioned, they don’t schedule appointments for inpatients. They just take you whenever they can fit you in. Radiology called around 8:15am and said they could take me. We were about to start my morning monitoring, but we stopped that since we thought they’d come get me quickly. I’m also not allowed to walk down to the radiology department. I have to wait for hospital transport to transport me via wheelchair. It took an hour for someone to show up, and then the ultrasound itself took about an hour because they had to do a few doctor reviews. Finally, after 2 hours had gone by, I was all done, but I had to sit in a wheelchair and wait for another 10 minutes until the hospital transport people came to get me. That last 10 minutes cracked me because I CAN WALK. Then my whole day schedule was messed up because I missed the monitoring session. We ended up just doing 2 that day.

Another thing that I struggle with is how many new people are involved in my care each day. I’ll often get into a rhythm with a nurse, who works for a few days in a row. Then, due to nursing schedules, that nurse doesn’t come back for many many days or I just happen to get a different one, so I get a new nurse. It’s hard to find my babies on the monitor, so it takes some practice and experience with them. It’s annoying to have to start that over so often when I get a new nurse.

I feel similarly about the rotating attending OB. The one this week put everyone on floor on blood thinner. I’m sure it’s a great precaution, but it’s just annoying to have different people involved each week. My main doctor was on vacation this week, too, so I haven’t been able to talk to her about the blood thinner shots. It’s just been difficult to feel like I don’t have someone around who I know. The residents have been consistent, which helps a little, but that’s also different.

#9. I have been alternating between a lot of activities to stay busy:

• Crochet – In addition to the ice cream cone, I’m working on a cowel thingie.
• Weaving – I made a pig for the baby room since it’s the year of the pig! My next project will be a cow for Sam.
  
• Guitar – This is getting a bit awkward as I get bigger, so I don’t practice that much, but I try to do a little every day
• Reading Harry Potter. I’ve never read it, and I figured that now is the time.
• Watching the last season of Orange is the New Black. I also started watching Schitt’s Creek. I tried Game of Thrones but it’s just too complicated for this situation and I’m not interested in it.
• Working!
• Going on walks and sitting outside as much as possible

I am starting to worry that I won’t complete all of my intended tasks!