My first bout with Preterm Labor (Feb 12, the 2020)

I’m not sure when they say your motherly instincts kick in, but I sure felt mine ready to jump through the ceiling on Wednesday evening.

While working Wednesday at UChicago, I starting having heavy and painful contractions with lots of pelvic pressure. I called my doctor and told a few coworkers that I needed to go to Labor & Deliver in Comer Children’s hospital to be put on a fetal monitor. Carmen, who also happened charge nurse for my department that day, dropped everything to rush me over in a wheelchair to L&D triage. I’m so thankful that this happened at work with co-workers who understood I needed to leave immediately to make sure my 29 week old twins weren’t starting to go into preterm labor.

Being a twin mom, my uterus measured at least 39 weeks, and falsely told my body I was ready for delivery.

After the Triage nurses hooked me up for fetal non-stress test, as well as a few cervix exams etc… it was clear that I was in preterm labor, and was no question going to be admitted to the hospital overnight. I put my battle face on and told myself I would do whatever they told me to do to try and stop the labor.

My doctor told me if i hadn’t gotten there as fast as I did, I would’ve delivered them that evening.

By around 6pm I was admitted to an L&D room, hooked up to continuous fetal monitoring, started magnesium drip, indocin, and other medications to protect our premature babies should I go into labor that night. We met with OB, anesthesia, maternal fetal medicine, & neonatology etc… everyone was preparing for a delivery, which at that point would’ve been an emergent c-section as going into labor would’ve been very dangerous for me as my OB doctor told me she could not rule out a velamentous cord insertion (VCI – which is a placental abnormality). For me, this means if I were to deliver vaginally, one of my babies could exsanguinate (loose all blood in the body) and die immediately.* I was also told that if our babies were born right now at 29 weeks among other issues, they would struggle just to breathe and would be taken immediately and urgently to NICU (after being lined (big venous catheters) probably intubated (breathing tube) eTc… for transport to NICU.

Neonatology told us that at this time, every week I can stay pregnant dramatically increases our babies chances from having more detrimental and life threatening conditions as they could continue to grow develop in the womb.

Despite being told all this, being extremely uncomfortable on the Magnesium drip and other meds with the continuous fetal monitoring for two babies that, by the way, didn’t want to stay put (meaning the nurses were constantly readjusting my fetal monitors to hear heart tones). I could hardly move without disrupting and the nurses having to readjust these. Also on IV fluid, and with the pelvic pressure I wanted to urinate constantly, but also didn’t want to keep moving and not allowing the staff to have vital info they needed on our babies to assist with determining if I needed to go to surgery or not. Needless to say, lots of discomfort.

On top of all this, with the room set up with premie infant incubators, delivery cart, etc.. Incase We didn’t make it to the OR around the corner, I was told I needed to stay calm and relax as the contractions were increasing. So I prayed and decided to focus on my breathing. One Breath in, one breath out, two breaths in, two breaths out, etc… Somehow God helped us get through this and I didn’t deliver our kids in the first hour which was the first milestone, and immediately after, the second milestone which was two hours later.

Wednesday night was one of the longest nights of our lives. By the morning I was told that I could stop the magnesium drip and continuous fetal monitoring with a switch to an intermittent schedule. I was also so happy to hear the neonatologist tell me I would be downgraded to an Antepartum room. My cervix stopped dilating further and the contractions I was having were very mild, especially compared to the ones I was having while at work.

I know we’re not out of the woods yet, as our goal is to make it to at least 34 weeks with modified bedrest. We are taking it one step at a time and are focused on making it to 32 weeks first.

While we are appropriately nervous and cautious, we are just so thankful that we aren’t currently watching our babies struggle to breathe etc… and fight for their lives in the NICU. We mentally prepared ourselves for it Wednesday (I guess about as much as anyone can) although knowing you can’t REALLY prepare yourself for something like that.

My heart goes out to any parent who has ever had to see their baby/ babies go through this. Although I know the NICU at UChicago Medicine is a great place to be if you need it, It’s hard to fathom going through this.

We have strapped our boots on (as best as someone can) and prepared ourselves for whatever we have to do. We are going to do our best to fight for these babies and hopefully stay pregnant for at least the next month or so.

Thank you to all the good friends and family around us, keep us in your prayers as we fight for our babies.

God Bless!!!

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I wrote the above one week after my first fright with preterm labor. It was intense and exhausting. I thank my wonderful team, my hubby, and meditation. So glad we were able to stop it.

#PretermLabor #NICUAwarenessMonth #Preeclampsia #PreemieStrong #33weeks #VCI #EmergencyCSection #Preemie #TwinPregnancy #TwinMom #TwinMomLife

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