First Hospital Stay

My uterus is giving up although praise God my cervix is holding strong. Thursday was a day full of contractions. Random ones sometimes 5 mins apart and some getting stronger throughout the day. Thursday night I was having the stronger contractions that woke me up every 1/2 hr. Friday, I kept having contractions ranging in times. By 7 I'd have a few hours of strong ones 5 minutes apart. So I called the doc of call and it was the doctor that was mean. lol He told me to come to the hospital and to be prepared to spend the night. When I got there he checked my cervix and it was still closed....very good news. My uterus however is tired of stretching and carrying these babies and my body thinks it's time to go into labor. They put me on monitors for the contractions and for each baby. I continued to have 5 min contractions. The babies were doing well though with varied heart rates with their movement which is what they look for and their heart rates weren't dropping due to the contractions which is really good. They came in and brought me a big mug of water which they wanted me to drink as fast as I could without getting sick. I started on that and told the nurse that we hadn't had a chance to eat dinner and she asked if I wanted anything and I joked that ice cream would be great. She was so nice, she brought both Nick and I ice cream. The contractions continued . . . next they brought me medicine and an IV. The medicine  (Nifedipine) is supposed to make my uterus relax and calm the contractions. There was a student nurse helping and the main nurse asked if I was freaked out by blood and needles. I said no and she had the student nurse administer my IV. That was interesting. :) The girl was so sweet though and the nurse was so nice. At first she couldn't get a vein to pop and I asked her to take the bands off to me to get feeling in my arm again for a sec. lol Then she tried again and the nurse found one to use. She put the needle in and was moving it around trying to get the vein. The nurse was telling her not to roll under it. Then once she got it in she was afraid to push in it too far. lol The nurse kept telling her to push it in further. I was just thinking to myself that anyone with needle/blood issues would have passed out by now. Then she gets it in deep enough and she goes to draw some blood before attaching the IV and she forgets to clamp it and blood started squirting out every where. lol I noticed then that neither of them had gloves on. The other nurse attached the tube quickly. Then she attaches the IV and it keeps beeping saying there are bubbles. I thought of my brother because he always freaks out about air being in the IV. They kept tapping it and clamping it and got it going. She was so nice that it was hard to even tease her much about it. After all the blood was cleaned up, they and the contractions continued, they came in again. The student told me I was gonna really love her now. She had to give me a shot. lol Since my contractions wouldn't slow down they decided to give me a shot of betamethasone which is a steroid to help the babies lungs develop in case I gave birth within the next 48 hrs. That kinda freaked me out. I asked why since my cervix wasn't opening, but they said they wanted to do it in case as a "vitamin" of sorts. They told me it would but that shot stung more then any I've had. lol I thought it would be the quick sting of it going in but it kept stinging down my leg. The girl did very well at the shot and it was quick. :) So they decided at this point that we were staying the night, so they were trying to free up a regular room for us. We got settled in there and they came back to give me another dose of the medicine. They checked my blood pressure first and it had dropped to 80/50 which apparently was from the medicine. They held off another 2 hrs and my blood pressure came back up. They took the babies off the monitor in hopes that I would be able to sleep and gave me a sleeping pill. My contractions continued every 5 minutes until 6 am when they slowed down. I didn't get a blink of rest until then. The 4 bags of IV helped with my bathroom visits as well although honestly I think I am up almost the same at home. The nurse brought me some food at 5 am and I was starving. I had two bowls of cereal and felt better. I slept from 6-8 am and the contractions didn't wake me. She said I was still having them but they were significantly smaller. They decided to monitor the babies a little and then send me home. They didn't have much luck keeping the babies on the monitor because they were in there having a party. They were happy the contractions were calmed too I'm sure. I did get to hear the boys hiccups which was really cool. I know what that feels like now. He was hiccupping for a long time this morning. Anyhow, the doctor came in to see me and said he was calling in a prescription for the nifedipine for me and I am supposed to take that every 6 hours. He said he wasn't going to put me on bed rest but he wants me resting at home and getting up for small things around the house. He said the only thing I should be doing is resting at home and going to my docs appts. It didn't hit me until after he left but that means not leaving the house!!! I went home and slept a little. I started having contractions again but then they eased up. I feel like I gained a lot of water weight from those IV's. My ankles have been swollen since. They told me to drink, drink, drink. So I'm trying my best. I don't want these contractions to send me in there until another 2 weeks are up. I asked the doc how to know when to come in since I'm having them so much. He said it's hard to say. He said I made the right choice to come in this time and he said if the same thing happens again where the stronger contractions won't settle to come in again. He said it may take a few times of this and next time it may mean stronger medicine in my IV that would keep me in the hospital a few days. I don't like the sound of that. I'd read that the stronger medicine makes the mother really sick. I'm hoping things don't progress to that over these next 2 weeks. I keep saying 2 weeks because maternal fetal medicine told me if I go into labor after 34 weeks they won't stop it. I'm guessing the docs I go to are on the same page. I hope they are anyhow. Soooo....last night, contractions every 1/2 hr and this morning every 5 mins again. I'm drinking lots to try and get them to slow down and I just took my medicine. Contractions, settle already! I think those steroids beefed the babies up....lol....I've noticed my belly is now resting on my lap..........getting bigger and bigger.