Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers
Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers
Lilypie First Birthday tickers

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

The Day Has Come

Well, the day has come...no...I'm not talking about having a baby. My blog has run out of space for pictures. Since I doubt you would enjoy a blog without pictures I had to either pay for more storage (you know I'm too cheap for that) or I could start a new blog. So head on over to www.theballardlife.blogspot.com to continue following our growing family! Hope to hear from you soon!

Erica

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

A very long night

It all started last Monday. It was a normal Monday. The kids and I went to the gym. I did my water aerobics class although I wasn't feeling very well. I just felt really tired. When we got home from the gym I fixed some lunch and made a grocery list. The kids and I headed out to HEB. We returned home about 2 hours later, put up the groceries and I started on dinner. During dinner I really started to feel bad. I went to lay down on the bed and called my mom. As I'm talking to her (and finally laying still for the first time all day) I realized I was having contractions. I decided they were strong enough, close enough together and I was hurting enough that I wanted to go to the hospital. Beau called Rob and Shelli to come over to watch the kids and we hopped in teh car.

When I got to Labor and Delivery they put me in a triage room and hooked me up to the monitors. I was contracting at least every 5 minutes. They checked my cervix and gave me about a gallon of water to drink. After about an hour they checked me again. I hadn't changed enough to say I need to stay so they gave me a shot of Demerol and Phenergan to help me relax and sleep. They sent me home with instructions to come back if they continued and were bad enough that I couldn't sleep.

Two hours later I couldn't sleep and the contractions were even closer together. If I had been thinking like a nurse I would have told myself to give it a little more time since oral hydration takes longer to take affect than if I had been given an IV. However, I was thinking like a mom, not a nurse and am so nervous that my labor will go really fast (and I won't have time for an epidural) so I woke Beau up and made him take me back to the hospital.

My cervix still wasn't changing (which was a good thing - I wasn't actually in labor). They gave me more water and made me stay for another hour or two to make sure my contractions were slowing down.

At this point (about 4 in the morning) my support staff succumb to his primal desires...

I already had an OB appointment the next day. When I saw my OB he decided, for my piece of mind (I do not want to have to send my baby to the NICU if I can help it at all) he would put me on bedrest and give me a medication to try to slow contractions.

So far its been 5 days on bedrest. I've gotten quite a bit of busy work done, but my house is a wreck. I think Beau may be realizing just how much I do during the day. Since its so hard for me to relax in a messy/dirty house I've gotten up a few times a day to try to clean the kitchen or do some laundry, but it really takes it out of me and I usually end up with a lot of contractions and take a pill to try to stop them.

I would really like to make it to 38 weeks, not sure if that will happen though. Although the OB joked that after all this work to try and hold off labor I'll probably end up needing to be induced!! Ha! I have another appointment on Wednesday. We'll see how my body is responding and go from there...

I have some precious friends that are really taking care of us though. We are truely blessed.