Passing Time

On one hand my days to have some flow and on the other hand they don't.  Yesterday I woke up ridiculously early excited about the inauguration.  I had a steady flow of visitors which was really nice, but by last night I was exhausted.  Wouldn't you know, the one night I'm completely exhausted the babies stayed on the monitors perfectly, not a problem even when I got up to go to the bathroom.  I got to sleep peacefully without interruption.  My nurse actually came in this morning to say bye because she hadn't seen me all night.  

My daily walk is throughout labor & delivery and the postpartum area.  I try to stop in and wave to the NICU staff and occasionally I see babies in the regular nursery.  That is really the highlight of trip.  

Bored

It's almost noon and I've already done the two things I set out to do today.  Now, for the first time, I'm bored.  Thank goodness its almost lunch time.  

Start of a New Week

I am pleased to say I am in a much better mood than I was yesterday.  I got a full night's sleep and the nurse only needed to come in once to adjust the monitors.  I think it is a matter of style on how each nurse handles "continuous" monitoring.

I met my new perinatalogist today and was very pleased.  He did a full scan ultrasound and we talked about some of my desires including delivery at 36 weeks.  He was so pleased with how great the twins are doing, how their cords looked, and how they have been behaving for the monitors that he agreed that if everything continues down this path that 36 weeks is doable.  Of course things CAN change in an instant, but so far so good and we can only take it one day at a time.

I also learned that the twins weigh almost 3 lbs each! 

The Last 24 Hours

The last 24 hours have been a little strained.  It started Friday evening when my nurse woke me almost every hour to find the babies.  While this can be quite common, I had not had this experience yet.  My previous nights consisted of me getting up and going to the bathroom multiple times in the evening and occasionally needing assistance getting the babies back on and staying on the monitors.  The nurses came in twice maybe three times in the night.  

Because the babies move often it is possible that they will come off the monitors and then come back on within a matter of seconds to a few minutes.  As long as they have shown good and consistent heartbeats prior to coming off the monitor this is not a problem.  Friday night it was a problem!  The nurse assigned to me used every possible moment to come and adjust them.  SIGH!  I didn't get any sleep.

If I don't get sleep for a good reason then I am a little more tolerant, but when I look up and she is walking into the room AND the babies are already back on the monitor before she touches them I am not happy.  So I woke up on Saturday very tired and frustrated.  

Going into the day tired I decided to take a nap after lunch.  Unfortunately, that didn't happen because physical therapy and my OB stopped by.  By the time my visitors were gone I was too awake to nap.

To add to it, my son got sick the night before so I was a little worried about him.  We think it was food related, but still not fun.  He and my husband didn't come to see me last night because he wasn't feeling at 100% yet.  I was a little sad, but knew that I needed my sleep so it was probably for the best.

Today I woke up with only 1 interruption!! I got a full night's sleep. YAY!   I get to catch up on my Sunday morning politics and root for the Steelers this afternoon.

The Small Things

The staff at the hospital has just been phenominial.  I'm the only long term patient right now so everyone pops in to say hi figuring they will be assigned to me at some point.

I got a fridge in my room.  YAY!!  I can keep all sorts of goodies in there so that's very cool.  Also the family came by to visit today.  No nap for the preschooler 2 days in a row make it difficult for a visit, so tonight was the first night since I've been here that they've been able to come visit.  I was also able to talk to the nutritionist who was able to make some arrangements for me to receive supplements to my meals.  I have been very diligent about keeping up my caloric and protein intake and was not sure how much the hospital would be able to help me meet the same goals.  The nutritionist added snacks and made a few other suggestions to the meal plan.  Very excited.

I've said it before, but I think all the mental prep I did to prior to being admitted has been really helpful.  Mind you, its only Day 2, but I'm feeling pretty good about my stay.  I want the twins to stay in as long as possible and every day I am here is 1 more day.

Setting a Schedule

Because I want to try to stay busy and make the best use of my time I'm pretty set on setting a schedule.  I know it's silly of me, but I feel like it will bring order to the day/week.

Here's what I've got so far - 

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday  - ultrasounds

Shower after breakfast

Work after lunch including job hunting for friends and non-profit work

Catch up on podcasts during work time

Evening with the family

That's it for now.  

Inpatient at the Hospital

Today is my first official day in the hospital.  It doesn't feel real yet.  Kind of surreal actually.  So I'm 27 1/2 weeks and am hoping to deliver at 36 weeks.  That means a little over 2 months in the hospital.  

The twins are doing great.  While we have our moments, they are pretty much staying on the monitors great.  I had a good 4 hour stretch this afternoon in which they were on the entire time. 

I'm feeling ok right now.  I've had time to prepare and my brief stay a few weeks ago was a bit of a reality check.  Got my Netflix, got my library books, and I've got some work to do.  Going to think about a routine and try to get fully settled in.