And just like that...

We're home again. Minimal contracting overnight with no changes in the cervix this morning. Glad to be out of the hospital.

On a side note, today is 1 year from Sara's due date last year. Definitely saw a couple butterflies around the house when we got home.

Have a good weekend, hopefully you won't hear from us until Ava makes her arrival once everyone involved is ready for her.

The worst part is the waiting.

Wednesday night, after Krystal's medicine pump decided to shut itself off, her body decided it was time for another round of contractions. Unfortunately, getting the pump restarted and giving a couple extra doses of medicine wasn't enough to calm things back down. So off to the hospital we went.

This time around, however, the magnesium didn't work as quickly as last time. 2 days into our stay, it was still requiring a high dose to keep them under control. Today, we're trying the combination of terbutaline pump and magnesium to get them under better control with the eventual goal of just the pump being needed to keep them slowed. Until then, we remain in the hospital.

Prayers are always appreciated. Expect another update when we have a big change from the present, either going home or progression to labor.

Life's more fun when you make it interesting

Not really, but that's what we seem to do anyway.

So anyway, Krystal home alone Friday as I was at the hospital on call. Sometime Friday evening Krystal hears the sound of water running coming from the bathrooms. She goes to look with no evidence of any water running. Later on, the sound gets louder, but still no evidence of water anywhere. Worried about a busted pipe, she goes outside to see if there's any water out there.

Upon turning the corner to the front of the house, she sees water coming from the ground in front of the house. After shining the flashlight on it, she realizes that it's the front yard spigot that's been turned on and is gushing water. Next thing she knows she sees/hears the bushes rustling and gets spooked. She quickly tries to get back inside but falls on the way up the steps to the door, though only hitting her shoulder and knees, belly spared.

Needless to say, Krystal's scared and she calls me freaking out. I immediately work things out to leave the hospital and come home to check on her. I get the water turned off and there's no evidence of anyone hanging out in the brush surrounding the house. Krystal decides to go ahead and call the on-call doctor just for safety's sake and peace of mind. On-call doctor decides it's best for Krystal to come in and be watched on the monitor, again just for peace of mind. At this point, she wasn't feeling any more contractions than normal.

Upon arrival and getting strapped to the monitor, little Ava was doing well, moving all over the place, unfortunately Krystal was having 12-15 contractions per hour. At first they decided to wait and see if her midnight bolus of medication would calm things down. Of course, this didn't happen, and of course, Krystal's cervix changed a little bit, from 1cm to 2ish, so they switched from her terbutaline pump to IV magnesium.

Initially wanting to start out with a big loading dose prior to changing to a lower constant rate, Krystal's blood pressure didn't tolerate this, dropping to the 70s over 40s. A slower bolus of magnesium was given and she was then switched over to a maintenance rate. Slowly things began calm down.

Once morning arrived and the doctor came by on rounds, he decided it would be best to restart her pump and slowly back off the magnesium as contractions would allow. Things calmed down well, and by about 3pm, she was off the magnesium and on a new, higher dose of the terbutaline pump. Everything stayed calm, Krystal continued to have her usual rate of about 2 contractions per hour and we were allowed to go home.

33 weeks arrives Tuesday, just 4 weeks until term. Medications will most likely stop at 36 weeks, so we'll see how long miss Ava will decide to wait.

Thanks to all for continued prayers!

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day

Last year we learned that October 15th is the international Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day. Interestingly, the group that promotes this awareness day uses a butterfly in their logo, something we didn't know last year when we first felt the connection to butterflies last year with Sara.

Krystal is still pregnant, now almost 32 weeks. She's doing well except for going stir-crazy after having been on bed-rest for almost 2 months now. Ava-Marie's arrival is rapidly approaching, to the point of us getting a bit nervous. We're ready for her to be here, but obviously not until it's the healthiest time for her. We breathed a big sigh of relief recently when we passed the 30 week mark. Term is 37 weeks, and Krystal is putting her money down on a Thanksgiving baby. We shall see. It's not too far off.

One year later...

It's hard to believe an entire year has passed since we lost our precious Sara Kay. We have held true to our promises, not a night has gone by that we haven't told her good night. Even when I have to spend the night in the hospital, I make sure to take the time to call Krystal so we can tell her good night together.

A shadowbox holding the gown the hospital dressed her in hangs in our bedroom. A friend of ours created a framed work of art using flowers from her funeral. We always stop by her grave site whenever we are able to make it to Mobile.

We are blessed to have her in our life. We miss her everyday and long for the day when we get to hold her in our arms again. It hasn't gotten any easier over time, the pain still stings just as deep.

If today you see any daisies or butterflies, please remember Sara.

Another Week, Another Doctor's Visit

We had our weekly trip to the OB today. No changes in the cervix so we stay the course with bedrest and the terbutaline pump. We also add another medication in the form of a shot. That's right, in addition to sticking Krystal with a needle every other day to change the site of her pump, I am giving her weekly progesterone shots.

Krystal also got to drink 50 grams of sugar for her 1-hour glucose tolerance test. She failed it last year and had to do the 3-hour test, so let's hope we don't have to go through that one again.

Thanks again for all the continued prayers!

Bedrested

It's been a while since the last update, so this one is going to be a big one. For the past month or so, Krystal has been feeling an off and on tightening, about once an hour, sometimes more, most of the time less. Regardless, enough to worry her. It led to one early appointment (which was actually the one with the ultrasounds from last month) and a trip to the L&D floor to see if anything showed up on the contraction monitor. Nothing did either time, however at our last visit a week ago, the doctor noted her cervix to be dilated 1cm (previously had been completely closed).

We spent that night on the L&D floor so stay on the monitor for a prolonged period of time and when we were discharged the next morning it was on terbutaline and procardia to limit/stop the contractions. Today we went back to the doctor, cervix was unchanged, however due to the medications not completely stopping the tightening, she has now been placed on bedrest and will be put on a terbutaline pump.

Any and all prayers are appreciated, it's going to be a long 4 months.