Happy 4th!

Happy 4th everyone! Hopefully you and yours are doing something fun today. We are celebrating this holiday with tons of thanks that Baby M is still doing great inside and is getting closer to 28 weeks. We are thankful that I feel as well as I do and that I have been able to good a decent night's sleep lately along with naps during the days. We are thankful for the caring doctors and nurses here. We pray every day that Baby M will have more time to cook so that she can be stronger and healthier whenever it is her time to enter the world. We have been told again and again by the doctors that we won't make it to full term, and we appreciate every extra day we can get.

Yesterday, I met with two women from physical therapy and occupational therapy. My doctor ordered the consult per my request to exercise a bit in bed if they will not allow me to walk. The physical therapist gave me several different exercises to do twice a day. She will come by a few times per week to check in my progress. When I was in the hospital 10 years ago, I saw how quickly muscle atrophy can take place when I was stuck in a hospital bed and I want to try to maintain a little more strength this time around. To be careful, the physical therapist took my blood pressure before and after the exercises, and there was no drastic change.

To see how other women have handled hospital bed rest during pregnancy, I googled "how to survive hospital bed rest" and came up with all sorts of links. One link that was particularly interesting was from a woman who was having triplets and was on hospital bed rest for 100 days. She created a survival guide and some of the main points that stood out were how she had goals (however small) to reach for and she had a routine. Granted, in a hospital environment it is very hard to know who will be coming in your room, when each procedure will be happening, etc. It sounded like she took control in the areas where she could - what she ate, when she showered, and when she had visitors. She also worked towards goals for her and her triplets. In pregnancy, there are certain milestones for a baby's development. The first is 24 weeks, which is viability. The next is 28 weeks, then 30 weeks, then 32 weeks. We have to remind ourselves that we got to the hospital in time at 25 weeks and we are almost to the next milestone of 28 weeks. My doctors goal is to get me to 28 weeks (this Friday), but if the baby looks ok and I look ok, then they said we will keep going.

We have had bumps in the road, but all in all, we are on a good path. Baby M is almost three weeks past where she was when I was transported here via helicopter and told that delivery was likely. The interesting thing that I learned from my nurse last might is that the gal in the room next to mine (whom I refer to as my neighbor since we share a bathroom) has been here just as long as me. We were admitted the same day. Apparently, she is being monitored the same way I am, gets the same daily ultrasounds, and has the same dietary restrictions. My nurse suggests that we meet because we are both going through something so similar. There may be a way for us to meet, but we'll need to let the nurses arrange that since we are both tied down to our beds a.k.a strapped to monitors.

My dad flew into town this morning and Ray picked him up at the airport and then they drove straight to the hospital. My dad was able to watch the BPP and doppler ultrasounds and get a good explantion about everything from the ultrasound tech and then we got a wheelchair pass so I could eat lunch with them in the cafeteria. To keep with the theme of the holiday, we all ordered some type of bbq dish. We came back to my room and then I took a nap while they went back to the house. They will be here tonight and hopefully it will be clear enough for us to go up to the roof to watch downtown fireworks. Apparently, there are now three of us in the high risk unit who have preeclampsia issues. The third gal was flown in from Chandler Regional last night. Sound familiar?

I'm not sure why I can't get the photo below to be right-side-up, but it is a photo of the view from my room. It's a lot better than the pipes, right? We moved my bed today so that I can see out the window all the time. The sun is setting right now, and it is beautiful.