Surrogacy Update-I had an interesting day yesterday, to say the least

At my 31 week OB appt., I explained to the doctor how I had contractions from about 1am-10am on Sunday morning. They were painful, 2-4 min. apart, caused me back/abdominal pain and ranged from 30 seconds-2 min. each. I took it super easy and waited until shift change at the hospital because I didn't want to be the gal who made an OB get up from their slumber for a possible false alarm. Clayton made me some breakfast and then they stopped, thank God. Well, thanks to all the recent activity I was dialated to a 1. They decided to give me a test that can detect changes in hormones that could possibly lead to pre-term labor. I took it 2 weeks ago also due to contractions and passed it. This time I wasn't so lucky. The nurse that called with the results said that failing was pretty rare so they felt it necessary to do more monitoring and tests to check on baby.

FYI-just because I failed the test does not mean that I will go into labor in the immediate future. It just means that I have had a hormone shift and that *could* indicate labor approaching (or not). "Could" is the operative word here.

My instructions were to head up to Fort Collins for monitoring at the hospital there. I picked up the boys from their schools and tried to get in touch with my husband a million times to no avail. Ugh! Why is it that he is completely unreachable when I need him most?? I drove over to his work and hung out in the lobby about 30 min. before I even saw anyone that could help me locate him. All the people that I had numbers for weren't at their desks and there was no one near the front to ask help from (the problem is that the building has major security and you can't walk past the lobby without an ID badge). Finally a gal came through the security gate as she was leaving for the day and I stopped her. Thankfully she knew how to page Clayton. He was shocked to know that I was in the building and left work immediately.

We checked into the hospital just before 5pm and I got settled in with an external monitor. Baby girl was ticked off having that belt around me. She kept kicking at it which made it difficult for the nurse to keep the monitor on her. Heck, she can't stand when the kids lay against me, when I prop a book on my belly or when Clayton puts his arm around me so this was no shock, hee hee. The kids and Clayton took off to eat at Coopersmith's and I enjoyed room service (the food is actually good!). After a while on the monitor, the OB made the decision to give me a steroid shot to help develop the baby's lungs just in case she is a preemie. About 45min. after that, they gave me another shot to help stop contractions. That was only a temporary thing though and it wore off in 30 min. As soon as it wore off, I began having lots of contractions which was weird. They made the decision to send me home as long as I felt good and gave me some pills to stop the contractions at home. I have to take them around the clock. Unfortunately, I have already experienced a few contractions despite the pills so we will just have to wait and see what is going to happen. I have to go back to the hospital tonight to get a second dose of the steroid and then report back to my OB in her office on either Thursday or Friday. Fun stuff I tell ya.

It really doesn't help that I have to keep going up to Fort Collins for everything as that is a 45 min. drive each way for me. My local hospital doesn't have a NICU and my OB is only in the local office one day a week making it impossible for this to be easy. Oh well, at least baby girl is being given the best shot at survival should she make her appearance early into the world. If she didn't get those shots then she could have major issues breathing due to lung maturity. Thank the Lord for modern science. :)