lots of rest ahead

Man, and I thought we were ending all of this eventful, dramatic blog posting. Sadly, our smooth sailing has been suddenly halted. Last Wednesday, I started having some contractions and pressure. I came into my doctor on Thursday and they discovered that I was 1cm dilated and my cervix was shortened.

I was quickly sent up to Labor & Delivery to be monitored for about an hour. My contractions had all stopped at the point and Lila's heart rate and movements were great. They decided to send me home on modified bed rest until I could see my doctor this Tuesday. That means I am only allowed off the couch or bed for bathroom and shower breaks.

As a precautionary measure, they went ahead and gave me a dose of steroid injections to boost Lila's lung developments. This will be critical to her lung development at birth (no matter how early she is born) and can increase her lung maturity by up to 2 weeks ahead of her development. For example, if she was born at 32 weeks, the steroids could potentially have allowed her lungs to develop as if she was 34 weeks gestation, which is a huge difference.

We rested on Thursday night and Friday, but ended up back in Labor & Delivery on Friday night due to some more pressure. At this point, they did a test called a fetal fibronectin test, which showed that I was positive for an increased risk of going into labor prematurely. They decided to measure my cervix again and found that miraculously, it had lengthened considerably since being checked the day before! According to the doctor on Friday night, the only way that could have happened is if it had been measured incorrectly on Thursday. Seeing as how one of the attending Maternal Fetal Medicine specialists had done the measurement himself (and I am pretty sure he has the skills down), we are thanking God for acting in a way that only he could. Based off of those measurements, they sent me back home to rest over the weekend.

I am going back to my doctor tomorrow afternoon to hopefully get some answers and a game plan. At this point, we are not sure what is causing these preterm labor symptoms, or what we can do to stop them other than rest. We also do not know any statistics about how likely we are to deliver early or when we can expect for that to happen.

Both Brian and I are feeling very calm at the moment and just praying that God give the doctor a clear diagnosis tomorrow. We also know that every minute the Lila stays inside of me, she gets stronger and bigger. We appreciate everyone's prayers for Lila and her continued safety and will continue to update as we get more information.

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
~Psalm 139: 13-16