Its time for another exciting installment of The Chronicles of Bed Rest!
We crossed another threshold last Wednesday with the passing of week 28, and I’m thrilled to say the girls are still doing wonderfully. The sonogram last Friday indicated that Jenn’s cervix continues to be stable and the girls are healthy, happy 2 ½ pound bundles of joy. The docs seemed pleased with their progress and the plan remains unchanged for the foreseeable future. Jenn and I are obviously thrilled to have reached this milestone, but still feel we have a ways to go and are hoping to maintain the status quo as long as possible.
As has been the case throughout this process, week 28 came with its own set of new procedures, tests, treatments, and aggravations. The doctors started Jenn on a new medication that helps slow and control contractions as a mitigation against the onset of pre-term labor. Jenn has only had a few isolated contractions and shown no significant signs of labor to this point, but we are definitely glad to have the extra insurance. She and the girls also received another round of steroid shots to help speed up lung development and better prepare the girls for “life on the outside”.
As time progresses and the weeks of bed rest accumulate, things are getting exponentially harder on Jenny physically. There aren’t any major new issues or serious concerns at this point, just the growing physical burden of carrying twins and the inevitable aches and pains that come from lying in bed for weeks on end. I think we’ve entered the phase where physical discomfort will start becoming a bigger factor than emotional distress.
Last Friday, we spent part of the afternoon visiting with the doctors, nurses and patient support staff from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). It was very informative and quite re-assuring to know our girls will be in such capable hands, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t pretty emotional and a bit scary. No matter how many US Weekly Octomom stories you’ve read, nothing quite prepares you for getting up close and personal with a 2 pound baby. It’s certainly going to take some time to adjust to the sights, sounds, and emotions of the NICU, but I feel confident that our sneak preview will help ease the transition.
On a more comedic note, Jenn was visited this week by both the “head chef” and “VP of cafeterias” to discuss her food service “issues”. Apparently, her outrageous requests for sliced apples that haven’t gone bad before they arrive and peanut butter on bread required executive level attention. In a delightful stroke of irony, their solution was to offer the woman who can’t leave her bed a gift card for free meals in the cafeteria 2 buildings over from hers :)
Let me end this note the way I normally begin, by showering praise on my beloved bride
In case I haven’t mentioned it a thousand times before, I’m really, really, really proud of our Jenny and how well she’s handled this emotionally and physically draining situation. While the ordeal is clearly hardest on her, she goes out of her way to put on a happy face and try to make it easier on me and everyone else around her. Selfless and putting the feelings of others in front of her own…I don’t think you can define being a Mommy any more simply and perfectly than that J
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