32 weeks! One goal down, next stop 34 weeks!

What a week! My contractions have become stronger and more frequent. The cramping is all the time so between the two I feel tired all the time. I can deal and manage the pain, it's just taking a lot out of me. Especially if she stays put, I'll be more than happy to take the pain over her having time in the NICU.  Unfortunately we had two, yes two, trips to labor and delivery triage this week, once on Memorial Day and again  on Thursday. The ob told me to go in if anything gets more intense or changes since they only have a small window to stop things from progressing. Bella as usual has been doing wonderfully, her HB is always nice and strong, movement has been great, I'm just the one that doesn't like to cooperate.  I am definitely registering contractions when I'm hooked up to the monitors. They are not in a typical labor pattern so they hat is great news but still every few minutes a lot of the time. On Monday they doubled my Procardia to 60mg and my FFN was negative. huge relief! It must be doing something, b/c even with the intensity changing by Thursday and with the  pressure in my cervix I still haven't dilated any more than I was. Thank god!  Since I hadn't made any additional progress on Thurs they weren't able to give me any more/different meds. The way they explained it is that if I dilated more it could of mean imminent labor, so they would of put me on magnesium to help the contractions and given me steroids in case she came early. The magnesium is only good for 48 hours. Essentially it's given with the steroids to give the steroids time to work if they couldn't stop me from dilating. But thankfully that wasn't the case. It is a little frustrating. I feel like I never know when/if I should call the ob. Like today has been a BAD day and I'm in a lot of pain, but there's no way to know if it's changing things or not. I do have another OB appt this upcoming Thursday. So i guess we will see how the rest of the week goes from here on out.  Praying the Procardia keeps helping me from progressing and baby girl stays in another 4+ weeks! The dr plans on stopping my meds when (i'm not giving her a choice!) we hit 36 weeks and if I go in to labor they won't stop it. But I am sure she will try and stay in at that point! lol  But that's fine by me! Whew... I'm definitely feeling a little overwhelmed and stressed. Brayden hasn't really been himself, he's due for another fever episode and between being stuck in the house on bedrest, being in pain and stressing I've been extra emotional lately. I know it'll all be over before we know it, and I'll do anything to keep her in for as long as possible, I just really want her to be healthy and not have to be in the NICU if at all possible.  Hopefully all the worrying is for nothing in the end :)

Thursdays L&D trip. Top is HB, nice and strong! Bottom my lovely contractions! 

At least I know I am not imagining them lol 

How far along? 32 weeks!  One mini goal down! hoping to get to at least 36 weeks!

Total weight gain/loss: lost 10, gained 18- she is still laying transverse so it's like shes a baby belt across my middle, I'm sticking out SO far! But i'm still smaller than I was with Brayden and he was head down at this point! lol 

Sleep: not sleeping well b/c of the contractions and cramping, tossing and turning, sciatic pain, hot flashes and having to pee a lot, restless leg pain

How big is baby? about the size of a squash 16" long and 3.8lbs

Best moment this week: not dilating any further! 

Movement: lots of rolls, kicks, punches, hiccups you name it! Sometimes she's just plain violent!

Symptoms: preterm contractions, menstral like cramps, exhausted, intense cervical pressure, restless legs, vericose vein pain, sciatica pain, reflux even with meds

Symptoms I DON'T have: nausea

Food cravings: granola bars 

Food aversions: none this week

Gender:GIRL! * ~ Bella ~ *

Labor Signs:  preterm contractions, menstral like cramps, and intense cervical pressure, 80% effaced and fingertip dilated :( 

Belly Button in or out?  in 

What I miss: being able to get out of the house. soon enough though, she needs to cook a little longer!

What I am looking forward to:  scheduling our growth scan