Not a super happy update, but an update nonetheless...

I'm getting a wee bit tired of talking about this (it's only been a day but word travels fast), so I decided to blog about it so I don't have to keep telling the story.

Yesterday I went to the doctor for what I thought would be a routine visit...it had been 4 weeks since my last ultrasound so they did another one to check on the twins. Baby B has always measured smaller than Baby A (who is measuring right on track and has been the entire pregnancy), but apparently his rate of growth has slowed down quite a bit as of late and now he's measuring too small...as in, 25-30% smaller than he should be. The doctor very calmly told me that he was sending me to the hospital for a non-stress test (that's not out of the ordinary, most every pregnant woman gets to do those) and making me an appointment with the perinatologist to have him check on the situation. I did my best not to freak out as I waited for the appointments to be made, then I drove myself to the hospital (Jacob was working...I didn't want to ask him to leave as I wasn't sure exactly what was going on yet).

Once I got to the hospital, they took me back to labor & delivery where the nurse hooked me up to monitors for both the babies' heartbeats and another one for contractions. As I watched the printout from the machine, the nurse pointed out to me that I was having contractions...which took me by surprise, because I'd never felt anything that even closely resembled a contraction. But then a few minutes later the nurse became concerned b/c they were 4 minutes apart and seemed to be increasing in strength. Weird, right? She brought me some water and OJ in case they were being caused by dehydration. That didn't seem to change anything, and the contractions actually got strong enough that I was able to feel and start to become fairly uncomfortable by them. She then called my doctor, who had her give me a shot of something or other...and that stopped the contractions, thank goodness. Then she gave me a fetal fibronectin test, which (for those of you who don't know) was basically to determine whether or not I was in ACTUAL labor. She also checked my cervix, turns out I'm dilated to just over a 2...which isn't too big of a deal, a lot of women will dilate a little bit and walk around that way for weeks before they go into actual labor. But it was still pretty surprising to me.

Fortunately, the FFN test came back negative, but they were concerned because Baby B's heart rate wasn't being QUITE as consistent as they would have liked...it was dipping a little low from time to time. So they sent me to radiology for another ultrasound to check the fluid around the babies. Baby A has a good amount of fluid, of course, and while Baby B has what's considered to be a "normal" amount of fluid, he's on the low end of normal which is also cause for concern.

Anyway, after that I went back to L&D where they called my doctor again, and he said I was free to leave but to be sure to not miss my appointment w/the perinatologist (who is only in the hospital on Wednesdays, so I didn't see him yesterday). All in all I was in the hospital for 4 hours...FUN.

I went to work, but needless to say I was kind of a wreck so my boss was nice enough to let me go home...which was better than being at work, but still not awesome because it was a very worrisome day and I was going to be upset no matter where I was. I must say, if I'm this worried about my kids before they're even born, I can't imagine what the worry will be like once they're actually here. I might be kinda screwed.

Anyhoo, fast forward to today...after a night of basically no sleep, I headed over to the hospital for my appointment with the perinatologist. Jacob was able to join me this time, which was nice. Once they called us back, the ultrasound tech gave me the most detailed ultrasound I've had to date...she measured practically EVERYTHING on the babies (that's not a complaint), and then the doctor came in and measured the few things she hadn't. He didn't seem overly alarmed, but was very adamant that I be on alert for any decrease in activity (done and done), and now I get to go to the hospital a few times a week for more non-stress tests, I'm to see my gyno every week (which they wanted me to do anyway), and then see the perinatologist again in 2 weeks. He also said the boys will need to be delivered no later than 36 weeks (I'll hit the 36 week mark 3 weeks from tomorrow, in case anyone was wondering), unless they find something else that gives them cause for alarm, in which case they'll probably deliver the boys even earlier.

Soooooo...that is the most current update I have. I'm feeling slightly less panicked, but it's still not a happy situation, obviously. I'm super grateful that they're monitoring me so closely (although I have a feeling I'm going to be REALLY sick of the hospital by the time this is all said and done), and my brain tells me everything is going to work out fine. Once I can convince my heart of that, we'll be good to go. I know it sounds cliche, but HONESTLY, all I want is for both of my boys to be healthy and happy.

I'll keep you all posted.