The bottom line is that my doctor was monitoring me very closely because of the signs of possible pre-eclampsia. The trip to the hospital was just to run bloodwork, which I found ridiculous, but wasn't going to argue with. It was a Friday and if they had drawn my blood at the office and sent it to the lab we wouldn't have had the results until Monday, whereas we got results within an hour at the hospital. That bloodwork, along with all my other tests, was fairly normal. And since then, everything has pretty much stabilized. My blood pressure is elevated but not rising. I've actually lost some weight and we know the babies are growing normally, so we know that it was fluid retention that has lessened. As my doctor says, rest is the key. As long as I lie down for much of the day, I can see just by the swelling in my feet that I'm doing okay. If I'm active, I balloon up and my pressure rises.
The other crazy thing I had to do last week was collect my urine for a full 24 hours. They gave me a gigantic jug and I almost filled it. It was a horrible, horrible experience. I had to keep the jug in the fridge, so every trip to the bathroom (there must have been about 20 of them) meant getting the jug, peeing into a smaller cup, pouring it into the jug, repeating as necessary, returning the jug to the fridge and throwing away the cup, and washing my hands. The worst part was the four trips downstairs to do this process in the middle of the night. I swear, I wonder how many women trip and fall down the stairs when forced to do this damn test. We haven't gotten the results from this test yet - it's just to look for protein in the urine. It's my last test before we can relax a bit and say that I'm not in imminent danger of needing to deliver the babies. Also, I get to go back to weekly appointments instead of the insanity of going in two or three times a week.
So, I'm not on bed rest, but I'm continuing my own campaign to rest as much as possible. I try to stay horizontal at least 15 hours a day. It is much easier now that I have my wonderful babysitter to help each day, and because the bathrooms are finally finished. (I hope to get some photos up soon - the master bath is spectacular!) My stress level has gone way down. We've started making preparations for the arrival of Leo and Zoe - finally! A good friend came over on Sunday and helped clean all the toys and junk out of the nursery. We also cleaned out the eating area next to the kitchen which has served as Sammy's playroom for the past couple of years. We moved all of her stuff down to the basement (which is no longer filled with junk!) and now I have a nice big space for Leo and Zoe to hang out. Eventually, we plan to put up gates and make that their safe space to play without much supervision. Sammy has a new "big girl" playroom, where, I tell her, she can keep her toys safe from the babies. Things are coming together. If I had to bring babies home tomorrow, it would not be a disaster. (Of course if they came tomorrow, they'd be in the hospital for a while anyway.)
Leo and Zoe are just over four pounds each now. If they were born now, they'd probably still need help breathing, and they'd have trouble eating and lose some weight, but every week, I can relax more about the possibility of severe problems due to premature delivery.
All other signs of health are positive. My doctor tells me every visit, "These are two very healthy babies." Yesterday we did a little 4-D ultrasound, just for fun, and I got a decent view of Zoe's face for the first time. (If you've never seen a 4-D ultrasound, the lumpy things are remnants of movement. You have to be like Michelangelo and imagine the perfect form underneath.) Unfortunately, Leo's head is too low and squished into a small space to get a good picture. Here is little-Zoe and big-Me, and a bonus picture of medium-Sammy since I've been neglecting sharing her with you lately:
Sammy really takes after you. Tell her hello for me :-)
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