29 Weeks-WHAT A WEEK!

We got popsicles while in the hospital :)

**Since this week has been pretty stressful, this hospital pic will have to work for my 29 week picture. No bump pic this week!**

For those of you following my facebook statuses, you know it's been a stressful week.  It started last Wednesday when I had my 1 hour glucose test to screen for gestational diabetes.  Well, Thursday I found out that I didn't pass the first test, but that I would need to take the 3 hour glucose test to find out if I had gestational diabetes or not.  I started sobbing when I found this out.  The nurse reassured me over and over again that this didn't mean that I had it because the 3 hour test was the accurate test, not the 1 hour one. I was still really upset.  That night I started having very frequent contractions and got a little concerned because everything I read online said that you shouldn't have more than 4 an hour. I was having them every 2-3 minutes.  I called the on-call midwife at Vanderbilt and they told me to take a hot bath, drink tons of water, and lay down. I did all that, but they didn't improve at all.  I didn't know whether to go to the hospital or not because I didn't want to make a big deal about it if it was nothing, but I was obviously contracting way too much.  I ended up just going to bed.  I woke up Friday morning, still having contractions but they were better. I went in for my 3 hour blood glucose test at 8 am, and I was there for almost 4 hours.  I had to drink a 100 g carbohydrate drink and have my blood taken 4 times while I was there. The drink didn't taste so bad, but the way it made me feel was absolutely horrible.  I really needed to throw up but refused to let myself because I didn't want to repeat the test. I felt so sick and nauseous from all that sugar on an empty stomach (I had to go in fasting).  I told myself that I will never do the 3 hour test again.  I honestly don't think it's good to put that much sugar all at once in your body on an empty stomach. And who drinks that much sugar in one sitting without eating something or walking around or anything? Nobody. They wouldn't let me walk around because they said that could mess up the test.  I was so thankful to grab a salad as soon as the test was over. I was starving!  I found out later that afternoon that I passed my glucose test, which meant I didn't have gestational diabetes. Praise the Lord!

Then, the next day (Saturday), my contractions started again around 11 am. I took a hot bath and rested for awhile, but then Eric and I had some errands to run.  I tried not to walk around much when we were out driving around but then when we stopped at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, I started having stronger contractions.  While Eric and I were waiting for a table, I started having a ton of pressure down low. I knew in my gut we needed to get to the hospital. I had already talked to the on-call midwife that day and she said to keep counting my contractions and how close together they were.  They were VERY close at this point.  So Eric drives me to Vanderbilt Medical Center and I told him to just park the car outside while I waited for the on-call midwife to call me back. I didn't want to go in unless she thought it was really necessary. As I was laying in the back seat of our car outside of the hospital, I started having painful contractions, and things just didn't feel right. I followed my gut and went upstairs to L&D.  To make a long story short, my contractions were WAY too close together, so they wanted me to stay awhile so they could monitor me. They gave me 2 bags of IV fluids, and the midwife checked me.  Thankfully, my cervix was still closed. Good news! They did the fetal fibronectin test on me to see if it was likely that I would go into preterm labor within the next 2 weeks or not.  The test came back negative, so everyone was very reassured that I wouldn't go into labor for at least a few weeks. They said the test is 99.8 % accurate.  Finally, late saturday night, my contractions got further apart, and they let Eric and I go home.  They said I had just been having bad preterm contractions but they were reassured that I wasn't in preterm labor.  Unfortunately, as soon as I got up and changed and out the door, the contractions started up pretty close together again. We went home so I could lay down, but the contractions didn't stop all night or all day Sunday. I stayed on the couch 24/7 from Saturday night until right now (Monday night) except for trips to the bathroom and one trip to go in to get checked at my midwife's office.  My mom came down Sunday morning so she could take care of me while I was glued to the couch.  She's been a HUGE blessing while I haven't been able to do anything.  She's grocery shopped, cooked, cleaned, and ran errands for me.  Moms really do just make everything better! 

At my appointment this morning, my contractions were about 1-1.5 minutes apart, so they almost sent me to the hospital, but then they slowed down, thankfully. She checked me and my cervix was still closed (praise God), so she let me go home and told me to rest and take it easy.  I've only been on the couch for 2 days, but I can already tell you I do not like it one bit.  It's very uncomfortable to lay down all day, and it gets pretty boring.  I feel sorry for those who have had to be on bedrest for months. Thankfully, I'm not on bedrest; I'm just supposed to rest as much as possible and take it easy. Obviously, if I start having too frequent contractions, I'm supposed to stay lying down and monitor them to see if I need to go in again.  I'm praying that this doesn't happen and that my contractions stay far apart; better yet, that they stop all together would be nice! I can't wait to meet this precious baby boy, but not quite yet. He needs to keep growing inside of me for at least 8 more weeks. And I have baby showers to go to! Excited about my 1st one this weekend in Illinois. I can't wait to see everyone!

Lastly, I want to say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for all of your prayers and kind words.  I truly believe that prayer is SO SO powerful, and I know that my contractions have gotten better because of everyone's prayers. Though it's been an extremely stressful past few days, I know that God has never left my side, and He loves this baby more than I do.  Keep the prayers coming that these contractions stay far apart and that baby Owen stays inside for at least another 8 weeks. I really appreciate them! Love to you all! xoxo