DCels

On Friday we went for our routine diagnostic test and during the procedure, the nurse noticed that one of the twins, Sadie, was having decelerations or "d-cels." This happens when a baby accidentally compresses her umbilical cord and her heart rate plummets. D-cels are actually normal and generally don't last very long because the baby moves and stops the compression on her own, but when a baby has very little amniotic fluid surrounding her (like Sadie), the doctors worry that the d-cels will be more devastating. So, the nurses in diagnostics consulted with the perinatologist, who decided that we needed to be taken to labor and delivery right away. They wanted to watch the babies closely, i.e.., hook me up to tons of monitors for several hours to determine whether they needed to intervene. The babies are not even twenty nine weeks, and intervening means going in and pulling the twins out, so needless to say, Rich and I sat with bated breath for the next nine hours while they monitored us. If it's not hard enough to watch your baby's heart rate go down while there's nothing you can do about it, we had to wrestle with the thought of a very early emergency c-section accompanied with a high chance of a dismal outcome. This wasn't exactly enjoyable. But . . . all the stress disappeared at about 6:00 p.m. when the docs determined that the dcels had subsided, there was no reason for intervention, and we could go back to our room. This was great news for two reasons--not only did it mean that the babies could spend at least one more day growing inside of me, but it also meant that I could eat and drink! When they have you in labor and delivery, they anticipate a pending c-section, thus, the docs want you to have an empty stomach to prevent you from aspirating. So, on top of the fact that we were incredibly worried about what was going on, it didn't help that I couldn't have as much as a sip of water while I was trying not to panic. It did, however, help to have some friends stop by in the middle of our labor and delivery visit. They sat with us and helped us pass the time and they encouraged Rich to go get some much needed lunch. That visit, like all ones we've had, was much appreciated!

p.s. here's me, so happy to be back in "my own" bed