The Journey Continues ...

At one point yesterday Scott and I exchanged that look that means, "Are you kidding me?!  This has got to be a joke!" This has been one marathon pregnancy.  Yesterday was a rough day ... I'll try not to be too wordy and the bottom line is that today is a better day and we are still pregnant.  The day started with a growth ultrasound for the babes.  Normally we love those days!  But this u/s showed that Luke probably has a problem with his placenta.  He hasn't grown in the last two weeks (good thing he grew early!) and his amniotic fluid level is dropping.  Amelia looks great, thankfully, and now matches her brother at 2 pounds and 6 ounces.  At this point they won't deliver the babes due to his lack of growth but if it continues, they'll have to deliver.
The late decelerations (drops in the babies heart rates following contractions) have continued over the last several days so as of yesterday we're back on magnesium.  In the 4 days we were off we tried two oral meds but neither of them really worked.  The contractions were getting really long and stronger off the mag and the babes just didn't tolerate them very well.  It made for some interesting days.  You know when your nurse (who is usually very calm) comes running into your room with oxygen while calling over her shoulder to get the doctor up here right away, it could be an interesting night.  We're now on continuous fetal monitoring which is harder than it sounds.  Both babes have to stay on the monitor 24/7 which means a nurse is in our room every 30 to 60 minutes to find the babies because they've moved around.  Both Scott and I are running off 2-3 hours of sleep a night ... good practice for when the babies are here I guess ... I now understand what sleep deprivation really means! (And how important it is to have a quiet night shift nurse!) Right now it feels like it's really a day to day (and sometimes hour to hour) thing.  Will we still be pregnant tonight?  Tomorrow?  This is certainly not the pregnancy I hoped for (I was thinking more along the lines of prenatal yoga classes) ... tomorrow will begin week 10 of bed rest total for this pregnancy.  But I know that being able to have children is not a guarantee and we are thankful to be where we're at.  When I see their faces and get to hold them it'll all be worth it.  "And we rejoice in our trials because we know that our trials produce perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us ..." (Romans 5)