The Bright Side

On Thursday I turned 22 weeks. I had still been experiencing aches and pains, but medically, things were going great. I was almost done with work and had made a gazillion appointments to get things done just in case of bed rest. Plus, I was excited for the end of this session so I could focus on getting things ready around the house. Today things changed.

Friday was my ultrasound. I go into my perinatologist weekly for progesterone injections. Every other of those appointments, I get a cervix check. For those who don't know (and I certainly didn't before all of this) a woman's cervix is the primary determiner of whether or not she's on bed rest. When doctors say a woman is dialated to a 5 and effaced, the effaced part refers to her cervix. It's the small, narrow channel that is the last thing your baby will see before s/he meets the big wide world. If the cervix shortens (and especially if that's paired with contractions) you go on bed rest. Mine had been measuring 3.7 cm consistently. Until today.

The tech began the ultrasound by checking my cervix and she seemed unsatisfied, so decided to do the rest of the ultrasound and come back to check it. An hour and a half later (it takes a looooong time with triplets) she returned with a measurement of 1. something cm. I could tell she was nervous as she tried to get additional advice from someone else in the office. Finally, she decided to do an internal ultrasound which, unfortunately, confirmed that my cervix had shortened to 1.5 cm. That's a 2.2 cm change in nine days. Not good. They contacted my perinatologist and my OBGYN who both said I needed to go on strict bed rest immediately and that I was to come back Tuesday for another measurement. Plus, I already had an appointment with my OBGYN, which they wanted me to keep.

So, here I lie... waiting and doing, well, virtually nothing. The babies won't be considered viable for two more weeks and if they were born then, there would be a very high risk of developmental problems. This means we're hoping for 8-10 weeks before delivery. That's 8-10 weeks of doing nothing but laying on either my right or left side... and whatever can be done while laying on my side. Honestly, that's a difficult path to look down. So I'm trying to look at the bright side. Here goes.

On the bright side...
• think of all the gas money we'll save
• I'm going to get caught up on a lot of TV shows (let's be realistic, series) that I wanted to watch
• some friends might feel guilty and come spend time with me in their otherwise busy day
• I can bank up sleep hours that I'm sure to miss in upcoming years
• we're really going to get our monies worth out of Netflix
• I won't be able to go shopping, but I'll still be able to shop
• I can finally read some of those books that I've collected, but ignored, over the years
• giving birth and juggling three babies will be a welcomes change when the time comes

In all seriousness, this is going to be hard. Heck, it's only been nine hours and my hips hurt, my ribs feel like they're in a vice and I'm completely bored. You'll probably see a wild range of posts in the future, many of which will be made in frustration or out of sheer boredom, but I'm going to do my best. We haven't invested this much time, emotion, money, and bodily discomfort to give up now. Hopefully, I can get the rest of my body - babies included - on the same page with me on this one... and soon.