Admitted to the Hospital

Before I get into the gory details, I have been admitted to the hospital and I am still pregnant...for now. This is not related to the spotting that I had last week but something new. Read on...

Friday night at 6:30pm, I felt a little gush of what I thought was a little heavier than usual discharge. Well, I soaked through the pantyliner and then rushed upstairs to consult the pregnancy "bible" and to put on another pantyliner. Was I leaking amniotic fluid? How does one tell? I had just started eating dinner as I waited for my DH to return from work so I sat back down and started eating again...only to feel a few stronger gushes of fluid. I went and sat on the toilet at which point a few big gushes came out. Then it hit me...this was just way too much fluid to be a leak. Did my water just break???

I was freaking out. We were nowhere near being ready for the babies to come. They were just 1 day shy of 31 weeks and while the prognosis is excellent at this point, it would still be best for them to stay inside for a few more weeks. I have always kept my eye on the end goal of 37 weeks if not 38 weeks and I couldn't fathom having them so early. I was crying uncontrollably at this point, panicking that we would lose one or both of them and really feeling that this was not the right time for them to arrive.

My DH walked in the door and I immediately told him that we needed to go to the hospital as my water had broken. Not the first thing he expected to hear arriving home from work. I was terrified that this meant that we would be delivering that night - once your water breaks, I thought you immediately went into hard labour and that there was no turning back. Thankfully, I would learn that this assumption was wrong.

We arrived at triage where the nurses and doctors calmly checked me out. I was still gushing fluid at this point, the same sort of thing like when you have a period. Nothing comes out until you move and then whoosh - out it all comes. The good thing was that the fluid was always clear because if one of the babies was in distress, it may have passed its stool into the amniotic fluid and then it would no longer be clear and I would probably have been rushed into an emergency c-section at that point. Clear fluid was a good sign.

After a quick ultrasound, it was determined that the membrane hadn't fully ruptured but there was a tear somewhere and that was where the leak was coming from. The sack that tore was little Righty's sack - she's the one that likes to wedge herself right on top of my ribs and her sack was always a little bigger than Lefty's. Lefty's sack was still intact and there was still a good amount of fluid around both. I received the steroid injections to help mature their lungs just in case they did decide to make an early appearance into this world and then I was admitted.

I'll be in the hospital for the duration of my pregnancy. I was told that if I were to go into pre-term labour, it would likely be within the first 24-48 hours after the rupture and after that time, the risk drops off. We're 2 1/2 hours away from he 48 hour mark after which I will breathe much easier. I have not be confined to strict bed rest so I can get up and walk around the floor, which I do at a very slow pace. Every little twinge, every little twang, every little muscle ache or soreness I examine in minute detail to try and figure out whether or not it was a contraction or just a Braxton Hicks or round ligament pains.

I just want my babies to be okay and although they have an excellent prognosis being born at 31 weeks, it didn't feel like the right time for them to arrive. Somehow it feels too early. I am still hoping to carry them for another 6 weeks but every additional day we are grateful for. Please girls, stay inside for a little while longer okay?