On The Inside

That's right, I have officially been "incarcerated" as of 4 pm yesterday afternoon and I will now be writing from my "cell." Okay, okay . . . maybe comparing my hospital stay to a prison sentence is a little over dramatic . . . but, I am confined. The nursing staff is definitely friendlier than jailors would be, the visitation is much less restricted, the food is okay (but, maybe the food in prison is okay too, I don't know), and I am actually here for my own good and not because I committed some infraction against society. So, I guess it's not that bad and I won't complain . . . at least for now. Once I start going completely stir crazy I may change my tune!

I did have a really hard time leaving home yesterday. Clint took Jackson to daycare around lunch so we could finish getting ready to go and when he left I lost it. I broke down and cried as I was telling him bye, even though I was going to see him in a couple of hours, just because I knew it was the last time I would see my son in the comfort and familiarity of my own home for upto 2 months. When Jackson saw me start crying he got a really sad look on his face and ran back to me, wrapped his arms around me and said, "I gonna miss you momma!" Of course he was talking about for the next couple of hours, he had no idea what was really happening!

We brought Jackson with us to check into the hospital so he could be part of the transition. So far he just thinks it's cool and exciting. When we picked him up from daycare and got in the car, I told him he was coming with us to take mommy to the hospital and he told me,"Good, I need to go the hospital with you. I have an ouchie on my hand. I need the doctor at the hospital to check it." Are you kidding me?! Sure enough when we got here and got into our room, he had the nurse check his ouchie. She put a band-aid on it and drew a smiley face on the band-aid and told him, "There, that will make it all better." To which he replied, "It's not gonna be better yet." After that, it took him about 2.2 seconds to realize there were buttons on the bed to move the head of the bed and/or the entire bed up and down. So of course while the nurse was trying to get all the basics taken care of, he was moving me up and down while excitedly exclaiming,"Momma, it's a cool spaceship!" Oh my, he is going to drive me crazy with the bed controls and of course he is already climbing up and jumping off of everything he can find in my room. Fortunately, the nurses think he's precious and already love him! He knows how to turn on the charm. The night nurse even brought him an orange popsicle. Can life get any better?

Being told not sit up there

Hanging with mommy (I wish we'd had the camera the first time he climbed into my bed by himself, layed down and put his hands behind his head)

Clint and Jackson stayed the night last night so we could have a hospital "slumber party." Jackson loved this too. He stayed up way too late watching a movie and then fell asleep snuggled right up next to me. Very sweet, but not very comfortable. I had Clint move him to the bed he was in (which was pushed right up next to mine) since it was a little wider and Clint doesn't have the big pregnant belly to take up all the space. But, about 4 am, Jackson started wimpering in his sleep and when I reached out to comfort him, he ended up climbing back into my bed. Not the best night of sleep that I've ever had, but some of the best Jackson snuggling I've gotten in a while and I'll take all I can get :)

The one concern I have is that he has found the emergency pull string in the bathroom that if pulled will bring like all the nurses in the unit to my room! I have stopped him 2 or 3 times now from pulling it just in time! I told one of the nurses about this today and she laughed and said maybe it will be good if he pulled it one time and was a little scared of the reaction it created. I told her maybe, or maybe he would think it was really cool that he managed to get everyone to come running! Hopefully we'll avoid finding out.

Jackson is spending the day today with his best friend John. He was very excited and couldn't get out the door fast enough this morning! Hope he does well when he gets home today and starts to realize that I am not coming home.

On today's agenda: tocolytic monitoring this morning with only one contraction (I haven't had any contractions the other two times they have hooked me up since I got here) and an ultrasound that showed my cervix is still long and in good shape and babies are all looking good. I do think the ultrasound tech was a little stressed out because the babies were not moving much during the ultrasound, but about an hour earlier, when I was hooked up the tocolytic, they were having a party, so I think they were probably sleeping by the time she got me. They seem to know when the tocolytic is hooked up. Whoever the monitor is directly over, seems to start moving like crazy! My high risk doctor came by this morning too. He said the lab work they did yesterday still looks great. My blood pressure has been a little up and down, but mostly good. He also told me that he feels confident that we are going to make it to AT LEAST 32 weeks the way things look right now! So great news. Praying for that to continue and for me to maintain some sanity while imprisoned . . . I mean hospitalized!