26 weeks and hanging from my toes!

Well, as of this morning we have made it to 26 weeks - something I didn't know if we would get to a few days earlier. Tuesday morning I had a tiny bit of spotting - almost not even enough to concern me butI gave the doctor a call as a precaution. As it would happen to be, my doc is out of town and I had to go into the office and see one of her associates. He does an exam to see if the cerclage was holding and pulls out a glove full of old, brown blood. Tells me he doesn't see any fresh blood, doesn't know for sure what was going on, says the cervix and cerclage felt good and sent me home to rest.

About 7pm that night I feel a small gush of something and go to the bathroom to see if it was fluid or blood. There was a bunch of fresh, red blood and I start to flip out. I called the doc and Jim (who at the time was at boy scout camp with Colin over an hour away.) The doc on call (the same one I saw earlier in the day) felt comfortable with having seen me a few hours earlier and wanted me to lay down at home and call back if it continued. Needless to say, I didn't like that answer but had the neighbor come over to watch Dutton and keep me company till Jim got back.

I started having stronger and more frequent contractions and called the doc back and demanded that he make arrangements to have me seen immediately by the perinatologists. He seems to get his nose all out of joint and tells me I have to go see him at the local hospital first. I knew they wouldn't be able to do anything for me there besides send me to a larger hospital by ambulance and I didn't want to waste that time. I tell him he could either make the arrangements or I would just show up there unnanounced! He finally agrees to call them. Calls me back 5 minutes later and tells me they will be expecting me and who I will be seeing there. We packed a bag, made arrangements for my in-laws to meet us there to take Dutton and headed out.

When we got there they attempted to do a sterile speculum exam to see what was going on and immediately stopped that when they thought they saw my bag of waters bulging through the cerclage. The bleeding was heavier than they would like to see so they admitted me and told me we were in for the duration - whether that was a few days or much longer.

We had a visit from the NICU doctor to explain to us what we could expect if our baby was born that day, and also what would change as the days and even weeks went on. Today, the outcomes for a 26 weeker are so much better than they were when Colin was born 12 years ago. It is still scary to think of the roller coaster ride we are in for.

Fast forward to today... I am still bleeding. Baby is tolerating everything wonderfully so I am flat in bed, head down in what they call the Trendelenburg position at about a 10-15 degree angle trying to buy us as much time as we can. At this moment in time the bleeding has slowed quite a bit, they seem to have the contractions under control and we wait.

We'll take each moment as it comes.

Dutton seems to be doing well with his unexpected vacation with his grandparents, Colin comes home from camp today and heads to Chicago on Sunday. Jim and I are really feeling blessed with the love, prayers and support from our friends and family and thank everyone for all they are doing to help. It's going to be a long road!