Transfusion on Wednesday

Last night I bled a little bit. It was a small enough amount that I didn't get moved to the 8th floor, but it was more than just "spotting". The last time that happened was Thursday night before I went to bed, and then by 5am Friday morning I was bleeding a lot. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well last night as I kept expecting to wake up in a pool of blood again. The longest amount of time that has passed between a small bleed and a large one has been about 36 hours so I think I'll feel less nervous if I make it until tomorrow morning without hemmorhaging again. My contractions have also been worse lately. When I was on the monitor Saturday night, I had 4 contractions in an hour, which warranted a call to the doctor. Typically I only have 1-2 contractions an hour. Yesterday and today the contractions have been VERY painful; they have felt the same as when I was in labor with Ian and Nadia. Mostly they've still been pretty spread apart, but at one point this morning I had 3 within 30 minutes.

One of the fellows (there are two) said this morning that they might have to put me on magnesium to stop the contractions. That is given by iv 24 hours a day so I asked if we could try upping the dosage or frequency of the Procardia first. They started me at 20mg every 6 hours, and I've been at 10mg every 8 hours lately. Of course I'll do the iv if it will help Oliver stay inside me until at least 35w, but I'm hoping it's not necessary. Dr. Tressler wasn't here today, but they reviewed today's ultrasound results with him since he's the one who does the transfusions. They have scheduled me to have one more ultrasound tomorrow to confirm the decision to do the third (and final) transfusion on Wednesday. Dr. Taboada commented that she was happy to see me smiling. I was smiling when I heard that it was scheduled for 11am. WOOHOO! The last two have taken place at 4pm and 5pm, and it's really hard to fast all day. I hope it really does take place at 11am. These three beautiful pictures were taken by my very talented sister, Wendy. I'll share three more of the pics she took tomorrow!