Saturday, September 19, 2009

This time last year.........

On this day one year ago, I had been laying in a bed in the hospital for 8 weeks. Little did I know I had just one more week before they would release me. Little did I know that my babies would be born 11 days after this day.
On this day, one year ago I had my third Fetal Fibronectin test. This test is given to give Dr.'s an idea if a baby is going to be born prematurely. If it comes back positive, it doesn't mean you will for sure deliver early but usually that is the case. If it comes back positive it means you may deliver in the next 10 days and this gives Dr.'s the chance to administer steroid shots to help the babies lungs develop faster.
If the test comes back negative, it means you absolutely will not deliver in the next 10 days (and maybe even anytime soon). So it has a huge false positive but if it's negative, you can pretty much rest easy.
In my case when I was admitted (at just 23 and a half weeks), the outlook was very grim. I didn't know at the time but I don't believe my Dr. and the other's had much hope of me being able to keep the babies in very long. I was contracting every 3 min, had a shortened cervix and Kaden's head was extremely low. Well, it was time to take the test (extremely painful) and as the results were being processed, Randy prayed as he, my mom and friend Jessica stood over my bed. We prayed for a negative test result. We knew it wasn't likely but we also knew our God was mighty and we trusted Him.
A while later when we learned it was negative, we all sobbed. Even my Dr. teared up, she was absolutely speechless. None of the Dr.'s expected that answer. God is so good!
Fast fwd to 9/19/08 and my it was time for my 3rd test as I was now 31 weeks. I had a 2nd test about a week before and it was skewed bc the nurse caused bleeding which makes the test unreliable. So, on this day for my 3rd time.............it came back positive :( Of course this was a terrifying feeling. I was scared to death that the babies were going to come that night or very soon. But Randy and I tried to reassure ourselves that again, it's a huge false positive and doesn't always mean they will be born in the next 2 weeks. But because it was positive, I had to be give the two steroid shots for the babies lungs. Randy said this needle was HUGE. All I know is it HURT and went deep down into my muscle causing soreness for days and days. And, of course it was on each side of my bum, so I was constantly lying on that area! Ouch!
And who knew in just 11 days, the twins would be born. So, the test was right. I am just so thankful that we were able to know so we could help the babies along by giving the steroids for their lungs.
I can't believe that was a year ago. It's so very fresh in our minds. Man, what we went through to get them here HEALTHY and SAFE!
I'd do it all again.
Thank you Lord for your protection!

1 comment:

Brenda said...

I am sobbing my eyes out relieving that through my very vivid memories of all we went through...........and we were all so scared, but kept praying and praying. So thankful that all our prayers were heard and that we have these two beautiful miracles. So unbelievable that it's been year, and that they will be 1 year old very, very soon, 10 more days.