Another pregnancy complication....

Well before I share the events of the past few days, here are tummy pictures of me at around 30ish weeks (a little over 6 1/2 months)!!

(front view)

So I am getting the impression that either baby Olivia is extremely excited to get here or I am extremely excited for her to get here...either way this excitement has probably come a bit to early...So for the past few weeks I have been having what I thought were the braxton hicks contractions which is totally normal at my stage. However I started having stronger more frequent ones. I didn't know if this was normal or not so I called my cousin who just had a baby. She told me to call in just to make sure because I shouldn't be having so many of them. Well last Monday, I reluctantly called in not wanting to be overly paranoid. I explained everything to the nurse and she didn't seem worried and told me just to tell my doctor that following Monday at my next appointment. So...Monday I go to my doctors appointment. Michael wasn't with me sadly. Anyway, I met with my doctor and explained to him what I had been feeling and he of course thought it would be good if he checked everything just to make sure. I was already measuring a little small which he said wasn't too big of a concern. But as he checked me he discovered that I was already dilated to 2 cm and was 70% effaced. Which obviously at nearly 30 weeks is not a good thing at all. This explains why I was measuring small...the baby was already starting to drop. He told me that he would like to keep that little baby in there for at least another 4 weeks. I was sent over to the hospital (St. Marks) to get a steroid shot that would help her lungs develop quicker and he also wanted to me to be monitored just so he could see what my contractions were doing. So I went over all by myself...when I called Michael and told him he thought I was messing around with him haha. But anyway, I got the shot which was actually a bit painful and then had the wonderful opportunity of laying in the hospital bed for about 1 1/2 hours. Right when they thought I would be able to go home, I had a bigger one that caused Olivia's heart rate to drop a bit so instead of going home I got to sit there for another 20 minutes to make sure she was okay. They finally let me go home, however I was told I had to come back the next day to get one more steroid shot and be monitored again. My doctor also has me taking pill called Nifedipine every 4-6 hours which is supposed to help my contractions slow down. This pill isn't exactly the greatest pill, it pretty much makes my face look like a cherry and my head feel like it's going to explode. But oh well! So yesterday, Michael and I headed back up to the hospital. Yes, he came with me this time which made me feel so much better. We both felt bad he wasn't there that first time. Anyway, I got that second shot and it wasn't as bad as the first time! And then I was monitored for only about a half hour. I only had one bigger contraction that whole time so they let me go home! I think the pills are working! Although, I haven't been put on complete bed rest (thank goodness), I pretty much have to stay sitting or laying down as much as possible. No vacuuming, cleaning, carrying things ect. Poor Michael. So the good news is that there is still a chance I could carry her full term. I guess we will just have to see. As much as we want to see our precious little girl we want her to be healthy and hope that we can keep her in there as long as possible.