Guess I'm one of you now!

Well, I have had a lot of contracting this pregnancy so far, one trip to the hospital for a shot of Brethine. This weekend was quite different though. Toward the end of last week, I was having a lot of contrax and pressure. I went in and when I got on the monitor, I was contracting every 1-3 minutes I was 1cm and 50%, thankfully not any worse than that. I was put on Mag for a couple days and then Procardia. I'm home now, no more work and I'm on pretty strict bedrest. I am allowed up to the bathroom. I'm struggling right now, trying to track down help for my youngest son who is 2. I can't really do anything for him and it is SO hard. My husband has a lot of vacation time built up, thank goodness so he's helping out this week. We want to save his time for after the babies come, so we need to come up with another solution and SOON. I sort of went through this with my first son- bedrest started at 23 wks with him too. Being pg with twins makes it much scarier to be going through this again. I'm trying to do the 'get through a week at a time' thing. Day after tomorrow is NOVEMBER! I just HAVE to eek through the holidays and next 2 months. In the beginning of Jan, I'll be 33 weeks and the countdown will be closer.

So, hello girls! How is the view from your couch?!

 

:hug99:

I've been on bedrest since 22wks- just over 9 weeks now. I will tell you that it's gone by so much fast than I thought it would. (And I'm on hospital bedrest.) From 22wks to 28wks, I couldn't even get up for the bathroom. (Unless it was BM.) Not fun! Now I get for the bathroom and to shower every few days.

Bedrest is certainly not much fun, and I'm sorry you have to join us! I hope things work out without much stress for your DS.

Welcome to our club- though I don't think any of us really want to be memebers!!

Hang in there! You can do this! (You've done it before!)

 

I know bedrest isn't easy, I was there too. Hang in there. We are here for you. :love0028:

 

I'm also new to this board. Started hospital modified bedrest nearly 3 weeks ago at 26 weeks when I went into preterm labor. I changed from 1 to 3 cm dilated, and have stayed that way since. Went through magnesium, indocin, steroids and am now on only procardia. It does seem to get a little easier with time, but I so miss seeing my 19 month old son every day. We live about 60-90 minutes from the hospital (depending on traffic) so I only get to see him a few times a week.

 

allboys - Out of curiosity, how much Procardia are you taking? Does it make you dizzy? I'm on 20mg every 4 hours. It definitely makes me lightheaded and quite dizzy after taking it. . . small price to pay to keep the babies in, but I wondered if you're experiencing that too. Hang in there, I know it isn't easy being on bedrest, especially with little kids that don't understand. It will all be worth it!

 

QUOTE(SoBlessed @ Nov 2 2007, 06:24 PM) [snapback]478665[/snapback]
allboys - Out of curiosity, how much Procardia are you taking? Does it make you dizzy? I'm on 20mg every 4 hours. It definitely makes me lightheaded and quite dizzy after taking it. . . small price to pay to keep the babies in, but I wondered if you're experiencing that too. Hang in there, I know it isn't easy being on bedrest, especially with little kids that don't understand. It will all be worth it!



I've experimented with several different procardia regimens. At the moment, I'm only on 10 mg every 8 hours. Previously, I'd tried 30 XL once daily and even 60 XL once daily. Both the XL doses gave me terrible headaches. My blood pressure tends to run pretty low and drops into the 80's/40's when I take much more than what I'm taking now.

 

Thanks for the reply. I go to my Dr on Monday and I'm going to ask about changing either my dosage or frequency. My BP runs low anyways and the Procardia makes it plummet. I'm basically taking 120mg every 24 hours when you add it up and it seems like a lot and I'm having so many side effects. When I was in the hospital, my BP dropped to 70/30 and I "fell asleep" the nurse came running in and I think I may have actually passed out, but I was so drowsy I didn't know what was going on. Anyways, at home, it seems to be staying between 90/40s - 100/50's . What has your BP been running with your new dosage of Procardia?

Good thing you have internet access in the hospital, it makes the bedrest not quite so bad, huh?

 

QUOTE(SoBlessed @ Nov 2 2007, 07:45 PM) [snapback]478781[/snapback]
Thanks for the reply. I go to my Dr on Monday and I'm going to ask about changing either my dosage or frequency. My BP runs low anyways and the Procardia makes it plummet. I'm basically taking 120mg every 24 hours when you add it up and it seems like a lot and I'm having so many side effects. When I was in the hospital, my BP dropped to 70/30 and I "fell asleep" the nurse came running in and I think I may have actually passed out, but I was so drowsy I didn't know what was going on. Anyways, at home, it seems to be staying between 90/40s - 100/50's . What has your BP been running with your new dosage of Procardia?

Good thing you have internet access in the hospital, it makes the bedrest not quite so bad, huh?


On this new regimen, my BP is great - around 100-110/60-70. You're on the max dose of procardia allowed daily. I would definitely ask your doctor about decreasing the dose. If you start contracting a lot, you can always go back to what you were previously on. Thing is, there's not even that much data on the effectiveness of procardia for "maintenance tocolysis" (which is what we're both doing) that I think it's not worth the extreme side effects.

 

Thanks!

I was on Brethine with my oldest son for about three months, it was actually a pump that I wore. It too, wasn't officially approved for PTL but it did work for me. I do feel more comfortable taking Procardia long term if I can just get the BP to a better level and tweak the dose down a bit. It is definitely helping with the contractions. I will still have them only occasionally through the day, but there is no regular pattern and I can get these to stop unlike the ones I was having a week ago. My appt is Monday. I don't know if my Dr will check me or not. He tries not to at all costs, which I agree with, but it would be nice to see what's happening in there. Maybe even a length scan will give me an idea.

 

Well let us know how the appt goes!