More Drama

Here's Mike's summary of what's been going on in our neck of the woods:

Thursday night at 8 PM Melanie and I went to the ER because she was experiencing symptoms of pre-term labor. They gave her some medication to slow down the labor process and some steroids to help the babies. So far so good. Melanie was in the intensive care unit of the L&D (Labor and Delivery) unit of the UNC hospital. [Note from me: this isn't actually a special unit of L & D; it's just intensive because of the nature of their business!] This involves constant monitoring of the heartbeats of both babies and of Melanie's contractions. The hardest part of this regimen is trying to pick up the fetal heartbeats. This is an ongoing struggle because the little guys move so much. On the other hand, the good news is that the babies are 2.3 lbs each, they move a lot, and their heartbeats are really good. Whatever is causing the pre-term labor is not coming from the babies.

Friday night Mel had a good night of sleep. They monitored her contractions and the babies this morning, and everything and everyone looked good. So around noon today (Saturday May 9) she was moved out of the intensive care unit of L&D and moved down the ante-partum unit, which is where they put expectant moms-to-be who are not in imminent danger of delivering.

Melanie will probably be in the hospital until at least her 28th week (May 21), and possibly all the way until delivery, which could be as late as the beginning of August. It really depends on the status of her contractions and, of course, the health of the babies. It is possible that she could be released in the next 10-24 days if she doesn't have any more symptoms, otherwise she will stay in the hospital.

Latest update: so far, so good!