In the hospital until birth

Rosie is doing well. The doctors have been able to keep her contractions under control with the use of medication. She is currently only having 1-2 mild contractions per hour. Although the medication cannot stop labor (just delay it), the doctors feel that we are getting closer to meeting our goal of deliverying during week 34 of the pregnancy, which starts on Monday of next week.

The doctors were going to let Rosie go home this morning, however the doctors have said it is best that Rosie remains in the hospital until Mason is born. This is because the fetal monitoring records show that Mason's heartbeat slows down during a contraction. The doctors feel this is probably due to the lack amniotic fluid causing umbilical cord compression seen during the contraction.

We are very grateful to be working with Jeanie, our nurse coordinator. She spent quite a bit of time with us today explaining what will happen during and immediately after the delivery. She showed us a picture of the ECMO equipment to refresh our memory from the tour of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) we took back in early March. She also explained how many doctors were going to be involved (about a dozen), what types of equipment Mason was going to be hooked up to(respirator, feeding tube, oxygination monitor, cathiter, I.V., temparature monitor, and probably ECMO). She also gave us some good reading material about the ECMO equipment and its operation. For a couple of Engineers, this was some pretty good reading material. The whole experience can be overwhelming, even when things go well, and she wanted us to know this so we didn't freak out when it started happening.

Another great part about how U of M operates is that they want the parents heavily involved in everything. Once Rosie is stabalized after delivery they are going to take me into the area where all of the doctors are working on Mason. After Rosie recovers a bit, they will bring her in to the room as well, even while she is still in her bed recovering from the epidural.

The night ended tonight with us watching a video explaining the NICU and how it operates, then watching one of Rosie's favorite shows - The Bachelor.