"Um, I think we might have an issue."

Tuesday, July 8 was a good visit at Jeni's doctor. All of the exam seemed to show that things were improving with her and labor was not coming anytime soon. The ultrasound showed the babies were progressing right on track and were still laying head to toe. Her physical examination showed that she had actually improved from last weeks exam. Her doctor even said talked about not removing her cerclage 'til week 34 and discussed what sorts of changes to her physical activity could be added such as walks, etc. He suggested doing some light swimming if possible to keep her active over the next few weeks. Needless to say, what came less than 24 hours would make all this talk seem silly.

I got up on July 9 and finished getting ready to head out to work. As I kissed Jeni goodbye, she turned over and repositioned herself in bed. As I turned to head out of the house, she said to me, "Um, wait. Don't leave yet. I think we might have an issue." Of course that's not anything you want to hear when your wife is pregnant and with the roller coaster ride we've had so far in the pregnancy.

Jeni continued talking to me from the bathroom and told me that she thought her water had broken. She immediately asked for the phone and called her doctor as I frantically started taking her bags toward the garage. After speaking to her doctor, we jumped in the car and headed to the hospital. Unfortunately, the trip was not the usual 15 minute drive because we were in the middle of rush hour.

Upon arriving at the hospital, Jeni was admitted into one of the Antepartum rooms and her doctor arrived shortly afterward. He did a physical exam and confirmed that one of the babies' membranes had ruptured. He discussed what would happen next and as since Jeni wasn't contracting that she would be monitored and given antibiotics to prevent any infections. Over the next few hours, we got visits from her doctor, one of his partners, and the neonatologist on-staff at the hospital to discuss our options. They discussed moving Jeni down to Barnes hospital closer to Children's hospital that could better care for the twins when they arrived. However, due to our experience at Barnes the previous weekend, we were resistant at first especially since she showed no signs of active labor.

Over the next few hours, things were fairly quiet. Jeni had no pain and only a few smaller contractions. The doctors decided to stop the tocolytics (anti-contraction meds) because they were afraid that any infection would trigger contractions and did not want to mask those with the drugs. After further discussion about what would be best for the babies, Jeni and I agreed that if things changed over night that we would have her transfered to the other hospital. I left to go home on Wednesday feeling confident that things were quiet and that we might have several days or even weeks of Jeni being on bedrest at the hospital before anything changed. I guess that was wishful thinking...

M