life in the hospital

So I realize Patrice talked as if she was going to write two posts today, but unfortunately her day of lots of free-time wasn't as easy going as she thought it'd be. I guess I'll swoop in and save the day with a few updates.

As many of you know, Patrice took a half-day off work on Tuesday to go to the doctor for contractions, and . . . 6 hours later . . . was admitted to the hospital for further monitoring. She had grand notions of going to the hospital for a few hours and making it home in time to catch up on her DVR. But alas, after having multiple contractions in a half-hour, she was put on a much stronger medication (magnesium something or other . . .) and another strong medication (I'm really not good at keeping up with the details), and started receiving a round or two of steroids for Abbott's lung development.

Fortunately for Abbott, the contractions are slowing down and he's getting steroids. Unfortunately for Patrice, the side effects of the medicine she's on is "flu-like symptoms." Seriously, when the doctor brought her medicine in, she also brought in a bucket and said, "This medicine will make you feel really really hot, nauseated, will blur your vision, and possibly give you a headache." Awesome. Sign us up.

Like she has been all pregnancy, though, Patrice has been an absolute champ.

Today, the contractions continued, so she had a second dose of medicine, and the doctor told her that, although it's possible she could go home Thursday, she didn't want to get her hopes up.

Our hopes are still up.

We've been really thankful for our families helping out with Laurelei and visiting Patrice while she sits and passes the time. And we've truly appreciated the thoughts and prayers you guys have sent us. This has been a long pregnancy for Patrice, but we're glad that Abbott's growing big and strong, and we're getting more and more excited every day.

On a bright note, after picking Laurelei up from pre-school (which she's still loving!), she got to stop by and visit Patrice.



Laurelei's pediatrician is located at the same hospital that Patrice is at now. And last week, she came for her checkup and got 4 shots, which absolutely traumatized her. She yelled and yelled at everybody she saw that "that lady pinched me!" When we got to the hospital tonight she knew exactly where we were, and said that we had to go take care of mommy so that that lady wouldn't pinch her. I'm glad she got to come tonight. She has really missed her mommy and was really happy to see her. Usually she's terrified in hospital rooms, and it took her a minute to be okay with getting into the bed with Patrice, but she had a blast hanging out with her mommy. And I know Patrice had a blast hanging out with her, too!

We'll do our best to keep you updated; hopefully Patrice can write from home tomorrow all about how she got to leave right on time!