Well, this has been quite an eventful week!!  I went to see my regular doctor on Monday, and while I was hooked up to the fetal monitors, I started having contractions.  The doctor sent me right over to labor and delivery at the hospital, and apparently my cervix had already started thinning out, and I was almost 1cm dilated.  So, labor had officially begun!  My contractions were about 2-3 minutes apart by this point, and I will admit that I was scared to death!  The doctor wasn’t ready for Damian to be born yet, he wanted to get a round of steroids in my system before Damian was born, to help mature his lungs.  So, the first thing they did was hook me up to an IV to get fluids and antibiotics pumped into me, and then they started me on magnesium sulfate.  I was receiving a relatively small amount of magnesium, not enough to stop the labor, but enough to slow it down.  The steroids they give you are 2 shots, 12 hours apart, and they take 24 hours to be fully effective.  So the goal was to get me slowed down for at least 24 hours to get the steroids in and give them a chance to begin working.  My labor was pretty strong, and it kept “breaking through” the magnesium, making the doctors increase the amount of mag I was receiving.  If you’ve ever known anyone on mag, this stuff makes you pretty sick, and usually effects the baby in negative ways.  However, I took the meds pretty well, felt crummy but didn’t get really sick like they thought, and Damian took it like a champ!  After my 24 hours of magnesium, they took me off of it, and the idea was that I would go right back into labor and be ready to deliver.  They did an ultrasound to check on Damian, and he was looking fantastic.  They estimated his weight on Tuesday at about 4 1/2 lbs.  But as anxious as he was to be born on Monday, apparently by Tuesday night he had changed his mind!!  My labor stopped, and I was told they were going to monitor me until Wednesday afternoon and then send me home.  Wednesday morning I had an asthma attack (I haven’t had one in years!!)  Things settled back down after I got a breathing treatment.  And, about half an hour before being sent home on Wednesday, I went back into labor again!!  I was actually hoping Damian would go ahead and make his grand entrance this day, because not only was it my birthday, but it was also mine and Rob’s anniversary!!  This time they were going to just let me go ahead and have the baby… so they kept me overnight again to keep an eye on things.  But by Thursday Damian had again changed his mind!  Labor again stopped, completely this time.  So the doctors released me yesterday to come home, on VERY STRICT bedrest.  I am now just waiting for labor to kick back in, which the doctors think will be any day!  I am having contractions off and on now, and sleeping alot.  My 4 days in the hospital really wore me out, so I’m trying to catch up on lost sleep, and reserve some strength for when Damian decides to try this again.  I’ll be 34 weeks on Sunday, full term is between 37-42 weeks, so Damain will be considered a preemie if born now, but the doctors feel confident that Damian is strong enough to be born now and be just fine.  I’m not longer taking things day by day, now it’s more like hour by hour!!  Damian will probably be here very, very soon!  I will go back and see my high risk doctor on Tuesday to check growth again, IF I make it until then!