Dayna is coming home today! She is very excited! In order to come home she must have 4 or less contractions within one hour. We met with the high risk doctor yesterday and he gave the OK. He said her cervix did decrease but not significantly. It is now 2.0 centimeters in length. (Look below.)

We were told after Isabelle was born that Dayna had no reason to fear another premature birth. They told us a placental abruption is rare to happen twice (It's like breaking your arm. Just because you did it once doesn't mean it will break again). So we didn't have a high risk doctor until last Thursday and had little concern for a premature birth. But this high risk doctor told us differently from what we were told before. He deals with premature birth everyday, and he said some people can start having contractions which can cause an abruption. All that to say, the doctor did an ultrasound and he did diagnosis Dayna's problem. He said Dayna has a sensitive uterus and probably her problems are due to this. Some people have weak cervix's which means their placenta's weight on the cervix causes the cervix to start opening, so some of those people have their cervix's sewn shut. But this is not Dayna problem. Dayna actually has a very strong cervix. The problem is when her uterus gets irritated she begin to contract. So sewing her cervix shut would only irritate her uterus more and would probably speed delivery. The only solution for Dayna's problem is to relax her uterus and pray her cervix does not shorten any more. That mean she will take medication to relax her uterus and she will not be able to do any activity until the end of august. The urgency of this was illustrated yesterday after the doctor gently and quickly "checked" Dayna and we Dayna got up to take a quick shower. This activity irritated the uterus and she began to have many more contractions. She was having 1 or 2 contractions an hour but she began to have 3 or 4 every half hour. They became very concerned so they gave her a shot of Brethene. She still was having contractions so they gave her another shot of Brethene. Eventually, the contractions subsided. It illustrated to both of us how urgent we must take the doctors order of bedrest unless she has to go the bathroom. Even a little stress and cause an increase in contractions.

Dayna will be going home on two oral medications, one shot medication, and a home monitoring system. We don't have a home phone right now (we use our cell phones) so my job today is to price out the phone services so we can do the home monitoring (How this works: Dayna will have a monitor hooked up to her and the data will be sent over a modem type device). I have a lot to do today. I need to prep the house. It looks the same as we left it last Wednesday night. I am going to some stores today to get the equipment for Dayna's bedrest so when I drive her home tonight, the house is ready. Also, Isabelle has a high fever and I have to take her to the doctor. I think she has an ear infection. I am sure there is more to do that I am forgetting but hopeful today will be low stress/activity for Dayna going home. The doctor said I need to protect her from as much activity as I can.

Thank you for your prayers. I believe the Lord is answering them. Dayna's cervix is holding strong, her contractions are few and we are finding ourselves in desperate need of dependence on Him. It is easy to trust in ourselves by complaining or calling everyone on the phone and tell them our "woes." (Don't get us wrong, we love talking with you.) But when Dayna and I trust in this dependence on man, we never have peace and comfort. I can tell you many time this past weekend when things started to overwhelm us, we had to stop, drop, and roll. We said that means we stop complaining, drop the phone, and roll our cares over to God. When Dayna and I pray together about this whole thing, God delivers his promise of peace. We see Phil 4:6-7 work out when we stop our worry and depend on him in thankful praying. Keep praying for us here. Satan doesn't care about our physical well being but he does care about our spiritual well being. Please pray God will help us trust Him as His plan for our lives unfolds and yet pray God will show us His loving, mercy and keep this baby in Dayna's womb for many more months. Hopeful the next update will be from Dayna at HOME!!!
Ben

EXPLANATION: Now for those of you who are wondering, "Don't you want her cervix to decrease is length not increase?" let me explain why that's wrong. Between the placenta and the "outside" is the cervix. For a good pregnancy, the cervix is about 3 to 4 inches long. When someone goes into labor, the cervix length begins to shorten and once the cervix shortens to 0 then that person begins to dilate. If Dayna's cervix shortened to 0 then her dilation would start expanding and that would not be good. Does that make sense?