27 Weeks 1 Day

Here we are at 27 weeks!  Since we have been in the hospital for a month now we thought it might be interesting to some to see a rundown of Nanette schedule.  Here goes.

12 Midnight:  "Vitals" taken.  The nurse's assistant (CNA) takes Nanette's temperature, blood pressure, and heartrate.  This essential service ensures that she is still alive---thus, the catchy name.
At the same time, the nurse will come in and use an ultrasound device to measure the heart tones of both babies. Nanette is usually the one to find the hearts with the transducers as she happens to be there every time whereas the nurses come and go.
4am:  Vitals and heart tones again.  Every four hours all day long at the hours of 12, 4 and 8.
5am:  Resident doctor does his or her "Rounds".  Round is the right name as it indicates a full circle of one day to the next.  It's that moment of the day when we hear music in the air in the form of Sonny and Cher's "I got you, babe" (ref: Groundhog Day).  We wake up and know that, yes, we are still here in the hospital.
8am:  Knock, knock! "Nutrition, may I come in?"  Breakfast is served.
8:45am:  After holding on to a few more minutes of sleep, breakfast is actually eaten.
9am: Vitals.  Note that the 8am vitals never happened.  This is because the nurses went through their 7am shift change which incapacitates them for quite some time. The nurse also comes in about now to give Nanette her pills.
10am: Phone rings.  "Hello, this is Linda from internal medicine.  Is Nanette ready for her NST?"  She is wheeled over to internal medicine (about a 45 second wheechair ride) and the non-stress test lasts about an hour.  It consists of the ultrasound and contraction monitors attached to Nanette for the duration.
12 noon-ish:  Vitals and fetal heart tones.  The 12-4-8 vitals and heart tones usually get off schedule some time between noon and midnight; often one gets skipped.
12:15 pm:  Lunch is served.
1-8pm:  One or two more rounds of vitals and fetal heart tones.  As mentioned above, the schedule has usually fallen apart by now.
5pm:  Dinner is served.  Nanette usually waits an hour or so until her appetite (for hospital food!) returns.
9-10pm:  One final vital and heart tones since the 8pm one was missed.  "Don't worry." the nurse assures us, "We will get back on schedule at midnight.  See you then!"

TREs:  Totally Random Events.  These can happen at any moment in the hours from 9am-9pm, but there is no guarantee that these events will happen at all in a given day.
-The attending physician comes to see how we are doing and answer questions.
-The blood folks come to draw blood.  They want to draw blood every three days so that the record is "current".  I want to introduce them to Google Docs for their record keeping given the seemingly transitory nature of their records.
-Housecleaning.  They come to remove trash, take out the linens, and disinfect anything that was once living.
-The charge nurse comes to see how we are liking the nurses.  We found out that we can essentially request to have or not have any given nurse.  We like these visits.
-Recreational therapist.  Jodi is perhaps the most officious person in the building (maybe the state?).  She set Jared up with a desk (card table with tableclothe) and a new bed.
-Parent to Parent Volunteer:  Becky volunteers to organize activities and gives general support to expecting mothers on bedrest.
-Nutrition (Heather being our favorite) visits or calls to get the order for the next meal.  Often the order is put in when they deliver the last meal.

Note that all these routine and random events constitute the normal schedule.  When Nanette is bleeding they call in the calvary and have in-room NSTs and more doctors and nurses visit her.