A little adventure

So this week has been quite the adventure for our little family. We started the week off with our Lamaze class Sunday evening which was a lot of fun.

Monday evening I wasn't feeling so great, I started having menstrual like cramps. I had learned in my Lamaze class that menstrual cramps were a sign of pre-term labor. I joked that the more I learned the more worried I was going to become of everything.

Tuesday all day I had the cramping. I didn't feel well so I tried to go to the pool and see if floating around, walking in the water or anything where I felt weightless would help. Nothing helped. I was telling my mom about it and of course she told me to call the doctor. I ended up calling the doctor and getting an appointment for Wednesday morning at 8:50 am.

It took FOREVER to get to Wednesday morning. Probably because I maybe slept a total of 20 minutes all night long. I kept getting up with an urge to pee and would pee a few drops and then the sensation would still be there. It was annoying and impossible to sleep. I tried a warm shower thinking the sound of water would flush away the sensation or help me get the urine out of my bladder, nothing helped.

Wednesday morning finally came and I got to the doctor's office, which by the way, driving over sitting in my car was the most uncomfortable thing ever. Sitting these last few days basically sucks, but nothing else I can do since I can't drive while laying down. Once at the doctor's office they saw me fairly quickly and they did an internal evaluation. They were expecting to find a yeast infection or something of the like. They were NOT expecting to see that I was already 3 cm dilated...yikes! The doctor told me I needed to go straight to the hospital for further evaluation.

I texted Sean to see if he was in between meetings, I knew he had a busy morning down in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area (about an hour from our house). He called me right away and I was in tears telling him that I had to go to the hospital and that I was already 3 cm dilated. He told me he'd cancel his other two meetings and would meet me at the hospital as soon as he could.

I got to the hospital and had to register to check in. My OB's office had called ahead and knew I was coming but I still had to do some paperwork. They asked if I knew where to go, and I told the lady, my tour isn't until the end of the month, so no I had no idea where to go.

She brought me up to the Maternity/L&D ward and got me into my room. Shortly after a nurse came in and told me to get into a gown. While getting in my gown Sean arrived and then since they had a full house they had to move us to the triage room which was an itty bitty room with a stretcher instead of a bed. Too many laboring woman needed the real rooms.

We were in the triage room for quite some time. They checked my cervix again and saw that I was definitely 3 cm dilated, and I was 90% effaced. For those that don't know what this means (Sean was an expert since we had just learned about this in our first lamaze class on Sunday) dilation is the size the cervix has to open up to (it gets to 10 cm when it's fully dilated) and effacement is the thickness of the cervix. It starts to thin out as pregnancy progresses and is at 100% when it's completely thinned out. So basically my body was getting ready to have a baby, 6 1/2 weeks too early. Oh and to make matters worse, I have a bulging water sac, which means my amniotic sac is bulging out of my cervix, perfect!

So strict bed rest it is for me. I got an IV for saline so I stay hydrated and they also hooked me up to a monitor to keep track of the baby's heart rate and also monitor me for contractions. Baby looked and still looks great, but I was contracting even though I couldn't tell I was contracting.

They did a quick ultrasound to check the baby, further and do some other measurements. The baby is doing great, although measuring a little small, basically with a due date of 10/26 instead of 10/17. It's still within a week or so, and the doctor says later ultrasounds are less accurate in terms of dating the age, so he was fine with the size. So baby is great and it's just my body that is wimping out on me and thinking it's time to have a baby. The baby is also head down, score! Although the baby is also moving a ton so hopefully he/she doesn't decide to flip, just for fun.

I was given a steroid shot (in my butt...awesome!) to help the baby's lungs mature in case he/she came early. The shot was a two shot set, I would get the next in 24 hours, and it would take 48 hours after the first shot for the steroids to help. I was also going to start taking anti-contracting medication to prevent my body from trying to deliver. The doctor first mentioned a magnesium option, but decided to go with Procardia. I took a pill and than 15 minutes later took another pill, I would then be given a pill every 6 hours.

They took my vitals to make sure my body was handling the medicine ok. The major side effect with this medication is a lower blood pressure, which is great for most pregnant women since their blood pressure tends to rise with pregnancy. I luckily have great blood pressure, so they just wanted to make sure my blood pressure didn't get too low. My blood pressure was fine.

A room finally opened up, good ole room 203! So I moved my stuff in got settled in on the bed. Sean stayed with me for most of the day. He left for a few hours to go home get my stuff and do a few other things. He has been awesome through this whole experience and hasn't complained once.

He came back and brought me a ton of magazines, including the new Triathlete magazine that came in the mail that day, books and even the laptop, bonus! I was all hooked up. Our friends Sonny and Suzy offered to bring us dinner at the hospital and we gladly accepted. They brought us pasta with chicken, broccoli and alfredo, so delicious. Suzy even brought homemade cookies which I gladly gobbled up. They visited for a while and then headed home. Sean stuck around until a little after 8 and than I released him to go home and sleep in a real bed. He ended up going home and starting on the nursery. He had picked up the paint when he went home to get my stuff and he taped up the walls so it's ready to paint.

I hung out at the hospital, where was I planning on going anyways, I was on bed rest. I still hadn't slept much, no sleep Tuesday night and no napping on Wednesday and I wasn't really tired. They decided to give me Ambien to help me sleep. I was fine with this because let's face it I wanted to sleep. I hate taking unnecessary medicine, but thought I would at least try this out and if it helped me sleep it would be better for my health and the baby's in the long run. I also got a shot of something else to go with the Ambien but can't remember what it was called.

I got my prenatal vitamin and colace before bed as well. The colace was to help with constipation which is a side effect of pregnancy and bed rest. I hadn't experienced constipation yet in my pregnancy, this is something I've been very fortunate for and I've always been very regular. I hadn't had a bowel movement since I had been admitted though, so I guess when I'm sitting around all day, things don't move as easy as they did before.

They also took away my bathroom privileges which meant I had to use a bedpan. I was a little hesitant about this at first but it ended up being a blessing, especially since I was getting up to pee at a minimum of every 20 minutes. With the bedpan I could do it myself, pee and remove the bedpan and put it on a little stool near my bed. Since I didn't really pee that much each time I could pee a bunch of times before having to page the nurse to come empty it.

I slept great through the night, and surprisingly I didn't feel drowsy at all when I woke up to pee a million times. I was afraid the sleeping medicine would to this to me.

Thursday morning I woke up a little after 6 just before the nurse came into give me my dose of Procardia. I ended up not having the medicine at midnight since my blood pressure had gone up and was a little high. By 6 it was fine so I was able to take it again. She also gave me my thyroid meds and a dose of colace. They also took the monitor off of me since the baby had been doing great the entire time and I hadn't been contracting at all. Oh yeah and bathroom privileges were re-instated!

Sean stopped to visit on his way to work and stayed about 30 minutes or so. It was a nice surprise and I was definitely glad to see him. After he left I didn't do too much, played on the computer, watched a little tv etc. My Mom and Vern sent flowers that were also delivered. It was nice to have something pretty to look at!

While playing on facebook I was talking with my friend Glenda and she offered to bring lunch. I couldn't pass up company with a good friend and lunch. She came over around 12:30 and brought Panera, my favorite! She stayed and visited until 2:00, it was an awesome visit and made the early afternoon go by quick. After she left I decided to take a little nap since I knew I had other visitors coming later.

I slept from probably 2:30-3:15, and than Jami arrived around 3:30. Perfect timing! It was great seeing Jami. It definitely made laying in bed less boring when I had someone fun to talk with. She stayed until about 5:00 and than around 5:30 JoJo showed up.

I tell you, I was definitely spoiled with my Williamsburg buddies. JoJo had brought me fun balloons to keep me smiling that were from her and Connie. My Tri buddies rock! Emily and Leanne showed up shortly after. The three of them visited until about 7 and while they were visiting Sean showed up, probably around 6:30 or so. It seriously made the day go by so quick with all my buddies.

Around this time the nurse came in with my Procardia. She told me to chew the gel tab to work it into my system quicker. I thought she was kidding but she was serious. I was afraid of how it was going to taste, but it ended up tasting like licorice so not too bad.

After my friends left at 7 I called the nurse to see about me being able to take a shower. She had asked me earlier, but since I had friends visiting and Sean wasn't here yet, I figured I would wait. I didn't want the nurse helping me shower. They were going through a shift rotation so I had to wait until about 7:30. The nurse unhooked me from my IV and put a glove over my hand so I wouldn't get the needle portion wet. I still had to keep my hand out of the shower but it helped with any splashing water.

I felt like a million bucks after my shower, seriously it felt sooo good! I got into a clean gown, and snuggled back into my new "favorite" spot my bed. Sean and I decided to work on narrowing down our baby name choices. With this little scare of ours we really need to whip everything into shape and get ready for the baby, just in case.

After going through names on our list and going through some books we had with us we finally decided on a first name for a boy and girl and we have about 3 or 4 middle name choices for both....yay!!! Sorry we're still keeping the names a secret, but we are pretty confident that the first names have been decided. This is definitely a little bit of a relief since we had been trying to decide on a boy's name forever. The girls name had always been easy for us.

Sean left a little after 9, which was fine with me because I was pretty tired. I played on the computer for a little bit and the nurse came in to take a few vitals before I decided it was bedtime. I debated getting the sleeping aide and decided against it since I was actually tired and didn't think I would need it. The nurse told me I had until 1:00 am to change my mind. She had to come back a little after midnight to give me my Procardia so I figured if I was truly suffering to sleep I could get it then.

I attempted to fall asleep a little before 10, and I succeeded with no problem at all. I was tired! I did the bedpan again at night. They had given me back my bathroom privileges during the day, but I ended up liking the bedpan at night so I didn't have to get up every 15-20 minutes and it was really easy to do myself and just page the nurse when I needed her to dump it. Call me crazy, but it seriously was very convenient and helped me sleep better.

The nurse came in around 12:30 since I had gotten my last Procardia dose a little late and she didn't want to give me my next dose too soon. I had been sleeping very soundly so I told her I had no need for the sleeping meds.

She ended up coming back in the room a few other times during the night, I think my IV pump was beeping a few times, low battery and something else. So besides the few interruptions from her and my pee breaks I slept right through the night with no problems at all.

Friday morning she came in around 6 to give me my Procardia, a dose of colace and my thyroid meds. We chatted for a while. We were discussing how great the hospital is compared to other hospitals.

The hospital is only 4 years old so it's state of the art. Every room is private and every room has a chair that turns into a sleeper bed and this isn't just in the maternity ward, this is the entire hospital. Oh yeah and something fun they do is play a little lullaby over the loud speaker every time a baby is born. There were a bunch of babies born while I was there!

She told me about when she had her children in Finland they had 8 beds in one room. I can't imagine sharing a room with that many people. I love my privacy!

After she left I went back to sleep until about 8. I got up and decided I had slept enough, almost 10 hours, I needed it!

My doctor came in with the nurse shortly after I had woken up and did an internal examine to check my cervix. Everything was still the same. I was glad I hadn't dilated any further and that the bed rest was at least keeping me at a neutral point.

The doctor than said I could go home and continue bed rest in the comfort of my house...yay!!! I'm almost to 34 weeks, just two more days, so he thinks I can get there at home and then hopefully continue to keep the baby in their even longer. I was really excited, so I called Sean to let him know and to see if he could come get me. Since my car was still at the hospital from driving their on Wednesday I decided to call Suzy and Cindy to see if either of them could bring Sean to the hospital so he could drive my car home. Cindy offered to drive Sean while Suzy ignored my call (Just kidding Suzy).

Sean arrived at the hospital a little after 9:30. He packed up my things for me and they had the discharge papers complete so I could leave a little after 10. I got pushed downstairs in a wheelchair by Patient Transport (reminded me of my old High School Days when I volunteered in Patient Transport) and Sean puled my car up and drove me home.

I am now home and tt is so good to be home, but it's going to be harder to lay around when I don't have a nurse watching over me constantly and of course I have a lot more distractions at home. I know it's important to keep this baby inside me so I am going to do the best I can to lay and sit as much as possible.

I still hadn't had a bowel movement and my doctor reassured me that was normal and told me to get some over the counter laxatives to help movement at home. I was told before not to strain myself, because I didn't want to push too much and cause strain for the baby.

Since I've been home I finally pooped once, yay! And I got a real shower, double yay! Unfortunately I still feel very constipated and VERY uncomfortable. This is a feeling I've never felt before and it's seriously the most uncomfortable feeling ever. I'm having a hard time laying still because I keep feeling like I have to poop, and than nothing. Hopefully I can empty myself soon and I'll be much more comfortable. Sean's coming home soon with my laxatives so hopefully that will help empty me out and give me a little more comfort.

The bad news is that I also am getting awful cramping that I'm assuming is attributed to the constipation, but of course I don't know for sure. The doctor said if I'm cramping at home it is not a reason to come back in. Basically I need to deal with it and just come back in if I'm in labor or if my water breaks. I don't think the cramping is contractions because my stomach isn't tightening, but again I don't know for sure because when I was contracting before I didn't know I was contracting. The fear of the unknown is never good.

The good news is that the baby is moving around a ton, so I know the baby is well and happy. Let's just hope I can keep him/her in my body longer and get rid of some of my discomfort.

I'll blog more later, sorry this post is so long, I just had a lot to talk about. Thanks for reading if you made it through the entire blog.