Because we didn't have enough excitement yesterday, this morning I woke up and soon started having contractions...or what I thought were contractions. Severe cramps that came and went, lasting a few minutes, coming every 10 minutes, hurting enough to make me curl up and grit my teeth and clench my hands...seemed close enough like contractions to me. (I've not had cramps like this the entire pregnancy except for a couple weeks ago when I had 3 in an hour that were just like this and stopped when I laid down.) I didn't pay attention to what time the first one started because I didn't really expect it to continue, but I did count them, and around an hour later, there were 6.
We debated what to do. I called my mom (trying to figure out if these were really contractions) who of course told me to call the doctor. (They'd already told me to call if I had 6 in an hour yesterday and previously, but I wasn't really sure that they were the real thing.)
Joe and I decided to not call the doctor yet and to count for another hour, paying attention to the time this time. In about 55 minutes, I had 6 more, so I grudgingly called my ob's exchange number. Her partner called me back, (she's going to be out of town all of this week for a conference), asked a few questions, and decided to send me in to the hospital just to be on the safe side. With my classical c-section and only being 31.5 weeks, she didn't really want to chance it. (Classical c-section= higher than the normal risk of uterine rupture with contractions/labor.) I wasn't so much eager to go to the hospital AGAIN but I pretty much figured that they'd send me in to get monitored, and I didn't really want to chance that it was real contractions either. I didn't especially want them to keep happening (and I especially did not want to be back in the hospital already with the threat of magnesium sulfate to stop labor if it was real- been on that crap once to prevent me from seizing when I had HELLP, it's pretty miserable.) But I also didn't want to go in and look like a nutcase imagining contractions. So lose-lose there.
By the time we got there, OF COURSE, they had pretty much stopped. The Women's Evaluation Unit that I was admitted too yesterday for observation was closed today, so we went straight to L&D, where they admitted me for observation and put me in a room that was almost the same as the room where I had been before and the first two days after Olivia was born, while I was still on magnesium sulfate. This room was facing the opposite direction as my room last time, and a little bigger, so not as bad as yesterday but blech. I guess that's the problem with delivering at the same hospital where I had her. They got me on a contraction and baby heart rate monitor, did my vitals and all of that fun stuff, and left us for awhile. I had a couple more strong cramps there in that time, at least.
Then I got checked and swabbed for leaking amniotic fluid and infections. I was a fingertip dilated which they say is okay but seems to me that it's awfully early for me to be starting to dilate already. They apparently weren't concerned about that but I'll be mentioning it to my high risk doctor on Monday. (I'm not sure that they ever even talked to my high risk doctor, even though I told them her name too as my doctor, I didn't ask again because I was afraid she'd be fed up with everything and decide to just keep me...I didn't especially want to stay.) Plus I figured my ob's partner would let high risk doctor know if she was concerned.
They left us for a couple more hours while they waited for all of the results. Everything looked normal except that I have a UTI and an "irritable uterus"- when I had those cramps the line did jump up on the contraction monitor, but not high enough to be a real contraction, but not my imagination either- which is probably being caused by the UTI. The baby looked great on the monitor the entire time. (Of course he did!) The cramping thing isn't real contractions but not really exactly good, either. They sent me home with a prescription for antibiotics for the UTI and figure that should fix it.
So the good news is that I'm fine and the baby is fine. The bad news is we spent Joe's entire weekend off pretty much in the hospital and have gotten nothing done. (Both times we've come home exhausted and crashed. There's just something draining about being in the hospital.) Hopefully this was just a really bad weekend and bad timing and that this isn't a bad omen for how the next (LAST!) month is going to go because I'm so over the drama.
I'll be back in the hospital Monday for high risk appointment and hopefully steroid shots (pretty sure the past 2 hospital admissions seals the deal as far as getting them now vs. waiting one more week), Tuesday I'll be back for round 2 of steroids and monitoring, and then again Friday...I'm hoping that just maybe I can avoid getting admitted between all 3 trips. Although as I said to Joe as we finally got lunch late this afternoon, "It's kind of nice to go to the hospital with something maybe wrong and get released still pregnant and okay. Almost like a normal pregnant person." Honestly, when I went into the hospital with all of the pain with Olivia, *this* was how I expected it to turn out...that they'd watch us for awhile, figure out what was wrong, fix it, and send me home, because that's how it usually goes (I guess.) Granted, if I hadn't been high risk and getting monitored, I would have never been admitted yesterday and probably they would have had us wait longer today if I hadn't had the classical c-section. So not completely normal. But almost.
We debated what to do. I called my mom (trying to figure out if these were really contractions) who of course told me to call the doctor. (They'd already told me to call if I had 6 in an hour yesterday and previously, but I wasn't really sure that they were the real thing.)
Joe and I decided to not call the doctor yet and to count for another hour, paying attention to the time this time. In about 55 minutes, I had 6 more, so I grudgingly called my ob's exchange number. Her partner called me back, (she's going to be out of town all of this week for a conference), asked a few questions, and decided to send me in to the hospital just to be on the safe side. With my classical c-section and only being 31.5 weeks, she didn't really want to chance it. (Classical c-section= higher than the normal risk of uterine rupture with contractions/labor.) I wasn't so much eager to go to the hospital AGAIN but I pretty much figured that they'd send me in to get monitored, and I didn't really want to chance that it was real contractions either. I didn't especially want them to keep happening (and I especially did not want to be back in the hospital already with the threat of magnesium sulfate to stop labor if it was real- been on that crap once to prevent me from seizing when I had HELLP, it's pretty miserable.) But I also didn't want to go in and look like a nutcase imagining contractions. So lose-lose there.
By the time we got there, OF COURSE, they had pretty much stopped. The Women's Evaluation Unit that I was admitted too yesterday for observation was closed today, so we went straight to L&D, where they admitted me for observation and put me in a room that was almost the same as the room where I had been before and the first two days after Olivia was born, while I was still on magnesium sulfate. This room was facing the opposite direction as my room last time, and a little bigger, so not as bad as yesterday but blech. I guess that's the problem with delivering at the same hospital where I had her. They got me on a contraction and baby heart rate monitor, did my vitals and all of that fun stuff, and left us for awhile. I had a couple more strong cramps there in that time, at least.
Then I got checked and swabbed for leaking amniotic fluid and infections. I was a fingertip dilated which they say is okay but seems to me that it's awfully early for me to be starting to dilate already. They apparently weren't concerned about that but I'll be mentioning it to my high risk doctor on Monday. (I'm not sure that they ever even talked to my high risk doctor, even though I told them her name too as my doctor, I didn't ask again because I was afraid she'd be fed up with everything and decide to just keep me...I didn't especially want to stay.) Plus I figured my ob's partner would let high risk doctor know if she was concerned.
They left us for a couple more hours while they waited for all of the results. Everything looked normal except that I have a UTI and an "irritable uterus"- when I had those cramps the line did jump up on the contraction monitor, but not high enough to be a real contraction, but not my imagination either- which is probably being caused by the UTI. The baby looked great on the monitor the entire time. (Of course he did!) The cramping thing isn't real contractions but not really exactly good, either. They sent me home with a prescription for antibiotics for the UTI and figure that should fix it.
So the good news is that I'm fine and the baby is fine. The bad news is we spent Joe's entire weekend off pretty much in the hospital and have gotten nothing done. (Both times we've come home exhausted and crashed. There's just something draining about being in the hospital.) Hopefully this was just a really bad weekend and bad timing and that this isn't a bad omen for how the next (LAST!) month is going to go because I'm so over the drama.
I'll be back in the hospital Monday for high risk appointment and hopefully steroid shots (pretty sure the past 2 hospital admissions seals the deal as far as getting them now vs. waiting one more week), Tuesday I'll be back for round 2 of steroids and monitoring, and then again Friday...I'm hoping that just maybe I can avoid getting admitted between all 3 trips. Although as I said to Joe as we finally got lunch late this afternoon, "It's kind of nice to go to the hospital with something maybe wrong and get released still pregnant and okay. Almost like a normal pregnant person." Honestly, when I went into the hospital with all of the pain with Olivia, *this* was how I expected it to turn out...that they'd watch us for awhile, figure out what was wrong, fix it, and send me home, because that's how it usually goes (I guess.) Granted, if I hadn't been high risk and getting monitored, I would have never been admitted yesterday and probably they would have had us wait longer today if I hadn't had the classical c-section. So not completely normal. But almost.
3 comments:
Thinking of you! And hoping this week is uneventful.
get the uti treated soon because the steroid shots interfere with the immune system's job on the uti and make it harder to treat. if you started the meds already for two days you will be better off than trying to treat it at the same time with the steroid shots.
Forgot to post on the last one - GREAT growth for Luke! How awesome that he's five pounds already!!
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