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| Me in Labor & Delivery looking cheerful |
I need to officially start this posting at the beginning of my labor & delivery story. I went to
the Oprah Show in downtown
Chicago, IL on Thursday, October 14th. This was basically an all-day affair using cars, trains, walking, and buses to get to and from the city. I wouldn't say I walked all day, but I did a lot more walking than I usually do on a day-to-day basis.
That night, I came home at 7pm. My
husband and I relaxed in the living room and watched our Thursday night tv shows. I laid on the couch just trying to relax my legs and body. Upon sitting up to get ready for bed, my
pelvic bones popped. My lower back hurt worse than I'd ever felt before. And as I sat up, my uterus contracted. This was the first
Braxton Hicks contraction I have ever felt. Other contracts were post-sex related, and went away within 5 minutes. This particular contraction wouldn't go away. I asked my husband to come into the room to feel it since he hadn't felt the boulder-like uterus before. After sitting for 10 minutes, I figured a nice, hot shower on my back would help with the pain. I was also hoping the contraction would go away. While undressing for the shower, I got the chills. My teeth were chattering, and my husband said it was by no means cold in our bedroom at the time.
The shower felt amazing, but my stomach never softened. I drank lots of ice water and got into bed on my left side. I stayed up listening to my husband snore just waiting to feel ok again. Since there was no bloody CM or leaking amniotic fluid, I didn't feel it necessary to call my
OBGYN. I had an appointment scheduled the following morning, so I figured we would talk then. I fell asleep with the idea that if something was really going on with my body, I would wake up again.
In the morning, my alarm went off and my uterus was soft; however, my body felt like it was hit by a truck. Everything was cracking, popping, and pulling. We got up, dressed, and went to the doctor's office. I told the nurse about
my busy day prior and my 30+ minute long contraction. My doctor checked my
cervix and verified that I wasn't dilated at all. She did a swab test to see if I would go into preterm labor. She said that it would be highly unlikely, but it was more of a precautionary test. I later looked up the test to find out it's called the Fetal Fibronectin Test (fFN test).
After the doctor appointment, my husband and I went out for breakfast. We then went to the barber shop for his haircut and stopped by
Costco for some groceries. While at Costco, I needed to use the bathroom. Upon wiping, I saw blood clots on the tissue and in my underwear. Since my cervix is sensitive and can bleed sometimes, I decided to call the doctor to find out if this could be due to her test.
I talked to the doctor that was on call, and she said it was probably due to my doctor scraping near my cervix and to check it within several hours to see if the bleeding lessens. She said my cervix just needed a break. I was to go home and relax. We drove home after shopping and pulled into the driveway. My doctor's office called me again. This time, it was my doctor asking how my symptoms were. She then notified me that I tested positive for fFN and needed to come to labor & delivery (l&d) for monitoring.
My husband unloaded the car and took our dogs for a short walk. I changed into sweatpants and flip flops. We came back to the hospital and I was hooked up to machines. The head nurse asked me many questions and then told me I was to order a meal for dinner. Since we arrived at 2:40pm, I didn't think I'd be eating dinner at the hospital. I tried asking her when I'd be leaving.
"You'll leave when you're done being monitored." I tried asking it another way, but she gave me the same condescending answer. I just thanked her so she could leave my room and I could vent to my husband. I was constantly updating facebook and asking women on babycenter about how long this monitoring would take. I got mixed answers from 1 hour to 2 weeks. In the meantime, I felt fine. The baby was kicking like crazy, which was cool to hear on the monitor. I wasn't contracting at all, so I wanted to get out of there.
The nurse told me I was ordered to get a shot of betamethasone to help develop my son's lungs in the rare case I had to deliver early. I have to go in today for my second shot. We left after 3.5 hours. My doctor saw my readout and decided I was free to go home.
What a day! I'm still seeing tinges of blood when I wipe and on my panty liners. If I'm still bleeding on Sunday, I'll make another call to the doctor.
Here's a picture of my husband pretending to be asleep:
Image by rumpleteaser via Flickr
