**this post is long, and wordy about my recent experience with pre-term labor
Last Thursday night and into Friday morning I hardly slept a wink. I was up all night numerous times with intense back pain and some serious cramping. I brushed it off to be braxton hicks, since I heard that those hurt pretty badly. When I got out of bed Friday I sat down at the table and couldn't get up, the "cramps" were coming about every 6 minutes, and hurt pretty badly when they did come. They ended up dying down after about an hour and half, so I decided to take a hot bath. After my bath I had one more "pain" and my husband convinced me that I should probably call my doctor and see what he says since I've been battling some high blood pressure that had me in the hospital on Wednesday. After calling my doctors office they seemed casual about it and said they would just like me to come in to check up on me. Off to the doctor we went. I didn't really think about the fact that I might actually be having contractions since I'm almost 34 weeks pregnant.
I got to the doctor and immediately wanted to walk out, the room was PACKED. So packed that there was nowhere for Josh to even sit to wait with me, so he ended up hanging out in the car playing with his phone, guy stuff... He didn't mind not being in a crowded room of pregnant, hormonal women.
Since I was a walk in patient I got there at about 1:10 pm and had to wait for all the patients with "scheduled" appointments to be seen ahead of me, which was everyone incase you were wondering. In the process of waiting for my turn I had three "pains" that I recorded in my phone so I could let the doctor know. So I waited until the whole room cleared and finally got called back at about 2:50. When I got back there my blood pressure was a little high, but not anything concerning like my last visit. So I figured that this visit was basically a waste of time, and I'm just going to go home embarrassed that I even came. The nurse put me in a room and said to wait a few minutes for the doctor to come see me.
I waited for maybe 30 seconds when the doctor picked up my paper and screamed for one of the nurses to come "hook her up" cause she was busy for a few more minutes. So I laid down on the very uncomfortable "bed" and got hooked up for a NST (non stress test). I basically laid there for 30 minutes playing games on my phone and texting people, I felt fine the entire time. When the doctor came in and asked how I was feeling I said I was fine feeling a little crampy but otherwise okay. She walked over to the monitor and tore the sheet off that had been recording the fetal heartbeat and my contractions and said "oh wow, you're having contractions every 2-3 minutes, we need to get some tests done and send you to the hospital right away". That freaked me out, I had no idea I was even contracting while I was laying there.
I then had a Fetal Fibronectin test done, which is a test that basically says if you will go into labor within the next two weeks. I've heard mixed things about them, some people saying they were accurate, and some people saying that they had one it came back negative and their baby was born that night. After getting the test done I was sent with it and an envelope of instructions to the hospital.
Upon arriving to the hospital I got checked into a triage room immediately, and placed on the monitor again. My blood pressure had risen some, but nothing they were worried about. After about 10 minutes of being on the monitor the nurse came in and showed me how to read the contraction "sheet" that was printing out. Basically I was having contractions every 1-2 minutes. They were getting closer together, and really painful. I was given a huge jug of water that I had to drink, since they thought the contractions might be from dehydration. About an hour after arriving, and my contractions getting closer and closer together they gave me a shot to stop the contractions called Turbutaline.
The shot made me shaky and cold, and it made my pulse rise to about 126 which apparently are all normal side effects. The shot however did NOT do its job, and my contractions started back up even more painful this time around. The nurse came back in and said that the dr had ordered another shot of Turbutaline, and that that should do the job. After the second shot and being in the hospital for about 3 hours at this point I was WORN out. The second shot did its job, and I was released at about 8pm. That makes a grand total of about 4 1/2 hours spent in the hospital.
My parents met up with us for dinner, and then we went home right after. I was told that I should be on bed rest from here on out, to help with the contractions and to prevent another occurrence of preterm labor. When we got home I looked in the mirror and immediately thought "holy cow, I'm glad I didn't go into official labor with this hair do". I wouldn't have wanted any pictures of me taken, that's for sure!
When I sat down at my computer to check a few things I immediately got a contraction, and about three more right after it. I told my husband and I immediately ran for the shower, girl wasn't going back to the hospital with that hair! After my shower I laid down for about two hours, and got contractions on and off. After calling the nurse at the hospital they said to come back, so that's what we did.
I packed my hospital bag, and a small bag for the baby just incase and off we went.
When I got there it was the same routine, I got hooked up to the monitors and they saw that I was having teeny tiny contractions. They monitored me for about an hour, and decided that the contractions I was having at that point weren't really that big of a deal so I got sent home again with the same bed rest orders.
I guess the good outcome of my bout of pre-term labor is that I finally packed my hospital bag.. I was procrastinating on that big time.
I'm still having some pretty painful contractions on and off, but was told to take it easy and come back if they persist for more than an hour or two. For now, I'm going to kick my feet up and watch my favorite movies.. Bed rest is so hard though, not being able to get yourself what you want when you want it. It's going to be a long few weeks, but worth it for my HEALTHY baby boy.
{yucky hair picture}
You won't care what your hair looks like as soon as you hold your new bundle of love.
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